Five Caribbean Books the Live Rent Free in My Head

During the #ReadCaribbean Challenge for Caribbean Heritage Month, one of the prompts was Five Caribbean Books that Live Rent-Free in Your Head.

Here are my top five fave books by Caribbean authors and the reasons why they've stayed with me long after reading them:

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus (Trinidad)

• beautiful, ambiguous ending makes the bittersweet conclusion easier to swallow.

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (Haiti)

• compelling novel-in-verse about the power of art and inequity in our justice system.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Dominican Republic)

• learned about an unknown NYC history that impact Dominican community around the same time that 9/11 impacted entire nature

Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti)

• only book I can remember making me cry

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud (Trinidad)

• Poor Mr. Chetan--he deserved happiness and so much more than he got.

Self-Reflection: Need to read books from more Caribbean countries. I have a ton on my TBR. Just have to prioritize getting to them. I’m going to try reading All the Lonely People for Jamaican rep and The Vanishing Girls for Barbados.

What Caribbean Books love Rent-Free in YOUR head?