Black Cake was such a beautiful book to read. I didn’t love the story the way I wanted because the family was too terribly sad, but the novel was gorgeous.
When I read names in novels I often just skim over them in my head (I know other people say they do it, too.) I think because of this, two large “reveals” in the book were ruined. I discussed the story with another reader who said she was surprised when she realized that two characters were the same person — and later that another two characters were also the same person. But I’d already made the pairs the same person in my head somehow, I guess due to my inattentiveness in focusing on the names? So I think that took something away from the story that might have felt more revolutionary as the book progressed.
Nonetheless, the writing was so engaging. The actual lyrical feeling of the words - expertly capturing emotion - made me want to keep turning pages (even though the brokenness of the characters made me want to quit). I definitely felt the heavy sadness of generational issues in this story.
Stories with two timelines can be done effectively, and although this was about the easiest plot mechanism ever to do that (listening to a recording from a dead character tell the story of the past), it was still really effective.
