Love After Love is a difficult book but something that you can't leave unfinished. After being in my wishlist for years, I finally purchased this copy from my favourite independent bookstore and immediately started reading it. What starts off as a seemingly simple novel quickly turns into something complicated, a story that weaves itself around complex characters.

Betty Ramdin is a young widow who lives with her son Solo in Trinidad and soon Mr Chetan moves in as a tenant. The story is narrated by these three and I liked how Ingrid shifted her tune to match each of them. You see Betty slowly getting out of a troubled past and dealing with loneliness while Solo learns something shocking that turns his world upside down. On the other hand, Mr Chetan is struggling to reveal his sexuality to those around him, especially at a time when things were tense in Trini about LGBTQ. As the story picks up pace, we see them both as a unit but also as individuals.

One thing that particularly stood out was the concept of family which was stressed throughout the book. Families both by blood, also by choice. When Solo lands in America, we see him struggling to come to terms with his identity as he builds a new life. Every character is given enough spotlight to shine through without shadowing the other and I did find myself enjoying the Trini culture that Ingrid speaks of.

Love After Love comes with a lot of trigger warnings like homophobia, self harm, domestic violence amongst others. So please read up a little about the book before you choose to go through with it.

This was certainly an impressive debut and if it wasn't for the slightly dragged middle bit, it would have probably scored a bit more than 3.8 stars from me.