What would happen if aliens landed in the Caribbean instead of standard places like New York or Los Angeles. Aliens, known as the Ynaa, land and live in the US Virgin Islands with a mission of research; research that's not fully disclosed to humans. Living in a tentative peace it is interrupted after the anniversary of a young boy's death at the hands of one of the Ynaa. A terrible lesson is about to be learned.

“We will teach the lesson that all creatures must learn: that we swill survive this black prison even if we have to stand on the bones of every dead thing in existence.”

GRRRR, open endings have me shaking my fists at the authors on occasion! The Lesson has multiple POVs and time jumps that take the reader from place to place. Usually multiple POVs don't do it for it but I enjoyed the layout of The Lesson. It worked for the story and the different perspectives added to the plot. I tend to enjoy books more where I have deeper bonding time with the characters but while each POV was short I still got that connection and character sense for them. The time skips and POV skips did not hinder the flow of the story as it was incredibly smooth still; it was hard to put The Lesson down.

While The Lesson could be classified as sci-fi it, it's much more than that. It captures the human expression as the readers see all different aspects of human emotion. My favourite character was Mera, a Ynna ambassador, who tries to bridge the gap between humanity and the Ynaa. I wondered at her choice of appearance to the humans. Choosing one of the most discredited and disrespected type of human (a black woman) had me pondering what the deeper meaning Turnbull could have been trying to bring her story.

Is it because black women are usually easier to be overlooked? Mera would not have to work as hard to fit in if no one is even looking at you. And to be completely honest that was my take away from it.

All of the other characters were beauts as well but Mera stuck out the most to me.

As this is a debut novel I must admit I enjoyed Turnbull's work immensely. I'm excited for this sophomore novel coming out a little later in 2021. Turnbull took his time in exploring all the different themes one could bring to a book set in the Caribbean. Does the government really care what happens to its people or are they innately corrupt? The history of colonialism is explored as we see people arriving time and time on the islands to colonize. The ending of The Lesson brought tears to my eyes. Being able to see after the climax of the book was a unique feature in mind as we see all the characters still reeling but willing to pick up continue on in hope. "We tough people, the young folks liked to say. Island strong."