"I was done forcing love"
Love After Love shows readers family aint just ya blood, it's the people who live and love ya evry day and sis you gotta love ya self first. Ingrid Persaud can write a story. Love After Love does not suck in you hard and hold ya fast, it carries you along at a leisurely pace before you know it the book is done. The use of language in Love After Love was beautiful; not only were the characters speaking in dialect but also the narration was in dialect as well. The lyrical flow of wording kept me entertained. The format of the character dialogue was something I had never seen before and it took me a few pages to get used to.

The characters themselves were the real gems of Love After Love; this book is definitely character-driven and not plot-driven. Betty and Mr Chetan have my whole heart! Solo on the other hand... MAN I want shake this boy so bad for much of the book. He had me dead vex. I could not understand his reasoning, and I was even more mad he never reflected on why things ended up the way they ended up. I just wanted all the characters to get along and love each other but I was glad for the drama and the showing of real family life. Being able to see all their POVs was great for the story and the book overall. The ending threw me for a loop and I was shook bad. The opening ending left me wanting more but at the same time happy for my imagination. Every time I read a Caribbean book I see there are shared experiences across the diaspora; like why government offices can't work properly, and more importantly the treatment of queer people in the community. The mental health in this book was interesting; I haven't read a book where all these things were going on like it was in Love After Love. I think it was handled pretty well but the description could be triggering for some people.

I buddy read this with Ethan and I enjoyed that a lot because his perspective showed me things I hadn't seen or been thinking about. He pointed out that as readers we pretty much only see the characters outside of their work, and how refreshing it was to see them outside of "strictly economic spaces." He also pointed out for me the use of food and how it related to the characters showing their love. BOY the food and its descriptions in the book will have ya belly hungry hungry.

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Ethan pointed this out and I agree with him... Why the only queer character gotta dead?