Review: Will Do Magic for Small Change

Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided both a digital and audio ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

I struggle with what to rate this, because I found parts of it very interesting and other parts extremely confusing.  I attribute that to the disjointed writing style.  Some of the chapters are set in the 1984 in Pittsburgh while others are set in 1892 West Africa, then we jump to 1987 also in Pittsburgh and 1893 while the main characters of those chapters are travelling from Africa to France and then the United states.  The chapters set in the 80's follow Cinnamon Jones through her trials and tribulations.  Her story is connected to the characters of the 1890's via a book called The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer.  The Wanderer is one of the characters we follow in the 1890 chapters as well as a warrior woman named Kehinde.  Cinnamon's chapters have a different feel and cadence than those that follow the Wanderer and Kehinde.  I was often confused by the more poetic nature of Cinnamon's chapters versus the  more straightforward story telling feel of the Wanderer's chapters.  I could have read an entire book about Taiwo (the wanderer) and Kehinde.

Overall I felt this was a bit on the long side and there was too much going on to keep track of.  The audiobook is almost 18 hours long and the book is roughly 500 pages.  While this has some elements that I really enjoy, folklore, some magical and fantastical elements, I just couldn't keep up with all of the characters and storylines.  Some of the elements were explained well while others were not, and for a book this long, you need some explanation.  While the writing is beautiful, it isn't my preferred style to read.  

There are some racial and homophobic slurs present in the book which would have been accurate for the 80s.  Doesn't make it right but accurate to the setting.  There is also body shaming and self loathing.  This book isn't for everyone, and I think someone with a more sophisticated palette will really enjoy this.  It is a little weird, is very creative, and has some endearing characters.  

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