Book review: Jamaica Road by Lisa Smith

 A transformative love story about two best friends who fall for each other, fall apart, and try to find their way back together in their tight-knit British-Jamaican community.

South London, 1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. All she wants is to keep her head down, preferably in a book. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed. 

Daphne’s attempts at invisibility are upended when a boy named Connie Small arrives from Jamaica. Connie is the opposite of small in every lanky, outgoing, and unapologetically himself. Daphne tries to keep her distance, but Connie is magnetic, and they form an intense bond. As they navigate growing up in a volatile, rapidly changing city, their families become close, and their friendship begins to shift into something more complicated. When Connie reveals that he and his mother “nuh land”—meaning they’re in England illegally—Daphne realizes that she is dangerously entangled in Connie’s fragile home life. Soon, long-buried secrets in both families threaten to tear them apart permanently.

Spanning one tumultuous decade, from the industrial docklands of the Thames to the sandy beaches of Calabash Bay, Jamaica Road is a deftly plotted and emotionally expansive debut novel about race and class, the family you’re born with and the family you choose, and the limits of what true love can really conquer.

My Thoughts

A very engrossing coming of age story.

In Jamaica Road we meet Daphne a young Jamaican born girl living in South London in the 1980s. Daphne had to deal with being different at a time when her school didnt fully accept both her race and ehhicity. Her life changed when Cornelius 'Connie' came to her class.

Connie fresh from Jamaica was not easily accepted and while at first Daphne tried to avoid him, they quickly formed a friendship that will withstand, family drama, death, trauma and heartbreak throughout their young lives. Reading their story and learning about life in the UK in the 1980s and early 1990s will make any reader read on to the end.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it every chance I got and finished it on work today since it was going back to the library today. My year is off to a strong start with this one. I felt really connected to the characters and the story. I recommend this one.