A character is often left in one place but is then someplace else in the next sentence or paragraph, someplace they shouldn’t be given the amount of time that has or has not passed and given the interactions between characters. It’s all herky-jerky with no sense of space, time, or flow which is funny since it’s about space, time, and flow. It kept me from being as immersed in this story as I wanted to be.įirst, it's not an easy read for visual readers.

It's delightful and thought-provoking, or would have been, only. That magic seeps forward into Cinnamon's tale, slowly awakening as she comes of age and figures out who she wants to be. There is heavy use of African history and legend, creating an exciting, sometimes harrowing, adventure for the wanderer, Taiwo, and her/his friend and lover, protector and soulmate, Kehinde.

She's full of anger and she wants to do something, be someone, have some power but she doesn't know what, whom, or how until The Chronicles begins to call together people and forces that change her life and the lives of two new friends, her family, and her community. Cinnamon's big, she's loud, she's mouthy and opinionated, she's awkward and she can't make friends. Meanwhile, Cinnamon - poor, black, and lonely - doesn't get along with her mother, misses her brother, and wants to see her father who has been laid up in a coma after having been shot in the head trying to protect two lesbians at a gay bar. The Chronicles is magic, telling the tale of an alien wanderer who came to Earth to collect stories and winds up in the middle of war-torn Dahomey with a traitorous ahosi, warrior-bride to the soon-to-be deposed king. The story: in 1983 (maybe 82) Philadelphia, Cinnamon Jones is bequeathed The Chronicles of the Wanderer by her recently deceased brother. However, the writing felt amateur for most of the book and I kept re-believing this was a first-out, self-pubbed story. I checked, though, and neither is the case. I was sure this was a first novel, self-published, due to lack of editing. I hated the misused italics, the lack of commas, the repetition of words that didn't need repeating, and the lack of spatial description.

I loved Cinnamon Jones, I loved The Chronicles, I loved the magic and the bouncing around through time and place, I loved the relatives, the relationships, the friendships. I prefer to be all-in or all-out, not this in-between place. Read because: 2017 Finalist, Lambda Literary Award - SciFi/Fantasy/Horror

Will do magic for small change