Book Review — Honey by Imani Thompson

I didn't go to uni, let alone Oxbridge, but I know people who did and their anecdotes track with a lot of the vibe in Thompson's debut. There's a lot of lived experience throughout the book I have absolutely no hope of truly understanding — I am not a Black woman — but I find it fascinating. Obviously Thompson doesn't speak for all Black women, but I feel like I'm being educated through the unlikely medium of a cosy revenge thriller. Given the genre, it should be no surprise there's some bad murders. The cover blurb slightly undersells how violent the book is. The violence itself isn't graphic, but it's clearly there, unashamedly so — not exactly fade-to-black, but not gory and gratuitous either. History that's relevant to the plot is drip-fed through hints and asides, letting the reader feel clever for putting two and two together and working it all out. The prose swings from abstract sentences conveying the passing of time to somewhat dense, metaphysical philosophy. A well-written…