"...Acceptance that this palce can exist. I hate it all. I hate the politeness of this country. I hate having a stiff upper lip and pretending these systems are acceptable. that we can't all agree that removal centres should not exist, and are neither discussion-worthy nor vote-dependent, but stand as lessons that humanity should never put in place again."

GENRE: Historical/Lit Fiction
RATING: 5/5
FORMAT: physical ARC

Review:

What a book. Smallie is a Historical/Lit Fic and is inspired by the Windrush Scandal. It was an emotional read and a fast paced one as I was reading so quickly after you get into it from the first few pages.

We mainly get two POVs and it's a dual timeline, with the focus on Lucinda from her younger days and her in the present plus Patrick. We see the dynamic of the whole family through Patrick's POV and eventually, we get to see it from Lucinda's too.

Essentially, Smallie is a story about what it means to leave behind a home and find a new place that eventually becomes your home. It's a dive into what it means to build a new community, only to lose everything again. It's a story that shows the cycle of moving, the way it changes things in ourselves.

Most importantly, it's a story showing the experience of the Windrush Scandal that has happened in the UK in the late 2010s. It's a story that shows the impact of where we are today politically and how this hurts on an individual and familial level to the people harmed by politics.

As for the writing, I thought it was done in a lyrical way. The prose flowed and it was a book that left me flipping the pages and thinking about it as soon as I put it down. I would have loved to know what happened to a few things in the story in a bit more details but I do recognise that leaving it as a mystery means I'll be thinking about the few unresolved things for a long time to come.

I was provided a free advance reader copy and I’m sharing my honest thoughts.