Book Review: Ayiti by Roxane Gay

Book: 81/150

Rating: 4/5

Roxane Gay is one of my favourite writers. I will read anything and everything she writes. I loved Ayiti, a collection of short stories, all standalone's focusing on the Haitian diaspora experience.

This book shows that Gay is so incredibly talented because her stories in this collection pack a punch. Whether two pages or twenty pages, when reading them I feel like I've read an entire book of that story (in a really, really good way). Her writing is so vivid, it pulls you right in. Her characters are so real, familiar, and tangible; you know them just after being introduced to them.

After I finished this book I immediately want to re-read what I have read of hers. I own Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, Hunger, and Not That Bad. Bad Feminist was the first book of hers I read and I look forward to adding it to my summer reading list. If you are more into fiction novels, her book An Untamed State is fantastic. One of my favourite stories in Ayiti, 'Sweet on the Tongue' is very similar to the story told in An Untamed State.

I'm not a big short story reader, but if it's written by my favourite author, I'll read it.