Historical fiction with a dash of the fantasical. Set in the New York underworld of the ’30s and ’40s. Begins from the perspective of a light-skinned Black woman passing as white who has for years been working for a Manhattan mob boss as a killer. In doing so, she is making use of her version of “saints hands” – a sort of knack or ability beyond the natural, which a number of the characters have, and which in her case is incredible skill with knives. The book’s second act is from the perspective of her sometime-lover, and the third from the perspective of her best friend. Gritty and heavy. A book about hard people who have come from hard places making hard choices. Characters that are complex, often unlikeable, but relentlessly human. A rich portrait of the racialized and gendered character of everyday life in the era that is mindful of liberation even if it does not, cannot, focus on it. The premise makes it sound like it’s going to be quite plot-driven, but it isn’t really – there is some plot, of course, and moments of violent action, but that mostly feels secondary to the extended periods of pervasive, lingering tension within and between the characters. Enjoyed it, but not unreservedly. It’s a heavy book, and much more complex and ambivalent than the YA fantasy by this author that I adored a few years ago.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.