Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

So I'm back with another review of a new release. I've been on a fantasy kick recently and at the moment it's taken over as my favorite genre. So coming off The Year of the Witching which was a five star read I immediately dove into Trouble the Saints which is my first Alaya Dawn Johnson book. 

This book had a format that I'm not used to. It was split into three different parts with  each section being told by a different narrator. You get to know each character from all three of the narrator's eyes. It also had a very noir vibe to it which I liked.

The first section was from the POV of Phyllis who is nicknamed Pea.  Pea is white passing and this book can't seem to go by more than a few pages without reminding you of it. Though then I started to wonder if she was really actually that white passing since everyone seemed to know she's not fully white. There were constant references to her race whether it was calling her an light-skinned, octoroon, high yella, etc. Being light-skinned is not a personality trait however it seemed to completely define her character throughout the story.

 On top of that the synopsis and blurb just made you think this was a bad ass assassin story when it wasn't. She's an assassin that gave up killing because of her morals. She was fine with killing as long as she convinced herself that everyone she killed deserved it because they were a bad person. She's working for one of the most notorious mobsters in the city but foolishly believes everyone he instructs her to kill is some horrible person until one day her biracial(Indian/White British) ex-lover hits her with a, "Girl, you didn't know he had you killing innocent people?" Well not exactly in those words but that's basically what he says. And she's so conflicted going forward acting as if her life has been a lie for years. It didn't help that the book is written in a way that just throws you into her life and then tries to piece together a little back story here and there via flashback. 

Dev's section might have been more boring than hers. It had potential to be interesting. It started off well with him dealing with the after effects of a very heavy event where he ended up with blood on his hands. He's also conflicted with  his role as a police officer where he will never truly be seen as one of them. His section was also good for learning more about the "saints' hands" since the first section had very little detail about this gift bestowed only on Black and Brown people. While Pea is able to use her hands to knife wield, Dev can sense danger with his touch. It also adds an interesting dynamic to his relationships with Pea and Tamara.  But his section was even longer and drawn out then the first.

By the time we got to Tamara's story I was just about done with this book. Pea is very much the character this story is centered upon no matter who the narrator is. And Tamara spends much time caring for her. I felt the story flowed better in this section and I did like her backstory. She also worked for the same mobster as Pea as a snake dancer at the club. However she willingly ignores the unsavory dealings for the protection the job brings and the freedom to curate entertainment at the club a few nights a week. She has escaped Virginia after witnessing a friend's lynching and has dreams of a finer life preferably in Paris. Tamara is also an oracle who much as she tries cannot ignore the visions. 

At the end of this day for me this book was very dense. It tried to make a lot of statements and I saw where it could go and what was trying to be said but it just didn't resonate with me. It needed better structuring because the three different sections being continued from previous sections didn't flow seamlessly when the narration changed. Everything was also too purposefully obscured in the first section to really get interested in the story.