An Apple Books Best Book of March
An Apple Books Favorite Debut for March
A National Bestseller
A Great Group Reads of 2025 from the Women’s National Book Association
Library Journal Best Book of 2025
A girl takes on a series of identities to survive, shrouding herself in layers of secrets, until years later when she is forced to reckon with her past.
On an ordinary day in an upscale Atlanta suburb, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a letter on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny?
As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the details of her childhood journey to America from Guyana—and the traumatic events that forced her to leave her past behind. Through the eyes of Maya’s innocent and scared younger self, we discover the power of hope, empathy, and the possibility of beginning again.
Quite gripping
"Really good for a debut novel! Agree with the other reviewers that it’s simultaneously hard to put down (read it through the night) and really disturbing to read. Flashes of “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker come thru strongly especially in Sunny’s relationship with Roshi, and the story also brings to mind ‘Jasmine’ by Bharti Mukherjee. StoI can totally see these events unfold in real life: human trafficking, modern-day slave labor, sexual abuse, etc. Loved how Sunny comes across Americans whose only knowledge of Guyana comes from the Jonestown Massacre (I’ll admit I was as guilty of this as well until I made a Guyanese friend a couple years ago) However, the first 3 chapters focus somewhat tiresomely on “jumbies” (zombies in the Guyanese dialect). Glad to have learned the word, just not sure it should be referenced so often to indicate their beliefs. Also, the middle of the story stretches out for too long, especially Sunny’s relationship with Janna. The character of Janna herself is very one-dimensional: too much of a do-gooder. Same with her friend Yvonne—she came across as a Latina trope with little nuance to her personality. It’s entirely believable that Sunny should develop drinking, smoking, and drug addictions to cope with all the trauma she went through but the writer pours it on too thick by adding more tragedies happening to her: abortions from rape, working in strip clubs, etc. Again, it’s possible that all these things happen to one person living in danger with so few resources but after a while it seems to the reader that it’s like a checklist of horrors that need to be ticked. The early chapters mention that she’s fleeing away from someone but who it is, is quite predictable and takes away the suspense meant for later chapters. Also disliked how quickly the story ended and how neatly everything was wrapped up in just a couple chapters. A proverbial ‘happily ever after’ probably meant to soothe the readers. All in all, though, I enjoyed this book and plan to recommend it to friends and family."
