Skip to main content

The Blackbirds: A Review

First I must say, this book is most definitely one of Eric Jerome Dickey’s greater works. The Blackbirds is over five-hundred pages of greatness. Although you certainly don’t need to, I would suggest you read prior works of Eric Jerome Dickey’s before reading Blackbirds. While we are introduced to new characters like Indigo, Nancy, Eddie, and Cristiano, we’re also get reacquainted with old characters like Destiny and her father, Keith, from Chasing Destiny and Dr. Debra Dubois and Ericka Stockwell from Friends and Lovers. It was good to see Mrs. Jones, Destiny's mom, and Lola Mack (Sleeping With Strangers/Waking With Enemies) are still friends although we only read about them in passing. We also get to see old background characters like Kawanzaa Browne from Liar’s Game, Hakeem Mitchell from Cheaters, and Leonard DuBois, Jr., whom Debra was pregnant with in Friends and Lovers. 

Whew, that was a lot to get out. After Reading The Blackbirds, I had to literally sit still for a moment and think. This book took me on a journey through love, loss, death, independence, friendship, and the discovery of self. The story itself was so profound that I don’t feel I have the right words to explain it let alone enough words to do it justice, but here we go.

Indigo Abdulrahaman is a beautiful, yet complicated woman. She knows what she wants and who she wants. She’s not afraid to go after it either. And I tell you what, if you think you’re going to disrespect her by going after “who” she wants, you've got another thing coming…or you’ll at least end up at Vickie Secrets buying another set of thongs.

Kawanzaa Browne is one of the women in The Blackbirds whom I identified with the most. While the last time we seen her she was a little girl, hiding behind her mother’s legs just as she met her father for the “first time”, she has grown into a beautiful young woman. The heartbreak she felt behind what her ex-fiancé had done hit too close to home. But when a woman’s fed up, she meets a man who is one in five million and one who is twice the man her ex-man could ever even imagine being.

Ericka Stockwell was thirteen years old the last time we saw her. Now she’s in her mid-thirties and in remission from cancer. Like all of us, Ericka is sick of cancer and has decided to live everyday like it’s her last. The antagonistic relationship between her and her mother is something that I can’t even put into words. Mrs. Stockwell needs to have a come to Y-H-W-H talk or it’s quite possible that crossing the wrong person is going to send her to meet Jesus way before her “Christian” soul is ready. But in the midst of all of Ericka’s trauma, she finds light, love, and surprisingly, her destiny.

Speaking of destiny, the last time we saw Destiny Jones she had gone on a revenge spree that left a trail of broken, battered, and bleeding bodies in her wake. The one thing we learned about Destiny is she isn’t the one you want to cross and think you’re going to just get away with it. Even still, the court of public opinion can be brutal and even though people knew what had happened to her, Destiny is still seen as the villain. So the villain is who she became…at least in one scene.

This is where Mr. Dickey took me on a journey of self-discovery. Throughout the book, Destiny’s chapters resonated with me more than any of the women. Yes, he managed to show me a little bit of myself in all of the women throughout the book; however, Destiny’s chapters had my emotions popping like fish grease. I cried. I laughed. And then I cried while laughing. Why? Because she’s Destiny Jones, bih, and she ain’t scared of you, mamafunkers!


I could go on and on and on and on about this book, but I think I may have already said too much. One thing I must note, I want to say thank you, Eric Jerome Dickey, for telling and showing Black women that we are beautiful—flaws and all— in every color, shape, and size. Mr. Dickey showed us the good, the bad, the ugly, and the downright disgraceful side of Black women. Black women aren’t merely investigated under some kind of biased microscope in this book. We’re celebrated in this book. The balance was so perfect that I cannot find anything I don’t like about The Blackbirds. Ericka’s very last chapter left me a snotty-nosed crying mess. I wasn’t ready! All-in-all, I give this book five pages (think five-stars). Nikki-Michelle recommends this book. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Coming soon: Tell Me No More

“He’s getting married!” “What?” “Jamie… he’s getting married,” I repeated frantically. There was a wild look of panic in my eyes, I was sure. My whole world seemed to be crashing down around me. Nothing prepared me for the news that the man I still loved was about to walk down the aisle and make another woman his wife. Kay had to catch me in her arms before my legs gave out on me. For four years I’d been trying to come to grips with the fact that I’d let a good man get away. Jamie and I had been together for almost two years before I’d cheated on him with my son’s father’s best friend. I’d met Jamie while I was head over heels in love with Aric. Even after finding out Aric was married, I held on to hope that he and I could be together. That was until his wife, Stephanie, tried to kill me and my son while I was pregnant with him. Even then, it took a while for me to see that Aric and I just weren’t meant to be together. I finally saw that Jamie was the man I

Excerpt from Bi-Sensual: Heat level: Steamy!

“You’re prettier than your pictures online,” he said out of the blue. I laughed. “Wow. Did you just give me a compliment?” “You are. I wasn’t that impressed when I saw your pictures.” I grunted. I’d never seen Demitri before the day I met him. There were no pictures of him on Elliot’s Facebook page. I’d looked. Searched high and low. I’d found it odd. Had even questioned it once, but all Elliot had said was that he liked to keep his personal life private. “So you were looking for me online, then?” I asked. He moved his hand around in the bowl. Made a face that said he wished he hadn’t done that. “I have something I can wrap your wrist with,” I told him. “Later,” he said. “And, no, I wasn’t looking for you online. You commented on one of Elliot’s posts. So I decided to look through your profile.” “So, you knew about me and Elliot, then?” “Not at the time. I just kept seeing a woman on his Facebook page flirting with him and him flirting back with her. I knew there wa

The Business of Lovers: A Review

Anytime EJD drops new work, I get excited. And just like I do when all his books are released, I ran to cop this one. No matter what EJD writes, I can assure you a few things for certain: 1.  You gon’ learn a few new words. Big words. Small words. Words from other languages. Oh, you gon’ learn today! 2.  You will meet at least three characters who will stick with you long after the books ends. 3.  You will find Black women. Beautiful Black women. Black women of all shades, sizes and hues. Smart, cultured Black women. You may even find a few crazy Black women, but you know, Black women. 4.  You will find Black men. Beautiful Black men. Fine-arse Black men. Black men who make you want to jump through the pages and lay yourself bare. Black men who love Black women. Black men protecting Black women. Black men of all shades, sizes and hues. You will find a few crazy-arse Black men who will beat you (other men) to death with bare hands or shoot the sh*t out of you or beat y