Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Book Summary and Reviews of We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr

We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr

We Rip the World Apart

A Novel

by Charlene Carr

  • Publishes:
  • Jan 28, 2025, 464 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

From the acclaimed author of Hold My Girl comes a sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race, and secrets.

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white―yet feels neither―is amplified.

Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion―a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily.

Years later, in the aftermath of her son's murder by the police, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she had never fully known. Despite Violet's efforts to help them through their grief, the traumas they carry grow into a web of secrets that threatens the very family they all hold so dear.

In the present day, Kareela, prompted by fear and uncertainty about the new life she carries, must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her family's past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future.

Weaving the women's stories across multiple timelines, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment and with the best of intentions, can have deep and lasting repercussions―especially when people remain silent.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] complex family saga...Carr shrewdly avoids pat resolutions of these fraught interpersonal dynamics, resulting in a satisfying and sophisticated tale." —Publishers Weekly

"Carr skillfully portrays the deep impact of this event, showing how grief and trauma affect each family member. The novel explores the complexities of biracial relationships, the damaging effects of both overt and covert racism, and the challenges of identity, activism, and trauma within a family. As secrets slowly come to light, the novel's focus on grief and resilience builds to a thought-provoking and deeply resonant crescendo. Fans of Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half (2020) will appreciate this powerful and emotional multigenerational tale for its portrayal of identity, systemic racism, and enduring loss." —Booklist

"A wrenching, deeply moving, yet hopeful story of a young woman caught in the push and pull of love, loss and identity." ―Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake

"Charlene Carr's eye for examining life's most complicated spaces is at its sharpest in this frank, fearless reflection on race, identity, and parenthood. Spanning generations and brimming with family secrets, We Rip the World Apart is page-turning and propulsive, heartbreaking and hopeful in turn. An important and necessary book that will stay with me for a long time." ―Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

"A charged emotional epic and a gentle exploration of the nuances of love. Motherhood, autonomy, race, politics, grief―every brushstroke works to paint a complex and important picture of the world as it is, and as it could be. This novel is sure to inspire book club discussion and personal reflection, and to stay on your mind long after the final page is turned. Truly a can't-miss read." ―Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky

This information about We Rip the World Apart was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Charlene Carr

Charlene Carr is a lover of stories. After traveling the globe for several years and working at an array of mostly writing-related jobs, she decided it was time to focus exclusively on her true love―novel writing. She has published nine novels and recently received grants from Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts to write her next novel. Charlene Carr lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and daughters.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...
  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!
Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Be sincere, be brief, be seated

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.