Bernardine EVARISTO : Girl, woman, other

Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.

I was very excited to read this book, I'd heard so much good about it ! Then I read a few pages and wasn't excited at all any more. I was wondering if I wasn't going to DNF it ? But I kept reading. Then I was wondering if it was going to be just a 3 stars. 

Then... I don't know... I got used to her writing style ? (There is this character, that name, here's a summary of her story, here's what she does now and all that.) I got used to the unusual punctuation (not that bothersome, you catch up quickly enough). I think it started when Yazz got lessons on how to talk and convince people and her mother started regretting it ! And once I was in, I didn't want back out again. 

Those characters were straight, bi, lesbians, not responding to a label, young, old, rich, poor, artists, employees, town people, country people, there's a bit of everything for everyone. And the warmth I felt : Bernardine Evaristo could make the tears come to my eyes when she talked about a character I met 3 lines ago.  And she could make me laugh so easily ! Boy, did she make me vibrate to the stories and people she introduced me to. Many characters, but evolving more or less around each other, the parents, grandparents, children, relatives, friends. You get to see the different sides of one same situation and you understand their different reactions.

For once, I think the buzz this novel got was well deserved !