Darling wants to spread a fierce protective love around her
young son Stevie, suffering from a muscular wasting disease, and this grows to
encompass Lola too. True to her roots, she piles on the Caribbean cooking,
equating food with love. Teen Lola is disgusted, and wants Darling to butt out
of her life with dad. But Lola is confused, vulnerable and layering one mistake
on another in her search for adulthood. We are taken through twists and turns
as we believe first Darling and then Lola, never quite knowing who is hiding
the most dangerous secret. I liked the atmosphere, and the descriptions of all
that spicy food made me hungry. The family tension between these characters and
what plays out is telling. Rachel Edwards manages to broach racism, abuse,
mental illness – some hefty issues without making a mis-step. What’s more, we
learn right at the start that one of them is dead, but which one?
