Nobody's Magic

De: Destiny O. Birdsong

Narrado por: Mela Lee, Tracey Leigh, Jasika Nicole

“The magic here is not the supernatural kind, but rather an attention to the grace of the ordinary. It is the magic of watching these women come into their power.”—New York Times

A GMA Buzz Pick!

A Most Anticipated Book by Essence · The Millions · Atlantic Journal Constitution · Glamour · Teen Vogue · Bustle · BookPage · Nashville Scene · Ms. Magazine · Parnassus Musing

A Best Book of February by Washington Post · Nylon · BookRiot

In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana home. At the bustling crossroads of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives.

Suzette, a pampered twenty-year‑old, has been sheltered from the outside world since a dangerous childhood encounter. Now, a budding romance with a sweet mechanic allows Suzette to seek independence, which unleashes dark reactions in those closest to her. In discovering her autonomy, Suzette is forced to decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to make her own way in the world.

Maple is reeling from the unsolved murder of her free‑spirited mother. She flees the media circus and her judgmental grandmother by shutting herself off from the world in a spare room of the motel where she works. One night, at a party, Maple connects with Chad, someone who may understand her pain more than she realizes, and she discovers that the key to her mother's death may be within her reach.

Agnes is far from home, working yet another mind‑numbing job. She attracts the interest of a lonely security guard and army veteran who’s looking for a traditional life for himself and his young son. He’s convinced that she wields a certain “magic,” but Agnes soon unleashes a power within herself that will shock them both and send her on a trip to confront not only her family and her past, but also herself.

This novel, told in three parts, is a searing meditation on grief, female strength, and self‑discovery set against a backdrop of complicated social and racial histories. Nobody's Magic is a testament to the power of family—the ones you're born into and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future.

©2022 Destiny O. Birdsong (P)2022 Grand Central Publishing

Reseñas de la Crítica

"With Nobody’s Magic, Destiny Birdsong has given us a devastatingly beautiful, sexy, searing gift. I fell in love with the women Birdsong conjured so brilliantly. These are stunning, irresistible stories of Southern Black womanhood that I will return to again and again." (Deesha Philyaw, author of National Book Award 2020 finalist The Secret Life of Church Ladies)

“Nobody's Magic is an ironic title because Destiny O. Birdsong's prose is, in fact, magical. The character's wisecracks are as delicious as a po' boy, the situations are textured and sticky as the southern heat, and the histories are as thick as the bayou. We, as an audience, are ever so lucky to be along for the ride.” (Morgan Jerkins, New York Times best-selling author of Caul Baby)

“As with Destiny Birdsong’s poetry, the stories in Nobody’s Magic are striking and original, full of down-home hilarity, Black love, truth, grief, and the sometimes-uncertain roads one travels to accept the self. Birdsong’s is a powerful voice I’d follow anywhere.” (Dantiel W. Moniz, author of Milk Blood Heat)

Not bad

I enjoyed the book overall. Three stories about women with albinism. The first two stories really kept my attention, the third one not so much. It was hard to follow.

Nobody owns you. Not even you sometimes.

The book is a triptych of novellas loosely bound together by what the three women protagonists have in common and their different ways of approaching grief, joy, and violence. Each story centers around each woman— Suzette, Maple, and Agnes, all black women who have albinism and come from their own particular walks of life.

Suzette is a sheltered 20-year-old just trying to find her own way in life, despite her "older" parents' disapprobation. Maple is trying to make sense of her mother's unsolved murder. Agnes, highly educated and seemingly upwardly mobile, struggles and barely "make ends meet."

A common thread in each of the three women's stories is relationships with men. The circumstances of and how each is handled diverge differently and are probably beholden by their experience from family and childhood upbringing.

While I find the stories interesting, I can't say it was totally relatable to me— black womanhood, albinism, and the Deep South are as far from me as any life experience goes. I appreciated Suzette's story and found myself rooting for her in her strive for independence. I also learned a few things about albinism as it relates to optometry, which I think is cool. Maple's story was my least favorite, and I found myself speeding through to complete. At this point, I was considering abandoning the book because I did not want to start another story. I stuck it through and discovered Agnes's story, which I found very interesting and probably enjoyed the most. Agnes's approach to men as a way of her independence and coupled with her sibling rivalry was very interesting. I was glued to the explosive ending. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation she finds herself in, by her own making, wouldn't be so if not for her intelligence and education in the backdrop of her familial relationships.

None of the stories had definitive endings or deep connective tissues. Perhaps that was purposeful as it leaves the narratives open with enough story for us to imagine what may happen next for each of the women.

I rate this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

it's a no

not sure what happened but this book started out so good and then all of a sudden it switched to a completely different book or a completely different narrator and it was just horrible I could even finish the end which pissed me off. wasted my money and I'm still waiting to hear the conclusion sigh