My soul to keep, Tananarive Due

Cross-posted to 50books_poc

I put off reading this for ages because I thought it was about vampires (I really enjoyed Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, which I read before this challenge, but otherwise I am pretty much vampire-free after previous over-exposure), and was therefore quite pleased to discover that although one of the leads turns out to be a 400-year old Ethiopian who gained eternal life by drinking blood, he does not skulk around after dark looking for necks to bite on and going on about his immortal angst. Instead, David works from home as a translator and looks after his daughter Kira, while his wife Jessica, who is unaware of her husband's true nature, is an investigative journalist. Although everything appears to be perfect at the beginning, Jessica’s work starts to bring her into contact with David’s hidden past, and David’s actions to protect his family become increasingly problematic.

( Spoilers. )

Overall, I liked the book, but I didn’t feel that the horror part of the story (the I’m married to a monster! track) always ran smoothly with the hidden cult with special powers, with David/Dawit the slightly uneasy fulcrum between them. But there are a lot of really nice moments in there, especially the glimpses of different times and different worldviews - I've read Due's The Black Rose, which is historical/autobiography, and that plus the bits in here make me wish she would get back into historical fiction again at some stage.

Banana Fish, Akimi Yoshida, v15

( Can't expect white people to appreciate real food. )