ALA Booklist (Fri May 01 00:00:00 CDT 1998)

Toronto's economy has collapsed, and those who couldn't flee with big business must farm in parks, hunt pigeons and squirrels for meat, and avoid the Posse, the gang that controls the streets. Ti-Jeanne Baines lives with her grandmother, learning to make herbal medicines and raising her child, conceived in an affair with a former medical intern fired from the local hospital because of drug addiction. Ti-Jeanne fired Tony, too, because of his addiction and his involvement with the Posse. But when he comes, swearing his intent to quit the Posse and leave the city, to ask her help, Ti-Jeanne in turn asks her voodoo-practicing grandmother to help Tony escape before the Posse kills him for defecting. Unwittingly, Tony then involves Ti-Jeanne in his predicament, forcing her to come to terms with her spiritual heritage to defend herself and her child. Winner of the first Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for new sf and fantasy writers, Jamaican-born Hopkinson's exotically imaginative debut is just realistic enough. (Reviewed May 15, 1998)

Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the publisher's First Novel Contest (out of nearly 1,000 entries), Hopkinson's debut evokes Afro-Caribbean magic against a near-future Toronto damaged by riots and neglect and abandoned by all but the most desperate inhabitants. <p>Winner of the publisher's First Novel Contest (out of nearly 1,000 entries), Hopkinson's debut evokes Afro-Caribbean magic against a near-future Toronto damaged by riots and neglect and abandoned by all but the most desperate inhabitants. The inner city is run by ruthless gangster Rudy Sheldon and his "posse." Ti-Jeanne Hunter lives with her herbalist grandmother, Mami, and her unnamed child (by Tony, one of Rudy's mob). Weak, untrustworthy Tony was fired from his hospital job because of his drug addiction. Now, Canada's premier, Catharine Uttley, has an ailing heart, and, for overwhelming political reasons, any replacement organ must come from a human donor. Word filters down to Rudy to supply the heart, and Tony gets the job: If he can't find a donor quickly, he'll have to murder someone and take the heart. Later, empty-handed and terrified of Rudy's lieutenant, Crack Monkey, Tony pleads for Mami to work magic and help him get out of the city undetected. Since Ti-Jeanne can't resist Tony's blandishments, Mami reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, Rudy also commands powerful "obeah": Trapped in his "duppy bowl" is a ravening spirit that will do his bidding when he feeds it blood. Tony, meanwhile, finds that Mami would be a compatible donor for the heart, and, unable to escape Rudy, he bashes in Mami's head and calls the paramedics. Ti-Jeanne learns that Rudy's captive spirit is her mother--and the only way to free her and defeat Rudy is to smash the bowl. A splendid if often gruesome debut, superbly plotted and redolent of the rhythms of Afro-Caribbean speech: "You just don't let she go, or I go zap the both of allyou one time." </p>

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The musical rhythms of Caribbean voices and the earthy spirit-magic of obeah knit together this unusual fantasy, the first winner of Warner Aspect's First Novel Contest. Toronto in the next century is a """"doughnut hole city,"""" its core collapsed into ruinous slums after much of the population left to escape rising urban crime and violence. Those who remain in the Burn are survivors like Ti-Jeanne and her grandmother Mami, who trade herbal cures and spells for necessities, or predators like drug-lord Rudy and the """"posse"""" of men, including Ti-Jeanne's ex-lover Tony, who sell """"buff"""" for him. Outside the Burn, Catherine Uttley, the premier of Ontario, needs a heart transplant and a boost in her approval ratings. To accomplish both, she announces support for a return to voluntary human organ donation, allegedly to prevent the spread of Virus Epsilon, sometimes found in the porcine organs grown for transplant. The heart she needs will have to come from someone in the Burn, and Rudy saddles Tony with the job of finding a donor. Tony has no stomach for the job, however, and goes to Ti-Jeanne and Mami for help, bringing the unpredictable and powerful spirits of Caribbean obeah into play. Though the story sometimes turns too easily on coincidence, Hopkinson's writing is smooth and assured, and her characters lively and believable. She has created a vivid world of urban decay and startling, dangerous magic, where the human heart is both a physical and metaphorical key. (July)

School Library Journal

YA-An outstanding science-fiction novel by a Jamaican-born novelist. The setting is post-modern Toronto. The inner city's economic base has collapsed; the police and most of civilization have deserted and roadblocked the city, leaving the homeless, poor, and criminals behind. The heroine, Ti-Jeanne, and her infant son live with her grandmother on a small herbal "farm" from which they dispense folk-medicine treatments to the other disenfranchised inhabitants of the "Burn." The story combines African and Jamaican folklore, religion, and patois as Ti-Jeanne learns to understand the ancient spirits that are so important in her family's history. The tragedies of her mother and grandmother must be understood and corrected, and only Ti-Jeanne can do it, if she can face her own fears. A page-turner that builds to an exciting conclusion, this quickly read fantasy will have lots of appeal to young adults.-Carol DeAngelo, Garcia Consulting Inc., EPA Headquarters, Washington, DC