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Junie
Junie | Chelene Knight
4 posts | 3 read | 2 to read
A riveting exploration of the complexity within mother-daughter relationships and the dynamic vitality of Vancouver's former Hogan's Alley neighbourhood. 1930s, Hogan's Alley--a thriving Black and immigrant community located in Vancouver's East End. Junie is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency. Junie quickly makes meaningful relationships with two mentors and a girl her own age, Estelle, whose resilient and entrepreneurial mother is grappling with white scrutiny and the fact that she never really wanted a child. As Junie finds adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood--once gushing with potential--begins to change. As her world opens, Junie intuits the opposite for the community she loves. Told through the fascinating lens of a bright woman in an oft-disquieting world, this book is intimate and urgent--not just an unflinching look at the destruction of a vibrant community, but a celebration of the Black lives within.
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blurb
xicanti
Junie | Chelene Knight
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JUNIE is one of those books that practically reads itself. I feel like I‘ve hardly spent any time with it, yet I‘m already a hundred pages in. Knight‘s prose is deep and evocative without being performative, and her dialogue gives each character a strong voice. I can‘t wait to read on.

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TheKidUpstairs
Junie | Chelene Knight
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Pickpick

A beautifully written story of a young woman coming of age in the 1930's in Vancouver's East End. Exploring the relationships between mothers and daughters, the bonds of friendship, community, an artist's view of the world around her, and a young woman discovering the colours and textures of love. You can tell Knight is a poet, the way she crafts a sentence is an utter delight. She has created a vibrant world to be celebrated.

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quote
TheKidUpstairs
Junie | Chelene Knight
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"She spent so much time inside of her mother's absence it started to linger on her tongue like powdered cinnamon or whole cloves of garlic."

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BookishTrish
Junie | Chelene Knight
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Pickpick

An excellent novel about the coming-of-age of a Black artist in 1930s Vancouver and her complicated relationship with her mama.