Uncertain Kin

Reviews

Shortlisted for the 2023 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
A CBC Books Best Canadian Fiction Book of 2022

"Searching for identity and belonging during moments of upheaval, these complex characters are intimately familiar. From the responsibilities of parenthood to grief, longing and betrayal, the stories of Uncertain Kin grapple with what it means to be a woman." —CBC Books

"Uncertain Kin weaves nuanced portraits rooted in home and community. . . . Janice Lynn Mather's portraiture captivates with its careful attention to unresolved dualities. . . . [An] immersive and subtle debut collection." —Vancouver Sun

"It's perfect detail that draws you in to Janice Lynn Mather's world. . . . Each of these stories is crafted from heart and gut, from knowledge of craft, and that piece beyond—the piece that causes us to think writers are born as writers. . . . The kinship in juxtaposition, of place and people, of reader and page, is here, with certainty." —The British Columbia Review

"Affecting and unsettling. . . . Haunting yet full-hearted. . . . Mather's craft shows itself in restraint. . . . The pleasure of reading Uncertain Kin is that some of its secrets are left unspoken." —Stir

"These stories travelled through me, like a shuddering sound system, like a bolt of menace, like a thrilling crush. They made me feel many things deep in my bones. Janice Lynn Mather is a remarkable writer, a conjurer of beautiful weirdness and eerie minutiae. This utterly absorbing collection is a reminder that sometimes reality must bend to let in more truth. A dazzlingly original debut." —Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life

"In Uncertain Kin, Janice Lynn Mather enchants with striking and deeply compelling prose. The women and girls in this stunning collection of linked stories are flawed and persistent; they are vivid in their desires. In Mather's deft hands, The Bahamas becomes as much a character as it is the lush backdrop against which these femmes assert themselves and grapple with themes of longing and belonging. These characters and their plights will stay with me for a long while. At turns heart-wrenching, chilling, hypnotizing and redemptive, Uncertain Kin is a collection I will return to again and again." —Francesca Ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread
 
"Here's one important question: why waste little girls? Here's one incredible silencer: they can be such nice things. This is an intricate series of snapshots into the big and little lives of girls and women, sort of like watching a movie in slow motion. Janice Lynn Mather is a writer of vivid sensibility: dreamlike, dangerous, daring. What you get with Uncertain Kin is an endless summer romance, a quiet dinner in the middle of an earthquake. I just love that kind of juxtaposition." —Téa Mutonji, author of Shut Up You’re Pretty
 
"Uncertain Kin is an exhilarating, heart-aching collection of stories sewn together by the soft but resilient thread of the Black experience, which Janice Lynn Mather illuminates in all its beauty and hardship. Characters are made real and raw with authentic, rich dialogue, while places and spaces come alive through vivid imagery. The salty ocean, the kitchen table and the liminal space of uncertainty are simple settings made riveting, emotional and deliciously uncomfortable by Mather's creative genius. One thing is for certain, the stories of Uncertain Kin must be told, and who better to tell them than Bahamian-born Mather and her mighty quill." —Cicely Belle Blain, author of Burning Sugar
 
"Uncertain Kin is an elegant collection, beautiful and engaging in equal measure. Mather writes with alluring, meticulous and dedicated prose, opening whole lives in the span of a few thousand words. The women in these stories are resilient, yearning and human; and the stories themselves are diverse in their richness, remaining with you long after you leave these pages." —Terese Mason Pierre, author of Surface Area and Manifest
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