Cover Image: Beyond The Pale

Beyond The Pale

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Member Reviews

I would like to thank Jacaranda Books for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

I'm not a big reader of non-fiction, but this one caught my attention and I had to pick it up. I found the authors voice engaging, she held my attention and interest and kept me reading. The love for her daughter really shines through, and her struggle to come to terms with her daughter's albinism and the resulting work that she now does is both inspiring, and important.

It's shocking to read how people with albinism are treated throughout the world. I was certainly unaware that these things were going on before reading this book, but since finishing the book I have seen a BBC documentary and only just tonight read about related events in the news. It's good to see that it's being talked about and awareness is spreading. It's important that people are educated and made aware of what's happening and for the victims' stories be told in order to prevent it from happening in future.

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I am fairly conflicted about this book and I have mostly myself to blame for that. I did not really read the description before requesting it and going mainly off the title of the book, I expected the folklore part of this book to play a bigger role. And I would have loved that book (the one I imagined in my head I mean), I am sure of it. Using something as personal as the birth of one's child with albinism as a stepping stone to discuss larger themes of folklore and discrimination and mystery? Yes please. And the book did do that, in part, but not in any kind of depth. This is especially sad considering that Emily Urquhart has the academic experience in this area of research and it could have been glorious! The parts where she talked about different myths were definitely my favourite but I think they could have been more fleshed out and the conclusions drawn a little bit more researched and less on the nose.

On the other hand, who am I to tell her how to write her story? A story she obviously mostly wrote for herself and for her daughter to make sense of her now changed world. It is heartwarming to read of all the things she does for her daughter and the book gives a clear sense of how much Emily and her husband adore their daughter and want just the best for her. I do enjoy reading memoirs, so I was also fine with her telling the story of her daughter's first few years.

Where the book did lose me was in the weird structure - Emily Urquhart does jump from topic to topic and does not tell the story chronologically either, and sometimes that got a bit frustrating to read. I also was not the biggest fan of the visit to Tanzania - while I enjoyed reading about the myths and also the dangers faced by people with albinism in this country and learning more about Tanzania, Emily Urquhart's reasoning why she just absolutely had to leave her daughter behind to explore the connection she has with people in Tanzania (as a person with albinism), was not convincing for me.

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I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Jacaranda Books in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!

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