The Gilda Stories

I like stories that are page turners and this one is no different. The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez is a novel following the long, long, long life of Gilda – the main character. She runs way from the plantation after her mother’s death, trying to escape the brutal life that would follow. She is plagued by dreams of being hunted down and after a few days of nonstop travel, she gives in to the exhaustion of her body and falls asleep in a farmhouse. She wakes up to a man, hard with excitement, ready to rape her. She reaches for the blade she had hidden inside her clothes and swiftly stabs him. His shock-frozen face and the body it is attached to slumps on top of her. She manages to slide from under the dead weight. Tired, weak, blood-stained, and confused, she realises she must get moving. But she is too weak. Until Gilda, the woman whose name she would later take on, comes to her rescue.

This is a story of life and death, remembering and finding our roots, of forging family bonds, of intersectionality, of alliances formed to survive. It is a story of hope, of an imagined world – one where war need not be an option, and one where our own humanity is reflected back to us: is it worth fighting for, worth defending?

Gilda and the family of vampires she now belongs to believe in a fair exchange, because life is more than just about taking from others. How about her darker skin? You are going to have to read this for yourself. I promise it is one of the more fascinating reads I have come across in a while, and that you will ever come across.