BOOK REVIEW: KIN by Tayari Jones

Jul 10
4 min read

KIN by Tayari Jones, Alfred A. Knopf, 2026

Soulmates don't always come in the form of romantic partners. Sometimes they are cradle friends who will travel hundreds of miles just to hold your hand while your heart is breaking. Niecy and Annie are just those soulmates.

The first thing you need to know is: KIN by Tayari Jones is more than a story about two Black girls from Honeysuckle, Louisiana. It’s a story of sacrifice, the invisible work women do, subtle love, holding on, and letting go. It’s a multi-faceted story that reminds the reader these characters are not only dealing with their own issues and demons, they’re also dealing with moving through life as Black Americans in the brutal and hateful Jim Crow South.

Vernice and Annie are cradle friends. They’ve known one another since infancy, and they share the unfortunate circumstance of both being motherless; Vernice because her father killed her mother, and Annie because her mother abandoned her when she was weeks old. Both girls live with strong matriarchal characters who show their love by keeping them fed, clothed, and alive, but they never really show them love. Not in the way a child would expect love, or hope for it.

Unsurprisingly, when Annie and Vernice are on the cusp of adulthood, Annie leaves Honeysuckle in search of her mother. Though Vernice (Niecy) is hurt her friend has abandoned her, and though it takes a little while for her to forgive Annie, she understands--in the only way she can-- why Annie had to leave.

Life keeps Annie and Niecy apart for several years, Annie in Memphis and Niecy in Atlanta at Spelman College, but they never lose touch. Keeping up with one another through letters. Niecy travels to Memphis when Annie needs her, and Annie travels to Atlanta when Niecy needs her. Though the people around them may not understand why the two women who seem only to have their upbringing and the fact they are motherless in common stay in one another's lives, Niecy and Annie know that they are the other's most important person. They are cradle friends, and that means the world.

There are many themes inside this love story.

Motherless - both Niecy and Annie have lost their mothers, though Annie's is still breathing in the world somewhere.
Sacrifice - The pages are filled with the sacrifices women have to make for the sake of others: Niecy's Aunt Irene giving up her solo life and love in Chicago to raise her dead sister's daughter, Annie's grandmother giving up the dream of her empty nest to raise her daughter's child, Niecy giving up her first love to be who society believes she should be, Annie losing the future she thought she had because she can't let go of the past, and so many more instances.
The invisible work women do - Mrs. McHenry and her afternoons making sure the house is perfect for her husband, the martinis, etc.
Subtle love - I can't give you spoilers with this one, but you'll see what I mean.
Chosen family - Niecy and Annie, Annie and Babydoll, Annie and Lulabell, Niecy and Marylinda.

One of my favorite things about this book is how men were secondary characters. This truly is a story about women. About their dreams, their struggles, their desires, their heartbreak. Men are present--Bobo and Clyde are significant male figures in Annie's life, as Franklin is to Niecy-- but they're not exactly necessary.

Yet, even with their status as secondary characters, there was still an underlying theme that the women shouldn't be an inconvenience to their men. This is where I think Jones really dazzled. She's created this story ABOUT WOMEN, but we still get the sense while reading that the men are what is most "important" and the ladies should make sure they don't rock the boat too much. We see this with Mrs. McHenry's daily chores, how she needs to make the house sparkle, and how she needs to be perfect and a "little loose" by the time Mr. McHenry returns from work. It sends the message that women should be pretty and amiable, always have a martini (or whatever drink he prefers) ready, and never, NEVER be inconvenient. We see it with Niecy as she tries to be the perfect fiancée and wife to her man, and we see it as Bobo tires of Annie's sometimes-feverish search for her mother.

All in all, KIN is a shining example of women's friendships and how sometimes being a soulmate has nothing to do with romantic love. And it does all this against the backdrop of the hatefulness of the Jim Crow South.

KIN gets five stars from me, and it deserves every single one.

Impactful quotes:

"What had just been so elegant now looked like the entire history of the negro race--battered but held together somehow" (96).

"But love, I learned, was the responsibility of the one doing the loving" (142).

"Even if you had a bad mother like Babydoll had, you can use her to know what you are not" (249).

"And the man speaking with centuries of disgust wasn't eight and very small. The word from his lips was worse than a threat; it was a promise" (312).

Content Warning: