Title	Brown Girl in the Ring
Author	Nalo Hopkinson
ISBN	0446674338
Notes	A perplexing blend of Carribean folklore, Voodoo mysticism, and Canadian cultural protest, this novel explores the ghettos of a post-apocalyptic Toronto, where the core of the city has become a festering pit of crime and injustice, while the rest of the world is just fine. The protagonist is a nursing mother and apprentice Voodoo medicine woman who battles the local Carribean mob to bring balance to the spirits of nature. Hopkinson wavers in and out of a calypso storytelling style for no apparent reason, and the plot is fairly heavy-handed in many places. This would make either (a) a wonderful kid's book (if it didn't have so much blood and profanity) or (b) an excellent sci-fi/magical realist book (if it weren't so corny and inconsistent). However, this was Hopkinson's first novel, and it shows great potential.