Soul Kiss

Soul Kiss is a coming of age novel about an African American girl, Mariah Kin Santos, who explores issues of identity, the fluid nature of sexuality, community as family and the boundaries of familial love. Until she was seven, Mariah Santos lived with her mother, and she might as well have been in heaven. Mama was love and warmth, kisses and games, long evenings of hot-plate food and blues on the radio. And Mama told Mariah stories of her father – his eyes were so black they nearly hypnotized her, she said. Now he was in Mexico, she said, painting the sky blue. But one day, out of that same blue sky, Mama decided to bring Mariah down to Georgia on the bus, to visit Aunt Faith and Aunt Merleen, who seemed so fierce and forbidding, so unlike Mama. And then Mama walked away, leaving behind a suitcase, a good-bye letter, and a little girl who would learn, through the unveiling of secrets and the slow journey to self-acceptance, to look elsewhere for the love she had lost. This stunning debut novel by Shay Youngblood is, ultimately, a love story – an unusual and unforgettable tale of the love that flows from within, that sustains us in times of trouble…that suffuses us, body and soul.