A young Ghanaian woman living in London is forced to reckon with her past in Maame Blue’s sophomore novel, THE REST OF YOU.

When the book opens, Whitney Appiah is celebrating her 30th birthday at a club with her friend and roommate, Chantelle. What should be a fun night out takes a dark turn when Whitney pops a mystery pill. She wants to “truly be in the moment,” but instead she’s confronted with a barrage of images from her past, including recent memories of being assaulted by a man she was dating. Those painful, destabilizing recollections are interwoven with a blurry series of “sensory snapshots” of an older, forgotten trauma from her childhood in Africa.

That unsettling birthday celebration upends Whitney’s life, as she finds herself increasingly disconnected from those around her. Her close friendship with Chantelle frays. Another friend, Jak, lends their support, but Whitney struggles to open up. Inertia and a desire to be alone take over. Meanwhile, Ma Gloria, the aunt who raised her, falls ill. That crisis plunges Whitney into a world of hospitals, caretaking and, eventually, grief.

"THE REST OF YOU is emotional and impressionistic.... The book’s most touching moments are when Whitney, Chantelle and Jak come together to share their stories, even when it is difficult to do so."

Whitney’s chapters are told from a second-person perspective. It’s a potentially divisive stylistic choice, but Blue pulls it off, using it to create a sense of intimacy and draw the reader into Whitney’s lived experience. Those chapters alternate with sections set in Ghana in the 1990s and told from the viewpoints of Gloria, her sister Aretha, and the household servant Maame Serwaa. They explore the deaths of Whitney’s parents, the relationships between the sisters, and the tragic sequence of events that led to Gloria and Whitney’s move to the UK. (All the women in the family are named after iconic soul and R&B singers.)

Questions of identity run through the novel, as Whitney navigates her life as a first-generation immigrant whose own memories of her home country have “failed” her. Throughout, Blue references a Ghanaian proverb: “It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you have forgotten.” This theme of Sankofa is at the heart of THE REST OF YOU. Whitney, as well as the novel’s other characters, will not be able to recover until they reckon with their pasts. That means doing the hard and painful work of healing, in addition to opening themselves up and allowing those who love them to support them in their journey forward.

THE REST OF YOU is emotional and impressionistic. Many details, such as what exactly happened to Whitney as a child in Ghana, are left vague. At times, Blue’s reluctance to provide greater clarity is frustrating, creating gaps in the narrative that make it seem like she’s skimming over the surface of her story. But at other moments, the choice to pull back makes sense. Her focus is not on lingering on painful moments but rather on exploring the emotional --- and at times physical --- damage that those experiences leave behind. (Whitney is a masseuse who is particularly sensitive to her clients’ emotional states.) Her characters draw strength from their friendships with other women. The book’s most touching moments are when Whitney, Chantelle and Jak come together to share their stories, even when it is difficult to do so.

Toward the end of the novel, Whitney, who has injured herself but is unwilling to go to the hospital, unloads on Chantelle. She complains that she is “tired of feeling like I take a step forward and then something painful sends me five steps backward.”

Chantelle is sympathetic but philosophical. “Sometimes we need to go through the hard bit to get to the better bit,” she replies. THE REST OF YOU is a book about making it through the hard parts and coming out a stronger, different person on the other side.