Book Review: Everything Is Fine By Cecilia Rabess
When selecting our Reading Retreat book Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess, most of us expected a romance with a political edge. What we encountered instead was a deeply nuanced, emotionally charged exploration of identity, silence, and survival, particularly as a Black woman in predominantly white spaces.
The conversations the novel sparked were anything but predictable. In a cosy, French chateau in Argelès-sur-Mer, sharing meals, wine and lazy afternoons reading books by the swimming pool, what emerged wasn’t just a discussion of plot and character, but a genuine unpacking of the emotional weight Black women carry, often invisibly.
One participant, herself an author and immigrant, shared how the book pushed her to reconsider some of her long-held beliefs about race in America. Raised in Nigeria and now a naturalised British citizen, she admitted that before the reading retreat, she often found herself frustrated with what she saw as the tendency of African Americans to centre race in every narrative.
“Reading Everything’s Fine stirred a lot in me” she said. “I’ve been exploring similar emotional spaces in my own writing, this idea of existing in white spaces as a Black woman, not with rage, though, but with calculation and compromise. It’s not the same story as mine, but it felt familiar anyway”
Her reflections resonated. Many of us had never truly thought about how upbringing in a Black-majority country might shape one’s understanding of racism, or even create a kind of “Black privilege.” The kind that allows you to grow up without the constant psychological erosion of being the minority, of having to justify your existence. And how, when entering a place like America or the UK, that privilege collides with a reality many African Americans have been navigating for generations.
As the weekend unfolded, it became clear how literature like Rabess’s does more than tell a story. It opens a door to personal histories and complicated truths. To questions without neat answers.
Discussions veered from the characters’ love story to class and healthcare in the U.S., and the deeper cultural divide between Black immigrants and Black Americans. The author-participant confessed that she had always been sceptical of narratives that place race at the centre of every interaction. But the book challenged that instinct. “I used to roll my eyes at books like this,” she said. “But now I think it’s because I was reacting from a place of not understanding that trauma is shaped by history and that history is not evenly distributed.”
She pointed out parallels between racial divisions in the U.S. and ethnic tensions in Nigeria: “We have our own Yorùbá-Igbo-Hausa (some of Nigerian tribes) biases that play out in hiring, marriage, politics. It’s not about race there, but it is about power. That helped me see how trauma gets internalised, how overthinking becomes survival.”
And then there were the lighter moments, laughing over Jess’s allergic reaction scene, nodding in agreement at Josh’s critique of political cherry-picking, and sharing that complex, tired feeling of wanting to believe in unity while still being bruised by the past.
We left the retreat with more than just a good read. We left with layered conversations still echoing, with respect for the different lenses Black women bring to literature, and with gratitude for the space to explore them.
And yes, the participant who shared those reflections has just released her own debut novel—Two Britains by Ladun Alabi—a story exploring immigration, identity, and the uneasy overlaps between race and politics. We can’t wait to read it.
Instagram @mybecomingera
Substack : @ladunalabi
Medium @ladunalabi
