The First Queen of Haiti 🇭🇹 - Book Review of Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley (No Spoilers!)

By Latrece Hopkins

Published: November 14th, 2023, 9:30pm

Some stories stand out from the rest, where you feel like you have been transported into the pages of the book. Where characters start to turn into real figures whose lives you get the full scope of, or secret tell tales revealed of their journey that have only been passed down by word of mouth or hearsay. However, only a few stories really can capture readers like this. This is one of the reasons why I love the historical fiction genre so much because you have the notion in the back of your mind as you read that these places exist, the characters were once alive, and their stories were once a reality. Then there’s the beam that historical fiction teeters between fact and fiction. Whether you prefer the facts, which are just recorded and confirmed aspects of the personal life that can be skewed by historians and life, or fiction, which are just unconfirmed theories or facets of the character's life made up by the author, the genre plays with both. As a historical fiction storyteller, you can take the facts and still draw readers into an amazing tale that almost makes them feel like it can’t be real, larger than life. Authors like Vanessa Riley, writer of Queen of Exiles, use both in a way that tremendously upholds the facts that complement the “fiction.” Instead of feeling like you are reading a biography, Queen of Exiles makes readers feel like the first queen of Haiti is sitting beside you, recalling her journey. I could compare it to how, as a child, you sit beside a grandparent who reflects on their life in a manner of events and escapades. 

Vanessa Riley is an award-winning author with a doctorate in mechanical engineering. She has an MS in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. She is a southern writer with an Irish and Trini background. Vanessa Riley’s novels spotlight Black women and women of color, showcasing erased or untold stories that emphasize sisterhood, Blackness, and love. Vanessa Riley was named the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year Awards Literary Fiction Winner for Sister Mother Warrior. Island Queen has sparked tremendous praise as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick. Although Riley is an accomplished veteran author with amazing stories in her repertoire, I had just read her novels. I was not disappointed. Stumbling upon Queen of Exiles was a perfect introduction to Vanessa Riley for me and has made me put her other stories in the queue for my next read.        

 A beautiful survival story mixed with love, grief, and motherhood. These are some of the many topics portrayed in Queen of Exiles. The novel follows the incredible story of Haiti's first and only queen, Queen Marie-Louise Christophe. She and her daughters were exiled to England after a successful coup against her late husband, Henry I, a prime figure in the Haitian Revolution who turned into the first king of Haiti. Due to King Henry's constant diplomatic determination for Haiti to be recognized by European powers during his reign, Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughter's statuses are recognized in European society, and they are able to live comfortably through Henry's put-up fortune for them. In her quest to survive and rebuild a life for her daughter's oceans away from their land, Queen Marie-Louise must navigate being a Black aristocrat in a classist and white-male-dominated world. While navigating a new land, Marie-Louise is also bombarded with fortune hunters and the press that treat her as a spectacle. Without giving away any spoilers, I want to present some of the aspects of the novel that I really enjoyed. One is how Vanessa Riley utilizes authentic newspaper clippings from Queen Marie-Louise's era. These press segments are placed throughout the novel to accompany what is happening in the story. The clippings were really fascinating and helpful with keeping up with the timeline and back-and-forth time jumps. It also hints at and confirms theories about the time of the character's secret lives. The press excerpts also show how much of a celebrity Marie-Louise was, and like any celebrity with the added aspect of being a Black royal, the press pestered her, portraying her with gossip and critique. We see our main character go from being the queen of the only free Black nation in the Western Hemisphere to an exile in a foreign white land. This leads me to the topic of Blackness. I admired how the author presents the conflict of race, colorism, and what it means to be comfortable in one's Blackness by showing the similarities and differences between being in Haiti and Europe. Marie-Louise discusses Haiti's internal conflict with color as the previous colonization caused strife among the island natives, but the strife differs from the European world because the majority of the Haitian people, like Marie-Louise's sister, held onto the traditions that celebrate who they are. Whereas in Europe, the white majority looked down on the Black race, who they deemed inferior to them, and never had the notion royalty could have black skin. However, as this novel and history show, Marie-Louise reveled in her Black beauty everywhere and sought to teach her daughters the same. She was a rebel. Showing the will to participate in European high society, being in the same space, standing ground dead in the face of political enemies, and being a socialite in her own right is a form of rebellion and going against the white patriarchy. Even though she was a grieving widow exiled from her land, she proved everyone wrong and displayed she was so much more than her grief and tragedy by showing face and living well. Lastly, I appreciate Vanessa Riley's showcase of all forms of love. Every narration from Marie-Louise bleeds the aura of a mother's love. When she talks about King Henry, it is from the love of a woman who stood by the man of her dreams, and reflecting on her home illustrates her love for her nation. Her people. Love is the driving force in this novel and the force behind Queen Marie-Lousie's strength to survive. Vanessa Riley's take on the nuance of love being painful when taken from what you love and a driving tool for survival is inspiring and encapsulates Marie-Louise's story perfectly. There were many characteristics of the novel that I enjoyed. Marie-Louise Christophe is an intriguing historical figure, and her journey is even more compelling. Overall, the Queen of Exiles was a phenomenal read, and I can not wait to read more from Vanessa Riley.

Check out my YouTube video review!