Suitabook

All That It Ever Meant

Blessing Musariri

Reading: Because grief shapes the whole story, pause if the emotional material feels intense. Read the journey for both its outward discoveries and Mati’s changing inner perspective, and leave time afterwards to discuss the ambiguous ending.
Themes: Grief and healing: Mati’s mother dies unexpectedly, and the family travels together while trying to live with the resulting rupture. Grief is presented as pervasive and difficult to remove, while the journey creates space for reflection, disclosure and possible reconnection.
Identity and belonging: Mati is British-born and connected to her parents’ Zimbabwean homeland, while the family’s journey brings cultural and personal tensions into view. The book presents belonging as complicated rather than settled, showing Mati as caught between places and ways of seeing herself.
Meticais and uncertainty: Mati speaks with Meticais, an opinionated, glamorous, gender-neutral figure whom nobody else appears able to see. The uncertainty is sustained rather than quickly explained, inviting readers to consider several interpretations of Mati’s experience.
Worth knowing: The mother’s sudden death and its aftermath are central, alongside strained sibling and family relationships. Meticais’ identity remains uncertain, so readers who prefer firmly explained supernatural elements may want to know that ambiguity is part of the experience.