It’s said that sometimes an author needs to write fiction in order to tell the most searing truth, and Scarborough is perfect proof of that axiom. This is a beautifully rendered, intimately populated landscape that honours and cherishes characters we usually only see relegated to background scenery and pat, two-dimensional representations. It feels at once foreign and familiar, soothing and challenging — the kind of storytelling that touches our tenderest places; the best kind of storytelling I know. -S. Bear Bergman, author of Butch Is a Noun and The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You
Scarborough showcases a necessary shift from the singular voice novel to create space for many voices to be heard — especially ones that are often forgotten. In her dexterous debut, Catherine Hernandez powerfully centres the margins by interlacing narratives that spotlight the beauty that thrives beyond the big city. -Vivek Shraya, author of even this page is white and She of the Mountains
Scarborough marks the arrival of a fierce new voice in Canadian fiction. Hernandez has rendered one of the most vibrant portraits of contemporary suburbia I’ve yet encountered. -Jordan Tannahill, two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright
Scarborough is a celebration of community, a sensitive and compassionate portrayal of how lives are irrevocably changed, moment by moment, through small acts of kindness or cruelty. It’s a novel that deserves to be read widely. –Hamilton Review of Books
Hernandez goes deeper than most writers dare when it comes to the complexities of racial and cultural violences, unafraid to unpack the explicit and implicit prejudices that inform her characters’ behaviours, white and racialized alike … This is a crucial book for Toronto, and a shining example for writers concerned with the cultural tensions of the now. –Broken Pencil
Scarborough is raw yet beautiful, disturbing yet hopeful … It gives voice to people whose stories are often unheard, making this an important book that deserves a wide audience. –Booklist
With its multiplicity of voices and its ability to walk the very fine line between nonjudgmental and nonexculpatory, the book is a sensitive and unvarnished look at a place with more than its fair share of troubles, and Hernandez shows that it is also a place that refuses to give up hope. –Publishers Weekly
Scarborough is important for many reasons; it’s also quite simply storytelling at its finest. –Popmatters.com