The main character, Alicia Gale, is a young Black woman having a quarter-life crisis, while adventuring through the streets of Toronto, Ontario.

[6] Frying Plantain is a collection of linked short stories centering on the coming of age of Kara Davis, a young Jamaican-Canadian girl growing up in the Eglinton West neighbourhood of Toronto.

[6] Prior to the publication of her book, she was mentored by writers Victor LaValle, George Elliott Clarke, Janice Galloway and Olive Senior.

[7] In a Scotiabank Giller Prize Spotlight interview, Reid-Benta describes Toni Morrison as being one of her literary heroes and mentions that “reading what she does with language, definitely motivates me to write the best way I can.”[8] When interviewed by Vannessa Barnier, Reid-Benta also describes that Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche were inspirations.

[10] In an interview for River Mumma with the Library Journal, Reid-Benta mentions Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia Butler and Cherie Dimaline as inspirations and some of her favourite writers in science fiction and fantasy.