I will definitely read anything she writes in the future, although I will definitely research the books more thoroughly know what I’m getting in to. I just didn’t connect to the characters, and the parts of the book I did like were overpowered by parts that I felt were overly forced. ![]() As a debut novel by a young author, the writing is obviously amazing. Only a few side characters are developed, presumably just enough to make them suspect, but to drop information like one of them getting incarcerated and not explored, one diagnosed with diabetes and told without prompting and then dismissed, makes it feel like a lot is crammed in for no real purpose. Not that people and characters have to be like-able, but they have a lot of layers, and it would have been nice to get to know them better as people, not just as shell minority representatives in a system built for them to fail. Thus it kind of limits the relatability to the characters in other facets of their lives. ![]() By-and-large for both main characters, only their sexual relationships are really explored, and most of them are brief. She eventually realizes she likes a girl and hooks up with her. Chiamaka has no friends, picks boyfriends to further her power agenda, and spent her entire junior year having sex with her best friend, Jamie, with the hopes that he likes her too. Both parents are physicians and are never around. Her father’s family doesn’t accept her and her mom because of their skin color, so they no longer go to Italy to visit. Chiamaka is Nigerian from her mom and Italian from her father. He hooks up with multiple guys in the book, and tries to keep it a secret so that he doesn’t get further harassed by the neighborhood guys, but it seems everyone knows he is gay even before the texts start coming. He lives in a tough neighborhood and runs drugs to help out with money. Devon’s father is absent and it is learned he was executed on death row, his mom works three jobs, he has younger brothers and they struggle financial so that he has a chance at education. The two characters have very different, but very impactful home lives. The book has a lot going on, aside from the texts and secrets being exposed, that I wish would have gotten more page time. I honestly, however, didn’t like either of the characters at all. I like that the whodunit aspect really had me on my toes. Coming from an Islamic School Librarian standpoint, without exception this book would be considered inappropriate. There are no Muslim characters, and the only mention of religion is a side character reading the Bible. To completely not mention something that is such a huge part of the book is frustrating, and so I’m writing this up more as an FYI, than a thorough and in-depth review. As a reader and someone who recommends books to people a lot, knowing what the majority of the book is about is helpful. I write this review as a heads-up and to opine on the lack of mention of the amount of romance and sex in the book and in its blurbs. I considered stopping, it was a over the top, forced, and honestly a little hard to read at times, but I continued because the commentary on racism and suspense storyline was well done that I was genuinely curious to see the climax and resolution. The book has sex and relationships and sensual encounters between gay, queer, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual characters on EVERY SINGLE PAGE. ![]() ![]() Based on the suspense teasing and plot involving racism, I figured a contemporary YA book set in high school would have some relationship, sexuality, language and drugs, so at the last minute I decided to read it first. It is constantly described as a combination of Gossip Girl and Get Out, having never seen either of those, I relied on the back of the book and the inside flap to see if it was something I would like to read and suggest my young teenage daughter, (and followers to read). I had heard about this 420 page YA thriller and how it was written by a Muslim student at University and the seven figure book deal that she earned.
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