Navaeh Levitz is part white Jewish and part black and has never felt like a whole person. As a white-passing biracial child, she has just always accepted that she doesn't fit in anywhere. When her parents' marriage unravels, Navaeh is forced into the depths of both sides of her identity and can either choose to continue battling to be accepted or all embrace all the magic in her heritage.

If you like books by Angie Thomas or Elizabeth Acevedo, then you should read this book. I know the readalikes are usually put at the end of a review but I thought I'd get them out of the way here.

Color Me In is a character-focused novel truly written for a Young Adult demographic. The conflicting inner-dialogue, the friendships, the high-school drama and the unrelenting need to fit in left me cringing and wanting to shake some sense in Navaeh. This book touches on identity, racial tension, religion, friendship, love and family and a part of me stopped and wondered if there was too much being included but actually no, I don't think there is. All these themes and ideas are interwoven with one another to create the whole. If you think about it, all the other things are interwoven to create our identities and often times it's not a conclusion we reach but a lesson we are constantly learning. I think Diaz has illustrated that well.

I'm a hopeless optimistic so I always want even the worst characters to have a redemptive arc and that doesn't always happen in this book but then it doesn't always happen in real life. However, many of the 'bad' characters, like Samuel and Abby, lacked the multidimensions woven into the 'good' characters such as Stevie and Jordan.

But the MVP and the character that makes this book an ultimate winner for me is Navaeh. Which is only right as she is the protagonist. Navaeh is loosely based on Diaz and this is clear in her character development. I both want to shake her and hug her. She is selfish and careless and self-involved but which teenager isn't? (How many adults aren't like that either?) But she grows, she changes, she finds her magic.

I hope this is a book that many teenagers out there read and are inspired to find their magic.