Thanks to Harper Collins (via NetGalley) for the ARC!

LIKE HOME follows Chinelo (aka Nelo) as she deals with changes in her neighborhood. Her best friend’s store, Ginger Store, is vandalized, and a new big box spice store is moving into Ginger East neighborhood. Nelo is reluctant to see that things are changing, and wants the neighborhood she grew up in to stay the same as it’s been her whole life. It takes her a while to realize, but Ginger East has been slowly changing before Nelo’s eyes, so she has to come to terms with the fact that her neighborhood is slowly being gentrified, and that Ginger Store is next in a long line of losses.

I really liked the concept of this story. Nelo has to deal with changes in her neighborhood, a place that she’s loved her whole life. She’s reluctant at first to realize that things have been changing for years now, and that she maybe hasn’t noticed how much things have changed, but there were things about her character that just felt a little off to me. It takes several characters--adults, friends who have moved to different neighborhoods, etc.--telling Nelo that things are changing for her to realize it. Even then, she flat out denies that things are different. Several times. She just refuses to accept things are changing, and I understand that’s part of her character arc, but the way it’s handled is a little clumsy. She is so naive and stubborn to the point where it’s almost not believable that a person wouldn’t notice a new store in their own neighborhood. She’s so adamant that things stay the same and blind to the changes that have occurred, that it seems almost unbelievable.

Another thing that bugged me was that the writing was a little clunky in places, especially regarding dialogue and descriptors. I felt like I read the same exact conversations multiple times, which had me going back to check if I was inadvertently rereading sections. And a lot of the times I felt like the descriptions of what characters were doing with their facial expressions or their tone of voice didn’t match what they were saying. Again, it was just a little clunky, which made the story flow a little less in my opinion. I’m hoping this is just because it’s a debut novel, and that Onomé’s writing will improve. Because, again, I did really like the story! There was definite character growth with Nelo from the beginning to the end of the book, and she goes on a journey, learning more about herself and the world she lives in. And the story itself is timely as well. LIKE HOME shows the importance of being connected to your community, and also gives personality, attention, and importance to a type of community that is often overlooked in the media.

I look forward to what Onomé writes next because I haven’t read many (if any at all) YA books set in Canada, so I really enjoyed that setting. She has a unique voice, wrote a timely and relatable story, and came up with a lot of fun characters in this book, so I'm am eager to see what she does next.