4.5, but rounding up because, well, I can and Holy heck.. I may possibly like this more than the hate u give!
I love Bri as a character, and I love the exploration of expression through music, the links to THUG and the inclusion of the struggles girls of colour experience in predominantly white spaces, such as schools and other institutions. I loved the way addiction and violence were handled, and the acknowledgement that families are tricky, messy things. Adding in the exploration of poverty and low socioeconomic statues was brilliantly handled.

My only critiques are the side characters and the ending. I didn’t get the visceral connection to the side characters in the same way I did in THUG (I know it is not fair to compare, but, let’s be real, we all do!), I don’t feel like we got to know some of the bigger support cast enough to have any kind of emotional connection with them.

I also think the ending was a bit convenient and tied everything up a little too neatly. Not that it felt rushed, just that it was a bit unsatisfying and neat, when the rest of the book was hard hitting, gritty and showed the real-life messiness of family and relationships.
But I loved, loved, loved this with my whole heart, enough to overlook the things that could have been tweaked and improved on.