thanks to Libro.fm for my ALC!

I’m not having much luck with audiobook narrators in 2024 so far! I liked the concept & content of this book, but the narrator’s performance kept pulling me out of it. I’m not sure what the consensus on this is (if there is one!) but I like my audiobook narrators to just READ me the story. Please don’t act it out. It makes me cringe internally 😭 This narrator was physically laughing when it would say ‘she laughed’ or sighing, or getting so angry when characters were arguing, it made me uncomfortable and not in a good way. 

BUT me feeling awkward about the narration aside, this book was good! It focuses on Mickey, a twenty-something writer who is pushed out of her flashy media job in favour of another Black girl who, in the company’s eyes, will be more malleable. Mickey posts a searing manifesto about racism in media to be met with… crickets. Deflated, she heads home while she figures out her options, including what to do about her seemingly perfect girlfriend. This book does feature a love triangle, which usually just irks me but frankly I enjoyed the drama 👀

It’s very much a slice of life story, about figuring yourself out in your twenties, with the additional weight of how Mickey is treated as a Black lesbian in an industry that prizes whiteness - or a palatable, easy-to-digest brand of diversity. It’s messy and there’s no real resolution. Mickey makes poor decisions, self-pities, but that’s the reality of lots of our twenties!

Middle of the road, though probably would have liked it a lot more if I’d read it in print!