This book fell super flat for me. I would like to clarify that although I’m a WOC I am not black and have not had the same experiences in life (or with this book) that a black person might.

I really wanted to like it but honestly I don’t think there’s anything about the book that I really liked. No intrigue and all the plot twists were predictable. 

There’s a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. I had no reason to believe that Chiamaka is an “it girl” other than the fact that the book keeps telling me she is. I didn’t really care for any of the characters except Devon, and his story was just trauma after trauma after trauma. The side characters don’t really feel like people, just plot devices for the two main characters.

And for the marketing, nothing about this book felt like the drama of gossip girl or the expert build to a climactic plot twist like get out.

The events in the book just made me angry. I understand that is part of the point as it’s trying to show a story of two kids facing racism, but instead it just felt like unnecessary trauma over and over again. A lot of the racism in the book is extremely in your face from the very beginning, causing a lot of the characters decisions to be really frustrating. The “big reveal” wasn’t shocking or exciting and the ending wasn’t very satisfying.

Unfortunately overall it was just a disappointing read for me. I think I would’ve liked the book a lot more if I had read it when I was younger.