I like a dystopian novel just as much as the next person, but this one lacked something...or maybe it just upset me so much, I couldn't personally appreciate it?

Frida's challenges as a mother and the horrific experience she had losing her daughter and then being sent to the school for good mothers is realistic in the sense that she experiences the same challenges, doubts, and emotional/physical exhaustion most mothers experience. Yet, the drastic legal consequences she faces from a exaggerated (yet, still rooted in reality) child welfare entity--paired with the horrific way she's treated by her ex-husband--seem over-the-top without the usual "fight the man" thread running through them that most dystopian stories have. Frida's last-ditch "fight" seemed too convenient and not organic to the consistently weak and submissive woman we see throughout the book. Was she suffering from postpartum issues? Was she this submissive in her marriage before having kids? No of this is ever really answered.

I also felt that the plot plodded along at parts. Frida's "treatment" in the facility got repetitive. The constant allusions to the women getting treated much worse than the men just made me angrier and angrier. I kept hoping someone, anyone, would fight back.

The highlight of this book is the commentary on motherhood and marriage that many women face. Chan adds new depth to the discussion with allusions to the racism Asian women and mothers also experience. I loved this inclusion in the book, but was disappointed with the way it was explored. By making the situations and the treatment of Frida so exaggerated, it lessened the impact of the discussion of these true-to-real-life issues.

For a very sensitive person like myself, this just wasn't the book for me. I really wish Frida had a bit more fight in her and that the situations she faced weren't so horrifying. Oh and Gust REALLY needed to get a comeuppance in some way, shape, or form.

If you enjoy really bleak dystopian stories, this is a book for you. It just wasn't the book for me.

Thanks to @NetGalley for a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I bought this book but saw it was available from @Libby. Since Acevedo herself reads it and it’s an entire book of verse, I figured I'd listen to the slam poetry performed by the author, while reading parts to it, too. It was POWERFUL.

Xiomara is a Dominican teen living in Harlem. She’s confused about so much: Her ability to share her voice in poetry but not our loud in life, her sexual feelings, her relationship to the Catholicism her mother preaches, and her body, bigger than the cultural blueprint of what’s considered attractive but still enough to get repeatedly propositioned by boys and men. While Xiomara has no problem standing up for her twin brother or herself when bullied, she does have trouble standing up to her mom and speaking her mind about the intense Catholicism her mother preaches.

The only way Xiomara can get her feelings out is to write slam poetry. She has notebooks of verses where she talks about the calm of stoop sitting, the shame she feels about her sexual urges, her frustration with her mother's strict Catholicism, the embarrassment she feels about her “bubble butt,” and so much more. This book is a poetic force - an #ownvoices beauty that celebrates the power of the written word while realistically addressing the frustrations, pain, and dreams of a young Dominican girl in Harlem. It’s the perfect way to introduce all teens to the experiences of a woman of color in the city. Highly recommend this for teens AND adults.

Quote I loved:
“…before I can tell her that Jesus feels like a friend
I’ve had my whole childhood
who has suddenly become brand-new;
who invites himself over too often, who texts me too much.”

Soapbox Postscript: This book has been repeatedly banned from public school reading lists and libraries in the last two years. Nothing in here is anything teens can’t handle. All teens (heck most adults!) struggle with feelings related to sex, love, using their voice, religion, and family. Is this one not allowed because it’s a girl of color in Harlem? Why is The Catcher in the Rye OK for me to read in 1992 but this isn’t OK for kids today? If you have a teen or just want to see what the fuss is about, give this one a read today. Reading is supposed to entertain AND educate and this book is a great way to do both.

A specific character study, Wang's latest explores themes of ethnicity, immigration, family, and self through the truly distinct character of Joan. A 30-something doctor in a New York City ICU, Joan lives and breathes her job; in essence, it IS her identity. After her father dies unexpectedly, she travels to China--over a mere weekend--to attend his funeral. While there she interacts with her mother, who emigrated to the United States to give Joan and her brother Fang a chance at the American Dream. Once those paths were secured, she went right back to China.

After returning from the funeral, Joan's personality starts to be revealed. Stoic and obtuse in social situations, she has a sparsely furnished apartment, no social life, and would rather work than not. She has trouble understanding her mother and brother, and seems lost about just how to grieve her father. When she's forced to take a 6-week break from work just as the pandemic is exploding in China and beyond, the issues she's been struggling with--her mother, her grief, her sense of self as a Chinese-American--come to the fore and force her to address them.

It's a credit to Wang that the book doesn't take the expected route of Joan completely changing her personality; she opens up in some ways and stays true to her rigidity in others. She's a refreshingly unique, very specific character, whose story is mostly compelling. Some sections do plod along and I did, at times, wonder if Joan could really be such an emotionally connected doctor to her patients (which we don't see on the page, aside from her struggling with an iPad during a Covid call), yet still so bereft of emotion in her family/social life. Yet even these minor quibbles didn't take away from the bits of humor and heart this book offers.

Much thanks to @NetGalley and @RandomHouse for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mara is suffering from a staggering loss and leaves her family for a tourist town by the sea. With little money and food, she spends her nights sleeping on the beach and walking into the water. She eventually gets a job at a wine store and finds a kinship with its equally lost owner, Simon. It's here that she starts to heal, while reworking herself into someone who learns how to live with grief and forge new love.

I’ll admit, at first I was worried that this story—written with spare language and dense with despair—was too raw for me to enjoy. But, in the end, I really liked it. Mara's struggle and eventual calm were beautifully depicted on the page. Each beat of her story, from reminisces and tragedies of her past to the dangers and joys of her present build up one by one to fill her blank-page personality into a compelling character and an intense character study.

This book at times pulses too strong with grief, but that strength leads to a growth and change for Mara that truly feels earned. An evocative book!

This queer rom-com takes place during a reality cooking competition. With lots of talk about food and two characters who are trying to find and be their true selves, this novel is a cut above the usual rom-com fare. I really liked it and thought narrator Lindsey Dorcus did a fabulous job. At times I did find Dahlia (she/her) a little too over-the-top with her zaniness but that didn’t take away from the chemistry her and London (they/them) had. This audiobook kept me smiling.

This enjoyable romance thoughtfully explores serious issues, while still remaining a steamy romance with two charismatic leads.

Khalil, a white French-American meets Black app developer Vanessa when she comes into his barbershop needing a shape-up. The two hit it off and start spending extra time together when Vanessa is hired to help him with an app for his businesses. While romantic and steamy (except for the "babygirl"...the use of that as a term of endearment just seems needlessly infantilizing to me, especially for a character as strong as Vanessa), their romance is underscored by some strong real-life issues that enhance the overall story: Khalil battles depression and Vanessa has been burned by interracial relationships in the past when her white boyfriends have claimed to be "woke" but still ended up committing micro-aggressions against her.

Both Vanessa and Khalil work together to address these issues, with Khalil's depression getting the most narrative time. I thought the issue of his mental health was handled well and didn't deter from the main romance at all. Actually, it made Vanessa and Khalil's connection stronger since she was able to truly connect with him and help him through a bad time.

A great debut and an extra-special addition to the romance genre!