Review: FADE OUT by Nova Ren Suma

 

Fade Out by Nova Ren Suma
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If this were a movie, you'd open to the first page of this book and be transported to a whole other world. Everything would be in black and white, except maybe for the girl in pink polka-dot tights, and this really great music would start to swell in the background. All of a sudden, you wouldn't be able to help it--you'd be a part of the story, you'd be totally sucked in. You'd be in this place, filled with big lies, mysterious secrets, and a tween girl turned sleuth....

Zoom in on thirteen-year-old Dani Callanzano. It's the summer before eighth grade, and Dani is stuck in her nothing-ever-happens town with only her favorite noir mysteries at the Little Art movie theater to keep her company.

But one day, a real-life mystery begins to unravel--at the Little Art! And it all has something to do with a girl in polka-dot tights.... Armed with a vivid imagination, a flair for the dramatic, and her knowledge of all things Rita Hayworth, Dani sets out to solve the mystery, and she learns more about herself than she ever thought she could.

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So I came to FADE OUT having already read THE WALLS AROUND US by the same author, which is one of my all-time favourite YA titles. FADE OUT is MG, not YA, and I was intrigued to see how an author that I know for her YA has tackled a story for a younger readership.

Right off the bat, it was clear the same author had written this book--that was my first observation. The writing is just beautiful. It's haunting and deep and the imagery is just so powerful. Equally, the characterisation is amazing. Dani feels real and solid. She's snarky and yeah, she just feels so realistic. So this was a great start.

Dani is obsessed with noir film, and she tackles her parents' divorce through this lens, constantly comparing her life to that of the protagonists in these films. And then when she discovers that her babysitter-and-best-friend's boyfriend Jackson is cheating on, we see all this through the noir lens. Dani strives to identify the 'femme fatale'--the other woman. And we see her doing a lot of detective work.

I really enjoyed this book, but I'll admit, the stakes in it just weren't high enough for me. And that's entirely a personal preference, as I just prefer stakes to be life-and-death if possible, and I know that's harder in a MG. I just wanted more of a sense of danger, something ominous. But that's not Dani's story, and that's fine.

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Review: GROWN by Tiffany D. Jackson

 

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Korey Fields is dead.

When Enchanted Jones wakes with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night, no one—the police and Korey’s fans included—has more questions than she does. All she really knows is that this isn't how things are supposed to be. Korey was Enchanted’s ticket to stardom.

Before there was a dead body, Enchanted was an aspiring singer, struggling with her tight knit family’s recent move to the suburbs while trying to find her place as the lone Black girl in high school. But then legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots her at an audition. And suddenly her dream of being a professional singer takes flight.

Enchanted is dazzled by Korey’s luxurious life but soon her dream turns into a nightmare. Behind Korey’s charm and star power hides a dark side, one that wants to control her every move, with rage and consequences. Except now he’s dead and the police are at the door. Who killed Korey Fields?

All signs point to Enchanted.

Award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson delivers another riveting, ripped-from-the-headlines mystery that exposes horrific secrets hiding in the limelight and the power of a young woman’s voice.

--

This book. Wow.

So I finished GROWN about a week ago, and I immediately began another Tiffany D. Jackson book (Allegedly) as I felt I had to read more of her work right away, while I processed Grown. Because this book is amazing.

Inspired by the allegations of sexual misconduct against R. Kelly, Grown tells the story of 29-year-old Korey Fields, a powerful singer who grooms and abuses teenage girls, the latest of whom is Enchanted Jones, our protagonist. We're swept up, just like Enchanted is, as Korey pays her attention and promises to help her launch her own singing career. And the writing is so strong and powerful, that we almost 'feel' the grooming and emotional manipulation taking place. This book--I haven't even got the words to express it.

We feel Enchanted's fear as she realises the danger she's now in, and we feel her helplessness. This is just so well written. And Jackson does a great job of exposing what grooming's really like and how 'easily' it can happen. I also really appreciated how she showed just how many other people kept quiet about the abuse, allowing it to happen (all the people Korey was close to), how the abusers are automatically believed over the victims, particularly when the abusers are in positions of power and fame, and how the abuse was both psychological and physical. All too often, we see stories liked this where the abuse is either one of the other, but it's realistic to show how it's both at the same time.

There are some hugely tough and triggering scenes in this: Korey locks Enchanted in a room for days with only a bucket to go to the toilet in, he strips away her dignity, her hope, he lies about her family, telling Enchanted that her parents are angry with her, and also that he's giving them money for having her. There's also sexual assault and rape--and we see this not just with Enchanted, but with another girl, Amber who's fourteen. There's also drug use, addiction, self-harm, suicide threats, and power misuse.

And the book opens with Korey dead and Enchanted covered in blood--that's what makes this different from a story of grooming and paedophilia. It's a tense thriller too. And the narrative alternates between telling us the story of the grooming and sexual abuse, with the present day story of the aftermath of Korey's death and how Enchanted's being set up for his murder.

This is a horrifying but oh-so-important book that examines power and abuse. It's difficult to read, but it's one of the books that I think everyone must.

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Review: ALLEGEDLY by Tiffany D. Jackson

 

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?


--


Allegedly is the third book by Tiffany D. Jackson that I've read, though it was her first published, and I know this is going to be a book that stays with me for a long time.

This book tells the story of a Mary, a Black girl who allegedly killed a white baby when she was nine years old. She's now 16, pregnant, in a group home, and fighting to find a way to keep her baby and clear her name. And it's... ahh, I just haven't got the words. This is a book that is dark and gritty, it's disturbing and emotional. And I was rooting for Mary the whole way...

But the ending--okay, so there's a HUGE twist (and I should've anticipated that, given Jackson wrote this). And the twist completely changes the whole story--like, literally you're in the final chapter and you learn something that means you view the whole of the rest of the book differently. And I can't decide whether I liked that twist. I mean, it was shocking and impactful, but with us only having one chapter for this twist, it made the ending feel a little rushed. I'd have liked a couple more chapters to really smooth it out and delve deeper into the implications of this twist. (A twist that I did not see coming whatsoever--and it's so hard to write about this without giving spoilers!)

Mary is a complex character. We feel her pain and desperation. She's realistic and so well written. In fact, all the characters are. But it's only once you get deep into the novel that you begin to realise just how unreliable Mary is as a narrator--yet the whole time I was willing her not to be the classic unreliable narrator. It really is such good writing.

And the twist at the end really changes the way you view Mary's mother--and both 'versions' of the mother are so believable. And that's just a sign of such fantastic writing.

I found this book addictive. I could not stop reading it. It also employs some excellent narrative devices to show other sides of the story. While Mary narrates the main narrative, we have snippets of police interviews, excerpts from books that others have written about the Mary B. Addison case, and interviews with Mary's mother and the mother of Alyssa, the baby who Mary allegedly murdered. 

It's a difficult book to read. Obviously, it deals with the murder of a baby. You've also got references to child abuse and rape, as well as a lot of discourse on racism. It is such an important read, I cannot stress that enough. But I do think I prefer Jackson's later books (which also deal with unreliable narrators and racism). Still, this is a highly recommended read.

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