Review: I'M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal

 

I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"An absolute page turner, I’m Not Dying with You Tonight is a compelling and powerful novel that is sure to make an impact." —Angie Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give

An NAACP Image Award Nominee, I’m Not Dying with You Tonight follows two teen girls—one black, one white—who have to confront their own assumptions about racial inequality as they rely on each other to get through the violent race riot that has set their city on fire with civil unrest.

Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she’s going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school.

When both girls attend the Friday-night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together.

They aren’t friends. They hardly understand the other’s point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they’re going to survive the night.

--

I was watching a masterclass on Writing as a Political Act as part of YALL WRITE (the online Yall Fest 2020), and that's where I first came across Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal, along with the other two panelists Yusef Salaam and Ibi Zoboi. This was one of the most useful masterclasses I've ever watched and afterward, I promptly bought this book (as well as Punching the Air by Salaam and Zoboi). So that's how I came across I'm Not Dying With You Tonight.

Prior to starting this book, during the masterclass, I heard Jones and Segal talking about the main two characters, Lena and Campbell. I was invested in these characters through hearing the authors speak, especially when they talked about how politically aware their MCs are and how this is different from being politically active.

I'm Not Dying With You Tonight follows two high-school girls--one black, one white--as an argument at their school turns into shootings and a riot that spreads across many parts of the town. These two girls are trying to get home and have to rely on each other to survive. Lena and Campbell aren't friends prior to this and in a lot of parts, neither understands the other's view. Campbell cannot understand at first why Lena, who is Black, is rightfully fearful of the police, and Lena cannot understand Campbell's (who is white) poverty. This book directly tackles racism and police brutality toward Black people and it's an informative and enlightening read. A very important read.

It's an addictive read and so, so powerful. I think it took me just over a day to read it. It's a powerful novel, and while I did find parts of it to be very plot-driven rather than character-driven, both Lena and Campbell are well-developed. Given the nature of this book, I do think it needs to be plot-driven, so it's not a criticism, as it's literally about how these two girls survive and depend on each other, when events out of their control are thrown at them.

The conversation on racism that this book delivers is the strongest part of this book--and I believe that's its intention. This book highlights the ignorance of white people as well as subtly-racist attitudes that are prevalent. It also speaks on socioeconomic issues too, like poverty.

I highly recommend this book.

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Review: GENUINE FRAUD by E. Lockhart

 

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


From the author of the unforgettable New York Times bestseller We Were Liars comes a masterful new psychological suspense novel--the story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

I went into this book, having read some of the reviews that say it's not as good as We Were Liars, and so I was a bit hesitant at first...but I have to say that Genuine Fraud is amazing. I LOVED it.

It's very different to We Were Liars, yes. It's not trying to be the same. It's standing proud to be different, and I was really hooked after the first couple of chapters.

Genuine Fraud is all about character. It's about giving the reader snippets of Jule's life and Immie's life, all from Jule's POV. It's about constructing these complex and devastating characters through spinning a sort of web around Jule--as the web increases with each chapter, so does our knowledge of what these characters really are like. Jule becomes more and more complex with each chapter, and by about the halfway point, we know exactly what kind of person we're dealing with.

Jule is a murderer. She kills two people in this book--possibly three, I'm not quite sure. She's dark and when she doesn't get what she wants, she throws a tantrum. And her tantrums always end in the same way. And yet despite this there are still twists cleverly incorporated into this--proper moments that had me literally gasping.

This is a story of friendship and what happens when it becomes obsessive. It's a story of a damaged girl who's undeniably clever and so, so cold.

I loved the writing style. I'll be honest, I don't connect strongly with books that are told in third-person. I need that closeness to the main character. Yet third person was undeniably the right choice for Genuine Fraud, precisely because it keeps Jule at a distance. We're not supposed to see right into her mind. We're supposed to be wondering who she is and what she is capable. As we read, we're trying to learn more about her, and it often feels a bit like we're a detective and Jule is the mystery. And I think that's why I liked this book so much because we're kept on the outside a little bit. We're trying to work out who this character is--a character who freely admits that she lies and makes up her 'origin story'. I still don't know which of Jule's 'childhood origin stories' are based on truth, if any are.

And (spoilers ahead), I just have to talk about this: this book shows how someone can just step into someone's life so quickly, claiming that you used to be friends at school--when in fact you weren't. And the way it's done in this book is just so amazing. Because Jule and Immie knew each other from school--and yet they didn't. Each chapter adds a little bit to the puzzle, until we realise that Immie is someone Jule has become fixated on and vowed to find a way into her life. Jule gets all these tidbits of info about Immie's schooldays (from names of classmates to what Immie was wearing at a concert), getting these pieces of information through hiding her intentions, and then 'reminds' Immie of how they were at the same school. And that means Immie has this instant trust for Jule. Trust that is her downfall. I just wanted to talk about that because that revelation that Jule's memories of Immie and their shared schooldays were constructed and not organic just blew me away. That was the point where I realised just how clever E. Lockhart is.

And each chapter does build a new layer, add a layer to the onion that is Jule, so to speak. And the timeline jumps back and forth too. We're not given things in a chronological order, which adds to the puzzle-feel of this book. And I just loved that.

As expected from any book by E. Lockhart, this one covers some dark topics: you've got suicide mentioned, murder, desperation, obsession... But this is a must-read.

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Review: LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE by Jessica Knoll (audiobook narrated by Madeleine Maby)

 

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

--

This is the first audiobook I've ever listened to, and it was a great one to start with. LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE is a complex story of lies, trust, and one woman's desperation to be 'perfect'. We meet Ani when she's in her late twenties, and she seems to have it all: a great job, a great boyfriend, an impending marriage, great prospects in life. But right from the start, there's something disturbing about our narrating character. It becomes clear very quickly that Ani has a dark side. And I just LOVE dark narrators. She's also pretty unlikeable and not your typical female narrator--and that I just loved.

(Spoilers ahead:)

Ani is a disturbed woman with lots of secrets--least of all that she murdered someone. I hesitate to call her a murderer because as the book reveals it was in self-defence and happened when she was 14. And wow, this girl's past is just phenomenal. The book alternates between present-day action where Ani is preparing to take part in a documentary to 'set the record straight' about what happened when she was school, and gives us real-time chapters of that time.

We follow Ani as she joins the Bradley school, as she becomes mixed up in toxic friendship groups, as she becomes victim of sexual assault and rape, as she suddenly finds herself in a school shooting. This book is POWERFUL. That, I can't stress this enough. And the characterisation is so phenomenal. In the present-day, Ani comes across as an entitled and arrogant woman who cares wholly about perceptions and what others think when they see her. Yet, from reading everything that's happened to her, it becomes understandable. This new identity is one she's actually constructed to protect herself.

And it's not just her characterisation which is amazing. Every single character in this book has amazing characterisation--and this makes it quite complicated in some respects, as Ani's rapists are shown to have good traits. It makes it realistic, but it also makes for such a disturbing read. Jessica Knoll is an expert.

I particularly liked as, the more we read, the more layers of the main characters were revealed. This was especially the case with Luke, the 'perfect' fiance. By about the halfway point, his true character had been revealed, and I desperately wanted Ani to do better than him. So, I was really satisfied with the ending, where she leaves him.

There's also a big emphasis on names and identity in this book. Throughout it, Ani has multiple names referring to the various different identities she has been through--she reinvented herself after leaving the Bradley school, going by Ani then (whereas before she was Tiffany). And this just seemed really realistic and added to the idea that 'Ani' (the successful and rich magazine editor) is a construction. Ani is a cage around Tiffany, one to protect her--and that final line of the book, where Ani reclaims her identity as Tiffany FaNelli, is just so powerful because of this.

There are some difficult scenes in this book, as can be expected. At 14, Tiffany is invited to a party by her male classmates. She is the only girl there, and she's raped by three of them. She later attends Planned Parenthood to get the Morning After pill. When her mother finds out about this, we get a victim-blaming narrative from her (which is challenged by other characters). We're also dealing with content about suicide and mass-shootings in schools. Children do die in this book and it is heart-wrenching. The shooters are both children too--one of whom is Tiffany's friend.

Madeleine Maby is a terrific narrator. That has to be said too. I was apprehensive about audiobooks, thinking I wouldn't be sucked in in the way I am when reading a paperback or ebook, and although the experience of listening to an audiobook is different, this really was excellent.

I highly recommend this story of identity, revenge, loss, lies, and secrets.

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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.

--

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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Review: THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin

 

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger--and a possible murderer--to inherit his vast fortune, on things for sure: Sam Westing may be dead...but that won't stop him from playing one last game!

I could not stop reading this book! THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin is a phenomenal mystery, and I’m actually in awe of how good it is. As I was reading it, I kept forgetting it’s a novel as it seemed more like a puzzle, and the writing style is just amazing.

It’s one of the children’s titles for my postgrad creative writing course, but it reminded me so much of Virginia Woolf’s style. I actually googled the book to see if it’s taught to children at schools (or just used for degree level courses) because of this almost stream-of-consciousness style and complexity, with so many beautiful nuanced layers. It’s recommended for ages 10 and upward, and I have since learnt it's taught widely in US schools, but as a UK reader, I hadn't heard of this book at all--and here it often seems only to be taught to adults as an example of how children’s stories should be as complex as adult stories, as obviously you shouldn’t “write down” to children. It will give great satisfaction to adult readers who may be reading it aloud to children, as they’ll understand the more complex themes in it that younger children may not. Though I think children 10 and older would grasp the deeper meanings in this book, and YA readers certainly will.

The story follows 16 people (a mixture of children, teenagers, and adults) as they listen to the reading of Sam Westing’s will and discover that one of them is a murderer. All 16 are then thrown into the Westing Game where each must solve clues pertaining to the identity of the murderer. At times, these clues are almost set out like an instruction manual for a game, so we, as the readers, are also playing along. It’s this interactive quality that I’m finding so addictive.

It took me a little while to get into this book, mainly because there are just so many main characters, and we're not told a whole lot about these to start with. But we're thrown right into the mystery, and it's like we're trying to solve the mystery at the same time as learn about the characters--which does work really well as we're trying to work out who the murderer is.

And working out who the murderer is was just something I couldn't do--which rarely happens. But I really had no idea. And for that, I loved this book. It's just so powerful and it was refreshing to read such a complex and wonderfully plotted mystery that kept me on my toes as a reader. I was really making sure to read every single word on each page in case I missed a clue. 

Also, the narrative devices in this book are great. We've got multimedia in this as we get recounts of Sam Westing's will and other documents. And all of these are clues for the mystery too! 

The ending of the book was...strange. I don't know, it's hard to describe it without getting into spoiler territory. Because there are big twists, and though these were satisfying, I was kind of waiting for something more to happen as I was reading...but then by the time I got to the very last page, I realised that the ending was perfect as it was. If there had been another twist it probably would've detracted from the quietly powerful ending--where the true impact of it only hits you after you've stopped reading and you've got time to think.

And those final pages, where time suddenly speeds up and we learn what happens to the children as they grow up and the deaths of the older characters who were adults in the story is really heartbreaking. It's really powerful writing.

Turtle was by far my favourite character, swiftly followed by Angela. These two characters (sisters) really complimented each other, and I loved how many layers they each had, especially the darkness in Angela as (spoiler) she turns out to be the bomber. I also loved Sydelle and Otis (calling Otis the '65 year old delivery boy' was fantastic, by the way!). The other characters (with the exception of Grace, the mother of Angela and Turtle), although still strong with characterisation, didn't quite have the same impact on me as these characters. I think it's because there are just so many main characters in this book. It was a bit overwhelming. For a long time, I didn't even realise that Crow would be a significant character either. So that threw me a little.

Disability representation is also amazing, with the character of Chris who's a wheelchair user--and I loved how this book has other characters making assumptions about Chris and being stereotypical, but that these characters are then either called out, or the narrative voice becomes really snarky as it tackles the misconception. This is honestly one of the best books I've read for disability representation. (And equally, it's not just disability that the book calls out about this; there's also a lot on feminism and the role of women, with characters fighting stereotypes and 'traditional' views.)

The writing style of THE WESTING GAME is fun and snarky, and I can see why it would appeal a lot to children and teenagers. It's just so plucky and fun to read, and the narrative voice of the book is really great. There is a lot of head-hopping in the stream-of-consciousness style as we're bounced from one character to another, but uniting all these characters is this snarky voice--which is both snarky and judgmental on the current POV character and about others in general. And because the head-hopping is constant, and the whole thing is written in this style, very similar to Woolf's, this is one of the rare instances where I do feel that the head-hopping works.

This is a masterful piece of writing. Highly recommended.

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