Category: Book Review

Pride | Book Review by Sam

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Pride by Ibi Zoboi  is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Instead of England the setting is Brooklyn, New York (specifically Bushwick). The Bennets have become Benitez and are Afro-Latina (Haitian and Dominican) and Mr. Darcy is now Darius, an African American teenager from an affluent family that moves into the neighborhood. 

Review:

It was difficult for me to dive into the retelling as I started the story due to my slight obsession with the original Pride and Prejudice. I did a high school book report on the novel and then started on a journey of watching every TV and movie version I could get my hands on. As I read the book I kept thinking this is different, this is different. Eventually, I convinced myself to see it as a stand alone novel and also found myself captured by the poetry of the main character Zuri. Her words served as a transition from chapter to chapter and set the tone of her feelings as different events transpired. 

Readers who are familiar with Pride and Prejudice will find several similar elements in the  modern retelling of Pride, but will eventually see it as a coming of age story of a young Afro-Latina girl who is having to come to terms with all the changes happening in her life. Zuri’s neighborhood is changing. Her family is changing. She is changing. 

The Bushwick neighborhood is going through gentrification, and Zuri sees Darius Darcy as a reason for the area becoming unaffordable for her family. Zuri’s sister who she’s been waiting for to come back from college has fallen in love and is not around as much. Zuri herself is getting ready to go away to college and is having to come to terms with the possibility that she cannot always be there to be the protector of the family. To be the guardian of her family and her neighborhood she will have to accept change as well as evolve herself. 

Zuri also must realize that everything is not as it seems and not to make quick judgments. Reading this book you will learn about Bushwick and growing into yourself. I would suggest this book to people who have a connection to New York, the way the author details the neighborhood, I believe New Yorkers who grew up in the Bushwick area would find it like a love letter to their childhood. I also believe this book is worth reading for Zuri’s poetry alone, every word I read touched my spirit. 

Charming as a Verb | Book Review by Felicia

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 This was a 3.5 star kind of book. It was quite a charming and intriguing book to read. Ben Philippe has a great writing voice that is quite relatable. This book will have you on the edge but it accurately expresses how the college application process can be intense, overwhelming, and stressful. Plus, there is teen love and a happy ending. 

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This is a young adult novel about Henri, a Haitian American boy embarking on the journey to get into his dream college. 

Review:

This book starts off as a wholesome read then it sends you off on an emotional roller coaster. Henri has all the charm in the world but his charming skills can’t compete with the resources other students have at their disposal when it comes to getting into college. As a child of Haitian immigrants Henri’s college dreams become a family dream that involves an immense amount of pressure to commit to only one kind of future. However, Henri’s life intertwines with Corinne, a fellow classmate who helps him realize there might be value in pursuing your true passion and still having a successful life. This novel was an emotionally heavy read with the way it coincided with my own life. There were a few twists and turns that made me even reconsider my own path about college and that’s part of what reading is about. Sometimes it’s about decompressing but other times the reading journey can really help a reader navigate or affirm certain emotions. 

One True Loves | Book Review by Sam

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I’m giving Bryant’s second novel 4 stars. I’m loving this author’s quirky yet cool take on young adult romance. She has a fan in me and I can’t wait until her next release.

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One True Loves by Elise Bryant is our 2nd read from the author. This story is still within the same universe as Elises’s first novel Happily Ever Afters. This book follows Lorene and her journey of self-discovery and learning more about herself as well as true love. In this book we are confronted with the downsides of Black excellence as the standard and what it means for those who consider a nontraditional path in a traditional family.

Review:

Lorene is an eclectic and artistic young woman. This should not be a surprise considering that Lorene is a graduate of an elite arts high school. However, her family’s expectations weigh on her heavily. She has a lawyer dad and a nonprofit executive mother. More than that she has a genius little sister and an older brother on track to go to law school. Lorene has been accepted to NYU so she is no slacker, however she isn’t sure of her major. This has put her parents in crisis mode, and are demanding that she have a major by the end of the summer. 

For the duration of the summer Lorene and her family will be on a European cruise. Tessa, Lorene’s best friend and the main character from Ms. Bryant’s first novel, believes this is Loren’s opportunity to fall in true love (and Tessa has lots of pop culture references to millennial favorite the Lizzie McGuire Movie). However, Lorene is preoccupied with trying to determine what she will do about her college major. 

As the story goes along we find Lorene opening herself up to love interest Alex. They had a rocky start and they seem to be polar opposites, in contrast to Lorene’s high level artistry and indecisiveness about her future, Alex is a Pre-Med major with a 5 year plan to follow in his mother’s footsteps to become a doctor. Despite Alex’s seemingly straight and narrow personality, he is the one that makes Lorene realize that her artistic accomplishments is just as valuable as her family and siblings’ academic accomplishments. Lorene opens up more and more to the idea that she can follow her passion for art as well as follow her heart. 

In the end, Lorene realizes that the Black excellence standard that her family has upheld, while done out of the belief that this was the way for them to be successful and achieve all that they could out of life – it can be quite damaging. It can cause anxiety and keep one from pursuing a life of their dreams. She learns to no longer be afraid of her passions or her desire to be truly in love. 

I continue to love the quirky teenagers that Ms. Bryant writes about. Within each of her novels there has been a message larger than romantic love. These teenagers are learning to fall in love with themselves and to recognize the greatness within themselves outside of what the world describes as “success and achievement”. I suggest this read to anyone who is interested in stories with multi-layered messages and cute romance woven together.