Feb Books

All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr

This poetry follows in the vein of Elizabeth Acevedo with short prose that pack a punch. Makes sense as Sawyerr thanks Acevedo for her mentorship and help in the acknowledgements.

But Sawyerr’s work stands on its own as she tackles the difficult topic of assault and what to do when the person who assaulted you is the very pastor that the community adores. Who will believe you? How can you believe in yourself after such trust has been broken?

Amina already leaves in silences after her mother’s death and her father’s subsequent love for church. It’s like they no longer know how to communicate with one another. Add to how she has been demonized for always fighting (for injustice but try tell that to the system), always questioning, this is one space where she feels like she can’t. She’s lost herself.

It can be a difficult book. Although it is not graphic, the emotions are intense like the feeling of self-blame that permeates Aminda’s thoughts after the assault. Sawyerr highlights how prejudice and perceptions of others cause unnecessary stress and judgement that divides the community rather than brings it together. More importantly, it shows that there are so many different ways to react to trauma and to process the options of going to trial or not, and they’re all valid. They’re different ways to fight and to find yourself again, you just have to find the right one.

My Week with Him by Joya Goffney

Nikki cannot wait to get out of Texas. This weekend she’s going to LA, rock the audition for a prominant DJ and . . . well she’s not sure she’s going to finish her senior year in triumph. She’s not sure she’s going to return to Texas at all.

Her relationship with her mother has never been an easy one but this time, she has been kicked out. Literally kicked out. She has no home to return to and god, it hurts. She can’t subject herself to this sort of emotional turmoil but Malachi, her best friend and forever crush insists she stay the weekend with him and by the end, she’ll want to return to Texas.

There’s a lot of family drama here and Goffney doesn’t sanitize the potential generational trauma splintering through here as Nikki’s mother neglects her and verbally abuses her. It’s to the point where Nikki feels like her mother resents her for being born and honestly, the answers aren’t pretty. And again, it hurts because deep down through it all there are good moments and it gives Nikki hope only for it to be shot down again.

This is complicated by her younger sister, Vae. They get each other in a way no one else can in living with their mother, they protect each other until Vae throws Nikki under the bus so she won’t lose her ‘favorite’ status. But it’s a complicated web as Vae has her own pressures coming from their mother that Nikki can’t understand and even envies.

But there is some sweetness in the form of Malachi after they clear up their mixed signals for one another. Malachi’s home life is a lot more adjusted than Nikki’s. He’s the one she can reliably stand by her when she gets kicked out of the house, but the dependecy created in that dyanmic keeps Nikki’s walls up as she worries she’ll become an undue burden, unlovable in a way because of how her mom treats her.

While it follows a typical YA romance formula with some hot tub kissing and road trip and promposals but I feel this is Goffney’s most emotionally complex. There are layers to mine in the character’s relationships and treatment of each other and there are no easy answers but the rawness makes it better.

My one sticking point that sometimes Malachi comes across as too adjusted considering his backstory but I suppose he’s had more time to process the situation than Nikki whose connstantly living in hers and doesn’t have the space to look at objectively or get therapy.

Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalie Sylvester

Veronica has always lloved the water. With her hip dysplasia (yes the thing that dogs and seniors with arthritis get), swimming is the only physical therapy where her body moves how she wants it to and numbs the pain. Alongside that love is the dream to be a mermaid, their neighborhood’s famous tourist attraction.

However, her traditional parents freak out at the thought of her being in close proximity of a guy much less being “half naked” in public. They’re overprotective, deciding what she can handle when hello, she’s the one who occupies the body. But to be disabled is to be strong, suffer pain silently so as to not make others uncomfortable, not to inconvenience them. That you’re automatically must be fragile.

So she sets out behind her parents’ back to go to auditions, a chance to follow her dream while rebelling against the medical bombshell they hid from her. I appreciate how emotional complex the book is as Veronica can be viewed as behaving pretty selfishly (and she’s called out for it) but has been talked down on and ordered about that she finds it hard to go after her dreams. It’s a combination of coming of age, child of immigrant problems and learning to put words to her feelings. A reoccuring theme is that Veronica has her own directionary of words, tehir actual definitions and what they mean to her aka the ugly subtext that is understood.

I love the magical fantasy of the mermaids combined with the importance of finding your own stories, much as traditions of mermaids and Little Mermaid in particularly have variations around the world indicating the values of the time and place, Veronica soon finds her own way to love herself and her scars.

Sex, Lies, and Sensibility by Nikki Payne

How else should I end the month of love with a Jane Austen retelling.

Once again, Payne pays tribute to Austen’s work by closely following the source material with modernized setting that shows how Austen’s themes are still applicable today. With some changes.

Like Nora is the responsible older sister keeping her family together but she isn’t so responsible that she didn’t make a sex tape that is currently ruining her job prospects. Okay, that is her shitty ex’s fault but try getting ajob when that is the first thing that comes in the google search. Understandbaly, her feelings on men are pretty sour until she meets Bear at a funeral of all places and the convulated dealings of Nora’s late father’s financial estate of which his children don’t want half-siblings like her getting a share.

Bear much like Edward Ferrers is the pillar of the community in Maine, strong, competent, a complete cinnamon role, combined with Nora’s fierce determination and ambition they are perfect for each other. If only Bear didn’t feel duty-bound to keep his arranged marriage with his fiance who is only in it for the money. This was kinda annoying because I know it was in the original S&S but it made sense that Edward would be so reluctant to break off the marriage when it could ruin Lucy’s future prospects. But this is the 21st century, and they all knew Bear’s fiance was with him for the money. He could have broken it up waaaay sooner than that.

Also with so much focus on Bear and Nora, Yvonne the “Marianne” of the book comes off as a lot less sympathetic than her 16th century counterpart. Without anything from her POV, she’s flaky, irresponsible and annoying. Sure, there’s bonding but it just wasn’t enough. Especially since Payne had a heavy hand with time jumps in this novel, making a lot of telling not showing to catch up readers on what the status quo is.

Feb Books

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