Publishers Weekly
★ 01/27/2025
Fifteen-year-old Marisol—a soucouyant, or shape-shifting witch, who turns into a flying fireball once a month and feeds on other people’s life forces—longs to escape her magical legacy and wishes she could have a different life. Far away from the monsters and myths back home in the Caribbean and trying to forge a new path in New York City, she and her mother eke out an existence working at a bakery owned by their boss and landlord, Jean-Pierre. Meanwhile, Genevieve, a 17-year-old Black and white dancer living with a painful skin condition that keeps her up at night, struggles to juggle the demands of high school and her boyfriend Micah’s jealousy. The arrival of a new nanny for her white father and stepmother’s twin newborns compels Genevieve to discover a hidden connection to her absent mother, her cultural roots, and Marisol. Using gripping verse, Zoboi (Nigeria Jones) delves into each teen’s inner turmoil, tackling themes of misogynoir, colorism, and immigration via complicated mother-daughter dynamics. The girls’ shifting perspectives appear on alternating sides of the book’s pages, only combining once they meet; an ambiguous resolution rounds out this searing exploration of personal growth and self-discovery. Ages 13–up. Agent: Linda Camacho, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
★ "Bold and exciting. Readers will fly through Zoboi’s latest masterpiece and crave more stories featuring Caribbean folklore. An ambitious contemporary fantasy that will grip readers from the first page." — Booklist (starred review)
★ “Readers will enjoy the ways the monstrous characters’ human facades shift. A vividly creative, heart-pounding poetic journey.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
★ "Skillfully captures the complexities of identity and belonging, offering a powerful narrative about two girls struggling to understand who they are and where they come from." — Horn Book (starred review)
★ “Zoboi delves into each teen’s inner turmoil, tackling themes of misogynoir, colorism, and immigration via complicated mother-daughter dynamics. [A] searing exploration of personal growth and self-discovery.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★ “The stage is set for secrets and supernatural discoveries. The slow, methodical unraveling of how interwoven the two teenage girls’ stories is the treat of this sharp verse narrative.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
★ “The verse format offers a rhythmic and accessible read while challenging stereotypes regarding colorism and racism. An essential book.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
“Zoboi displays her immense talent in a new genre by creating a first-class, haunting urban fantasy. Will likely be loved by fans of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye.” — Shelf Awareness
“Ambitious and unapologetic in its rendering, deftly addressing themes of colorism, assimilation, and inheritance. This fast-paced fever dream of a tale crackles and sparks on the page—almost burning the fingertips as it weaves folklore into reality." — Amber McBride, National Book Award finalist and author of Me (Moth)
Praise for AMERICAN STREET: “Brimming with culture, magic, warmth, and unabashed rawness, Zoboi [is], without question, an inevitable force in storytelling.” — Jason Reynolds, award-winning author of Long Way Down and coauthor of All American Boys
Praise for PUNCHING THE AIR: "A wrenching novel whose story, told in verse, is both urgent and heartbreakingly familiar....Amal’s name is the Arabic word for 'hope.' That is what this book ultimately offers, too. Everyone should read it." — New York Times Book Review
School Library Journal
★ 02/01/2025
Gr 7 Up—A contemporary YA fantasy novel in verse rooted in Caribbean folklore, specifically the myth of the soucouyant—women who shed their skins and consume souls by the light of the new moon. Zoboi intricately weaves the narratives of two young women residing in modern-day Brooklyn. Fifteen-year-old Marisol is an undocumented Haitian immigrant navigating life with her mother, Lourdes, who is also a soucouyant and her guide. She often controls who Marisol seeks during her transformation to seek vengeance on those who have harmed them. Genevieve is a biracial American teenager living with her all-white family and struggles with her identity and how to fit in: with her family, her classmates, even in her own skin. An old family secret is unearthed and the girls' everyday lives become intertwined with the magic of the Caribbean folklore that will shape their future and families forever. This narrative explores themes of heritage, cultural appropriation, complex family dynamics, and the journey of coming of age. The verse format offers a rhythmic and accessible read while challenging stereotypes regarding colorism and racism. Readers do not need to be familiar with soucouyant and similar stories; the lore is detailed throughout the story. VERDICT An essential book for any middle school and high school collection.—Erica Coonelly
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2024-10-26
Two teens, one a Black girl from the Caribbean and one a Black biracial girl from Brooklyn, struggle to find their identities.
Fifteen-year-old Marisol and her mother, Lourdes, have recently settled in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. They are soucouyant, witches who shed their skins during the new moon and “sip from / a soul,” nourishing themselves through the life force of their enemies. But the American dream Mummy is seeking doesn’t include freedom for Marisol, who feels “forever alone.” Monthly she shape-shifts, igniting her firesoul and shedding a layer of the skin—“Black, girl, poor, and immigrant”—given to her in America. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve lives with her white anthropologist father, white stepmother, and twin half siblings. She dreams of her mother, a Black woman who’s a mystery, and struggles with her skin, which feels like it will “burn and melt,” itching “like a billion tiny needles.” The girls’ worlds collide when Lourdes is hired as a nanny by Genevieve’s stepmother. Marisol and Genevieve are two sides of the same coin, both reaching for maternal connections, and soon, loyalties in their families and within themselves will be tested. The girls’ intertwined tales, blurring and shifting over the course of the narrative, unfold in lyrical alternating first-person verse and are cleverly used to discuss beauty ideals and colorism. Readers will enjoy the ways the monstrous characters’ human facades shift unexpectedly.
A vividly creative, heart-pounding poetic journey infused with Caribbean folklore.(Verse fantasy. 14-18)