From the Publisher
"The author doesn’t shy away from showing truths about how poverty affects people, especially in Black communities . . . Raw and authentic." —Kirkus Reviews
“Bush’s social realism combined with insightful representation will appeal strongly to teens eager to see themselves and their struggles represented accurately.”
Kirkus Reviews
2021-12-24
A 17-year-old girl is forced to grow in unexpected ways.
Alexis Duncan dreams of making it out of her rough West Philadelphia neighborhood. With her father out of the picture, a mother with drug abuse issues, and friends who seem to be heading in a direction she's not comfortable with, Lex depends on her basketball skills to escape. Those dreams are shattered after an incident at a party leaves her seriously injured. Lost in despair, Lex blows up at Aamani Chakrabarti, the new girl whose family bought a local convenience store—but Aamani convinces Lex to join the school’s STEM team. An average student, Lex has to put in tremendous effort to keep up, and the pair grow closer the more time they spend studying together, making Lex question her sexuality. Just as her new life is looking up, intrusions from her old life threaten to undo the great strides she’s made, forcing her to make momentous decisions. The author admirably weaves the two girls’ intersecting identities into the story, endearing them to readers and offering insights into the complex forces that shaped them. Lex is Black, bisexual, poor, and disabled; lesbian Aamani is Indian American from a Hindu family. Minor characters are also well developed. The author doesn’t shy away from showing truths about how poverty affects people, especially in Black communities. Excessive pop-culture references unfortunately take readers out of the moment.
Raw and authentic. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)
