book review : excuse me while i ugly cry
Genre: Romance, Coming of Age, Mystery
Reading age: 11+
Rating: 6.5/10
You’ll like this if you’ve read: The Sun is Also A Star and any high school coming of age book ever!
I didn’t have many expectations of this book, I just knew that I wanted to read a light hearted romance and support a black author, and to be fair, it gave what it needed to give.
There’s not really much to unpack with this book. It’s largely about the intersectionality of class and race. The class element was interesting to me because I feel like the story shows that even through social mobility, you can’t run from your race… but more positively, you can always find comfort from people experiencing the same race struggles as you. You might hate this concept if you’re a passionate Marxist though!
The story follows Quinn Jackson who is a compulsive list maker, like myself, that loses her journal full of lists. These lists contain very private information about herself but also bring her a lot of comfort… and without the journal she essentially has an identity crises. As someone who suffers from OCD, I really related to Quinn’s experience because there is something really imprisoning about being super organised that people don’t always understand. The very thing that keeps your life structured, can also be your mental undoing. The story is kind of a mystery meets coming of age novel, as Quinn embarks on a journey of self discovery whilst trying to find her journal. As a former Pretty Little Liars stan, I liked the high school mystery element of the story.
I wouldn’t even call this book a young adult novel, the writing style was really easy to follow and the topics were quite child friendly. Maybe I was an advanced teenager but I could definitely imagine reading this book at 13. Basically, I felt about 10 years younger reading this book. And this doesn’t take away from the story, I did really enjoy it - given I was after a light hearted read - and I finished it one day.
It always warms my heart that more books like this exist now, growing up I loved reading but never read books about people who looked like me. I often think about what a difference this would’ve made to my childhood. Luckily, I still enjoy reading but many of my friends no longer read, and maybe it was the lack of relatability in the books we grew up on. This is why I will always support black creatives and you should too!
Buy it here: https://amzn.eu/d/3ef9t2E
Reading age: 11+
Rating: 6.5/10
You’ll like this if you’ve read: The Sun is Also A Star and any high school coming of age book ever!
I didn’t have many expectations of this book, I just knew that I wanted to read a light hearted romance and support a black author, and to be fair, it gave what it needed to give.
There’s not really much to unpack with this book. It’s largely about the intersectionality of class and race. The class element was interesting to me because I feel like the story shows that even through social mobility, you can’t run from your race… but more positively, you can always find comfort from people experiencing the same race struggles as you. You might hate this concept if you’re a passionate Marxist though!
The story follows Quinn Jackson who is a compulsive list maker, like myself, that loses her journal full of lists. These lists contain very private information about herself but also bring her a lot of comfort… and without the journal she essentially has an identity crises. As someone who suffers from OCD, I really related to Quinn’s experience because there is something really imprisoning about being super organised that people don’t always understand. The very thing that keeps your life structured, can also be your mental undoing. The story is kind of a mystery meets coming of age novel, as Quinn embarks on a journey of self discovery whilst trying to find her journal. As a former Pretty Little Liars stan, I liked the high school mystery element of the story.
I wouldn’t even call this book a young adult novel, the writing style was really easy to follow and the topics were quite child friendly. Maybe I was an advanced teenager but I could definitely imagine reading this book at 13. Basically, I felt about 10 years younger reading this book. And this doesn’t take away from the story, I did really enjoy it - given I was after a light hearted read - and I finished it one day.
It always warms my heart that more books like this exist now, growing up I loved reading but never read books about people who looked like me. I often think about what a difference this would’ve made to my childhood. Luckily, I still enjoy reading but many of my friends no longer read, and maybe it was the lack of relatability in the books we grew up on. This is why I will always support black creatives and you should too!
Buy it here: https://amzn.eu/d/3ef9t2E
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