Well, though I did enjoy this book, I didn't love it as much as The Hate U Give. I could not help making comparisons between Starr and Bri (the main character in this one) and also about the story-lines. I think in the end that Bri was more frustrating to me as a reader. She really doesn't listen to anyone, though in the end that causes her to forge her own path that can lift her family up out of poverty. However, how realistic is it for many teens to go out and become rap superstars? Should that be a dream that is pushed? Do we hurt our youths with them seeing millionaire and billionaire rappers out there and think they need just that and forget about school? I think in the end Thomas was pushing for that happy ever after and I thought she was more realistic about things with how she ended "The Hate U Give."

Bri is dealing with the effects in this book from the fallout of story-lines in "The Hate U Give". The not guilty verdict of the police officer and the rioting cost her neighborhood grocery stores and jobs. One of those jobs affected is her mother's were her job is cut and now Bri's family is dealing with more even more issues surrounding paying rent, providing enough food to eat, gas and heat. Bri has dreams though of becoming a rapper and a superstar that will provide her mother and brother with enough so they don't have to struggle anymore. Though two of Bri's childhood best friends do very well at their school. She often is in trouble for her "attitude" and isn't doing her best in her PSAT courses. She has dreams of going toe to toe in "The Ring" and winning against other underground rappers.

I have known many boys and girls who have wanted to become rappers and who also wrote very good raps and in the end didn't get that break they needed. Heck, my brother was one of them and even traveled to MTV back in the day and battled. He got to the semi-finals and didn't end up getting the final call back, but I was very proud of him for pursuing what he wanted. So Bri's aspirations were not a shocker to me. I think what shocked me was that she was hanging her hat on making it. We find out her father was an underground legend until he was murdered. You would think that would make her hesitant at going forward with it, but she only seems to think on her father if someone is getting in her face about it and when we get to a later story-line about her getting his chain to wear.

So Bri was written pretty consistently the whole way through and we get to see her feelings about her family, her friends, her school, her lot in life. The raps we get to read I thought were great here and there and a few I thought were just okay. I do wish that Thomas had touched more about how black girls are seen. What does it mean to be called "angry" by other people and showed Bri pushing back on those tropes. She doubled down on her anger to a point that sometimes I was ready to shake her. 

The secondary characters though we do get to delve into a bit. Bri's older brother is struggling after graduating college and not being able to find work. Her mother is a recovering addict who fought to get her children back and is still paying for what she did with regards to her in-laws. Bri's best friends seem to come in and out of the story-line with Thomas trying to echo student grassroots organizations like she did in "The Hate U Give". Bri's aunt and that whole story-line was a big old miss with me. I just felt like Thomas was trying to push too many ideas into one book.

The writing was a bit uneven here and there (usually when seguing into Bri's raps) and then the flow dragged a bit as well. Still written very well, I just think it could have been tightened up a bit. 

Unlike with "The Hate U Give" where you see a blended African American family that loves each other and will do what they can for each other. Thomas takes a look at a single mother struggling to provide for her two children. Both of these books takes a look at modern African American families though I thought that Thomas had a stronger message in the first book. 

The ending as I said above was a bit too happily ever after for me. But maybe Thomas wanted to show young black girls and boys that they don't have to defer their dreams, you keep pushing even if everyone says they are unrealistic. 

Sigh. I don't know what to say. This collection of essays is very good. Jerkins goes into the highs and lows of being a black woman in America. She goes into what it means to be a black woman while on travel (Russia and Japan). She goes into being a black woman trying to be successful, but still treated like she's from another world since many black men out there don't know what to do with a black woman who is out there being a success and doesn't have time for their foolishness. 

Jerkins goes into the cycles of black women in America. When you are just a kid and realize that your hair is going to take a lot of your time/sanity to deal with since you get treated a certain way if your nice is "ethnic." How she felt being one of the smartest girls in her school and how that caused backlash among other black girls. 

From there she goes into going to Princeton college and finding herself un-dateable. I had the opposite problem when I went to the University of Pittsburgh. I just used to lie and tell people I was in a relationship to be left alone. I was focused on finishing undergraduate and that was it. When I did get into graduate school was when I went and found a dude who wasn't worth anything. I am still mad that I loaned this boy (seriously he was such a child) money and he had the nerve to act like I was not being a "good" black woman since I refused to cook for him after coming home from an internship and classes. A few years ago he sent me a Facebook friend request. I was never so happy to block someone in my life.

A lot of Jerkins essays though go in unexpected ways. Her essay about Michelle Obama actually made me sad and mad. I still cannot believe how much Michelle Obama was attacked by the media and conservatives out there.  I don't blame her for not running for office in 2020. I would be sitting on a beach and just drinking all the wine. 

Another essay I loved was the one Jerkins wrote about how powerful Beyonce is to black women out there and how her latest album, Lemonade, touched a lot of us in many ways. You start to think you are the only one out there struggling with things, because as black women we are taught to keep our pain inside. Keep on walking, stay strong, don't ask for help, etc. Constantly being on guard to make sure you speak "right" around mixed groups, to not be the "angry black woman" so people can dismiss your points is exhausting as hell. 

Though I gave this four stars, I still marked it as a favorite. The only reason why I gave this four stars is that in some of the essays, Jerkins jumps around a lot that can get a bit confusing if you don't have context for some of the things she is talking about. Though I liked her essay on "Black Girl Magic" she goes into what the movement was about, how some people attacked it, and then a personal subject about a medical procedure she decided to undergo. It was a bit crowded in there for me in that chapter. I would have liked it if it was broken up. 

I also just liked the "How to Survive: A Manifesto on Paranoia and Peace" was not for me. I liked "How to be Docile" much better since she uses similar writing styles in both essays. 

I have never heard of Jerkins before, but am going to go out and take a look at some of her writing as soon as possible. 

Wow. What a very good read! I may not agree with all things in this collection of essays, but Jerkins got me thinking which is never a bad thing. This starts off slow and it tends to jump around (essays) but there were some essays I found quite powerful which were: Monkeys Like You, A Lotus for Michelle, Black Girl Magic, Human, Not Black, and Who Will Write Us?

I wanted to finish this before I see Black Panther tomorrow night. I can't explain to my friends who are not POC how excited and joyful this movie makes me. It's like going out to a big block party. I have friends who I have not talked to in a long time who are meeting up for dinner first. We are dressing to the nines. And we will be living and breathing Wakanda for two hours. My aunt said to me the last time she remembers this many black people watching something that was almost solely black actors and actresses is when Roots came out. That was in 1977 (I was not alive at that time). 

Lemonade is not simply a love story, but rather a multilayered portrait of all black woman experiences, all the pain that she endures, divided into eleven chapters: Intuition, Denial, Anger, Apathy, Emptiness, Accountability, Reformation, Forgiveness, Resurrection, Hope, and Redemption. 

 

 

 

 

White people think of it as a compliment when they do not "see" you as a black person.