As an extremely privileged Canadian white woman, I think that doing any sort of synopsis or in depth review is near impossible, so please bear with me as I attempt.
This book is really incredible. It starts off quite slowly, and I wasn’t too sure where we were going as Maddie lives at home with her ill father and is quite stunted in her maturity level. She is the sole provider for her dad as her mother travels to Ghana for months at a time. I really felt so sad for her being taken advantage of by her own family. Working to pay bills at such a young age. As an eldest daughter, I felt seen in the work that falls to us by default.
The micro-aggressions and racism that Maddie experiences throughout her story were so uncomfortable to read. I wanted someone to stand up and protect her and call it out. I wanted people to STOP and look at this young woman. Look at her and see her. Maddie’s friends were incredible and made me so happy she had them in her life to guide and love her. Deeply love her.
I think that reading this book could be a litmus test for people – where are you in your activism? Are you actively trying to become anti-racist? Are you speaking up about issues? Are you seeing colour and embracing the different cultures that make the people in your life so unique and lovely? Or do we just say “of course I’m not racist!” and continue to live our privileged lives and never acknowledge that we are offered freedoms and opportunity that are not equal for all?
The only reason I knocked a star off from being a full 5 star rating is the Google exerts got old real fast. They were cute at first (lord knows I google nearly everything in my life) but I was tired of reading “Kate123″‘s ideas on sex and dating. It just felt distracting and interrupted the story for me. Other than that – incredible!
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