There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.Įveryone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago-except Pippa Fitz-Amobi. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character.

But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. She brilliantly shows her protagonists learning to communicate and collaborate to rightfully disrupt that same society.Ĭonsidered and focused, this book encourages readers to look inside to help their truths rise.

Morrow unpacks the ways Black women are exploited and pitted against each other by a society that despises their magic-in all its forms. The story builds slowly but includes timely humor and deep introspection. In the quiet away from Portland, Oregon, she learns to listen and understand that her Elokoness doesn’t disconnect her from racism or from the responsibility to protect other Black women who are being targeted in her name. Frustrated with a lack of empathy at home and concerned about a magical wind that has been whipping through her body since her Stoning, Naema heads to a family reunion in the Southwest to recuperate. Some claim that she callously and dangerously outed Tavia as a siren.

After Naema is Stoned, “the thing where you’re consumed by gray rock due to a gorgon’s curse, not the more fun thing where you’re high,” by Effie Freeman, a teenage gorgon under the influence of her best friend Tavia Philips’ siren call, Naema finds her popularity sullied. With “perfect deep brown skin, big eyes and thick eyelashes,” Naema Bradshaw embodies what it is to be an Eloko: an attractive magical being with the ability to charm people with her melody. A 17-year-old magical influencer tries to recover after her life is turned upside down.

A chorus rises bethany c morrow