![]() The main cast is White.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself. The short time frame also heightens the tension of this summer romance: What will happen when they leave the bubble of the Vineyard? The mix of budding romance, competitive hijinks, a close-knit circle, as well as dealing with loss make for a satisfying read. Early details are picked back up, and many elements come satisfyingly full circle. Taking place over the course of a week, the narrative is tight with well-paced reveals that disrupt predictability and keep the plot moving. To win and honor Claire, who was a master of the game, Meredith must keep her eye on the prize. Only one person can win, though, and any alliance has an expiration date. What starts off as a pact of sharing strategic information with Wit grows into something more as the flirting and feelings develop. ![]() Nor did she expect a wedding-week game of Assassin, a water-gun–fueled family tradition. ![]() She didn’t plan on a meet-cute/embarrassing encounter with the groom’s stepbrother, Wit. Meredith, though, resolves to take this time to celebrate family and bridge the rifts resulting from ghosting friends. It’s been a year and a half since the sudden loss of Meredith’s sister, Claire, and the grief remains strong. Her cousin’s wedding means a return to Martha’s Vineyard, a well-loved destination but one filled with bittersweet memories. Sophomore year is fraught for Nevaeh, and for the most part debut author Díaz wields it smoothly, save for one forced plot device in the form of her mother’s old diary. In Díaz’ skillful hands, the many aspects of Nevaeh's intersectional identity are woven together so that they are, as in real life, inextricable from each other.īroadly appealing and free of the melodrama often associated with half-this, half-that issue books.Ī summer trip helps break 18-year-old Meredith Fox out of a haze of mourning. Her best friend, Stevie, is the one person who gets her, but when she starts dating Jesus, a neighborhood boy (his name’s pronounced the Spanish way-and there is not enough angst or Jewish humor paid to that irony), and spending more time pursuing a new passion, poetry, tensions arise. Her black cousins think she doesn’t understand their struggles, and wealthy kids at her fancy school treat her with derision. But rather than help Nevaeh feel more connected to her Jewish heritage, having to study Torah with elementary schoolers just adds to the disjointedness in her life. Not to be pushed out, her religiously unobservant father has set Nevaeh up with a rabbi to prepare for a slightly belated bat mitzvah. Since her parents separated, 15-year-old Nevaeh and her mother, who is deeply depressed, have lived in Harlem with her mother’s family, headed by her Baptist pastor grandfather. Schisms abound in the life of a half-black, white-passing, Jewish teen in New York City.
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