About the Book
-
Author:
- Ibi Zoboi
- Genres:
- Fantasy
- Magical Realism
- Verse
Cover Story: Shades of Power
BFF Charm: Caution
Talky Talk: Mirror Verse
Bonus Factor: Empathy
Anti-Bonus Factors: Revenge, Awful Parents
Relationship Status: Someone Else’s Story
Cover Story: Shades of Power
Genevieve and Marisol are described as each other’s “daytime” and “nighttime” selves many times in this book, and you can see that in the cover: two girls with different-colored skin but similar faces, and the same magical fire surrounding them both.
The Deal:
Fifteen-year-old Marisol and her mother Lourdes are shape-shifting fire witches from Caribbean mythology, known as “soucouyants”, “lougarou”, and other names depending on the island. Every month during the new moon, they hunt down those who wronged them and drain their life energy, causing illness or even death. They came to New York City for Marisol to get an education, but struggling to get by as undocumented immigrants is not the American dream they had in mind. Meanwhile seventeen-year-old Genevieve, a mixed-race girl with a white stepfamily, longs to learn more about her heritage and how to cope with a painful skin condition that the doctors can’t explain. When Genevieve’s father hires Lourdes as a nanny/housekeeper, the tension around race, class and gender already simmering in their house comes to a boil. Revenge may be necessary to lougarou, but what do you do when the ones who hurt you are also the ones you love?
BFF Charm: Caution
“No good, no evil,” is how Lourdes describes their nature to Marisol. “Just consequences.” These women are as fiercely loyal to each other as they are deadly to anyone who gets in their way.
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Genevieve’s boyfriend Micah is a jerk to everyone but her, including Marisol. At the same time, Marisol’s coworker (and fellow magical being) Jaden flirts with both girls. Romance takes a back seat, though, to the fraught relationships between the girls and their families.
Talky Talk: Mirror Verse
Writing in verse allows Ibi Zoboi to make it visually clear how much Marisol’s and Genevieve’s arcs mirror each other. Their points of view are on opposite sides of the page, and at certain moments when their thoughts are in sync, they repeat.
Bonus Factor: Empathy
Marisol and Genevieve envy each other deeply: Marisol for Genevieve’s lighter skin and wealthy family background, and Genevieve for Marisol’s closeness to her mother and culture. The longer they live together, though, the more they learn to (sometimes literally) see through each other’s eyes.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Revenge
Marisol thinks of sucking life force from her family’s enemies as “teaching them a lesson”, but sometimes those lessons only seem to make more enemies. When their landlord threatens to kick them out, she puts him in the hospital. Next thing she knows, the landlord’s wife becomes suspicious … Rinse and repeat.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Awful Parents
Genevieve’s father is an anthropologist who treats his own daughter as an experiment, keeps stolen sacred artifacts in his house, and has been unfaithful to his wife … and that’s just the spoiler-free version.
Relationship Status: Someone Else’s Story
I must admit that all the emphasis on revenge in this book turned me off, but then again, as a white person I’ll never fully understand what these women (or their real-world counterparts) have to live through. So while this book isn’t for me, I can recommend it for anyone who needs a burning hot dose of catharsis.
Literary Matchmaking
American Street is another novel by Ibi Zoboi.
Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe is another story about a Haitian immigrant teen in New York.
Spells To Forget Us is another urban fantasy story featuring Black and mixed-race protagonists.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received an ARC from the publisher. I got no compensation for this review.
