Bit of Hope and a Dash of Faith

~Faith: Taking Flight~
Book 1
By Julie Murphy
Amazon ~ Powell's

Faith Herbert is a pretty regular teen. When she’s not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, she’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove.

So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. Of course, there’s also that small matter of recently discovering she can fly….

When the fictional world of The Grove crashes into Faith’s reality as the show relocates to her town, she can’t believe it when TV heroine Dakota Ash takes a romantic interest in her.

But her fandom-fueled daydreams aren’t enough to distract Faith from the fact that first animals, then people, have begun to vanish from the town. Only Faith seems able to connect the dots to a new designer drug infiltrating her high school.

But when her investigation puts the people she loves in danger, she will have to confront her hidden past and use her newfound gifts—risking everything to save her friends and beloved town.


The main draw for this one was that it features a plus-size superhero. Being plus-size myself, I was excited to read about a heroine who might face similar physical and psychological hurdles that I face. I went into this completely blind, save for the cover, so I had no idea this was an established comic book character (circa 1992), nor that it is the first part of a planned duology. I'm sure fans of the character will be able to look past some of the problems I had with it, but I was kinda let down.

Kindest Regards, Nothing Is Ok

~Nothing is Okay~
By Rachel Wiley
Amazon ~ Powell's

Nothing is Okay is the second full-length poetry collection by Rachel Wiley, whose work simultaneously deconstructs the lies that we were taught about our bodies and our beings, and builds new ways of viewing ourselves. As she delves into queerness, feminism, fatness, dating, and race, Wiley molds these topics into a punching critique of culture and a celebration of self. A fat positive activist, Wiley's work soars and challenges the bounds of bodies and hearts, and the ways we carry them.


I've never been one for poetry, least of all when I'm forced to analyze it for class. I swear, Robert Frost will be the end of me. But after seeing a powerful video (which ended up being one of the poems in this book) with the author 'joking' about her regular healthcare treatment, I knew I had to check out her stuff. She also has another book, The Fat Joke out, but since my library doesn't have that one digitally yet, I went with what they do have.

Don’t Let Your Pride Get in the Way of Your Heart

~Pride~
By Ibi Zoboi
Amazon ~ Powell's

Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.

But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.

In a timely update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, critically acclaimed author Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic.


In addition to being interested in stories highlighting Black Experiences, I also have a soft spot for Pride and Prejudice. Not only was it one of the only books I enjoyed reading for school, but I've also enjoyed other renditions like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (though not so much the movie). So when I discovered a book that married these two interests, I knew I had to grab a copy as soon as possible. In the end, some of it worked for me, and some of it didn't...

I Just Kinda Wanna Start All Over . . . Begin Again

~Genesis Begins Again~
By Alicia D. Williams
Amazon ~ Powell's

This deeply sensitive and powerful debut novel tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself.

There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #86: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant—even her own family. And #73: Because her family is always being put out of their house, belongings laid out on the sidewalk for the world to see. When your dad is a gambling addict and loses the rent money every month, eviction is a regular occurrence.

What’s not so regular is that this time they all don’t have a place to crash, so Genesis and her mom have to stay with her grandma. It’s not that Genesis doesn’t like her grandma, but she and Mom always fight—Grandma haranguing Mom to leave Dad, that she should have gone back to school, that if she’d married a lighter skinned man none of this would be happening, and on and on and on. But things aren’t all bad. Genesis actually likes her new school; she’s made a couple friends, her choir teacher says she has real talent, and she even encourages Genesis to join the talent show.

But how can Genesis believe anything her teacher says when her dad tells her the exact opposite? How can she stand up in front of all those people with her dark, dark skin knowing even her own family thinks lesser of her because of it? Why, why, why won’t the lemon or yogurt or fancy creams lighten her skin like they’re supposed to? And when Genesis reaches #100 on the list of things she hates about herself, will she continue on, or can she find the strength to begin again?


This was another book that popped up while I was scanning for Black Experience stories surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and protests following the murder of George Floyd. Not knowing much about it besides being written by and starring a PoC, I didn't really have many expectations save for the experiences I've already had with Angie Thomas's bombshells. This experience was less of a bombshell, and more of a slow burn—different, but equally effective.