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A review by avalinda
Say Her Name by Dreda Say Mitchell, Ryan Carter
1.0
Mitchell claims to love writing strong women, but I'm not sure she understands what "strong" means... and it should not be mutually exclusive from intelligence either! You can't be strong enough to survive in this big, harsh world without some common sense... right? RIGHT!?
Wrong, apparently. Eva, the main character we're supposed to love, is naive, emotionally messy, and has no true sense of what family or friendship are... despite going through childhood hardship that you'd think would teach her one or more of those things. Oh, and she'll remind you every few pages that she's a doctor, so throw in arrogance... As several other reviewers have said, the fact she made it through high school or college is hilariously improbable.
Long story short, the plot would be intriguing if Eva wasn't always having an emotional breakdown every few pages despite being a grown, married woman. 4 black women go missing in a single year and the case goes cold due to a mix of racism and corruption. Eva starts to uncover some faint, worrying clues as she learns more about both her adoptive and biological families. But here's where the story falls flat - she can't make a sound decision to save her life. She oscillates constantly between naively trusting and then mistrusting everyone, in alternate chapters. First she meets her biological father who, despite being mega-rich with tons of connections, never once tried to look for her and mysteriously has no info on her missing biological mother... seems legit right? A+ father material right? So she proceeds to believe every single nasty word he says about her adoptive father, who saved her from an abusive orphanage, raised her responsibly for ~20 years and taught her how to be independent and strong-willed (it didn't stick)... still seems legit right? Then she goes screaming/bawling at both fathers accusing each of them of all the hearsay she has on them. Did no one teach her not to directly confront people you suspect of shady, even murderous dealings? Or wander into dark, abandoned buildings alone at night knowing bad things happened there? Or are those lessons you can only learn when you're almost 30? Because everything can be solved by running headlong into it (with the occasional tantrum) like a child, right?
Don't get me wrong... I really wanted to like this book. The social issues it TRIES to deal with are worthwhile topics of research and reading (other books), but the message was muddled by Eva's constant tears of anger, sadness, joy you name it. Plus, her knowledge of racism is inconsistent. Please don't tell me someone who spent her early childhood dealing directly with racism can't fathom why missing black women get no coverage in the media. (She keeps thinking, until told straight to her face, that it just HAD to be due to lack of internet and media coverage. OH, you sweet summer child!!!) As a person of color myself who dealt with similar things, this was hilarious to the point of insulting - you not only do not forget traumatic memories like that, you know how to recognize related issues in the rest of the world as you are exposed to it. She must have never grown up in that way, I guess.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend a single penny on this book. The authors could do with some basic knowledge of human psychology, if they didn't have anything from personal experience to draw on, and maybe then they could have written actual adults for characters. If all the crying, whinging, yelling, and mood swings had any basis in reality... then I rest my case. Won't be reading any more from this author again.
Wrong, apparently. Eva, the main character we're supposed to love, is naive, emotionally messy, and has no true sense of what family or friendship are... despite going through childhood hardship that you'd think would teach her one or more of those things. Oh, and she'll remind you every few pages that she's a doctor, so throw in arrogance... As several other reviewers have said, the fact she made it through high school or college is hilariously improbable.
Long story short, the plot would be intriguing if Eva wasn't always having an emotional breakdown every few pages despite being a grown, married woman. 4 black women go missing in a single year and the case goes cold due to a mix of racism and corruption. Eva starts to uncover some faint, worrying clues as she learns more about both her adoptive and biological families. But here's where the story falls flat - she can't make a sound decision to save her life. She oscillates constantly between naively trusting and then mistrusting everyone, in alternate chapters. First she meets her biological father who, despite being mega-rich with tons of connections, never once tried to look for her and mysteriously has no info on her missing biological mother... seems legit right? A+ father material right? So she proceeds to believe every single nasty word he says about her adoptive father, who saved her from an abusive orphanage, raised her responsibly for ~20 years and taught her how to be independent and strong-willed (it didn't stick)... still seems legit right? Then she goes screaming/bawling at both fathers accusing each of them of all the hearsay she has on them. Did no one teach her not to directly confront people you suspect of shady, even murderous dealings? Or wander into dark, abandoned buildings alone at night knowing bad things happened there? Or are those lessons you can only learn when you're almost 30? Because everything can be solved by running headlong into it (with the occasional tantrum) like a child, right?
Don't get me wrong... I really wanted to like this book. The social issues it TRIES to deal with are worthwhile topics of research and reading (other books), but the message was muddled by Eva's constant tears of anger, sadness, joy you name it. Plus, her knowledge of racism is inconsistent. Please don't tell me someone who spent her early childhood dealing directly with racism can't fathom why missing black women get no coverage in the media. (She keeps thinking, until told straight to her face, that it just HAD to be due to lack of internet and media coverage. OH, you sweet summer child!!!) As a person of color myself who dealt with similar things, this was hilarious to the point of insulting - you not only do not forget traumatic memories like that, you know how to recognize related issues in the rest of the world as you are exposed to it. She must have never grown up in that way, I guess.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend a single penny on this book. The authors could do with some basic knowledge of human psychology, if they didn't have anything from personal experience to draw on, and maybe then they could have written actual adults for characters. If all the crying, whinging, yelling, and mood swings had any basis in reality... then I rest my case. Won't be reading any more from this author again.