A review by divineblkpearl
Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 

You know that old adage: "Never judge a book by its cover?" YEAH. I saw this book cover and was stunned: by how gorgeous the art was. Nala is hella cute and the colors just pop. And then it struck me--how many times I could count on my hand a plus sized Black girl!!! Nala is centered on the cover AND in the narrative--in such a confident stance. Author Renee Watson talked about it in an interview:"So many times in literature, big bodies are erased or portrayed in defeated, downtrodden ways. I am intentional about having girls with big bodies on covers who are happy, content and fashionable. I truly believe that representation matters, and that includes body diversity as well."

In this YA novel, Nala is a Black teenage girl who, like many teenagers is staring the summer in the eyes. Summer is finally here and she wants to have fun, go places, heck, even fall in love. She’s also staring the changing transitions that come with young adulthood: she has yet to figure out what she wants to do after highschool, she hasn’t even written her personal statement essays for college apps and she constantly reminded of the expectation of her family for her. She’s also in a weird space: her best friend, her cousin is drifting away from her and she can’t figure ot why. Dragged to a youth activist meeting by her cousin and neighborhood friend, she finds a guy involved in the group in a leadership position who thinks she’s cute. He’s interested in what she has to say and a little lie becomes a big lie in the foundation of their new and fresh relationship that builds over the summer.

So, I hate the “I lied in the beginning and will ultimately hurt this person I might/may/will be in love with” trope. Alas, I do love Renée Watson’s writing. She writes in the familiar voice that everything I open up a book of hers, I feel at home. I feel like this voice is from my old neighborhood. From middle school lit like ‘Piercing Me Together’ to kid lit like ‘Harlem’s Little Blackbird’, I welcomed reading this book in the YA genre as I’m always game for her work. So the pros and cons for the review! 

Pros: 

The narrative: Took me by surprise in a way that worked very well with exploring the characters. I hope that Nala’s story would not revolve around Tye, the cute guy she met. It did not take center stage. Instead the relationships of Nala’s family take this precious spot and the story was better for it. Nala’s cousin, Imani, Imani’s parents who took in Nala after tensions with her mother, and Nala’s favorite person--her grandmother color the pages and as a reader, I learned so much about Nala through the interactions with them. There are some great themes threaded into the story that are super important and relevant like activism in the neighborhood, especially for young people today as we learn more and more about social injustices and more young people are heading movements. 

Representation of what we don’t see often in literature super often nowadays: Black girls, Plus sized Black girls and women centered in stories and on the cover. Also young people not always living with their parents but having family members as their legal guardians. There is an example of a loving, supportive family that has Nala’s back. While complicated, (Nala left home after an argument with her biological mother and went to live with her auntie, uncle and cousin) they met and do their best for family gatherings and taking care of each other. I reckon it could have been easy for any other author to lean towards Black pain and Black trauma here and thankfully this author doesn’t. It is mostly implied in Nala’s own words that not every is well equipped to handle everything in life, like parenthood and that is fine. Like the Ashanti proverb,” it takes a village (to raise a child)” and this was one of the biggest selling points that I hope readers don’t gloss over. It is ever so important for Black characters and Black families.

Cons: 

While it served the topic of self love, the lyrics (by fictional indie singer Blu?) that sometimes opened a chapter or led Nala listening to in a moment of feeling down, killed some of the immersion for me as I read through this book in a few sittings. The pacing of the book threw me for a loop after the big confrontation scene where Nala is “found out” and some loose ends about certain family members for both Nala and Tye fell flat to me as the book was ending.

Overall a solid book for the YA audience with a few weak points, I loved Nala as a character. We are not always perfect. People are flawed, imperfect, messy. Being a teen, especially one of color and especially a young woman isn’t an easy road to travel, speaking from experience. Author Renee Watson fills these pages of someone I rooted for, someone I cringed for and ultimately a character that picked herself up on the pages I read who danced and struggled and preserved, finding that loving herself during a summer to remember was the biggest prize to win.