There's a lot to unpack about this novel and the way in which an upper middle class, white-passing, black teenage girl navigates the world, but I felt at times like it was too messy and trying too hard. Some parts are written in prose which I felt like was how the author was tackling hard topics. That's one of my personal pet peeves when YA characters are portrayed as not mature enough to be having serious conversations about race.

I loved the author's note - don't skip over it. It's also narrated by the author in the audiobook.

Thanks to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for a copy to review.

CW: sexual assault

This was a light and easy read - I read it in one day.

It is a young adult novel that follows Nevaeh Levitz, a biracial young woman who is dealing with the fallout of her Black mother and Jewish father's separation. She leaves her affluent neighbourhood and moves to Harlem where she endures an identity crisis of sorts. Her and her mother move in with the mother's family, who think Nevaeh, who is white passing, is privileged and spoiled.

When she finds her mother's journal in the attic and reads about her history, starts falling in love herself, she realizes the discrimination that her loved ones face and finds that she can make choices and let her voice be heard in support, regardless of her own ethnicity.

I enjoyed the cultural diversity in this book and understood how parents and grandparents can have such an influence on one's upbringing. Nevaeh shares beautiful poetry throughout the book and you really get a sense for her internal struggle.

I think this book really speaks volumes in that we can all help when we see something discriminatory, regardless of our background, just by speaking up, instead of staying silent. It's a very relevant message and the author communicates it very well. The author is biracial so I think that really made Nevaeh's character very realistic and relatable in a way.

I read this book as the chosen book for November's Girly Book Club.

I read this book for the GirlyBookClub as it's the November book. I haven't been a reader of YA books but part being a part of a book club creates opportunity to read books that you would not self select. I did enjoy this book, and I felt that there an interesting discussion and perspective on being bi-racial and the struggle of having two identities.

Colour Me In is a good YA novel and teaches youth at how to look introspectively into their own biases. The main character, Nevaeh is a biracial teen trying to understand her own identity.

While this novel does a good job in spotlighting on the issue of racism. I’m not a big fan of YA so it was hard to relate to the self-absorbedness of the protagonist. However, that’s exactly what a lot of teens are, which is why YA is not my go-to. Not a reflection at all on the writing as Nevaeh’s poetry was beautiful.

This one kind of hit me where I lived with the way she struggles with two identities that the world says should be mutually exclusive.

Really enjoyed this one. Natasha delves into such an important topic that is so often overlooked. Her hilarious, honest twitter presence translates well into the voice of this book.

Natasha Díaz is a debut author who knows first hand about racial identity. In her book Color me In, she introduces us to main character Nevaeh Levitz, who’s trying to come to terms with being the daughter of a Black mother and Jewish father. She faces family that have harsh opinions of her and as a result, is silent through it all. In the end, she gains her voice when she realizes her true identity is not found in others, but deep within herself.

Diaz covers racism, poverty, religion, discrimination, and sexual assault, and she does it beautifully.

I hope Diaz has another book in the works!

NUGGET GAINED: Don’t listen to others voices. Be yourself!

Thank you @netgalley for my digital copy.

Overall, I really liked this book! I loved Nevaeh as a character, and I loved her family, both character-wise and just as a dynamic in general. I really cared about Nevaeh, too. My main issue here is that Nevaeh seemed older than she was, and it made things feel... unrealistic, somehow? I was genuinely surprised when I got to the part about her sixteenth birthday and realized I'd been reading about a fifteen year old the entire time. There are also some characters I really wish had been fleshed out a little better: Stevie, Jesus, Rabbi Sarah, even Abby. They all just felt like something was missing. And Abby was very cliche, I think. Her family, too. Those are really my main complaints, and they weren't unbearable whatsoever. Like I said, I really liked this book, and I'd be interested to read more by Natasha Diaz in the future!

It's an interesting novel focused on a white passing biracial girl. There are great qualities, I just didn't connect. Many of the minor characters didn't speak to me, and the leading lady didn't so there was nothing to keep my attention.

Color Me In is a coming-of-age story about Nevaeh Levitz, a biracial New York teenager. She is struggling with her parents’ separation, her identity, and her place within the two different cultures of her origin.

I think this book articulates the struggles of biracial identity really well, speaking from experience. I loved seeing the family dynamics, especially within Nevaeh’s mom’s family. The book shows different members of her family experience levels of racism and prejudice that Nevaeh has not even contemplated. The fact that Nevaeh passes for white gives her a level of privilege, and I actually think this could have been explored more deeply. She does feel conflicted about her privilege, but part of me would have liked to see more from her family members’ perspectives and not as much through her lens. Overall, I think this is a good own voices YA with the important message of using your voice to speak out against injustice and speak up for yourself.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the review copy of this book!

This is an amazing look at what it is to be biracial and feel 'othered' no matter where you go. Nevaeh is Black, Jewish sixteen year old being pulled between her two cultures in an attempt to make her parents happy. She doesn't feel like she belongs with her mom's family in Harlem because she's white-passing and she doesn't feel like she belongs at her white NY prep school, either.

Nevaeh she asks her mom at a young age if she's really her mommy. Miss Clarisse in her sixties is deemed a hussy and unfit for church. The talk is of Nevaeh,a mixed girl who looks white,going to the church .

DNF at 50%. I think that this is an incredibly important book, and I would really love to see more books with biracial characters and with Jewish people of color. However, I really didn't enjoy my time reading this. For a book that seemed like it would be unlike anything I'd read before, it really hit every possible cliché. I feel kind of weird making comments like that, since I know this was partially based on the author's own experiences, but it's so true. I really disliked almost all of the characters - there might have been room for growth in the second half, but when I realized I was only halfway through, I asked myself whether there was anything that could happen in the book that would make me want to keep reading. The answer was no, so I stopped.

Note: I did not give this a star rating on Goodreads, as I almost never rate books that I DNF. However, I cannot submit this review without a star rating, so I am giving it two stars as a placeholder.

Hey! What's up? How are you?


I have been back in a reading mood (I slowed down for a little while, I was not in a full out reading slump but I definitely was not reading a lot) and now that I am back in my reading mood I am reading all the books again! I have a ton of books I want to read and I am constantly picking up new ones or adding others to my TBR. Color Me In, is a book that caught my attention before it came out and I have had on my radar ever since. So when I was deciding what I wanted to pick up next, I chose Color Me In as my Kindle read.


SPOILERS AHEAD


Nevaeh is a teenage girl going through a lot of change in her life. Her mom and dad are separating and getting a divorce, she is living with her mom part-time (and they are living with her mom's family, which includes her grandfather, aunt, uncle, and three cousins in one house) and her dad the other part of the time (which entails living in the house she grew up in with everything changed and her dad's new girlfriend), she is also dealing with a religious struggle, and finding herself through this tough time and figuring out who she wants to be.


I loved Nevaeh's story. I loved seeing Nevaeh learn about her mother's family (because she really did not know her cousins, aunt, or uncle very well before they moved in), I loved seeing her learn about her mother's past, and I loved seeing her relationship with Rabbi Sarah. I loved how the author used letters in a journal to talk about Nevaeh's mom's past and how we get to see the effect it may be having on the current timeline. Additionally, Nevaeh and Rabbi Sarah's relationship definitely starts out rocky but I love seeing how it grows and how Nevaeh finally gets to learn more about her and eventually sees her as an ally in her life and someone who could help her with this rough time. Rabbi Sarah, Janae, Jordan, and Zeke may be my favorite characters in this story (aside from Nevaeh), I loved every time we got a scene with one of these characters (they all had such different and big personalities) and I loved seeing all the different interactions not just with each other but with Nevaeh. Overall, I really loved this story and I can not wait to see what the other writes next (maybe something more with Nevaeh or someone from this world)?!


Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

After this and one other YA book, I have stopped requesting YA contemporary books. I tend to find them boring or a bit young. I enjoyed the representation and the different perspectives but found the MC a little self-centered and young. I think this book would be great for early high school but was not for me.

Nevaeh has a white Jewish father and a black Christian mother. Now that her parents are divorcing, she is pulled between the two sides in a way she never has before. Her father wants her to have a belated bat mitzvah and her mother’s family wants her to embrace her black heritage. As Nevaeh struggles to keep everyone happy, she starts to think about what she really wants. Color Me In is a coming-of-age novel by a biracial author about finding your voice and becoming an authentic person. Overall I thought that it was a very interesting, worthwhile book. There were parts of it that were a bit uneven and the use of her mother's journal didn't always work well, but the book provides valuable insight into the struggles of a biracial teen who inadvertently passes for white.

It is always interesting to read a book based on true events. It makes the story more personal and make you not only connect to the characters, but to the author as well. I also loved reading the author's note at the end of the book. Nevaeh is wonderful as the protagonist. She has her flaws and she struggles, but she wants to help people around her and fix her mistakes. What I also enjoyed about the story was that the entire plot and all the characters does not focus around Nevaeh. They each have their own issues in their situations, and it was so interesting to see what challenges they faced. Overall, I really enjoyed reading Color Me In.

Naveah Levitz is trapped in two different worlds. Her parents recently split up and she has to travel and stay in between two places. Her grandfather's home in Harlem and her childhood home in White Plains with her dad. For a while Naveah has felt she didn't belong anywhere. As a bi-racial kid it's hard to feel any level of acceptance anywhere...including within her own family. Naveah has only been exposed to her white side (she's half black and half white). Her cousins and her aunt are trying to connect her with her black heritage, while her bone head father tries to to show her her Jewish roots. Evening going as far as preparing her for Hebrew school and throw a bat Mitzvah (3 years too late). His purpose for it....so she doesn't lose her head and act too "black". It's even worse because her cousin Jordan is consistently reminding her she isn't welcomed into the black community. Especially since Naveah is too blinded about what's going on within the black community. Things start to get even more tense between her and Jordan when Jesus, Jordan's long time crush starts to fall for Naveah. With all this plus all the problems at her white preppy school, Naveah finds comfort in her poetry and her mother's diary that she happens to find in her grandfather's attic.

I want to thank the author for sharing her experiences a multi-racial individual through this book. She even explains it at the end of the book. It was really though provoking and insightful. There were numerous characters mentioned in the book. But it was easy to keep up with them and I didn't feel feel overwhelmed by them.

*Stevie- Naveah's best friend whose also bi-racial (White and Chinese). A talented dancer and performer. He's an amazing friend overall.
*Abby- I hated this girl with everything in my soul. The things that she would say were disgusting and I often wanted to jump through my phone and wanting to punch her in the throat. I've dealt with a Abby at my previous job and let me tell you...I'm really starting to hate the name Abby.
*Jesus- Towards the beginning of the book I wasn't really feeling Jesus. I thought he was going to be one of those guys and honestly I was anticipating him turning into a dog. I think I started to partially warm up to him towards the end of the book.
*Rabbi Sarah: At first she was annoying to me, but I warmed up to her once I saw that she was down to earth.

There were other characters in the novel. I think the two characters that I hated the most were Navaho's dad and his new stupid girlfriend Ashleigh. Holy crap what a bunch of turds. I will warn you some of the content in the book will anger you. So be on the lookout for racism, name calling, and sexual assault. It was frustrating enough reading about, I can't imagine someone going through it. The a book makes you feel all the feelings I did while reading it...you know you have a banger.

Overall the book was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. I devoured it in two days. A story that deals with the true meaning of friendship, love, and dealing with with a difficult family....and of course learning how to accept the true you. 5/5 for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a powerhouse debut! Love this! Love Natasha! Will recommend this to everyone-- shouting about it from the rooftops!

Please take my review with a grain of salt, because giving this book 2 stars and not finishing it was an incredibly personal choice. 

While I was prepared to read about a character who was at least half Jewish (which I am all for this representation!) I was not prepared for such a book that was set so much inside churches. I read about 10% of this book and so much of it was interactions inside a christian church. This was frustrating for me because I really like to know going into a book if it's going to be christian or not, and just being thrown back into this world was upsetting for me.  So I dnf this book. 

That said, go read some other reviews for this book. A lot of people really liked the representation and enjoyed the read.  I saw a few that mentioned fairly stereotypical characters, but noted that the story was enjoyable.   Just know going in, you're going to have to read about the main character dealing with judgy church people. 

I gave this book 2.5 stars.