I loved this book! It was so beautiful and honest. I worried about the characters when I wasn't able to read the book and I found myself rooting for (just about) everyone. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is light skinned, white presenting, biracial (just like me and the main character). I would also recommend it to anyone who has struggled with their identity from being a member in a blended/mixed family. I think many folks will relate to Nevaeh as she finds who she is and grows to trust herself. I've read this book twice, already and am impatiently awaiting for when I have the physical copy in my hand!

A riveting read about how our differences can be our strengths while coming to terms with the duality of a bicultural family. We often ask ourselves who we are and rarely do we get an answer that truly fits which is what the main character struggles with here. Love the way the author didn't shy away from addressing issues like colorism in our Latinx cultures as this is something I could easily relate to.

I would call Color Me In a coming-of-age story, but it's really so much more than that. It's a coming-of-self story. Neveah Levitz is caught between a world she doesn't know, and another in which she doesn't fit in. After her parents' separate due to her father doing the unthinkable, she is forced to realize the life that was carefully constructed for her, isn't as clear cut as she once thought. Not Black enough to be fully excepted in the hood, but not quite White enough to fit in in the suburbs, Neveah is learning that it's okay to love one part of yourself while getting to know the other. After all, you can't cheat on yourself with yourself, right?

Even as Neveah struggles to come to terms with who her father truly is as a person and all the things that her mother had to go through, her internal strides towards becoming the best person that she can be, never waivers. She finds herself, her family, and the love of her young life.

Color Me In follows the identity development of a young mixed girl finding her place between her divided families. I appreciated the way the complexity of the relationships between the family members (and the narrators understanding of her mother and aunt) developed in unexpected ways. There’s a compelling character study in how Diaz layers cultural development with the wishes of the narrator, and how she learns to speak for herself. There were some moments, specifically regarding her identity, that felt a bit canned; adding to the “how do I fit it?” question most mixed race youth have without really pushing it further until later in the narrative. As a reader/writer of the mixed race cannon (and mixed literary festival), I think this book has potential despite a slower start to reach a lot of young readers dealing with these questions for the first time.

Color Me In is a phenomenal exploration of multiple aspects of identity- culture, race, religion. I highly recommend this book for classrooms as it is an excellent discussion starter. Diaz has written an engaging and relatable main character. Fantastic story!

This is a great book about finding your identity when you are not sure where you fit in! Definitely recommend to anyone who wants to learn or identifies with this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I had the great pleasure of reading this ARC from NetGalley. It’s a really affecting and truly intersectional story with lots of layers.

This book was everything I was hoping for. I loved the cast of characters and how the author made them feel so real.

This book tackled so many complex issues and was difficult to read sometimes. Our MC's cousin is ruthless to her and says things that I never expected. Nevaeh has very conflicting identities: she's a white-passing mixed girl who has a Jewish father and a Christian mother. She has to go from her dad's house in an affluent suburb to her Grandfather's house stocked full of people. She has to navigate all of these identities while going through her parent's public divorce.

I really hated the evil stepmom aspect of this novel and I don't think it had a place. I think it distracted from the more present and important storylines. I think those pages could've been better spent elsewhere.

Nevaeh acted her age and sometimes I was really annoyed by her behavior or reactions BUT I am not the intended audience for this novel and I don't think it's fair to rate a book for teens lower because she acts like a teenager. Behavior aside, this book was a real winner for me.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Delacorte Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

I have always been fascinated by stories about white presenting African-Americans. I’m sure it wouldn’t take a psychology degree to figure out why, being from a family filled with white presenting African-Americans. So when Netgalley offered me the opportunity to read an ARC of Natasha Diaz’s debut novel ‘Color Me In’ I couldn’t wait to dig in to this coming of age tale.

Nevaeh Levitz is 16 years old and caught between worlds in the wake of her parents split. For the first sixteen years of her life she has lived comfortably in an upper class New York suburb and attended a cushy private school and never questioned anything about her life, especially her biracial heritage. Growing up in a world where she wasn’t raised as particularly Jewish, although she was, and not particularly black which she also was, moving to Harlem with her mothers family proved to be a huge culture shock.

Now Nevaeh finds herself stuck in a world where she is not black enough, not white enough, not Jewish enough...just not enough period. All this while navigating new friendships, mean girls at school, her mothers depression, and her father’s insistence that she have a bat mitzvah three years too late. Better late then Neva!!!!

I enjoyed this YA debut, overall I think it was probably closer to 3.5 stars but I wanted to round up because this is definitely a solid first effort from Diaz. I enjoyed watching Nevaeh struggle with her identity as I’m sure many people stuck between worlds, trying to figure out where exactly they fit in, do. The only thing I think I would have liked more of was a deeper dive into her parents relationship and the breakdown of that relationship, and maybe a little more of Nevaeh’s navigating what her new relationships will look like with them in the wake of their pending divorce. Without giving anything away, I also wished her father’s character had been handled a little differently.

‘Color Me In’ was a fast and easy read and I think Diaz may be a new voice in YA fiction to watch out for!

I really enjoyed reading this book. The story is not always a happy one, but it feels so realistic. The problems that Nevaeh face made me relate to her a lot. Some of the other characters I loved, were her Aunt Anita, Uncle Zeke, and of course Stevie. I felt like this is such an important story, that people need to read. Overall, I would highly recommend that people pick this book up.

Beautiful story of a teen coming to terms with her biracial identity as her parents separate--not quite fitting in anywhere, but learning to be exactly who she is.

Beautifully written, relatable, and an amazing story. A read I couldn't put down and had me from the first page to the very end.

This was a sweet coming of age story and so much more as a interracial person myself I did connect a little to the story but I wish it told more of the Jewish side of her family by her dad and not just her moms whole side but it was so good

This was such a powerful story I couldn't put it down. This is the story that doesn't usually get told. Yes, we know biracial people often struggle with their identity. They have loyalties to both races and often end up picking one over the other. Nevaeh grew up in a rich white neighborhood feeling like an outsider beyond her one other biracial friend. She's bullied by the mean popular girl at school who makes racial comments towards her that she lets slide to not stir up trouble. Anyone black or half black who went to a majority white school knows the type of comments and knows how much they sting. And how it feels to feel so alone because you don't look like everyone else.

Nevaeh's life as she knows it drastically changes. Because her parents are in the middle of a nasty divorce and her cheating father brings his mistress around. And her father's new girlfriend is one of those passive aggressive white women who sees herself as better than the little biracial girl before her. And now her father who has never been religious feels the need to insert his Jewishness because he feels his daughter has too much black influence in her life after moving with her mother to Harlem. So he makes her attending Hebrew school and is forcing her to have a belated Bat Mitzvah.

This story is a journey about a teen girl discovering herself and how she fits in to both of her cultures. We go along for the journey as Nevaeh discovers Jamaican and Jewish traditions. And Natasha Diaz includes beautiful poetry and diary entries to help shape this story and give us much needed background information in a way that doesn't feel forced.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Color Me In follows biracial character Neveah Levitz, who is struggling to accept and identify as a black, Jewish woman in the face of her parents' separation. This lyrical YA novel is one of few that I've read recently that doesn't just grapple with racism, but with colorism and a character that is "passing" for white. As she grows to find her voice (both in writing and in speech) and learns to advocate for herself and the communities that she is a part of, she starts to understand how she is complicit in racism as well. I liked the characters and thought it dealt nicely with issues of mental health, divorce, and race. This is an #ownvoices book and author Natasha Diaz is writing from her own experience, which includes a limited exploration of Judaism.

As a Jewish woman, I found the prayers and Bat Mitzvah made a compelling background to the story and I loved Rabbi Sarah and the ways in which Judaism was celebrated in tandem with Black identity. However, there are a couple areas that fell short for me: 1) the fact that Neveah's passage from the Torah was from Yom Kippur, a high holiday in Judaism that would never be led by a Bat Mitzvah and which a Rabbi certainty wouldn't miss 2) the fact that Jewish is culture is limited to descriptions of Hebrew prayer and 3) no discussion or realization by Neveah that Jews have a history of oppression but have often used their whiteness to oppress others - including people of color, which would fit nicely with the overall storyline itself. This is all with the caveat that I do not share the same identity as the author and I can only critique what I know, which is the Jewish cultural pieces of the book.

It was slow in a few places, but I think this is a strong debut and I would be interested in seeing what Diaz writes next. I recommend this to readers looking for a coming of age novel featuring a biracial character.

It’s possible this book just wasn’t quite what I expected. I know it’s based off the author’s life, and I loved how she embraced her mom’s side of the family, I just wish her Jewishness was painted the same way instead of a screwup dad and nagging Bubby. Maybe I’m being extra sensitive because I am Jewish? I don’t know.

Thank you NetGalley for the review.

I was not expecting to be this moved by a story, but I was. I really thought it was going to be a sweet coming of age story but it was so much more. I wouldn't put the book down. It was amazing and I love how the author was able to deal with sensitive subjects in such a thought provoking way. I love all the characters and how they interact and are all going through similiar things.

It really is a great book! You have to put this on your TBR list.

All the horrible things are happening to Nevaeh at once--her parents have separated, her mom has disappeared emotionally, her best friend is probably about to go away to another school for a year, her dad is making her do a Bat Mitzvah for her 16th birthday, and one of her cousins is giving her a ton of grief for her light skin privilege. So yeah, her dad is Jewish, and her mom is Jamaican. She and her mom are sharing a room at their multi-generational home in Harlem, where she has to go to church every Sunday and sticks out in the congregation and in the streets like a sore thumb. On weekdays she goes to a fancy prep school in the Bronx where she has only the one friend--Stevie, who may leave her at any minute. She does have an ex-friend, though, Abby, who is viciously racist and otherwise mean.

They love the idea of diversity until they realize it means actually engaging with living, breathing Black and Brown people.

So yeah, things are rough for Nevaeh, and predictably, she doesn't always handle it well, so focused on her own problems that she doesn't see how others are struggling. What she always has, though, is words. She's a spoken word artist, and the poems are really great. Like this verse:

What I know now is that privilege is a powerful drug,
Especially if you have the freedom to feel sorry for
yourself.

I appreciated Diaz's sentiment in her Dear Reader letter, too:

...sometimes it's better to accept that you don't have the right to speak on everything, even if the opportunity to do so presents itself.

The story's a good coming of age tale, asking readers to respect boundaries and understand that labels cause more harm than good. The main character requires a good deal of space to figure what she wants and how her voice will handle society on her own terms. While slow sometimes, I would recommend this story to those seeking validation in a world offering little.