I’m not in the right headspace for this book and probably won’t be for some time. I didn’t realize this wasn’t set in the present time, but around the old south. With how things are with race and the BLM, I’m not really sure I can finish this one. Reading about a “white people pleasing smile” isn’t something I can stomach right now.

**Review will be posted on my blog on 10/3/20**
**3.5 STARS**

Thank you to Simon Shusters Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

Let’s break it down:

My Attention: very intrigued

World Building: Jim Crow, South Carolina while Kennedy is President

Writing Style: it flowed well

Bringing the Heat: 🔥🔥

Crazy in Love: Clay and Evvie are definitely in love

Creativity: I enjoyed learning the magic of Jubilation

Mood: bittersweet

Triggers: rape, sexual assault, physical abuse, violence, racism, n-word, stalking, murder

My Takeaway: Take back your power when someone steals it from you!

I Liked:
*The book takes place in Jim Crow South Carolina so the writer gives it the distinct accents and sayings from that area. You can feel change is in the air with JFK as president, but some are skeptical, and others are hopeful that change may or may not happen.

*I liked the concept of jubilation as being magic that black women have passed down in their families because it was magic for protection. Jubilation was used to counter some of the horrors of slavery that black women experienced and like Clay’s grandmother says, she didn’t realize they would still need to use jubilation today.

*Evalene and Clay’s relationship isn’t insta-love though their sex scene seems quite instant. She crushed on him for a long time and he finally notices her and things go fast. But then as their relationship grows, they take time to date and so it slows down which is nice, because then we get to know both of them well. They are obviously crazy about each other.

*Indigo, Evvie’s mom, gives her the talk about using protection without shying away from the topic. Go mom!
Evalene is an interesting character – she’s at times impulsive and because she’s so new with her power, sometimes can’t control it. But she learns how to do it with help from her eccentric grandmother and she needs it to help battle a demon from her past.

Random Notes:
*I don’t mind cursing in books but if you don’t like cursing, then this book might not be for you because it has a lot of it.

*Evalene has a dark past and it is traumatic. The ending is very sad and bittersweet.

Final Thoughts:
Daughter of Jubilation is a story about battling demons from the past. Jubilation is a gift of magic, born in a time of slavery to help black women deal with the horrors happening in their lives. Now Evalene has inherited this magic to face a stalker that hurt her a long time ago but she can’t do it alone. Evvie uses her jubilation to try and protect the people she loves and to break free from the past.

💕 ~ Yolanda

I've been trying to make it through but I am really not connecting to the characters. It feels like the protagonist is both too mature and too childish at different times, which is kind of what high schoolers are, I guess. It just feels so inauthentic. The dream sequences were odd, as was the recurring "bad guy". Evvie seemed really morally in the gray, which is a hard place for me to understand, but I've never gotten magic powers so maybe I'd be tempted to make people sick or whatever too? I just didn't connect.

Trigger warning: Rape, stalking, murder, racism, sexism

Jubilation can mean many things to many people. To the mother, grandmother and daughters in this book, it is happiness and pain. Evvie is the heroine in this tale. She faces great adversity, finds a true love, and learns the secrets of her ancestors.

This story may upset some because of the subject matter. The dialect is native to the deep South, however the events in the book do happen to many women every day. Protect yourselves. Assault is not your fault. Find your power and harness it. You are a child of God, you are not ugly, you are good.

I’m going to start this review off by saying I would not have requested this title if I’d known it dealt with sexual assault. There was no content warning and with this subject matter that is unforgivable. Anyone who is a survivor of sexual assault or simply just doesn’t want to read about it in fiction should not have it sprung on them while reading.

I finished this book out of obligation but I will not be recommending it to anyone.

There is a rape scene in the eighty-percent mark of the book. Since there was no warning in the book, I’m providing one now.

I gave this book two stars. It’s a fast read so getting through it isn’t difficult. That said, the pacing is too fast. Things happen one after the other in an awkwardly paced domino effect that left me wondering if I’d somehow missed something. The description of the main character using the jubilation, or jubin’ as it’s said by her mother and grandmother, also isn’t distinctly described. It’s just suddenly happening.

There are few descriptions of the actual town she lives in, so few I actually forgot where it happened. I appreciate seeing a way of speaking that I never thought I’d see published--the way my family speaks and other people I’ve known. That was nice.

Unfortunately the characters weren’t very stand out. I know the MC had two guy friends but I couldn’t remember them by the seventy-percent mark of the book. The main character’s voice is very distinct but even she feels a little flat to me.
She paid so little attention to one friend for years that when it turns out she’s not kind to him she’s actually surprised.

I won’t spoil the ending. The main character does change and learns to be a bit more open and understanding. There’s an lgbtq+ character who doesn’t die which is always a positive.

All in all, I will not read this book again, or recommend it. It gets two stars for being decently written in some spots but the pacing is a massive downfall and the flatness of so many characters, the disjointed feeling of so many of the action scenes, it’s too much to give it anything higher.
I really wanted to love this book. It’s the first book I’ve read that I regret reading.