When I first heard of Like Home, I’m pretty sure it was mentioned that the book is set in Toronto and I was so so excited! I live about an hour outside of Toronto and would visit a number of times a year for blogger events, birthdays, and to explore places and foods that don’t exist in my town. If it wasn’t obvious, I was quite excited to read about one of my favourite cities.

Now, having, read the book I realized that going into Like Home, I had forgotten that visiting a place (no matter how often) is not the same as living there. The way that I experience Toronto is not the same as someone who lives there. There are so many neighbourhoods too–each one unique–and I got to spend a little bit of time experiencing such a unique neighbourhood through the eyes of a group of young adults living there.

I will say that I did struggle with Like Home a bit though. Part of it was the pacing and the storylines outside of the mystery storyline. I wasn’t that interested in those other plots, which I think has to do with my age and my interests having changed. I believe that the other issue has to do with my age as well (and don’t laugh!) because I really struggled to follow some of the dialogue because some of the colloquial language being used was unfamiliar to me. Yes. Okay. I feel very old.

I do not blame the above issues that I had on the author! Also, when it comes to pacing, once I made it a little past the halfway point, something happened that piqued my interest, and I flew through the rest of the book. I also wanted to add that I found some of the writing and turns of phrase to be quite lovely and/or evocative! Like Home was different than anything else that I’ve read before, and I can definitely appreciate its uniqueness. I’m also curious to see what Onomé will write next!

3.75

What would you be willing to do to save the place you call home? The place you grew up?
For Nelo that place is Ginger East. When an act of vandalism happens in the neighborhood, to her friend Kate’s family store no less Nelo wants to find out what happened and do anything she can to help.

I really liked how the feel of the setting and the characters seems to seep off the page. I felt so immersed in this neighborhood and this culture that it was like I was right there with Nelo. One issue I had with this book was communication. Communication was at the root of a lot of the secondary conflict that of these teens just talked to each other and trusted each other a lot of their issues would have been solved. Overall it was a great read and I really enjoyed getting to know these characters.

Very enjoyable read with a good cast of diverse characters. The messages were a little heavy-handed at times, but for that quality of representation in the book, I'm willing to overlook that.

Couldn't get into this one. Sounds promising but the beginning is really slow. I think teens would like it, but the relationship and friendship drama were dull.

The story of sixteen year-old Nelo and her turmoiled life after the store run by best friend Kate’s family is vandalized, Like Home shines brightly on its arrival. A fresh and lovely story about friendship, neighbourhood unity, gentrification, displacement – Like Home is really wonderful in writing and storyline.

I really loved the strong and fun friendship of Nelo, Rafa, Kate and Bo. I am honestly excluding Maree from the group as she’s too selfish and way too much attention seeker – who remembered her former friends after the vandalism incident just to get media coverage and maximum video views. The quartet of friends have fun and tense moments in equal weightage in the book. The conversations between the four friends is full of banter and drama, and that lightens up the book, giving it a fresh and fun breadth. And to add more, these chats show the real personalities of each character. And every character – whether MCs or SCs (Secondary Characters). have an important role to play in the book.

And personally, I loved Rafa out of all characters.

Rafa is way too much cooler and has great sense of humor alongside being adorable and handsome. Well, so much handsome, Nelo almost kissed his photo in her class. He is also shown to be having an amazing mind, for he prevents Nelo from making mistakes that could ruin her relationships in Ginger East.

Honestly, I did enjoy Nelo’s character arc, albeit partly. Out of all my questions for the book, most stand for Nelo. And, if you read the book, you’re surely bound to ask questions to Nelo after almost every page. To be honest, I wish Nelo could have been polished a bit more, for she is way too much rude and abusive for a sixteen year old girl. I totally liked her initially, but later on her arc got more shaped like a typical teenager – overburdens herself with all the problems in her neighbourhood, involving herself where she isn’t called, very emotional, getting possessed with Kate’s personal & social life, her uncalled interference in family matters of Kate – I wish the author removed these issues with her. I would have definitely rated her higher than Rafa if Nelo didn’t have these problems.

Another issue I had with this book is it is written in single POV. This book is written from Nelo’s voice only, and that has the book sound monotonous. I wish it had two or three more POVs – one of Kate, another of Rafa and maybe one of either Jake or Mr Brown. I honestly loved the clear portrayal of social issues in the book – gentrification, rising economic taxes, racism, social justice. The book really revolves around these issues, and never ever I found these issues to be chickened out for adding glamour in the name of Maree and her fame-minded antics.

The book is written in a really smooth and flowy manner. The honest and emotional writing made this an interesting read for me. And reading a #OwnVoices book for the first time, I enjoyed the book.

Like Home by Louisa Onome is a good read for every reader who wishes to start with diverse books. A fun and emotional journey of Nelo and Kate, having social issues and drama in equal amounts, the book deserves love for an honest and neat depiction of love, unity, compassion and power of media. Trust me, you’ll surely like it, for it is an amazing and an important read for all people.

A delightful debut thats all about community, friendship, loyalty and the consequences of change.

Not gonna lie, I was more attracted to the cover; but I am so delighted that the story itself held up to my expectations.

Told in the voice of young Nelo, it’s her world that’s described - outright, it’s easy to see that she is struggling with her friends moving away, even though it’s not clear why they had in the first few chapters!

While I would have honestly adored getting multiple POVs and I do believe it would have just enhanced the effect of the story - it still didn’t detract from the actual issue of gentrification (an issue I barely had an idea about before reading the book!)

The wonderful debut is all about the friendships, the love they have for their community and how these characters deal with change - the characters are complex, and their personalities distinct - it was delightful to see the not only interact with each other, but also their varying reactions to the societal issues that faced in the book.

Like Home, is a must read - not just because it talks about some very important societal issues but also because it’s written so well, that once you start, you just won’t stop!

The characters were very relatable and I loved how it had a Nigerian representation. Like Home follows the life of Chinelo, Kate, Bo and Rafa who were/are all friends in Ginger East but then Bo and Rafa moved and stopped talking. Everything changed when there was a break-in at Kate’s family store, this one incident led to a series of events that saw friends drifting apart, betraying trust, developing feelings and learning hard truths.

Gentrification seems to be displacing many people in my cities. I had no idea Canada was experiencing the same thing, but not surprised. I could relate to the characters, even though I haven't been a teenagers in decades. Neighborhoods I've lived in, and currently live in, are changing. Teens haven't lived long enough to realize how normal this has become. I liked the friendships and bonding people had in neighborhoods; the sense of community, and the all in this together attitude. It was interesting to see the development of the teens in this story. Change is hard, and if it helps a few teens cope, it's done it's job. Kudos Louisa Onome! Long story, but good read.

This is a fantastic coming-of-age novel about relationships with our friends, our community and how we see our world from within. Chinelo loves her neighborhood and community of Ginger East but things are changing a lot with her friends moving out, and gentrification moving in, and affecting her beloved community.

This is a wonderful debut novel with fantastic characters and a subject matter that is relatable and timely. I thought the writing was well done and really grabbed my attention for its subject matter, plotting and wonderful characters.

Highly recommend this amazing debut read

The novel really touched on the power of social media, neighborhood ties and friendship. Nelo is a great character and was used throughout the novel well. Definitely recommend to high school students preparing to graduate because it deals a lot with friendship and change.

Chinelo (Nelo) loves her neighborhood with all her being. After a deadly incident, all her closest friends moved away, except for Kate. But when Kate's store was vandalized, Nelo finds herself reliving the traumatic experience she had when she was a kid.

Subtle and Engaging — Reading Like Home felt like saying goodbye to my old friends all over again. As someone who used to move a lot from place to place, the story hits differently. It's so refreshing to read from the point of view who was left behind. I could understand where Nelo's resistance to change was coming from. She was so used to the same neighborhood throughout her childhood and then suddenly, everything and everyone she loves were at stake. The book explored realistic portrayals of friends who had left and who had stayed in the neighborhood. Due to a certain incident, those friends found their way again to one another.

Aside from gentrification, social media had also a huge impact to the story. One post can cause unnecessary drama. Like Home served as a reminder for us to be careful of what we say or do.

The author assembled Ginger East as a place where people come together to help the community and I loved it so much! From unique perspective and undeniably great setting to personal and unspoken topics, Like Home surely got me feeling like I was at home.

Taking awhile to feel emotionally invested in this one, I became charmed by the end.
This is a story about loving where your from and having pride in the connection to your neighborhood.

In this coming-of-age book, the author takes a great look at how challenging change can be. Chinelo is going through a huge change of scenery in the place that should be the most familiar to her and all the while she’s having to continue to grow and shift. In her town, gentrification is occurring along with all of its repercussions.
While I am not the target age for this book, it gave me a better understanding of how gentrification can impact everybody in a community from an inside perspective. I enjoyed the contrast between Chinelo and Katie’s look at their home. Even though their views of the town itself differed, they were glued together by the people who lived there.

As an adult reading this book, definitely took me back to my teenage years. The feeling of being around my bestfriends our favorite hangout spots and of course the growing pains that comes with being a teenager.

I think this story felt so relevant to the current times in America. It was relatable and very detailed.

I would definitely recommend this book to young adults and teenagers. It's a great read about friendships, life and family.

An amazing debut novel about the power of community and love which spans without racial/cultural boundaries. I love books which center around neighborhoods, and this book was no different. The characters were all so perfectly fleshed out. Loved reading about them ~ specially how their stories connected throughout Like Home.

Highly recommend!

I've started noticing book recently that focus on gentrification. It's an unexpected trend but an important one. We need to understand the full social impact of these events on people and communities. This book shows us a community in decline, largely because of gentrification. Always a bit of a rough place, Ginger East is losing small businesses and desperation is driving residents to actions of questionable legality. While the inciting incident is an act of vandalism, the plot isn't especially driven by the mystery of the vandal's identity. Rather, the focus is on how the world around Nelo is changing: businesses and people. We see how moving to different neighborhoods and stratified a once tight-knit group of friends to the point that they barely understand each other. We see a number of different perspectives on the changes in Ginger East, both positive and negative. Onome also invites us to consider who has a right to be a part of the conversation about these changes. We see characters taking advantage of a social justice situation for their own benefit, for optics. We're asked to question what battles are worth fighting and when we just need to accept change. This is a book with a lot of content, but not a lot of action. More thinking than doing.

The characters, voice, and world of this book are so finely-drawn I feel as if I know them. I was cheering them on throughout its pages, and was sad to see them go!

Ginger East isn't the best neighborhood, but to Nelo, it is the only home she has ever known. So when her best friends' small family store gets vandalized, everything begins to change in Ginger East as the media draws their attention to the small neighborhood- and not in a good way. I think Nelo is someone a lot of people can relate to because she really cared about her community and really resonated with me. The story focuses a lot on gentrification and on how "bad" neighborhoods are portrayed through the media even though they know absolutely nothing about that area. Through Nelo's POV, we get to see the good parts of her community. Although I really liked her POV, I wished we had a second POV from her friend, Kate, whose family store got vandalized. I think her perspective would have been very important as someone who was directly affected by it. I was really happy to see a very diverse cast of characters, especially Nelo being of Nigerian descent. Overall, Like Home is extremely thought-provoking and nuanced.

Like Home follows Nelo, a girl who has lived in Ginger East, her small neighborhood, all her life. But when her best friend’s store is vandalized, Nelo’s life is turned upside down and everything changes. She’s reluctant to accept this, and wants the neighborhood she knows so well to stay the same. Although it’s hard for her to realize, she has to live with the fact that her neighborhood is slowly being “restored”, whether Nelo likes it or not, and that Ginger East is next in a line of gentrified communities.

What I loved most, above everything else, was ultimately the community of Ginger East as a whole. The way everyone’s lives were intricately woven—with one another, with the neighborhood, and with new changes—was a big part of the story, and how Ginger East united in the face of discrimination and gentrification was inspiring yet heartbreaking to read.

Nelo was a character I loved reading about, her passion for defending her neighborhood not overtaking the story, which created a delicate balance. She wants everything to stay the same in a world that’s always changing, and I could vividly feel her anger at outsiders moving in to Ginger East.

I also really enjoyed the character relationships that Nelo has, both with her friends, family, and new people she meets. Nelo reconnects with two of her childhood friends, Bo and Rafa, in the aftermath of the event. While her friendship with Kate is,, challenging at the moment, she gets to know Rafa better, and they become friends (and more). The dynamics between them were written so well! But I wished I got to see more of Bo (even though he was off visiting Kate all the time 😏)!!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I can’t wait for more readers to get their hands on it! It’s a story of change, love, and discovering more of yourself. In addition to that, it has cute romances while capturing the nuances of friendship and grappling with social problems without making things too dark. I’ll definitely be watching out for Onomé’s next book!

Don’t know what I was really expecting in this book, but it just didn’t do it for me. The cover is STUNNING but the plot is very... stagnant. It felt very slow paced and by the end of the book, it felt like nothing had really happened at all. It had good messages and themes, but in terms of a captivating book, it fell a bit short. Still worth reading if you want to focus on gentrification, social justice, and protests (which are all good things to look into), just not recommended if you want something that will keep you reading at a quick pace.