This is a really wonderful and thoughtful recounting of Savala Nolan's experiences across her multiple identities.

Nolan's series of essays was an excellent, beautifully written insight into her life as a multiracial, fat woman and the intersections of these identities. Additionally, Nolan comes from two completely disparate backgrounds, with her mother's family being having a history of owning slaves and her father's family having a history of incarceration and murder by white supremacist organizations. She also dabbles in discussions of class, as she was raised experiencing completely different experiences between her two homes. She has experienced living without electricity or running water, while also attending private schools. Overall, Nolan touches on so many aspects of intersectionality, giving a really crisp picture of how none of her identities can be teased apart from one another. While at times her essays were lengthy, her writing style is beautiful and evocative and kept me engaged.

Don't Let It Get You Down was on my must-read list for 2021. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this collection of essays when I did. This essay collection was beautiful and filled with complex ideas that are timely to 2021. At times, I wished the pieces were more concise. In the essays, there were so many subjects that Nolan touched on that sometimes I forgot what the main idea was.

I found myself only able to read one essay a day. I wanted to mull over the themes Nolan wrote about before moving on to the next complex piece. I am thankful to have received an advanced copy from NetGalley, and I am looking to add a physical copy to my bookshelves.

I will never tire of reading the memoirs of other multiracial individuals. Each time I read one, I feel validated in my own experience and reaffirms my connection to others, even if we are not of the same races. This book was no exception. Savala Nolan is so self aware, and it is a gift that she allows us into her own reflections in such an open way. As a Black, Mexican, and white woman in a larger body, she describes what it is like to live at the intersection of these identities as a whole person. She is self-deprecating at times, yet also very much aware of all that she brings to the world. Just based on her writing, she seems like the kind of person I'd want to call my friend.

"Don't Let It Get You Down" by Savala Nolan is a collection of essays that are part memoir and part social commentary, and the intersection thereof. As the daughter of a white mother and a Black and Mexican, Nolan navigates her adolescence, college and law school years, and career as an attorney (and writer) from the lens of being not sure where she fits, but clearly finding success nevertheless. Research into Nolan's family and her experience growing up with them is shaped by two polar opposite worlds: her mother's family being former slaveholders and her father having served time in prison and living for survival. Nolan's traversal from her childhood classrooms to esteemed law firms is layered with analysis and the lived experiences of being a woman of color in America. This book is really excellent!

Wow. Excellent collection of essays about the intersectionality of race, gender, and the body. Savala Nolan Trepczynski has a unique perspective that is both beautiful and powerful.