Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this outstanding book!

Safia Elhillo has done it again with Bright Red Fruit--this book is stunning. Bright Red Fruit tells the story of a sheltered but curious Sudanese teen named Samira. She is a poet and meets a much older man in an online poetry forum, who goes on to behave in a multitude of inappropriate ways. There are many important and powerful elements to this story--the way Samira navigates (and struggles mightily with) growing up in a place and culture that her mom fears, the way she finds her poetic voice and is so proud, but still longs for the approval of a man, and how she ultimately stands up for herself in all aspects of her life. Mythology fans will enjoy the nod to Persephone, poetry fans will adore the writing, and I think a wide variety of teen readers will find parts of Samira's story that resonate with them. I will absolutely be preordering a copy for my classroom library!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, Make Me a World, and Safia Elhillo for the opportunity to read Bright Red Fruit in exchange for an honest review.

Bright Red Fruit is a hi-lo novel told in a poetic verse format. It has many allusions to Persephone's story from Greek mythology, and key connections to the pomegranate as a symbolic fruit. Persephone perhaps falls for the wrong man, similar to Samira, and the pomegranate has multiple meanings, most of which can easily be applied to the events of the novel.

Samira is an aspiring poet, but also only fifteen years old, so she loves to party and hang out with her best friends. When an untrue rumor spreads that could ruin her reputation, her mother keeps her home. Though they live in New York, her mother keeps closer to their Middle Eastern traditions and will do anything to keep her daughter's reputation safe. As a teen, Samira will eventually have to learn from her own experiences.

In frustration, Samira falls to both an online poetry forum and a poetry critique class to bide her time. On the forum, she meets the very attractive and charismatic Horus, a well-renown poet, though much older than her (he's twenty-one). Samira's crush gets the better of her, as Horus' sweet words seep with manipulation. Horus doesn't care about Samira, only about stealing her amazing creative work and putting it out as his own. Samira has a lot to figure out between trusting a man, showing her mother that she herself is trustworthy, backing her friends when they need her, and finding who she is as a writer.

This novel is a brilliant construction of the teenage heart, the ease of manipulation when one thinks they are in love, and an exploration of family and friendship. While the pomegranate represents life and fertility, in this instance, perhaps the vibrancy of Samira's poems and her youthful age, it also represents power. The power struggle of Horus using Samira through the manipulation of her feelings and the gender dynamic makes for an intriguing coming-of-age story. Samira must learn to make her own choices and learn from her negative experiences, as we all must.

Bright Red Fruit is an exquisite novel. I would certainly recommend it for a female teen audience, but also for any youth who are aspiring writers, as there is something to be said here about sharing work in a safe versus unsafe way.

i've held off on reading safia elhillo's books but this one is amazing. a unique yet modern retelling of the story of persephone, the author really does a great job of bringing the story to life. I also loved the themes and the ending of this one. reminded me a lot of Elizabeth Acevedo, and I was happy to see her mentioned in the acknowledgements.

This was a really well written and powerful read. At times Samira's stubbornness annoyed me but I think the author did a great job in showcasing a sheltered teenager who is ready to take on the world. Horus was a big creep and a a HUGE red flag. It made sense that Samira was drawn to him but man their scenes together made me uncomfortable.

The ending was powerful and hopeful. Overall, I enjoyed the novel.

*thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book*

Safia Elhillo is one of my favorite poets and I absolutely love her other YA novel-in-verse Home is Not a Country. Thus, I hoped that Bright Red Fruit would be just as good.

Have no fear, past me. IT IS JUST AS GOOD.

The story is very poignant and raw and I devoured it in one sitting. It’s about Samira, a young Sudanese-American girl who is a poet. She’s navigating rumors spread about her being a “bad girl” and her strict mother when she meets a fellow poet who is not as he seems. She has to fight for her voice and her words, but risks losing some of the most important people in her life as a result. There are lots of references to Persephone and that motif is explored in a way I’ve never seen before and resonates through the story in a really cool way.

One of my favorite things about the book was Samira’s relationship with her mother. It was complex and emotional and extremely realistic. You could feel it shift and grow over the course of the book as both of the characters do the same. All of the character relationships in the book were very well-done, but that one was by far the best-crafted.

Samira herself is such a well-done and relatable main character. I watched her make questionable decisions but I couldn’t judge her for it because of the situations she was in. Elhillo portrays her without looking down upon her or shaming her for her choices. She is created with so much care and empathy. Her character arc is well done and the way it echoes through all of her relationships in the book (her friends, her mom, her aunt) makes it resounding and impactful.

And of course, the writing is absolutely breathtaking. There were so many lines that I had to just read over and over again to completely soak up the words. Safia Elhillo is such a master of her craft.

If you loved Home is Not a Country, you HAVE to read Bright Red Fruit. And if you’re a fan of books like The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo or Muted by Tami Charles, this book is definitely for you. And if you’re looking for a Sudanese author to support, it’s about time you read Safia Elhillo 🇸🇩

The poetry in this book was amazing. It was like I was transported back to my teenage years. The author eloquently articulated how it feels to be young adult i this society. Adults say you’re too old for somethings yet too young to do or act a certain way.

Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo

384 Pages
Publisher: Random House Children’s, Make Me a World, Multicultural, Persephone
Release Date: February 6, 2024

Poetry, Teens, Young Adult

The poetry in this book is amazing. It is written as a sixteen-year-old girl at a crossroad in her life. She has a reputation of being bad but the incidents are not what they seem. She wants more than she has but when she gets it, it’s more than she expected. There is an underlying theme of Persephone throughout. She uses Samira’s life and compares her trials with Persephone. It really made me look at the descent myth differently. The author is very talented and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Such an engaging coming of age story. The realness of this plot had me feeling so many different emotions. The author did an amazing job of showing the plight of many young girls. Laying out the susceptibility of a young girl's self awareness when it comes to attention was outstanding. I highly recommend this book. The author did an amazing job.

I’m not a big verse reader, but something about Samira and her story immediately drew me in.

If a book is powerful enough to make me cry, it’s automatically a five-star. That’s exactly what Bright Red Fruit did. I was initially drawn in by the cover, but I quickly found out that this novel has way more beautiful, heartbreaking layers to it. I can’t wait to see what’s next from the author.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children’s for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a big fan of books in verse and I loved how this novel wasn't just in verse but about poetry as well. Sometimes I have trouble connecting to characters in verse books, but this one, combined with the texts and emails really captured the voice of Samira. The story revolves heavily around Samira's religion and culture and of her relationship with her seemingly strict mother and another accidental love in her life, that doesn't turn into what she thought it would be. As a mother myself, it made me appreciate the hope that my kids can come to me when they feel like they are in trouble. The relationships are heartbreaking and realistic. Solid four stars for me (as a middle school librarian, the content is a little old for my students.)

This was heartbreaking and left me with the biggest book hangover. Idk how ima recover from this. Like ouch.

I had the pleasure of reading “Home is Not a Country” and when I saw Safia Elhillo had a new book coming out, I knew I needed to read it. This book is amazing and deals wonderfully with being a teenager so “protected” they start pushing boundaries to the point they end up in unhealthy situations. For Samira, she ends up meeting a man on the Internet who praises her poems and calls her beautiful, and especially after her community has shamed her for behaviors she didn’t do, being seen positively makes it hard for to see the ways Horus is hurting her and isolating her. The experiences with Horus were too real and really hit me, but I couldn’t put this book down because I needed to see how Samira would reconnect with her friends, her family, and most importantly, reconnect with herself. This was such a satisfying, emotional read, and I cannot recommend it enough!

A solid four. I love novels in verse and have read every one that I can lay hands on. I love the rich texture and sensory imagery of this poetry. The voice of a young poet and a forming woman are captured here. However, the neatly tied up ending is one I’m not sure of. I do think it’s what teens are looking for and that our sophomores will love it. It’s perfect for young high school or 8th grade. Well done contribution!

“but ever since i was small i’ve wanted to be loved”

Wow. This blew me away. Samira’s voice is so raw and real. I felt every emotion.

I know novels told in verse aren’t for everyone, but for me, the sparseness of the words force the writer to hone in on feelings, to use the tools of poetry to pack a punch. It resonates.

Samira is a Sudanese-American living in DC, trying to navigate being 16 in a country so different from her culture, with a mom who doesn’t seem to understand what being a teenage girl in the US means. Her mom tries to hold her close, sometimes too tightly, to keep her safe from the unknown. Samira relies on writing poetry and her two best friends until one night while posting on a poetry website, an older man, Horus (25), reaches out to her, impressed by her poems and making her feel seen.

“…it’s intoxicating, to be cared about like this
to have someone want so badly to know me”

This attention is what Samira has been craving, wanting, wishing for. To be seen and understood. And soon this secret relationship grows and festers, Samira desperately trying to be the adult she isn’t and Horus playing on her insecurities and needs. There were times where I wanted to shake Samira and say “girl, here’s what’s really happening.” But so many other times I saw why she did the things she did and it was her self-discovery and coming of age that made this so beautiful.

Loved the lyrical manner of this book. Was short and fun read. Would recommend to everyone who loves poetry.

5 stars. Obviously.

This is fantastic. I came into this with a lot of expectations and knowledge of Elhillo's work. In addition to enjoying it personally, I teach it frequently. Still, this exceeded.

Samira is the ideal YA heroine, and even moderately informed readers will be hard pressed to read her and not think of her literary maker, Xiomara. There are some undeniable similarities between them (along with some critical distinctions, which makes them a fun comparison versus a dangerous replication, to be clear), and that's most likely how I'll teach them and bill them to my students. It made me feel better to see Acevedo in the immediate list of Elhillo's acknowledgements. In a novel with so many references, this feels like a wise and even necessary implication.

Samira has an extremely protective though well-intentioned single mother whose home culture deeply impacts the choices she makes for her daughter. Modern readers are going to want Samira to have more freedom and will sympathize (if not empathize) with the measures she feels forced to take to give herself some breathing room. But then, the slightly more seasoned among us will be dying for every restriction to fall upon her as those mythological connections she's busy making start to really evolve.

Like all great YA, this one is packed with *the issues*, and Elhillo hits them responsibly and not didactically. Some readers may find the predatory nature of a particular character (you'll smell this from so far away) especially triggering, depending on their own histories and even contemporary experiences, but wow if that material isn't particularly well drawn and vivid. Also, this kind of creep is ubiquitous, so Elhillo hits the *important* in addition to aesthetically pleasing and generally engaging points of reference.

This is another absolute winner from Elhillo, who exclusively produces these, as far as I'm concerned. I can't wait to recommend it and teach it with the right (and fairly warned) audience.

This book is just amazing. The story follows Samira as she finds her voice. This story deals with so much. But yet never do you want to scream at her. You want to comfort her and tell her everything will get better. This book is amazing.

Samira is a gifted young Sudanese American poet with a strict mother. After posting her work in an online poetry forum, she attracts the attention of an older man who then begins to groom her. This coming of age novel in verse was beautifully written with important lessons.