3.5 rounded up to 4 stars

Zoboi fully immerses readers in Caribbean folklore with this novel-in-verse about the teenage daughter of a soucouyant... and another teen girl who might be linked to them. I really loved the imagery of New York City being full of creatures from mythology just wandering around in plain sight with most people unaware of the power within the being in line at the bodega next to them.

How Marisol and Genevieve meet, then how their stories intertwine was interesting and I loved the turn of events at the end. My teen patrons don't love novels-in-verse, but I might be able to get them hooked on this one based on the synopsis.

Bahni Turpin and Robin Miles do a great job with the audiobook narration.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, HarperAudio Children’s, and Versify in exchange for an honest review.

It didn’t take much for me to be excited about this. I LOVE anything about Ibi Zoboi, but when she added the little bit about her culture? Yeahhhhh that pushed it from the Must Read category to the Must Read Now category. And I’m glad I didn’t wait because this was so good!

I’m not a huge fan of novels in verse. I never have been. Only because I feel like they usually leave like a huge chunk out of the books since they’re told in verse. But this one had more in-depth and didn’t feel like it left anything else out at all. I loved it so much. This actually felt less like a novel in verse and more like a regular novel, so that helped me to feel more comfortable with this one. But even still, looking at the pages in the e-ARC, it still does have that healthy amount of white space on the page that the teens love.

The other thing that teens love is the weird factor. And this one doesn’t shy away from that. It’s about soucouyants that are found in Caribbean folklore. And of course, this is crazy to me. I have never knew anything about a soucouyant before, so this was interesting to learn about. I went down a rabbit hole to find out the actual stories of them and they were pretty cool. (And pretty creepy if I’m being honest lolol) They appear as an old woman during the day and a fireball at night. I thought this was interesting because these were teens, but I swear Ibi thought of everything because the whole book was her mom basically “guiding” her and I was like oh she’s teaching her how to survive what she is. So dope.

That plot twist was crazy tho. I knew she was capable after the thing with her mom, but yeah I wasn’t expecting that to happen. And the way they were just like eh ok? How can you trust her after this? Like I have so many questions lol I was so invested into this story and Ibi just blew it up in my face with that ending. It feels like it wasn’t resolved tho, so I’m hoping that means there’s a sequel? Because I need to know what happens.

And even tho the plot twist was brutal, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the colorism it shines light on. Colorism plays a huge part in the plot twist; like the reasoning behind it. And that part broke my heart. Ibi made me feel so conflicted over her. That was a terrible thing to do, but her rationale and reasoning behind it as a teen especially made sense. And I felt even worse when she realized things weren’t what she thought they were. I was glad that she acknowledged the privilege, but still also acknowledged the pain she had unknowingly as well. It was sad, but at the same time, I hope she got some healing out of it in some shape or way.

This was the first novel in verse that I thoroughly enjoyed in a long time. This one didn’t feel as if it were lacking anything and I appreciate that so much. This is going to be a very cool book to push onto my co-workers who are looking for that fantasy aspect. I can’t wait to talk about it more.

This is a gorgeous, layered story that masterfully tackles colorism, colonization, and misogyny. The characters are utterly real, and the writing is lovely. The Caribbean folklore is fascinating, and the way the story comes together in the end is incredible. Loved it.

This was an interesting YA contemporary fantasy about family secrets, magic and Afro-Caribbean mythology that featured two half sisters and their devious mother. A unique story told in verse that might not be for everyone but was excellent on audio narrated by Bahni Turpin and Robin Miles. Recommended for fans of authors like Liselle Sambury. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!