Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference.
Book Review:
This book is another YA novel that has taken on a stronger meaning by highlighting the plot with social injustices. In this incident, Jade, is being given all of these opportunities but they seem to be more about pitty than trying to really help her. It seems as though these people believe that she can't overcome her own circumstances on her own. I really resonated with that part of the story. Now the reason behind these people giving her these opportunities is because she is a young black girl from the ghetto. For me, it's been about my low income and anxiety. No matter the circumstances, I really believe that many people will resonate with her feelings and even if they haven't experienced those feelings themselves, they may be able to recognize when they have perpetrated those feelings onto someone else.
The book was fairly slow moving and kind of hard to get into at first. If I were to compare it some of the other YA novels that have used forms of social injustice or inequality recently, I would probably rate this behind all of them. Jade was kind of annoying as the main character, the family dynamics probably could have been discussed more thoroughly, etc. Nevertheless it was still a decent book.
Pages: 272 Rate: 2.75/5
Favorite Quote:
“Makes me feel like no matter how dressed up we are, no matter how respectful we are, some people will only see what they want to see.”
