Based on recent events, I do not feel I can support this author by reading and reviewing this book. I cannot condone the behaviour she has demonstrated and do not wish to be associated with someone who would potentially jeopardise another persons livelihood.
The author approached me directly to review her work, and although this is not something I would normally read, I chose to support someone trying her best to make her way in a difficult industry. It’s a shame she didn’t apply the same kindness to the rail worker who was also likely just trying to do her best.

Very glad the author showed her true colors on twitter before I read her book. Calling out a black woman (for eating?!) in the way she did on 5/10 is COMPLETELY unacceptable. Her lack of empathy (especially considering she identifies herself as a WOC on social media) is disgusting.

I will not be giving a review based on the author's actions on Twitter resulting in the publisher's refusal to release the book.

Please consider me for further publishing opportunities. I am open to building relationships with publishers.

I won’t be reviewing this book due to the recent inappropriate actions by the author that surfaced on social media which I can not condone. I choose not to support her work in light of the way she has chosen to harass another minority woman.

Special thanks to the publisher as well as NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book but it will not be necessary. As a woman of color myself, I am absolutely appalled and disgusted by this author's actions as of late. I thank the publisher for making the statement that they did as well as letting the public know that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. I am firm in my decision to not support this author with this release nor any of her future releases.

This book was just ok. I thought the premise was interesting, but it took me a while to get into. Also, I know I received an ARC and that there are bound to be mistakes which will be corrected later, but I found more typos in this book than I ever have. I would guess at least 50. It felt like I was reading a first draft and that no one else had ever gone through it.

I no longer feel comfortable reading, reviewing, or supporting this book in any way in light of the author's hateful behavior earlier this week.

I will not finish reading a book by an author who got a minority worker fired. It wasn’t even my choice to review this book and I agreed to read it to help an author find an audience for her book. In light of recent events, I will not support this author.

I will not give feedback on this book in lieu of recent actions of the author.

I fee as though I can not invest my time in an author with poor moral and ethical judgments

I was extremely disappointed by the author's treatment of another person in a minority group this week. Because of her lack of respect and empathy in that situation, my opinion of this book has been severely negatively impacted. Instead of reviewing the text, then, I am leaving this one star review and expressing my hope that the author understands the problematic nature of her actions.

I won’t be reviewing this book due to recent inappropriate behavior on social media by the author. The author reached out directly to me to review the book and I no longer feel any obligation to read or review it.

Due to the author’s gross behavior with a MINORITY worker (even though she is a “minority writer”) who was just trying to eat her breakfast (God forbid), I now refuse to read her book any further.

Unfortunately the ethics behind this book and the recent story that has come to light regarding the author's actions on Twitter have caused me to DNF it.

This is a book unlike any I have read before. The premise was intriguing and pulled me in from the first page. The story is about a woman murdered on her birthday whose consciousness survives in the body of a 3-yr old boy. I wanted, no I needed to know who killed the woman and why!

I fell in love with the characters and the mystery. I was flipping the pages like a crazy person.
This is definitely a genre bending novel which doesn't conform to norms, which I absolutely applaud and love. Elements of thriller, supernatural, and a peak of Magical Realism.

I enjoyed the geographical setting of both Jordan and the US, this added to this character driven story.
Highly recommend this book !

They Called me Wyatt is the story of Siwar, a Jordanian woman who falls to her death on her birthday. She is reborn into the body of a young boy named Wyatt. Through him, she sets out to prove her death was not a suicide and find her killer. This was certainly a unique concept for a book and the idea of reincarnation is very intriguing to me. What I found most interesting was learning about Siwar's life as a woman in Jordan. We get the perspective of a young woman who hopes for change in coming to the US and the realities of her life when she does. I struggled with this one a bit due to its slower pace and high frequency of grammatical errors. I felt this one read like more a memoir than a murder-mystery.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!

This was definitely an unique and interesting premise for a book. I truly have never read anything similar.
The basis is that Siwar dies suddently at the age of 25 after a night out. Her soul finds itself in the body of a speech - delayed three year old boy named Wyatt. As she comes to terms with what has happened, she is determined to somehow find her murderer through Wyatt. As he grows older, Siwar "pushes" him into investigating her murder back in her homeland.

The premise of this book caught my attention, but overall, it fell short. I had to force myself to get through parts of the story so I could finish the book.

Siwar Salaiha is a Jordanian college student in Maryland. It’s her 25th birthday and she’s at a bar celebrating with friends when suddenly her life is cut short and she is murdered. Siwar may be dead physically but her consciousness is reborn into the mind of three-year old boy named Wyatt. Once Siwar comes to terms with her new situation, she is determined to somehow find her murderer through Wyatt. Time passes and Wyatt eventually grows older, making it easier for Siwar to “push” him into investigating her murder, even guiding him back to her homeland, Jordan. Wyatt’s life is turned upside down as he becomes enthralled in solving Siwar’s murder, and eventually comes across a clue that slowly unravels the truth about that night.

This book has a lot of different emotions wrapped into one great story. Most importantly, it’s a glimpse into a young woman’s journey through her short life and the risks she takes in an attempt to find her true self. Siwar’s upbringing is detailed and narrated with such skill that you can’t help but put yourself in her shoes and react to situations as if they were happening to you. As a Jordanian, Siwar’s upbringing was very different than mine, but being raised by immigrant parents myself, it was nice to see some similarities. I really enjoyed how Natasha Tynes skillfully described the culture and life in Jordan without veering away from the storyline. From beginning to end, this book held my attention and wrapped up nicely. I recommend adding this to your TBR list for the summer!

Natasha Tynes asks a lot of her readers in her debut novel They Call Me Wyatt. The speculative fiction book is filled with changing timelines, jumping perspectives, switching narratives and futuristic storylines, and requires readers to pay careful attention. While the idea behind the novel is strong and touches on many timely and important topics, the point of They Call Me Wyatt often gets lost in translation.

When 25-year old Jordanian student Siwar is murdered while studying in Maryland, police write the case off as suicide. Three years later Siwar’s conscious awakes in the body of a three-year-old white American boy named Wyatt. Unable to communicate through her new hosts body, Siwar cannot investigate her death or reach out to her friends and family. Years pass and eventually Siwar’s presence begins to fade from Wyatt’s mind. He grows up to become a kind, charming young man with a deep interest in the Middle East. When Wyatt begins dating Siwar’s niece he learns about her death, and begins to investigate the crime to bring her justice and peace she her mind re-awakens within his own.

They Call Me Wyatt flips between several timelines: one in the 1990s as Siwar is growing up in Amman, one in the early 2000s as Siwar awakens within three-year-old Wyatt, and one set several decades into the future when Wyatt begins investigating Siwar’s death. The first two timelines, which made up most of the first half of the book, are fairly easy to follow, and do a good job of setting up the rest of the story. Siwar's early life is the most interesting part of the book, depicting what it's like to be a young girl, then student, then woman in Jordan.

It’s in the third timeline – when Wyatt has grown up and Siwar’s conscious had mostly faded – that problems arise. Tynes uses futuristic technology and frequent cultural references to hammer home the fact that significant time has passed. Dialogue like, “Come on, babes. It’s 2026. Everyone is using Drive-Less. All the statistics showed that they’re safer than a real driver,” feel inauthentic and forced. Mind-reading technology, fictional diseases and artificial-intelligence systems take away from the real human story at the heart of They Call Me Wyatt, and their presence detracts from the story’s core themes.

They Call Me Wyatt touches one some very important topics – immigrant experiences in the United States, racism, classism, violence against women. Tynes has set out to tell a story that spans decades, crosses continents, and convey timely messages, and there are many moments where she successfully explains and explores the experiences her characters face in crossing language and cultural barriers. Siwars stories of growing up in Jordan and learning about her sexuality while also trying to cultivate her love and reading and writing are poignant. As a young woman, she is bound by harsh and frustrating rules which, if broken, could result in a lifetime of shame and judgment for her family. But as a teenage girl Siward desperately wants to explore the world and experience the freedoms of love and intimacy. It’s part of the reason she leaves for the United States.

It’s hard to overlook some of the more confounding aspects of They Call Me Wyatt. The book relies heavily on the idea that a dead person’s mind can survive and be placed in another body. While this isn’t the most far-fetched idea to ever be used in literature, it’s difficult to mesh this science-fiction-esque narrative with the rest of the story. What’s even more troubling is the way Siwar’s mind brutalizes Wyatt’s body, emotions and relationships. Understandably desperate to solve her own murder, Siwar often convinces Wyatt to drink heavily – she is most present in his mind when he is drunk – and ignore the needs of those around him. She even convinced him to date her niece which, if you stop and think about it, has vaguely creep connotations.

They Call Me Wyatt’s ending is clear but unsatisfying. No obvious strings are left hanging, but it doesn’t feel like the right way to cut off Siwar and Wyatt’s stories, especially considering the strangeness of their relationships with one another and the strangeness of the situation in general. Overall it’s a bold debut novel with a strong central idea, but lacks the clarity of writing and compelling enough characters to really pull it off.

They Called me Wyatt has an intriguing premise; Jordanian student Siwar Salaiha is murdered on her 25th birthday and her consciousness enters the body of a three year old boy called Wyatt. We see Siwar trying to adapt to being an adult mind trapped in the body of a truculent three year old and the bewilderment of Wyatt's parents trying to understand the change in their son. Following a medical procedure, Siwar's consciousness becomes dormant until Wyatt is 25 years old by which point he is a Middle Eastern studies graduate. Wyatt takes an interest in Siwar's death and sets about trying to find her murderer.
Despite the plot hooking me in, I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief at times particularly in the first part of the book and crime is not my go-to genre. Despite this book not being for me, I can see that it has received a lot of positive reviews and suspect it would appeal to readers of crime and thrillers. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing an ARC

This book starts off with the murder of Jordanian student, Siwar Salaiha on her 25th birthday. Her consciousness goes into the body of Wyatt who was born on the same day Siwar was murdered. I received an advanced copy of this book from Natasha Tynes and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review and it comes out on June 21. This book was unlike anything I have ever read before. The story kept me guessing up until the very end as to who killed Siwar and I loved Wyatt's character.