2 stars. It was okay for me, and I wanted to like it, but I had a hard time with it. I found myself skimming through the part where she's reading about her relative. I liked the present-day story a little bit more, and the message was really obvious- but it's also really important. She really does struggle to fit in, and you see how much things change her and how she feels caught in the middle on so many different levels. I did really like seeing the relationship with one of her friends and her reaction to Nina hanging out with other people. I think it's something we can all relate to, feeling like we don't fit in, but I feel like I understand Nina a little better.

A novel that strives to tell the story of a girl looking for her identity, White, Black, Other finds itself muddling these important issues and losing the voice that is so important.

Nina's struggle with her identity was clearly felt, not only during the transitions between her white mother's and her black father's household, but during the interactions with her friends when they were discussing current events. At school, for example, her white friends made comments regarding people from black neighborhoods in Oakland, neighborhoods that had been ravaged by fires, looting. All those "friends" could see were people that stole electronics whereas Nina saw people that were getting things they needed, the people that were taking food, diapers, etc. The privilege of these "friends", Jessica and Claudette, blinded them to the suffering of these people.

While there were moments of clarity regarding what I'm sure was the author's point of the story, I don't think that the execution of the story was well done. The writing style was slow paced and dull, several pages going by feeling extremely dry and feeling like real work rather than a good reading experience. It made it difficult to connect with any of the characters, to really get inside their narrative, which was a problem especially regarding Nina. The background characters felt like they had one characteristic that stood out plainly about them without any others being fleshed out to create a realistic person.

There were a lot of issues that got raised within the book, which would have been good if they'd been dealt with in a reasonable manner. However, in this particular book, it was like they all got thrown into a bag, shaken up, and spilled onto the page like Scrabble tiles.

I can't at this time recommend other books that tackle these kinds of issues in a better way, though I will say that Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give has been getting all kinds of good word of mouth and sales for its protagonist, Starr, and her experiences with black issues including the Black Lives Matter movement.

This book was very hard to pyt down. It was interesting and thought provoking view on the identity issues faces by biracial teens. I loved the viewpoint jumping from Sarah to Nina and how Nina used Sarah's life as a way to deal with her own. It was very educational and an emotional story.

Though provoking and relevant to our time. Everyone should read this book. #WeNeedDiverseBooks

A good YA book about growing up mixed race and the problems when parents divorce
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

While I liked the idea of the main protagonist, Nina, a biracial adolescent, struggling to figure out to which world she belonged, her Irish-Jewish mother's or her African American father's, I felt the concept could have been explored much deeper. I did think that the sub plot of Nina's father examining the life of one of his female ancestors and her path to freedom an interesting part of the story. Just wish there had been more oomph!

“Funny how an absence can feel like a presence, like that space practically glows with her outline and make me notice how she's not here.”
Nina is a young woman who is biracial and is a freshman in high school, who is now also dealing with parents divorcing and households being split. Because of all of these changes she's angry and upset and confused. She doesn't know exactly where she belongs anymore. When she's at her moms she feels like things are missing, when she is with her dad's she feels like she doesn't fit their either with his changing opinions on things. Plus she has a younger brother who she feels like she needs to protect from the mean highschooler's all while still trying to maintain her friendships. Her dad is also writing a story about a family member that he wants Nina to help him with. This is also the one thing that helps bring her happiness in this trying time in her life.

Overall I enjoyed this book. Nina was a character that you were able to sympathize with and understand why she was feeling the way she was about her family situation changing. I was able to see kind of where the parents were coming from with Nina, but also at times I just wanted to shout at them PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR CHILDREN. Which would have made certain things that happened in the last quarter of the book not have happened at all. Which would have made this a more enjoyable story for me.
For the historical part of the book, I really enjoyed it. I like Nina found it a nice escape from the struggles that Nina was having and it was also really informative as well. As for how accurate this book is with representation I genuinely don't know. I hope it has some accuracy as it felt like it could with some of the feelings that Nina was having towards feeling torn into two different worlds and not knowing how to make them work as one.
If you know how accurate this is with representation please let me know.