Dear TBR
I love Book Riot’s “Read Harder” reading challenge, which for ten years now(!!!!) has been encouraging readers to discover new voices, formats, genres, and perspectives. I dabble with the lists every year, but this time I thought I’d actually try and participate. One of today’s reads covers #9 – Read a Book Recommended by a Librarian, one covers #23 – Read a “howdunit” or “whydunit” mystery. I deliberately chose the adult book, in order to do a compare/contrast thing.
REGGIE AND DELILAH’S YEAR OF FALLING: Reggie is definitely an actual nerd. Or, blerd, he would say, since his identity as a Black guy is part of his nerdiness, too. He’s a committed blerd, and blogs about his big love for D&D games – and how most of them are really non-inclusive, since the ugly characters – the brown characters – are often monsters or killers. Though blerdishness is a huge part of Reggie’s identity, he gets a lot of grief about being a nerd – often in a headlock-brotherly pseudo-teasing way from his brother at home which morphs at school to a vicious, bullying way from his brother’s best friend. Even Reggie’s father looks at him with a faintly bewildered, distressed air of, “how did I get this child?” Because of this Reggie is ambushed by the sense that he isn’t “black enough,” cool enough, or… just enough, he does his best to pretend it doesn’t matter – and escape. Taking the opportunity to go to a concert to see a band he has no real interest in, he sees an amazing girl who just shines in the spotlight. She’s so good, so savvy, and so cool, that he’s doubly convinced that he needs to pretend. No way a girl in a band would talk to someone like him. And yet, they keep running into each other…
Delilah is a mildly introverted people-pleaser who somehow ended up singing backup in a punk band on New Year’s Eve. She’s so deeply uncomfortable, but that’s kind of her default state, both because she’s a pleaser and also because Georgia, her little sister who practically came out of the womb performing, is usually the one who is loud and in the spotlight. Delilah doesn’t know what she’s doing on stage! She didn’t think she’d actually like singing in a punk band – but it turns out that there’s something about performance – about shouting her truths out and owning the way music kind of takes all that’s inside of her…out. It feels like it might be worth learning to play the guitar. Maybe her crush will see that they have more in common that way. After all, she’s getting the band noticed! They’re the only band with a black girl in it, and – she’s meeting some nice people. That Reggie guy is so cool – and so real. Delilah wishes she were more like him… brave enough to take chances, and to take herself seriously. If she were like Reggie, maybe she wouldn’t let herself keep being pushed aside, and ask for what she wants out of the band. Maybe she’d take her singing and guitar playing seriously…
This book features a dual POV which highlights two very different voices. I appreciate how this book allows a character to have dyslexia without making it the whole plot, how it interrogates issues of Blackness/ethnicity and allows characters to explore what it means to hold an identity and just be yourself within that community. I also appreciate how the book gently discusses being a people-pleaser in such a way that it allows young readers to see clearly how it can be damaging. This book is apparently loosely connected to the author’s other YA romances, which should be great fun for readers.
IT’S ELEMENTARY: Today’s second Bryant book is marketed to adults, but could crossover easily for older young adults. It presents a first person POV, and really brings on the humor less subtly than in the YA book (or that may just be my take). It’s also a cozy mystery, which I COMPLETELY missed until I was halfway in, and the MC was diving right into some shady things. I kept hissing, “Mavis, NOOOO!” which… to be honest, is completely what I do during cozy mysteries, because who the Marple do these people think they are? That PTA lady was scary, and wiser heads feet have run the other way!
Mavis is a single mother with a job that looks more than ever like it’s never going to acknowledge her work, a dog who really needs to get the hang of going outside to do his business, and a late second grader who is annoyed with her for not knowing where she put her favorite socks. She really does not have TIME for the head of the PTA, yet that scary-perfect woman is stalking her at school drop-off. No matter how fast Mavis tries to evade her, this time she’s caught – and Trisha wants her to lead some DEI committee. Mavis is …not amused. Sure, she’s Black, but she’s also a single mother with a full-time job, as opposed to the myriad at-home moms at Knoll Elementary. None of that matters, though – before she knows it, Mavis has agreed to go. Adding insult to injury, Mavis discovers she’s getting a parking ticket in a space across from the school! But things are saved at the last minute by a good looking man without a ring on his finger, even. The Clyde to her Bonnie, the man distracts the ticket-writer, and Mavis gets away free…!
Later that night Mavis meets the new principal at the PTA meeting, as he announces something that shakes Trisha to the core. The scary-perfect woman dissolves into a frighteningly furious woman, and her disagreement with the principal is memorable. When Mavis sees Trisha late that night, dragging cleaning supplies and a bulky plastic bag, she knows that SOMEthing isn’t right. When the new principal is reported by his wife as missing the next day, Mavis is… petrified.
This is truly a cozy mystery with all the perfect elements – nosiness, gossip, and an average person who is scattered and imperfect but who still manages to make a difference. The author makes quite a bit of social commentary in this novel about competitive mothering, how people of color endure a lot of tone policing, now the Nextdoor gossipy style of neighborhoods tend to point fingers, etc., and yet it is still quite funny. This could very well be a series opener, as some of the light romantic elements were definitely left open-ended.
Elise Bryant can definitely write for both young adults and older adults, and I think this is just the encouragement more authors need to switch it up. I look forward to reading more from her.
Fresh onto the TBR:
- The Last Days of Lilah Goodluck, by Kylie Scott
- Flowerheart, by Katherine Bakewell
Until the next book, 📖
Still A Constant Reader
