cover from goodreads.com

Dess knows that nothing good lasts. Disappointment is never far away, and that's a truth that Dess has learned to live with.

Dess's mother's most recent arrest is just the latest in a long line of disappointments, but this one lands her with her baby brother Austin's foster family. Dess doesn't exactly fit in with the Carters. They're so happy, so uncomfortable, so normal, and Hope, their teenage daughter, is so hopelessly naive. Dess and Hope couldn't be less alike, but Austin loves them both like sisters. Over time their differences, insurmountable at first, fall away to reveal two girls who want the same thing: to belong.

Tanita S. Davis, a Coretta Scott King Honor winner, weaves a tale of two modern teenagers defying stereotypes and deciding for themselves what it means to be a family.

The funny thing is, I've actually read this book some years ago but finally found this old review.

Apart from my notes, I obviously don't remember a ton about this book... except from hating Odessa, of course.

One thing that I found interesting was how Dess' POV was in first person, while Hope's was in third person.

At around the beginning of the book, Hope starts sophomore year with a huge yellow stain on her yellow skirt. I could only imagine how embarrassing that could be!

Hope was also overwhelmed with how popular Dess was at the first day of school, especially since she's so grumpy and unfriendly at home.

Now here comes the rant about Dess...

1. She thought that Black people couldn't swim. She literally admitted this at some point in the book.

2. She insults Hope just because she's bitter and miserable. Hope doesn't do anything that would give Dess a good reason to insult her. She called Hope 'heifer' a couple of times. I didn't know the meaning of this word at first, but it turns out it means 'fat woman'. She also refers to Hope and 'Hopeless' on multiple occasions.

3. At this point, I lowkey wished someone would slap Dess across her face for her obnoxious comments. She said that she didn't know Black people did yoga. She also asked Hope what the deal was with her 'bushy' hair. Dess reminds me so much of the racist white girls I went to Secondary school with. I hate her so much. We Black people have different hair textures, you ignorant cow!

5. 

Hope had a crush on the Sikh guy in her class called Jas. Unfortunately, Dess caught his attention. But of course Dess only flirted with him because it made Hope uncomfortable. Ugh...

Throughout the novel, Dess annoyed me a lot. I remember physically shaking as I was holding the book.

There was almost no romance. If you know me, I'm not typically a fan of romance in books. (spoiler: Well Dess had a fling with Rob that was unnecessary).

All in all, it was an okay read but Dess ruined most of it for me.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first book review of 2021!

I didn't expect to write this review but I actually found some old reviews that I wrote around 2018/19. Like a TON. I also plan to write more reviews after this. 

If there are any posts (apart from book reviews) you'd like me to write about, let me know.

Have a nice day and bye!