He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. Intriguing premise but the verdict is still out.Ī teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas. Though characters’ ethnicities are never identified, the world they live in, which creatively flips the hallmarks of machismo on their head, is steeped in Latinx-Caribbean culture. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this leaves many loose ends, ample hanging threads ripe for a sequel. After spending much of the book blindly loyal to Mega City, the protagonist’s inevitable change of heart comes with a rapidity once reserved only for the Grinch. Bursts of staccato action, frequently violent, are contrasted with languid interludes of pensive, often redundant, introspection. While addressing many hot-button issues, gender identity and expression lie at the heart of the drama. When an assignment from on high sends Nalah and crew beyond the borders, she is exposed to new ideas and long-buried memories which threaten the foundations of her life.
In this world of toxic femininity, Nalah, better known as Chief Rocka, leads a group of teen girls in patrolling the streets and pursuing an elusive dream of residing among the elite. Mega City appears to be the only urban center left standing after a massive earthquake known colloquially as the Big Shake, a place where ideals of a feminist eutopia have devolved into gang violence, economic inequality, rampant drug addiction, and callous objectification of men.
Rivera ( The Education of Margot Sanchez, 2017) crafts a feminist, futurist Latinx dystopia.
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