Damani is tired. Every day she cares for her mum, drives ride shares to pay the bills and is angry at a world that promised her more before spitting her out. The city is alive with protests, fighting for people like her, but Damani can barely afford – literally – to pay attention.
That is until the summer she meets Jolene and life opens up. Jolene seems like she could be the perfect girlfriend – attentive, attractive, an ally – and their chemistry is undeniable. Jolene’s done the reading, she goes to every protest, she has all the right answers. So maybe Damani can look past the one thing that’s holding her back: Jolene is rich. And not only rich, but white, too. But just as their romance intensifies, just as Damani learns to trust, Jolene does something unforgivable, setting off a truly explosive chain of events.
I really wanted to like this book. I really did! It had some funny characters, although the satire is so bleak I wouldn’t even call it satire anymore, just dystopia. The lead character is supremely unlikeable and that’s exactly what we want. I was really into the first half – and then I don’t know.
Suddenly it seemed that the author realised she forgot to include a plot, and there we went, adding a very confusing « love » story, a terribly bland betrayal and a cast of suddenly perfectly-identical characters.
I just didn’t understand what she was trying to do after the Big Thing, and grew frustrated and sad to see such a good first half turn into this mess.