SPOILER FREE REVIEW
Title: Piecing Me Together
Author: Renee Watson
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: 1st March 2018
RRP: $14.99 (AUD)
Synopsis:
Piecing Me Together tells a story of Jade, a girl striving for success in a world that seems like it is trying to break her. She knows she needs to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she could do without, like the mentorship programme for 'at-risk' girls. Just because her mentor is black doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone people want to fix. Jade feels like her life is made of hundreds of conflicting pieces. Will it ever fit together? Will she ever find her place in the world? More than anything she wants to opportunity to be real, to make a difference.
I picked up this short little book after reading some fairly intense books, and knew I needed some contemporary to keep up the reading pace. Initially, I was interested in the book and curious to where it was heading. The short chapters made it easy to read but also easy to put down when I found myself getting a little disinterested. Though, to keep you interested, the book definitely picked up in the end and felt like it really getting somewhere and I enjoyed the book overall.
The main plot of the story isn't really clear, it's kind of just Jade, our MC, dealing with her life, the hand she was dealt, and the actions of others around her. I don't think that's a bad thing in terms of the important racial issues this book offers, but maybe knowing that the story is perhaps quiet and what feels like a bridging step into what I hope is a continuation of books that deal with race, if that makes sense.
Jade wasn't a particularly memorable character. When I think of the characters in this book, I think of how much I love Lee Lee, one of the side characters - I wish there was more of her. That's what I think this book needed a little bit more of - just a bit more personality showing from the MC and the other side characters that made multiple appearances.
I feel like this book is kind of like a build up to something better, but that something better is you (or more specifically, white people, like myself). It's important that you take something from this book otherwise, what is the point of reading it? Yes, it's a short contemporary dealing with what people know is a big issue in society and has been for years. So why is it that people are still surrounding people of colour and races other than caucasians with their assumptions?
Let Piecing Me Together not be a book you just read and rate and that's it. Let it be a novel that can help young readers of colour know they're not alone, let it start helping young readers to understand the importance of race discrimination and how your words, my words and their's can be the power we need to stimulate more change in this world.
Rating: 3.5/5
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*These books were sent to me unsolicited by Bloomsbury Australia. All opinions are my own.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME:
Contact: erenabennett@hotmail.com
Instagram: @erenareads & @erena_b
Goodreads: @erenareads
Twitter: @erenareads
YouTube: My Life As Erena or click here
Follow my blog with Bloglovin'!
Title: Piecing Me Together
Author: Renee Watson
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: 1st March 2018
RRP: $14.99 (AUD)
Synopsis:
Piecing Me Together tells a story of Jade, a girl striving for success in a world that seems like it is trying to break her. She knows she needs to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she could do without, like the mentorship programme for 'at-risk' girls. Just because her mentor is black doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone people want to fix. Jade feels like her life is made of hundreds of conflicting pieces. Will it ever fit together? Will she ever find her place in the world? More than anything she wants to opportunity to be real, to make a difference.
The main plot of the story isn't really clear, it's kind of just Jade, our MC, dealing with her life, the hand she was dealt, and the actions of others around her. I don't think that's a bad thing in terms of the important racial issues this book offers, but maybe knowing that the story is perhaps quiet and what feels like a bridging step into what I hope is a continuation of books that deal with race, if that makes sense.
Jade wasn't a particularly memorable character. When I think of the characters in this book, I think of how much I love Lee Lee, one of the side characters - I wish there was more of her. That's what I think this book needed a little bit more of - just a bit more personality showing from the MC and the other side characters that made multiple appearances.
I feel like this book is kind of like a build up to something better, but that something better is you (or more specifically, white people, like myself). It's important that you take something from this book otherwise, what is the point of reading it? Yes, it's a short contemporary dealing with what people know is a big issue in society and has been for years. So why is it that people are still surrounding people of colour and races other than caucasians with their assumptions?
Let Piecing Me Together not be a book you just read and rate and that's it. Let it be a novel that can help young readers of colour know they're not alone, let it start helping young readers to understand the importance of race discrimination and how your words, my words and their's can be the power we need to stimulate more change in this world.
Rating: 3.5/5
----
*These books were sent to me unsolicited by Bloomsbury Australia. All opinions are my own.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME:
Contact: erenabennett@hotmail.com
Instagram: @erenareads & @erena_b
Goodreads: @erenareads
Twitter: @erenareads
YouTube: My Life As Erena or click here
Follow my blog with Bloglovin'!
