cos heres how it broke down, after reading that holly black book, i went to rate it on good reads, and this book was suggested to me. i only saw the cover, but the cover alone is the reason i was like ‘ill read that’ and added it to my list:

those of you that have been around for a minute will know that whitewashing is my petpeeve, and that whitewashing book covers is an important subset of this. if theres a poc in the book, and they SHOW HER ON THE COVER, that book automatically gets my full focus (this is how i read another book ive been meaning to rec to yall), because while the trend in YA novels right now is to have white girls posing vaguely on the covers, youll know a book has a poc protag because they conveniently do not show a person on the cover

but this shit right here???? unambiguously a black girl with beautiful natural hair and a GORGEOUS cover and i fell in love right away

so, i saw this on good reads right before heading to work. and when i get there? this book has been put on display and i almost lose it lmao, im like YES. i literally dont know what this book is about, so i grab a copy from the display and sneak some peeks at it during slow times on the selling floor

turns out this book is literally about an afro-latina girl, a MIXED GIRL!! who is a painter turned street artist. this book is based in carribean folklore (yall know i love faerie shit but im always thirsty for non-european folklore in modern fantasy novels) and whats more??

anika noni rose (who, if you dont know, is the va for PRINCESS TIANA my hero ) literally is the first quote on the back of the book, with this raving review:

“I love this book for the richness of its culture, the strength of the characters, the humor and the truth of its language. Sierra is the heroine we’ve been waiting for – a pretty, brown-skinned Latina artist who is smart, strong, inventive, and unsure, all the while being heroic. Daniel José Older is one of my favorite new voices, and I can’t wait to see what he (and Sierra) come up with next.”

so im like, beside myself. i brought it home today and im already liking it a lot. im only 20 pages in and heres some facts:

introduced to several named characters, all of which are unambiguously poc with diverse presentation

the protagonist is a mixed black/latin@ girl, who wears her hair naturally in an afro and has a strong sense of community

her crew is all girls at this point

two of which are a poc lesbian couple!!!!!!!!!! (one half of which is a talented freestyle rapper)

the male lead is an artsy boy from haiti who seems sweet (and not creepy and forceful like ya male leads tend to be)

they talk to each other in casual aave that doesnt seem awkward and forced

painting and street art are an integral part of this story, as well as a sense of community (no convenient parental neglect so these teen protags can run around and do whatever while being strangely isolated)

im pretty sure the antagonist is gonna be a white guy that is a professor on their culture trying to claim their ancestor-art-magic and appropriate it for his own gain

im literally beside myself, i cant believe this book is a front of the line, mainstream novel. its (somewhat unfortunately) touted as cassandra clare meets carribean culture, but im hoping that this author takes off and claims a corner all his own without having to be defined by a mainstream white authors style