Black Girl Unlimited

December 23, 2019
Debut author Brown’s quasi-memoir blends magical realism with a coming-of-age story in this mold-breaking novel. Echo is a black teen growing up on Cleveland’s East Side, where adults worship the “white rock.” She is also learning how to control her newfound powers as a “quantum wizard”; shortly after her crush, Jessie, is in a tragic accident, Echo begins to see a veil that covers people. Soon, she learns that she’s not the only wizard: Elena, a gay Muslim girl who attends her mostly white middle school, discovers her own abilities, and the two become friends. In chapters organized as lessons in wizardry, Echo relays the triumphs and tragedies of her childhood, smoothly skipping across time to relate disparate moments atop one another. Using wizardry as a way to explore making something out of nothing and developing the skills it takes to survive traumatic events, Brown’s novel gives readers a potent glimpse into heartbreaking, unjust experiences and profound resilience in the face of wrongs perpetrated both systemically and interpersonally. The novel never shies from tough subject matter (drug addiction, sexual assault), at the same time deftly integrating magically realistic components and allegory into contemporary scenes. Ages 14–up.

Echo Brown is an excellent narrator of her semiautobiographical story about a young girl wizard from the East Side. Echo, the protagonist, splits her time between two worlds. Brown uses the metaphor of magic and wizardry to explore black womanhood and the freedoms and dangers of leaving the place that "made you." The audiobook sings with complexity and themes that are a step above many YA novels, and has a narration to match. Echo grapples with the complexities of black oppression and how it differs by gender, something rarely discussed in literature. Structurally, Brown intercuts certain scenes, which is very cinematic and hard to pull off in audiobook form, yet she masters it skillfully. Themes of mother-daughter connection, forgiveness, and both biological and created family make for a moving, vital story. S.N. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine