Table of Content
Some other plot lines were picked up and dropped off as well. Tasia character needed a pat on the back while at the same time needed a good slap across the face. The way she handled certain situations didn’t really sit well with me. I get her whole world collapsed but that really didn’t excuse her actions. Especially when it came to the way she was towards her mom.
Like I said, interesting premise, but for me it lacked the pacing and nuance to give me time to get invested in the character. Each new character we meet felt so full and like I'd want to know more about their back stories. They were all so multifaceted and interesting. And there were so many powerful and great scenes in here. Like Taze taking a knee during one of her games, the negative reactions she got and two other black kids on the team joining her. Her friendship with her bestie Stacy , which IMO perfectly showed how sometimes we mess up with the people we love the most and it can be really hard to talk it out and forgive.
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes
I want to say it is because I am too old to have related to Tasia. And Tasia infuriated the ever loving crap out of me. The box, which was presented early on as the central exploration and driving motivation, was not explored very thoroughly at all. Football was a distraction and so so much of her identity. She didn't really seem to know herself.
I worry about how I sometimes see Mamma get weirdly manic when she's under a lot of work stress. I worry when I see Daddy get frustrated when he's trying to put something together — maybe some furniture, recently the ceiling fan in my room. Josiah's grinning like a fool as the rest of the team floods us on the field. "Atta-baby, Tasia! Way to be, Taze. Atta-girl!" We high-five as we line up off to the side of the field to greet the other team and congratulate them on a well-played game. If you're looking to fall head over heels for some LGBTQ+ romances, you'll find yourself quite lucky in love with recent books.
Home and Away, Candice Montgomery, (electronic resource)
My favorite is when Tasia enrolls at a new high school and devised a way to prove to the coach that she can play football and should be on the team. I was rooting for her that whole scene. I have zero desire to go back to this.
That felt like a forced insertion in the name of political statements. That, that, that was the straw that broke the uncle fucking camels back. It had to be a one star after that. But when a mysterious box arrives, family secrets spill out, and her identity is suddenly called into question. The box is filled with mementos from Tasia’s life, including a birth certificate with a blank paternity line and a photo of her mom in the arms of some white dude... Turns out, the man she always thought was her father isn't.
The Inheritance Games
A good, funny little book about the consequences of lies, forgiveness, and identity crises. Okay first I am not a football fan, but I thought it was super cool that Tasia played football and went about playing in such a way that you could have nothing but respect for it. I am not so sure she handles everything else in a great way, but this is in essence is what this book is about.
A minute later, I see my phone flash with MAAAA plus her photo. I don't know why I think of this before I pick up the call. The picture is from maybe a month ago. Mamma at some CEO gala charity fundraiser dinner event her company put on to honor her. Her smile is big and bright, her skin is mahogany smooth, and her lifelong dreadlocks are in some complicated updo that probably took forever or cost hella cash money or both. CHAPTER 2Stacy "Slim" Lim is my best friend in the entire world, which is the weirdest phenomenon, considering we aren't much alike.
Home and away, Candice Montgomery
I mean, they had cute moments, but there was nothing that really was like YESSSSSSS, SHIPS, FEELS, SWOONS. It was like eh? I think part of this could be because Kai is technically her adopted uncle? He's her age and such, and she's never known this part of the family, but like, the moment I see "part of the family" feels are instantly gone for me? You will never be seeing this girl into the whole "I'm in love with my stepbrother" plot lines . There was a lot to like about this novel.
What stood out to me the most was that the author mentioned inter racism inside of a culture. I have never read about in a book, but this is a real thing. Especially in the black community. Now I’m not mixed race like Tasia but I am what you call a “light-skinned black girl”. The stereotype in the black community is that lighter skin girls/boys are more favored, prettier, and get more opportunities.
I get that she's shocked by learning about this big "twist" in her family, but the way she reacts is honestly just irritating. She said to have fun at Josiah's. Slim's mom used to mix up our entire friend group for years, and none of us look anything like each other. If I say I'm headed to Slim's, she knows all the details before I do.
I know this isn't the case cause on the author's website, she notes she is non-binary. But, I would've wanted to know more about them being non-binary. Like you can't know someone has Tourettes just by looking at them. Re her blackness, I just felt like it did not have to break her world so much that she was half white. Baby doll you didn't see the light skin privilege you got your whole life????
Tasia Quirk is young, Black, and fabulous. Tasia is determined to unravel the lies that have overtaken her life. Which means priority #1 is tracking down her bio dad. Along the way, Tasia discovers that forgiveness is more than an eleven-letter word, and there's a fee for answers.
If you are as interested in Home and Away as I am, it is releasing this October 16th, just in time for some weekend football reading. I also want to make note of Tasia’s gender expression. I feel like this is my personal soapbox lately, but I love that she embraces her different sides, and that she’s not characterized as a flat, single-minded person. Yes, she plays football and makes every point to fit in with the boys. I was very irritated by the fact that ( The main character’s name I forgot and I’m too lazy to look up, so for now I will call her Kim) Kim’s mom knew since birth, about Kim’s actual biological father. So why all of a sudden some box full of pictures and crap makes her feel all these different emotions?
There's so much about honesty here as well as family. That's what Tasia finds that she really wants from other people, and it's also what she needs to be able to give. All the feelings with Kai and Taze about family, oof.
Too many things prevented me from liking this book. The one star is for the attempt I do see at creating a critically conscious, queer, black book. Like, in actuality, this may even be a 1.5 star for me.
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