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luvandkiwi's review against another edition
4.0
Listen... the writing was beautiful. It’s engaging, it’s wonderful. The story itself...this character, well she’s where my discomfort sits. I both hated and appreciated Danzy’s choices in writing her. That’s all I’ll say. I read the last page and wanted to chuck the book but then I giggled maniacally that she wrote a story so compelling it sparked such a reaction. More Danzy stories please!
readingindreams's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
lisa_spencer's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
courtneycanread's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book left me with more questions than answers in a good way… I think? The main character is totally unlikable and the way the author weaves such a feeling of dread throughout is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. Some of the book felt too smart and over my head but I still thoroughly enjoyed every agonizing moment of it. I think the end scene will haunt me for awhile.
pinaybibliophile's review
fast-paced
3.5
About a couple in Brooklyn during the 90's but it's far from a cute and aspirational love story. It's dark and gritty and very compelling.
johnnymacaroni's review against another edition
3.0
I'd like to give this 3.5 stars. I read about this in People magazine and the short description made it sound so different and intriguing. And it was both those things but as others have mentioned it felt incomplete. Not just the vague ending but the characters and story overall. The main thing this book gave me is an interest in Jonestown and I would like to read Maria's dissertation! I do think I would also like to read other books from this author.
flowerwineandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Great writing with some really important and intriguing topics and conversations that are worth reading. Unfortunately, they all felt very minimal or surface level and many other books have broached these topics better. I was interested in the progression of the story but it felt a bit empty and low stakes by remaining within the inner narrative of the main character. Easy to read quickly, and I enjoyed my time with it - but likely won't remember much of it in the future.
bboduffy's review against another edition
3.0
There were aspects I really enjoyed about New People - the prose, the portrayal of a biracial experience, growing up ethnically ambiguous in America and forging one's own cultural identity. The perspective rendered an understanding Senna captured aptly (though I'm not self actualized to hold this in the forefront of my consciousness every day, it is something I consider): "She understands that this whiteness affords her privilege she didn’t earn. She is calling it her “invisible backpack,” the privilege she carries around on her back every single day."
But the theme of privilege is also what made this book unsettling. The main character was painfully unlikable. 27 year old Maria, Stanford graduate pursuing a PhD while living in Brooklyn and planning a wedding in Martha's Vineyard, has minimal conception of money - despite having grown up in a single parent household where her mother lived off of student loans. Meanwhile she flits around on her selfish whims, fantasizing/stalking a man while she's engaged - breaking and entering his neighbor's apartment to get closer... and then shaking the neighbor's baby. While I can understand some of her self destructive anxiety - my empathy ends when her actions impact others. She's tremendously judgmental and angry, mainly I imagine because she feels trapped and depressed and may be on the borderline spectrum. These aspects made it a difficult book to read, to inhabit that first person perspective.
I wanted to like the book. The passages where she's casually working on her ethnographic dissertation on the music of Jonestown were really interesting. Pretty much all the academia moments resonated (e.g., "She has decided all university campuses are alike—the sense of possibility and stasis. She thinks this too: all graduate students, if you look closely enough, exude the same aura of privilege and poverty"). But it was difficult to get past the egocentric Maria. Though not enjoyable, New People will be fun to discuss in book club.
But the theme of privilege is also what made this book unsettling. The main character was painfully unlikable. 27 year old Maria, Stanford graduate pursuing a PhD while living in Brooklyn and planning a wedding in Martha's Vineyard, has minimal conception of money - despite having grown up in a single parent household where her mother lived off of student loans. Meanwhile she flits around on her selfish whims, fantasizing/stalking a man while she's engaged - breaking and entering his neighbor's apartment to get closer... and then shaking the neighbor's baby. While I can understand some of her self destructive anxiety - my empathy ends when her actions impact others. She's tremendously judgmental and angry, mainly I imagine because she feels trapped and depressed and may be on the borderline spectrum. These aspects made it a difficult book to read, to inhabit that first person perspective.
I wanted to like the book. The passages where she's casually working on her ethnographic dissertation on the music of Jonestown were really interesting. Pretty much all the academia moments resonated (e.g., "She has decided all university campuses are alike—the sense of possibility and stasis. She thinks this too: all graduate students, if you look closely enough, exude the same aura of privilege and poverty"). But it was difficult to get past the egocentric Maria. Though not enjoyable, New People will be fun to discuss in book club.
rockobeige's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
gertrude314's review against another edition
3.0
It was cool to learn more about the black culture in America and get more insight into the Jonestown massacre. I enjoyed her conflict over the poet but the ending was cray. I felt like the character had so much dignity and pride in her race and to be undone by a man was just so...typical? Expected? Disappointing? Did this book that was SO about race become sexist in the end? Was it supposed to be enlightening, in that you can be so aware of yourself in one area in your life that other things slip away? I'm not sure it was that ambitious and felt less intentional than that.