A review by tayahmarie
Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Tilla, the young brown skin girl from Canada who is trying so hard to connect with her homeland, Jamaica, and calm the storm within her by making sense of her complicated relationship with her father. Wow. I saw SO much of myself in Tilla that it was scary low key, lol. Her character truly transported me back to my own girlhood and that made this reading experience even more interesting. That said, I became attached and grew a fierce protectiveness over her very quickly. Unlike most YA books, I didn’t have to keep reminding myself that Tilla was young, because so many of the things she said and did, I might’ve said and did, too when I was her age. She got a lot of grace from me. Whenever she went through one traumatic/hurtful thing, it’s like something else was lurking around the corner, and my heart broke for her in so many different ways and so many different times. 

I also wanted to note that the exploration of Black girlhood and Black fatherhood was done so well. I feel like there aren’t that many books or even works on the direct impact and correlation when it comes to the two. Tilla had so many complex feelings when it came to Tyson and the way in which she tried to navigate those feelings could resonate with so many Black girls and women. Tilla’s final conversation with him hit different, because sometimes all you can do is simply forgive and try to move on as best as you can.
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