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A review by whitneymouse
Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee
4.0
**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Crown Books for Young Readers for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my rating**
I'm starting January really conflicted. This is my third 3.5 in a row and I just want a book to rave about. This book was engaging and has a lot of important things to say, but I think the incidents that are happening in this book are really overt in my experience and would've definitely caught some attention prior to the conclusion of the book. I know that this is based partially on the author's experiences, but I can only bring mine to this reading and for me, it felt like the antagonist was almost cartoonishly racist whereas the racism I experienced throughout high school and college was more on the micro-aggressions level and VERY rarely as overt as Lucas' actions.
The book is about Savannah, an incoming freshman at Wooddale, an Ivy League college. She is a Black student, there on a full scholarship with a near perfect SAT score but is initially paired with a roommate who immediately shortens and gentrifies her name, who refers to her as "Affirmative Action" on many occasions, and who says a lot of ignorant things on the regular. Her roommate is dating Lucas, who is the student body president and the head of a frat house on campus, as well as the son of a very wealthy donor to the college.
The main conflict starts when a student defaces a statue of one of the Black founders of the college, painting it in Blackface and putting an afro wig on it. Savannah is (rightfully) upset that this statue has been defaced and that her fellow students don't seem to be concerned. They mostly laugh it off as "just a joke". Throughout a series of events, Savannah continues to experience harassment, different treatment from her peers and professors alike than the treatment of the white students, and many, many overt forms of racism. Many of them stem from white students insisting on using the "n-word" for...reasons (cause they're ignorant, if not racist). This did happen at my college (which was also predominantly white), but not to the same degree that I found in this book. Savannah eventually learns to use her voice to stand up for what's right, but I feel like the incidents that were happening throughout the novel would have definitely made some kind of news earlier than the conclusion of the book. They have a social media hashtag called #WooddaleConfessions. There would have to be some kind of TikTok or Twitter equivalent that would allow them to amplify the situations that keep happening LONG before the end of the book. Especially at an Ivy League school, which probably has more scrutiny in the media than your average college in my experience.
I really enjoyed Savannah as a character. I love that she has strong female friendships in both B'onca and Tasha. The relationships Savannah has with other Black women in this story is really where the story shines and where I enjoyed Lee's writing the most. I think Lee obviously has many important things to say about the BIPOC/Black experience in colleges, but I also think she shows great representation of female friendships within this community and I appreciated that. There's also some discussion about generational trauma and how the dreams of your parents can be thrust upon you in relation to Savannah's relationship with her mother, Freda, who is a single mother who works long hours and/or multiple jobs throughout her childhood to get Savannah a shot at Ivy League.
Overall, while I can't say it's representative of my experience in terms of how I experienced racism in college, I do think this book has important things to say and that the writing is worth giving it a chance. My only change would be to show more subtle instances of these events instead of mostly large, attention-grabbing things. I feel like the actions Lucas goes through are going to be so overt that some of the people who need to look at his behavior and examine themselves will write it off because it's SO in your face. There are shades, unfortunately, and I just think that maybe the book will end up with some people who need to read it and absorb it using as a way to excuse their behavior because it's not "as bad" as Lucas' mess.
3.5/5 stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads)
I'm starting January really conflicted. This is my third 3.5 in a row and I just want a book to rave about. This book was engaging and has a lot of important things to say, but I think the incidents that are happening in this book are really overt in my experience and would've definitely caught some attention prior to the conclusion of the book. I know that this is based partially on the author's experiences, but I can only bring mine to this reading and for me, it felt like the antagonist was almost cartoonishly racist whereas the racism I experienced throughout high school and college was more on the micro-aggressions level and VERY rarely as overt as Lucas' actions.
The book is about Savannah, an incoming freshman at Wooddale, an Ivy League college. She is a Black student, there on a full scholarship with a near perfect SAT score but is initially paired with a roommate who immediately shortens and gentrifies her name, who refers to her as "Affirmative Action" on many occasions, and who says a lot of ignorant things on the regular. Her roommate is dating Lucas, who is the student body president and the head of a frat house on campus, as well as the son of a very wealthy donor to the college.
The main conflict starts when a student defaces a statue of one of the Black founders of the college, painting it in Blackface and putting an afro wig on it. Savannah is (rightfully) upset that this statue has been defaced and that her fellow students don't seem to be concerned. They mostly laugh it off as "just a joke". Throughout a series of events, Savannah continues to experience harassment, different treatment from her peers and professors alike than the treatment of the white students, and many, many overt forms of racism. Many of them stem from white students insisting on using the "n-word" for...reasons (cause they're ignorant, if not racist). This did happen at my college (which was also predominantly white), but not to the same degree that I found in this book. Savannah eventually learns to use her voice to stand up for what's right, but I feel like the incidents that were happening throughout the novel would have definitely made some kind of news earlier than the conclusion of the book. They have a social media hashtag called #WooddaleConfessions. There would have to be some kind of TikTok or Twitter equivalent that would allow them to amplify the situations that keep happening LONG before the end of the book. Especially at an Ivy League school, which probably has more scrutiny in the media than your average college in my experience.
I really enjoyed Savannah as a character. I love that she has strong female friendships in both B'onca and Tasha. The relationships Savannah has with other Black women in this story is really where the story shines and where I enjoyed Lee's writing the most. I think Lee obviously has many important things to say about the BIPOC/Black experience in colleges, but I also think she shows great representation of female friendships within this community and I appreciated that. There's also some discussion about generational trauma and how the dreams of your parents can be thrust upon you in relation to Savannah's relationship with her mother, Freda, who is a single mother who works long hours and/or multiple jobs throughout her childhood to get Savannah a shot at Ivy League.
Overall, while I can't say it's representative of my experience in terms of how I experienced racism in college, I do think this book has important things to say and that the writing is worth giving it a chance. My only change would be to show more subtle instances of these events instead of mostly large, attention-grabbing things. I feel like the actions Lucas goes through are going to be so overt that some of the people who need to look at his behavior and examine themselves will write it off because it's SO in your face. There are shades, unfortunately, and I just think that maybe the book will end up with some people who need to read it and absorb it using as a way to excuse their behavior because it's not "as bad" as Lucas' mess.
3.5/5 stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads)