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maggie_sotos 's review for:
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
by Issa Rae
Let me be crystal clear: I love Issa Rae. I watch Insecure like it is my JOB. She is a commanding comedic voice and I cannot speak highly enough of her talent, her vision, her courage, and her dedication to increasing visibility for black actors in her work. She is nuanced, her humor is real, and she is a big f*cking deal.
That said, there is zero reason for this book to exist.
She wrote it before she even developed Insecure as a series. The only success she had under her belt at the time of publishing was "Awkward Black Girl", the webseries. As groundbreaking as that series was, it's a webseries. You don't need to write a book about it. And she didn't even talk about the series' content in the book! I still have no idea what it's about. The rest of the novel was mostly focused on her childhood and teenage years, which (while unique and interesting) do not really merit an entire publishing deal.
The one interesting aspect of the book was her observation about monsters in society, and how reflections of ourselves are so important to keep us sane and seen. But...that's not really HER observation. She just quotes a different artists who made the observation initially, and agrees with it.
This book can be skipped, but Rae's show Insecure absolutely can NOT be.
That said, there is zero reason for this book to exist.
She wrote it before she even developed Insecure as a series. The only success she had under her belt at the time of publishing was "Awkward Black Girl", the webseries. As groundbreaking as that series was, it's a webseries. You don't need to write a book about it. And she didn't even talk about the series' content in the book! I still have no idea what it's about. The rest of the novel was mostly focused on her childhood and teenage years, which (while unique and interesting) do not really merit an entire publishing deal.
The one interesting aspect of the book was her observation about monsters in society, and how reflections of ourselves are so important to keep us sane and seen. But...that's not really HER observation. She just quotes a different artists who made the observation initially, and agrees with it.
This book can be skipped, but Rae's show Insecure absolutely can NOT be.