Scan barcode
A review by anyaemilie
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit by Colby Cedar Smith
5.0
Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing (via NetGalley) for the ARC!
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit is a novel in verse that tells the story of two generations of a family trying to chase the American dream. It begins with Mary's POV, a teenager living in Detroit in 1934. Her family is trying to make ends meet in the middle of the Great Depression, and Mary is torn between honoring her immigrant parents' wishes and following her own dreams. One day Mary finds stacks of love letters in the attic of her house, and then we start to flash back to two additional POVs: Jeanne in 1917 France, and Giorgos (Gio) in 1917 Greece. These flashbacks tell the stories of how Mary's parents met and ended up in the US, and their experience going through WWI in Europe, Jeanne as a nurse and Giorgos as a soldier.
Novels in verse are always a favorite format of mine, especially when they're done well. This is one that is done extremely well, in my opinion. The format makes this 500+ page book seem much shorter, and it works well for the story. The three POVs are also distinctly formatted, with Mary's being set to the left side of the page, Gio's chapters centered, and Jeanne's set to the right of the page making it easy to distinguish the three.
The story itself is beautifully written. I love Mary's chapters because, although her parts are set in 1934, she is quintessentially still a teenager. She is struggling with her identity because she's half Greek, half French and fully American but doesn't quite know what to make of those identities. She also has a crush on an American boy--blond hair, blue eyes, last name Smith--but knows that her father expects her to marry a Greek boy. So does she do what her family expects, or does she follow her heart?
Gio and Jeanne's chapters add another layer to Mary's story. They give so much more context to the reader about why Mary's parents are they way the are, and the experiences they went through, much of which Mary knows nothing about. It really humanizes her parents and emphasizes that each person has their own story, even if you don't know anything about it.
Ultimately, this is a (semi-biographical) story about the importance of family and the importance of being able to make your own choices about your life. This is a beautifully written, engaging debut novel and I highly recommend it, especially for fans of historical fiction.
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit is a novel in verse that tells the story of two generations of a family trying to chase the American dream. It begins with Mary's POV, a teenager living in Detroit in 1934. Her family is trying to make ends meet in the middle of the Great Depression, and Mary is torn between honoring her immigrant parents' wishes and following her own dreams. One day Mary finds stacks of love letters in the attic of her house, and then we start to flash back to two additional POVs: Jeanne in 1917 France, and Giorgos (Gio) in 1917 Greece. These flashbacks tell the stories of how Mary's parents met and ended up in the US, and their experience going through WWI in Europe, Jeanne as a nurse and Giorgos as a soldier.
Novels in verse are always a favorite format of mine, especially when they're done well. This is one that is done extremely well, in my opinion. The format makes this 500+ page book seem much shorter, and it works well for the story. The three POVs are also distinctly formatted, with Mary's being set to the left side of the page, Gio's chapters centered, and Jeanne's set to the right of the page making it easy to distinguish the three.
The story itself is beautifully written. I love Mary's chapters because, although her parts are set in 1934, she is quintessentially still a teenager. She is struggling with her identity because she's half Greek, half French and fully American but doesn't quite know what to make of those identities. She also has a crush on an American boy--blond hair, blue eyes, last name Smith--but knows that her father expects her to marry a Greek boy. So does she do what her family expects, or does she follow her heart?
Gio and Jeanne's chapters add another layer to Mary's story. They give so much more context to the reader about why Mary's parents are they way the are, and the experiences they went through, much of which Mary knows nothing about. It really humanizes her parents and emphasizes that each person has their own story, even if you don't know anything about it.
Ultimately, this is a (semi-biographical) story about the importance of family and the importance of being able to make your own choices about your life. This is a beautifully written, engaging debut novel and I highly recommend it, especially for fans of historical fiction.