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A review by thenextgenlibrarian
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
“‘They were better when they were alive.’ ‘Aren’t most things?’”
👧🏾
Suzette, aka Little, is headed home to L.A. after a year at a New England boarding school. She left because her stepbrother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and her mom and stepdad felt it best she was safer somewhere else while Lionel, aka Lion, got used to his new normal. Now that she’s back, things are different. Suzette was with her female roommate at school, but is crushing on her childhood friend, Emil now. She’s struggling with identifying her sexuality, while also crushing on her brother’s new girlfriend and her coworker. Between all of that Suzette also has the weight of carrying the secret that Lion is off his meds. She tries to figure out her life and protect her brother at the same time.
🧑🏻🦰
What I liked: amazing representation with the Black, Jewish, bisexual main character, her boyfriend who has hearing aides, and Lion’s mental health struggles. The frank way the teens discussed racism, sexuality, and one character’s experience with religion and abortion was probably very ahead of its time when this released in 2017.
What I didn’t like: Because this was probably one of the first books of its kind, there were a lot of bi stereotypes and comments that rubbed me the wrong way. Also I felt like the book was trying to cover soooo many topics that some of the points Colbert was trying to make got lost a little bit. 3⭐️
CW: homophobia, bullying, abortion (discussed), anxiety, racism, homophobic slurs, bipolar disorder
👧🏾
Suzette, aka Little, is headed home to L.A. after a year at a New England boarding school. She left because her stepbrother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and her mom and stepdad felt it best she was safer somewhere else while Lionel, aka Lion, got used to his new normal. Now that she’s back, things are different. Suzette was with her female roommate at school, but is crushing on her childhood friend, Emil now. She’s struggling with identifying her sexuality, while also crushing on her brother’s new girlfriend and her coworker. Between all of that Suzette also has the weight of carrying the secret that Lion is off his meds. She tries to figure out her life and protect her brother at the same time.
🧑🏻🦰
What I liked: amazing representation with the Black, Jewish, bisexual main character, her boyfriend who has hearing aides, and Lion’s mental health struggles. The frank way the teens discussed racism, sexuality, and one character’s experience with religion and abortion was probably very ahead of its time when this released in 2017.
What I didn’t like: Because this was probably one of the first books of its kind, there were a lot of bi stereotypes and comments that rubbed me the wrong way. Also I felt like the book was trying to cover soooo many topics that some of the points Colbert was trying to make got lost a little bit. 3⭐️
CW: homophobia, bullying, abortion (discussed), anxiety, racism, homophobic slurs, bipolar disorder