Review by Booklist Review
When 17-year-old Doris Steele finds herself pregnant, she quickly realizes how few options are available to Black teenagers living in 1960s Georgia--especially those who had to drop out of school to care for their ailing parents. Doris decides to confide in her former English teacher, Mrs. Lucas, and the two embark on a weekend trip to the big city of Atlanta to find a sympathetic midwife. Over the course of the weekend, Doris' worldview is transformed after meeting a group of Black intellectuals and activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., forever altering her understanding of choice, freedom, and her own potential. McKenzie's prose is both lyrical and sharply funny, capturing the voice of a rural Black girl discovering her strength in a story supported by complex characters, immersive settings, and richly textured dialogue. Readers who enjoyed Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half will find similar themes of female autonomy and self-discovery in this compelling novel. McKenzie's exploration of reproductive rights, sexuality, and civil rights through a distinctly Black feminist lens feels equally historic and timely.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A pregnant Black teenager spends a weekend in Atlanta during the thick of the Civil Rights Movement. Doris Steele is only 17 in 1960, but she left her rural Georgia high school--and the instruction of her favorite teacher, Mrs. Lucas--after 10th grade to take care of her ailing mother and younger siblings. When she becomes pregnant, she finds it impossible to face a future as a mother, and she turns to Mrs. Lucas for help. Mrs. Lucas calls upon her childhood best friend, Sylvia Broussard, a wealthy and well-connected Black woman with luminaries in her orbit like Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, and prominent figures in the arts, and a stepnephew with a key role in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. When Doris spends a weekend at the Broussard home waiting for the Atlanta doctor Sylvia has procured to perform the abortion, she's brought into contact with people whose views on religion, segregation, class, politics and--especially--homosexuality make her question everything she's been taught. ("I'm confused, Lord," Doris prays. "Please help me to see your purpose for bringing me among these heathens.") As the weekend unfolds and secrets spill out, Doris doubts that she will ever be the same again. McKenzie's novel crackles with energy, and her depiction of Black high society during a pivotal moment in American history has depth and vivacity. Although the plot strains to place Doris in as many historical scenarios as possible over the course of a few dozen hours, à la Forrest Gump, watching Doris awaken to the wider possibilities of politics, social justice, and human experience is undeniably satisfying. As Doris says, "Here, in Atlanta, in Mrs. Broussard's house? That God [I prayed to] seemed, not just petty, but suddenly very small." A prismatic rendering of the sit-in movement and its context, with memorable characters at its center. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
