Ibi Zoboi

American Street

Sarah Sammis

At first glance, this book is a straightforward tale of the disconnect between newly arrived immigrants and their settled, established kin. It's about young women making bad decisions in regards to men especially when their circumstances don't seem to offer any better options. It's about these same young women trying to keep their younger cousin from making the same mistakes when she seems to naive to survive a day by herself.

But all of these narrative threads are laid out through Fabiola's Haitian culture and merged with road narrative tropes, especially that of the crossroads. Here's the big important difference, here the crossroads is a source of mentorship and good advice among all the other dangers and temptations.

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Melissa Palmer

Book #48 Read in 2017
American Street by Ibi Zoboi

This is a gritty YA read. Fab comes to American from Haiti with her mother; she is an American citizen; her mother is not. Fab's mother is detained and sent to a holding facility in New Jersey. Fab continues to their destination--her aunt's house in Detroit. There she meets her three cousins who have all had varying street experience. This is a new world for Fab and a police detective tells her she will help her mother if Fab snitches on the drug dealers who orbit her cousin's world. This book shows inner-city life in a realistic and sometimes painful way. I borrowed this book from the public library. I would recommend it for high school and adult readers.

A National Book Award Finalist with five starred reviews! A New York Times Notable Book * Publishers Weekly Flying Start * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * ALA Booklist Editors' Choice of 2017 (Top of the List winner) * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * BookPage Best YA Book of the Year American Street is an evocative and powerful coming-of-age story perfect for fans of Everything, Everything; Bone Gap; and All American Boys. In this stunning debut novel, Pushcart-nominated author Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and vodou culture. On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

Lara Engle

This is more like a 3.5. Fabiola's story is one of perseverance and bravery, but it is also full of missteps. She's doing her best to make her way in a city and country that aren't what she expected. And she's doing it without her mother, whom she expected to be guiding her. This isn't a typical coming-of-age story because she's been thrust into extreme circumstances that have extreme consequences. The structure of the novel, telling most of the story from Fabiola's first-person, point of view, but then shifting in letters and interstitial stories to other points of view, adds some depth to what would otherwise be a pretty straightforward naive narration. I think the ideal audience for this book is teenagers. They will probably identify more closely with Fabiola and live through her journey.

Gisela Ayala 

Beautifully written. Ibi Zoboi, you changed my views with your words. 

From the beginning of the story, I could already tell that the plot would be driven by the characters actions, the main character in particular. Fabiola and her mother were trying to move from Haiti to Detroit and star a new life with her aunt and her cousins, but unfortunately, her mother gets detained. It was really heartbreaking for me when she got separated from her mother, and from there all her decisions were based around her quest to get her mother back. At times I would be so mad at Fabiola. I just wanted her to make certain decisions, but I know I had to respect her and where she came from, and I did. Her belief in the spiritual also really moved me and I enjoyed the spookiness and mysticism that surrounded her. Magical realism is my thing! 

This book also showed me a side of the world I rarely know about... Detroit and the gritty situations that people must go through to survive. Not everything is as it seems and we get this vibe when we learn more about each character presented in their mini chapters. It was also a way for Fabiola to get to know them as well. She was bad ass honestly, and I haven't seen a character from a book grow so much as she did in such a short period of time. She was clever and beautiful and someone I would have appreciated knowing in real life.

jess

This was a wonderfully written, complex story about a Haitian girl and her first few eventful months in America, combining elements of different cultures, modern politics, and a bit of magical realism. It was captivating, and I really enjoyed Fabiola's story. 

Full review to come.

Fraser Simons

Exactly what I expected from the book jacket. Not a bad thing, but didn’t exceed expectations. Perhaps because I’ve read quite a lot of immigrant stories. This is a thriving and main stay genre in Canada, more so than possibly anything else.

Amanda Kordeliski

4.5

This one starts a little slow and it took me a bit to get into the rhythm of the slang and Haitian Creole, but the story is both heartbreaking and compelling. This one will be hard to beat for the Morris Award.

Amanda Wells

I wasn't sure what to expect when picking this one up. I've seen it on a lot of lists this year, mainly around 'own voices' - and thought based on that alone it would be worth a read.

It was absolutely a departure from what I typically read, and especially what I've been reading lately (a lot of crime/mystery novels firmly based in white UK) - and for that it was great. It reminded me of the experience I had last year reading Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue - not that they are similar books in most aspects, but that I felt almost embarrassed that I'd read so few books from this perspective. 

In a way Mbue and Zoboi's books are similar, in that they show an immigrant perspective that I've only been able to guess at previously. American Street is certainly set in two worlds that I'm most unfamiliar with, and in a way it was wonderful to be immersed in these new settings. Fabiola's remembered Haiti (its good and bad) and her exploration of her corner of Detroit really felt like very specific insider views on the world. And the spiritual side of things weaving through Fabiola's experience really lent a lot to my reading and understanding of the gravity of the situation for her. 

Fair to say I quite loved this. It is a YA novel that deals with lifelong issues - and I certainly recommend it to any adult (not just the Ys).

Katie

I think my expectations were all wrong going into this book, and it didn't deliver what I thought it was going to and wasn't exactly the type of book I was in the mood for. I was really interested in Fabiola's journey to America and her attempts to get her mother out of the immigration system before she was deported, but this book doesn't go into a lot of detail about that. It more focuses on Fabiola trying to fit in with her aunt and cousins that she has only ever talked to on the phone, and making mistakes, big and small, while trying to navigate in her new home.

The writing style was very pretty and poetic, and I think it went well with the fabulism elements of this book.

I generally prefer to go into books pretty blind, but in this case I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I had educated myself on what it was actually about.

Jeni Enjaian

This book had so much potential. I loved the first chapter. Fabiola's voice grabbed me and dragged me into the story that I thought held so much promise. Once she met her American cousins, however, the story started a precipitous journey downwards. For one, the beautiful prose of Fabiola's first chapter devolved into ugly curse words peppering entire pages. These words added nothing to the story; they subtracted. Throughout the story Fabiola's character wavered, changed so much I could hardly tell who Fabiola really was. This was not character development; this was character insecurity. The book held a few bright moments, a few moments in which I gasped because of the revelation. Those few moments were not enough to redeem the book.

I do not recommend this book.

Carla Aquino

I absolutely loved this story!!!! There was a lot of Caribbean influence that Fabiola bought with her to the story. When I started to read it there was such a familiar space that it put me in. Like I have lived in the story. I believe it is because of the Caribbean influences of Voodoo like with Santeria. Papa Legba was soooo very familiar as well. I feel like I might have met him before in my life. 

There was a time in high school when I lost one of my very good friends. Desmond was shot and killed while waiting in his parked car for a friend. After he was killed I went through a period in high school where I was kind of just going through the motions. I don't really remember a lot of the rest of that semester. I guess I was walking around like a zombie. Well one afternoon I was walking home from school and this guy who was always on the corner talking and singing to himself said to me "Life Goes On". I never really paid attention to this man before because he was always talking to himself and smoking his pipe. Well when he said “life goes on” something in me clicked. It was like I had awoken from a slumber. I have a tattoo of that exact saying and I will never forget him. 

Reading this novel bought back that memory of that particular time in my life. I think about that old man from time to time. He was probably Papa Legba. I was at a crossroads in my life at that point. The weird part about the old man was after that moment when he was reciting whatever it was and made that comment, I never saw him again. And this man was always on that corner...for years!!!! Its like he was only there to wake me out of whatever was just carrying me along in life since at that point in my life I really was not participating. 


I loved all of the characters..the three Bee’s and Fabiola. I loved Kasim as well!!! I cried and wasn’t happy with the ending but it had to be that way to make the story. Even though I didn’t get the ending I wanted it was still 5 stars all the way! 

Will continue this review.

American Street

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