Name: Jamieson's review of Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
Item: Black Girl Unlimited
Rating: 4
Author: Jamieson

Echo Brown

A powerful memoir for fans of Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson and American Street by Ibi Zoboi. Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for. Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age. Christy Ottaviano Books

The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard

Black Girl Unlimited

Mirella

"Just brilliant."—Kirkus Reviews Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson's Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi's American Street. Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for. Christy Ottaviano Books

Jamieson

4.5 star. The last 30 minutes was so freaking good, the way I CRIED

sophia n

100000 crying emojis. this cut me so deep. it’s hard to explain the feeling this book gave me, as it reads very autobiographical and yet also magical and a bit surreal, it feels … the way trauma is described and dealt with in this was painful and raw and real. also the conversation on race and poverty was extremely powerful. woof. what a book.

trigger warnings: child sexual abuse, graphic rape of a minor, drugs and alcohol addiction, suicidal ideation, drug overdose, mentions of murder, death

Zahia Saeed 

Jill Niemeier 

Archita Birla

this book is really heavy, and hard to read at points, but it is also a truly beautiful story and incredibly crafted. the style of writing is different to what I am used to, but I overall really loved reading it.

Caitlin Miller 

This is the first book I think that I have read by a person of colour (I am trying to expand my reading) and it was amazing. Echo Browns writing is amazingly descriptive and mesmerising. The way she is able to entwine magical realism with reality really make you feel that life can be seen through a different lense. There were so many parts of the book that had amazing commentary on the human life and the life of a person of colour. 
The struggles the main character faced and her ability to overcome and achieve her dreams and remain true to herself even after the struggles she has faced really shows the strength of humanity and women to overcome some of the hardest things that life can throw at you. 
5/5!

Mari

TW: rape of a minor  

This book was amazing! Like... legit wow. I was on the verge of tears multiple times. 

The only reason why it's not 5-stars is that I think that the magical realism and its symbolism got lost on me. Like I don't really comprehend all of it and I kind of wish that we didn't have the magical realism so we can go deeper into the various conversations that this book had.

 With that said, I highly recommend it. It is definitely a book that everyone should read and should experience because Echo Brown just did it all so flawlessly.

Renee Delcourt

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. This is a book I plan to pass on to my nieces in hopes of them gaining a smidge of the author's perseverance and strength. I think this is told in such a unique way. It can be a bit jarring at first but once you get used to the flow it's kind of mind blowing how moments just bleed in to each other. 

The content is very serious. I knew what this book was about and knew it could be very difficult for me to read with the triggers in it, but felt it was a story that I needed to know. I'm glad I pushed myself even with my struggle. I had to give myself what I refer to trigger breaks to keep myself reading. If you have anxieties like me or have problems with triggers (such as, drug usage, alchoholism, abuse, rape, talks of suicide, and near death experiences) please try to push through to the end. It is genuinely worth the read.

Emily C Peterson

Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)[death of a parent, suicide, rape, pedophilia, racism, sexism, depressive episodes, drug abuse (implied) (hide spoiler)]

Black Girl Unlimited is fantastic. It is also completely unique from anything else that I have ever read. This book is fiction, but also non-fiction. Fantasy, but actually hard-hitting contemporary? It's a jumble of all things and that is the point.

This book tells the story of Echo Brown. She is a wizard - or so the story tells us. She is growing up in a life which is raw and loving and traumatic and confusing. It's a story about belonging and not fitting in. Growing up but not letting the dark veil consume us. It's a story about magic. 

This is also a story which I can't really tell you what it's about. You need to read it to understand. 

But if you love books like 
  Wild Beauty
 and 
  The Starless Sea
, but also love really hard-hitting contemporaries - check this out. It's something really special.

Echo Brown narrates this not-so autobiographical book herself. It is raw and hard-hitting. It will make you cry. The narration just cements how freaking important stories like this are, no matter how they are told.


  Note: Review copy (audio) received via Libro.FM. This does not impact opinions within this review.


blog •  trigger warning database • more links

Happy reading! ❤

Émilie 

Je me suis lancée dans cette histoire sans trop en savoir et qu'elle erreur....
Si je m'étais renseignée un minimum j'aurais su que le style d'écriture n'était pas pour moi. Il s'agit d'un mémoire avec une touche de magical realism. C'est une succession de souvenirs racontés au présent.
Si je m'étais renseignée un peu plus j'aurais également su que le sujet n'était pas pour moi. Les premiers chapitres m'ont fait souffrir, j'avais tellement mal pour ces enfants. C'est très poignant, très sombre. C'est réaliste mais ce n'est pas le genre de réalité que j'ai envie d'explorer durant mon temps de lecture. Je préfère voyager et m'évader, voir la beauté plutôt que la cruauté. 
C'est une très belle écriture, un sujet important. Simplement ce n'était pas pour moi.

DNF.

Kate

An incredibly inspiring and powerful story of strength, trauma, perseverance and hope. 

This wasn't an easy read by any means. It was filled with pain and trauma but the careful way in which these aspects of Echo Brown's story were woven together to create this story was so moving, it was hard to put down.

I listened to the audiobook, which added a whole new emotional connection to the story. I did find it to be a little confusing at first, due to the structure of the time changes and flash backs but once I got used to this, I was captivated by Echo Brown's story and voice.

Overall, this was an important, beautiful and unflinchingly honest exploration of Echo Brown's life as a Black woman living in America from the age of six until she leaves home and goes to college and a book I would highly recommend. 

TW: child sexual abuse, rape, discussion of suicide, trauma, suicidal ideations, racism

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Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

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