this review turned really long but it's spoiler free.
I mainly picked this book in my search of black authors.
I am glad I found this gold gem. it reminds me of home, even tho I am Caribbean.
It gave me a sense of nostalgia as I left haiti when I was 9 turning 10. almost the same age sunny left the states.
it felt good to read about power outages, and having to use candles. I could see myself in my school uniform walking from school in the hot sun. it also unfortunately brought back memories of being whipped at school too.
the story it self was great too.
I came for 1 protagonists but I received 4 great black protagonists where the color of their skin wasn't the main issue.
for sunny, they mostly focused on her albinism in the intro and her introduction to her powers afterwards its all dropped which is nice. at school with the bullies surprisingly sunny has both a strong bark and bite.
for Sasha they focused on him being "American" for a lot longer than I thought they would. But with his personality being so personaly strong i can see the parallel being drawn.
sadly the author didn't focus on Orlu too much, I hope they focus on chichi and orlu in the next book.
he was the straight men of the group. and he had his own small development after chichi pushed her luck a bit too far at the tournament.
chichi is the epitome of confidence, and I am happy they showed that she still had much learn as a leopard person.
the world the author created was big and we've only explored a small section.
i hope in the next one we can explore more of the characters and the worlds.
