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Summary
Summary
William C. Morris Award for YA Debut Novel Finalist, American Library Association (ALA)
Amelia Bloomer Project - Feminist Task Force, American Library Association (ALA)
Best Teen Books, Kirkus Reviews
Rani's fully present as MC Sutra, "Call my solution a female revolution / retribution in the form of rhyme electrocution."
Almost seventeen, Rani Patel appears to be a kick-ass Indian girl breaking cultural norms as a hip-hop performer in full effect. But in truth, she's a nerdy flat-chested nobody who lives with her Gujarati immigrant parents on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, isolated from her high school peers by the unsettling norms of Indian culture where "husband is God." Her parents' traditionally arranged marriage is a sham. Her dad turns to her for all his needs--even the intimate ones. When Rani catches him two-timing with a woman barely older than herself, she feels like a widow and, like widows in India are often made to do, she shaves off her hair. Her sexy bald head and hard-driving rhyming skills attract the attention of Mark, the hot older customer who frequents her parents' store and is closer in age to her dad than to her. Mark makes the moves on her and Rani goes with it. He leads Rani into 4eva Flowin', an underground hip hop crew--and into other things she's never done. Rani ignores the red flags. Her naive choices look like they will undo her but ultimately give her the chance to discover her strengths and restore the things she thought she'd lost, including her mother.
Author Notes
Sonia Patel knows teenagers inside and out. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, trained at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii, she has spent over fifteen years listening to and understanding the psyche of teenagers from all walks of life. She's also been a teenage girl herself, growing up on Moloka'i as a first generation Gujarati-American. As a writer, Sonia is passionate about giving voice to the underrepresented youth she treats. Her YA debut featuring a Gujarati-Indian American teen, Rani Patel In Full Effect , was a finalist for the Morris Award and was listed on YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults and Kirkus' Reviews Best Teen Books of 2016. Her second YA novel, with a Gujarati-Indian trans boy and a mixed ethnicity girl, Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story , was selected for the 2019 In the Margins Book Award Recommended Fiction Book List. She chose South Korea as the setting for her third YA novel, Bloody Seoul , because of her extensive treatment experience with Korean and Korean American teens on Oahu (and her love for the Korean gangster film genre).
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rani Patel, a Gujarati Indian teenager working in her family's restaurant and convenience store on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, has been sexually abused by her father, something the 16-year-old has kept secret from her overworked and withdrawn mother. With her father's new girlfriend in the picture, Rani struggles with her identity, shaving her head and flirting with the much older Mark, despite warnings from her friend Omar and crush Pono. Invited to perform for an underground rap group, Rani finds validation through her alter ego, MC Sutra, as she becomes the first female rapper on the island. Meanwhile, she and her mother search for the strength to reject the harmful men in their lives and form a stronger bond between themselves. Patel sets her powerful debut novel in 1991, filling it with bygone rap references and an electric verbal blend of Gujarati, slang, Hawaiian pidgin, and the rhymes Rani crafts. Patel compassionately portrays Rani's entangled emotions, lack of self-confidence, and burgeoning sense of empowerment as she moves forward from trauma. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Gujarati Indian teen Rani likes hip-hop music and writes her own rhymes. A victim of incest and sexual abuse, she finds solace in the music scene of 1991 Moloka'i, Hawaii. Patel, a psychiatrist, offers a memorable protagonist and a deft lesson in unlearning unhealthy notions of love. An author's note discusses the effects of sexual abuse on mental health. Reading list, websites. Glos. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* As the only Indian girl in her entire Hawaiian town, 16-year-old Rani often feels like an outsider. She finds some comfort and empowerment in rap and slam poetry, and when she learns about an underground hip-hop crew in her town, it seems like she's finally found the perfect respite from her home life, which is marred by her parents' intensely traditional marriage, her father's brazen infidelity, and worst of all the lingering trauma of the sexual abuse her father inflicted on Rani for years. That's a lot for her to handle, but when Mark, the older man who runs the hip-hop crew, starts taking a special interest in her, it seems like he's the perfect solution to her problems, despite her friends' warnings. Debut author Patel offers a unique perspective in Rani, whose punchy first-person narrative peppered with early-90s hip-hop references; Hawaiian, Hawaiian Pidgin, and Gujarati phrases; and her own slick rhymes packed with an empowering feminist message commendably and strikingly stands out in the YA landscape. While Rani's recovery from her trauma is unrealistically speedy and conclusive something Patel, a psychiatrist, freely admits in her author's note most teens won't skip a beat, since Rani's voice, oscillating from righteous anger to thrilling pride, swooning crushes, and heartbreaking insecurity, will resonate with many, even those with little to no familiarity with Rani's background. Vivid, bold, and passionate.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
In Yoon's second young adult novel (after the best-selling "Everything, Everything"), true love and physics combine. Daniel is a Korean-American teenager en route to a college interview. Though he dreams of becoming a poet, he feels it's his family duty to go to medical school. Natasha is a Jamaican girl who relies on science, and who's about to be deported. Yoon weaves brief narratives from bit players (an immigration lawyer in love with his paralegal, a just-barely-hanging-on security guard, a grieving drunken driver who almost runs down Natasha) and interstitial entries on topics like "Hair: An African-American History" into the overarching love story between Daniel and Natasha. They meet by chance one morning and find their worlds transformed by the end of the day. "The Sun Is Also a Star" is an enormous undertaking: an eclectic dictionary mashed up with "Romeo and Juliet" and the '90s rom-com "One Fine Day." But Yoon grounds everything in Daniel and Natasha's instant, vital connection (throughout the day they spend together they adorably employ the "36 questions to bring about love") and the conundrum that follows when they realize the universe has brought them together only to part them. It's a deep dive into love and chance and self-determination - and the many ways humans affect one another, often without even knowing it. THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES By Mindy McGinnis 341 pp. Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, $17.99. (Young adult; ages 14 and up) Your heart may still be pounding after you've finished this book. It is uncannily well timed to our current political situation and the outcry over the culture of normalized sexual violence, perfectly calibrated for letting people know what it's like to walk through society as a woman now - worrying about who might be following you, being careful not to drink something that might have been tainted by someone trying to take advantage. Alex Craft is a killer, but not because she wants to be. The animals she tends to at her local animal shelter would agree; so would her friend Peekay (for "Preacher's Kid"), and so would the popular-jock-with-a-heart Jack, the boy who can't help loving her. It's because in a world that has taken away Alex's older sister - who was raped and murdered by a man in their small town who was never convicted - she had to take matters into her own hands. Friendships and relationships ensue as the three head full-throttle into their adult lives. But a threat hangs over everyone. McGinnis, who dedicates her book to "the victims," examines this dichotomy of hope and violence, love and hate, with dexterity and grace. WHAT LIGHT By Jay Asher 251 pp. Razorbill, $18.99. (Young adult; ages 13 and up) Teenagers often lead divided lives. Some split time between parents and towns, or flit in and out of groups, sharing only the parts of themselves presumed to fit in each. For Sierra, a dual existence is a holiday tradition. Each year after Thanksgiving her family leaves their Christmas tree farm in Oregon, hauling trees to a lot in California to sell. For a month, Sierra's home is a trailer on the lot. She's reunited with a childhood friend, and she tries to ignore her flirtatious male co-workers . At the end of December, the family heads home, and the cycle starts anew. Except this year could be the last, for financial reasons. And then there's Caleb, a guy with a violent past whom, despite warnings from those around her, Sierra falls for. Asher's debut, "Thirteen Reasons Why," was a best seller for nearly a decade. "What Light" has been around just as long in concept, and it harks back to a simpler time of young adult storytelling, with its linear first-person narrative (just one!) and classic themes of forgiveness, hope and the power of true love. Even Caleb's violence feels innocent compared with acts of his peers in recent novels. But as with holiday traditions, there's something beautiful about a novel done the old way, particularly when there's enough heart to make you weep. HOLDING UP THE UNIVERSE By Jennifer Niven 391 pp. Knopf, $17.99. (Young adult; ages 13 and up) What happens when a boy who can't recognize faces sees one he can't ignore? What happens when that face belongs to a girl formerly known as "America's Fattest Teen," a girl who had to be cut out of her home when, after her mother's death, she became too fat to leave it? Libby Strout weighs 351 pounds, down from 653. Returning to high school as a junior, she meets Jack, a master at fitting in, who has a secret: He has prosopagnosia, which means that every time he sees a face (including his girlfriend's and his mom's), it's new to him. He uses identifiers like ears that stick out to keep track of whom he's supposed to know. In the wake of a cruel prank, Jack reveals his face blindness to Libby. They end up in school counseling together, slowly connecting. Niven ("All the Bright Places") alternates between Jack's perspective and Libby's, ricocheting forward and backward in time. Whether the pair can be together is the question propelling the book - pretty standard fare, but Niven is adept at creating characters, and at saving the book's sight-and-blindness messaging from being cloying. Libby has survived not only her mother's death but also ridicule that would fell most adults, and her courage and body-positivity make for a joyful reading experience. Jack, a boy who desperately wants to see and finds himself able to do so in ways he didn't expect, provides a worthy counterpart. GIRL MANS UP By M-E Girard 373 pp. HarperTeen/HarperCollins, $17.99. (Young adult; ages 14 and up) "There are four of us dudes sitting here right now, and I kick all of their butts when it comes to video games - and I'm not even a dude," says Pen (for Penelope) Oliveira in Girard's debut novel. Her status as one of the guys means she's expected to help reel in hot girls for her best friend, Colby, an act she justifies because "maybe someday, when I finally man up, one of these girls could end up liking me instead." Pen knows who she is - the problem is other people. "I don't feel wrong inside myself," she explains. But her traditional Portuguese mom and dad criticize her for dressing like a "punk druggie" and lament that she has cut off her long hair. Strangers mock or menace her. Colby and the guys use and abuse her. Only her older brother, Johnny, truly gets her. Then she meets Blake, who is as interested in Pen as Pen is in her, and Olivia, Colby's ex-girlfriend, who listens without judgment and needs Pen's help. In them, Pen finds firmer ground to be herself. Girard's novel is compulsively readable, by turns wrenching and euphoric. Pen is an inspiration to anyone who's struggled to be understood, and a vital addition to the growing world of genderqueer protagonists. RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT By Sonia Patel 314 pp. Cinco Puntos, $11.95. (Young adult; ages 14 and up) One evening in 1991, 16-year-old Rani Patel, the only Gujarati Indian teenager on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, catches her father and a "barely out-of-adolescence home wrecker, making out." Her reaction is a gesture of mourning: She shaves off the hair that "flowed down my back like the river Styx." Not only has her father left her mother, he's left the daughter he's sexually abused for years. Rani pours herself into rap, finding heroes like LL Cool J and Queen Latifah, inspirations for her own slam poems. She joins a hip-hop crew, rapping as MC Sutra. The novel is punctuated by her raps, which express "the large and in charge person / I want the world to see." (These lyrics work for her character arc, but also have the effect of making you feel you're reading, well, someone's slam poetry.) Though suffering is at the core of this debut novel, it's also about living through pain by harnessing what brings happiness. And the dip into '90s nostalgia, not to mention the awesome Rani persevering and conquering as MC Sutra - but more important, as herself - makes reading all the slam poetry well worth it. JEN DOLL is the author of "Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest." Her first young adult book, "Unclaimed Baggage," will be published next year.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-On Molokai in the early 1990s, Rani Patel lives the life of the ultimate outsider. A quiet class council member of Indian descent whose relationship with her parents is deeply dysfunctional, she takes comfort only in hip-hop and rap. Her unrequited crushes on two local guys lead her into the underground rap scene, where she tests her skills as MC Sutra, but as she begins to forge an identity, her family and romantic relationships threaten to pull her under. Rani is a flawed character whose poor choices make her somewhat unlikable but also reflect a realistic reaction to her troubled family past-her mother ignores her, and her father sees her as a wife replacement (the book contains instances of incest). The teen seeks love and acceptance wherever she can find it, and through rap she is able to express her struggles and discover a community that embraces her unreservedly. The dialogue, which incorporates a bit of Hawaiian pidgin, Gujarati, and hip-hop slang, can require the use of the included glossary but enhances the understanding of Rani's place at the convergence of multiple cultures. Her story will appeal to readers who prefer gritty, darker fiction without a pat, happy ending, and characters who don't always overcome their challenges but must face them repeatedly. VERDICT A strong, unique choice for YA collections.-Marian McLeod, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
