Audiobook read by Elizabeth Acevedo! From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.
Lil is anything but small. She’s rebellious, she’s loyal; she’s figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything? Lil wants to be free.
When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling.
The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles where he’s away at college. Something’s been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.
As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?
Thank you to Quill Tree Books and HarperAudio Children’s for a complimentary ALC of this book through Netgalley. All opinions shared are my own, not influenced by receiving the ALC.
This story was so poetic and beautiful and gripping and, honestly, real. I went into the story not knowing how to feel about Lil. She is not necessarily presented as a perfect character and yet, there is a realness to her thought process and decisions that is impossible to ignore. While we wait on the outcome of her hearing, we get to see her process of healing and growth that includes her family, a new set of friends and, most importantly, her desire to save her brother. Like Lil says at the end of the book, she is the sum of her mistakes and of all the times that she has made good.
I loved how the women that she looks up to in the story end up giving her books to read, and that they speak life into her. And the way her story and background and myths like el cadejo and la siguanaba were woven throughout the story and we get to see how her culture impacts her life. I truly felt her struggles of wanting to do the right thing but living in fear because everything that she’s tried to do always turns out wrong. And I am proud of her – yes, she sacrified her clean shot at freedom but she did so to save her brother, and it reminds me of how there is little I wouldn’t do for my own brothers.
A truly phenomenal listen – Acevedo narrating her own audiobook was gripping and I loved every second of it. And that ending of her being surrounded by family and friends, as a parallel to the opening where only her blood family is present just shows how much Lil grew through the story. Very highly recommended!