hi everyone my name is Melissa thanks for joining me today I'm going to be reviewing a 2017 recently published novel by dandy sena called new people so Dancy is an American author and from what I've seen of her work she's done some work in writing but quite a bit of work being doing critical essays and and being a an activist on race issues it was a book that I read on my Kindle so that's for another review the debate between ebooks and real books I'm gonna start by sharing with you a little bit about well what's new people about and from the jacket cover she summarizes it like this as the 20th century draws to a close Maria is at the start of a life she never thought possible she and Khalil her college sweetheart are planning their wedding they are the perfect couple king and queen of the racially nebulous prom their skin is the same shade of beige they live together in a black bohemian El clave in Brooklyn where Callie was riding the wave of the first dot-com boom and Maria is plugging away her dissertation on the Jonestown Massacre they've even landed a starring role in the documentary about new people like them who are blurring the old boundaries as a brave new era Dawn's everything Maria knows she should want lies before her yet she can't stop daydreaming about another man a poet she barely knows a fantasy as fantasy escalates to fixation it dredges up secret to the past and threatens to unravel not only Maria's perfect new life but her very persona so it is a very contemporary set novel you get the feeling that it is dealing with new people issues there is discussion about being mulatto mixed-race couple and that brings out the themes of race African identity and meaningfulness a sense of accomplishment and what you can do with yourself this brings me on to the structure Maria is the main character the world is told from her point of view she is debating with a couple issues with her mother and it's interesting how many of these race related issues go back to Parenthood and that ancestry or that identity of who we were who we were struggling to be she's also took in the process of doing her dissertation her PhD and it's interesting because mmm I think that's where it fell apart for me a little bit I've done a PhD you have no time to be as psychotic as this character is when you're doing one the language is very simple it's of course as I was saying structures first-person narration there is no going back and forward in time she she does have flashbacks about her past that helps contextualize who she is but maybe not why she behaves the way she does not entirely the language is really easy some people have said on online reviews that it's really easy to read this author she progresses really nicely you could keep going for people who do like a little bit more you know sassiness to writing it can get a bit boring and you find yourself at some point skipping over a couple sentences to kind of get on with it because you can get on with it what I take away from this book is that Maria is quite a character it's hard to piece her together as being the same person in each chapter she does have a bit of a psychotic problem my favorite quote for this novel is when she breaks into someone's apartment and this is what happens she hopes he doesn't have a child she doubts it a snowglobe was Paris inside she shakes it smiles as she watches the flakes fall around the Eiffel Tower she runs his brush through her hair pleased by the sight of the strands she leaves behind not removing them she goes to the bathroom sits down and pees in the darkness decides not to flush she brushes her teeth with his old with his toothbrush - the paste then rinses it off and puts it back in the holder okay she doesn't flush the toilet but she rinses his toothbrush okay so um that was the most quirky thing that stood out to me and maybe a reason why I'm going to lock my doors oh that's fine now as much as this character is contemporary and the race issues that she deals with it's not a novel that I really gelled with it got 1 out of 5 stars for me which is unfortunately my lowest ranking it's not a book that I may pick up again or really highly recommend to someone who wanted a bit more comprehensive story the reason for this I have a good reason is that there are so many different ways to deal with race related issues and Maria seems to be a protagonist who is very you know nonchalant about it she's very undecided and that psychotic nurse maybe could have been fleshed out into having a bit more meaningful message but that's it for me so make sure hit like if you liked this video subscribe and leave me a comment I'd love to review something that you're maybe reading as well thanks guys bye