Browne, Mahogany L. Vinyl Moon. Fiction. Crown, 01/2022. 172pp. $18.99. 978-0-593-17643-6. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 9-12
When Angel is transplanted from Northern California to Brooklyn, New York, she begins by remembering everything she has lost. “I didn’t have the best life in California, sure. But it was mine.” Everything from missing her siblings, adjusting to life with an uncle instead of her mother, and moving to a new high school with intense new peers weighs on her. But as she builds connections and begins to fall in love with a new city, she also reveals the very traumatic events that led to her move. An empowering novel, with a heroine whose voice is poetic and accessible, that looks at building community, embracing Black literature and culture, and healing from violence.
Lesley Mandros Bell, unaffiliated