Oyinda Loves Books

Title: Black Girl Unlimited

Author: Echo Brown

Narrator: Echo Brown

Rating: 5

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I really loved reading this book, even though there were so many difficult and hard-to-read topics touched on. The fact that this is the author’s autobiography makes it all the more amazing to me, because she has been through so much and was able to make it out and tell her story. I loved the added element of added magical realism, and how it was woven into the story.

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I loved the characters in this book so so so much, well most of them. Few of them were kinda horrible and I couldn’t stand them, but I believe they were a necessary part of the author’s story. The chapters were written as lessons and they were from different parts of the author’s life. My takeaway from that is that she was able to, no matter how hard the situation was, learn a lesson from the good and bad things that happened to her. We can all emulate this – try to pick out at least one lesson out of things that happen to you, and apply those lessons to future life events.

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This is an amazing book that touches on family, love, friendships, trauma – dealing with death and abuse. I was deeply hurt and triggered by the renditions of abuse and rape in this book, but just as I said earlier, it was an important part of the story that needed to be told. The relationships in this book, just like the characters, are very complex and go through different stages as they evolve. This can be attributed to the growth of the characters. The book starts off when Echo is 6, and it is told in a non-linear timeline shuffling through different points in time. We see the characters (most of whom are Echo’s friends and within her age group), growing and evolving, and so do their relationships.

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Other important issues this book dealt with include colorism and racism, as we see the impact racism and classism had on Echo’s family and neighborhood. Colorism also affected how Echo saw and thought of herself, and how other people treated Jesse as less than a real black man because of his skin color. Sexism was also touched on, as black boys and men in this book refused to acknowledge the struggles of black women, whilst wanting black women to fight for them.

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Echo Brown narrated this audiobook, and she did such a wonderful job! Her rendition of the events, performance of the voices (she did a distinct voice for the characters and you could just tell who was who), and she had the power to just make you feel all the feels while listening!

This book really hit me hard, and it is one I won’t forget in a hurry. I recommend it to everyone.

*I am taking part in the Sep 2020 Bratz Readathon, and this book fits the prompt – Melanin Queen – an own voices book with a black main character. 

Blurb

“Brown has written a guidebook of survival and wonder.”―The New York Times

“Just brilliant.”―Kirkus Reviews

Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism―all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi’s American Street.

Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor.

Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.