The goal of this meme is to take a moment every Thursday to highlight 3 diverse books: one from your TBR, one you read and enjoyed, and one that’s not yet released!
I want to give you guys an idea of the rep each book offers, but with books that are still on my TBR, I’ll have to make the best educated guesses I can. If I ever make an error or miss something, please let me know in a comment so I can fix it right away! Also, while I will try my best, I obviously cannot guarantee that any books listed for my “TBR picks” will be without problems, so please proceed with discretion!
1. TBR pick:
If I Was Your Girl – Meredith Russo
If I Was Your Girl is an own-voice YA contemporary novel about life as a trans woman; in this case, the main character is a trans teen who is trying to juggle falling in love with a boy at her school, with accepting herself and learning how to cope in a world that isn’t always kind to trans people. I actually bought this as an ebook months ago, for a couple of bucks, and keep forgetting that I have it, but every time I come across it on my Goodreads shelves, I think I should really read it because it sounds so good!
Reps: trans, own-voice
2. Book you enjoyed:
Warcross – Marie Lu
You guys have heard me fangirl over this book, and I know it’s been tremendously popular among people who have read ARCs of it already, but I don’t see very many people talk about the fantastic diverse rep in this book. I know the MC is Asian, but if I recall correctly, she is biracial white/chinese (and Marie Lu herself is Chinese, making this an own-voice novel). There are also a great deal of characters from all over the world; most notably, the love interest is Japanese and these are some scenes in which we actually get to learn a bit about how his culture has shaped his family life. There is also a very important character who is in a wheelchair, as well as the fact that one of Emika’s teammates is openly gay.
Reps: biracial, chinese, japanese, disabled, gay, own-voice
3. Unreleased title:
Dear Martin – Nic Stone
This is a YA contemporary releasing in October, and I was lucky enough to actually receive a print ARC of it just earlier this week from PRH! It follows a brilliant black teen named Justyce who learns through hard experience that being intelligent and an upstanding citizen isn’t enough to cover the color of one’s skin in a racist society. It touches on oppression and police brutality/profiling, and is an own-voice novel written by a black woman from Atlanta (my hometown!). I have no doubt that this is going to be an incredibly tough read, but I’m sure it will be so rewarding and will teach me something new.
Reps: black, own-voice
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