A 17-year-old girl is forced to grow in unexpected ways.Alexis Duncan dreams of making it out of her rough West Philadelphia neighborhood. With her father out of the picture, a mother with drug abuse issues, and friends who seem to be heading in a direction she's not comfortable with, Lex depends on her basketball skills to escape. Those dreams are shattered after an incident at a party leaves her seriously injured. Lost in despair, Lex blows up at Aamani Chakrabarti, the new girl whose family bought a local convenience store-but Aamani convinces Lex to join the school's STEM team. An average student, Lex has to put in tremendous effort to keep up, and the pair grow closer the more time they spend studying together, making Lex question her sexuality. Just as her new life is looking up, intrusions from her old life threaten to undo the great strides she's made, forcing her to make momentous decisions. The author admirably weaves the two girls' intersecting identities into the story, endearing them to readers and offering insights into the complex forces that shaped them. Lex is Black, bisexual, poor, and disabled; lesbian Aamani is Indian American from a Hindu family. Minor characters are also well developed. The author doesn't shy away from showing truths about how poverty affects people, especially in Black communities. Excessive pop-culture references unfortunately take readers out of the moment.Raw and authentic. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

Gr 9 Up Philly teen Alexis is the star of her school's girls' basketball team, and dreams of getting a sports scholarship that will take her out of her underserved, poverty-stricken community of Hargrove. That all changes when, caught in the middle of a gang conflict, Lex is shot and loses her ability to play ball for good. Friendship with Aamani, a recent transplant from New Jersey, opens up a new world of possibility, both academically and possibly romantically. But just when Lex is beginning to think there might be a future outside of Hargrove, tragedy strikes again and threatens to pull her back under. Excessive similes and an abundance of hit-or-miss pop culture references weigh down otherwise lively prose and a joyful character voice of great immediacy and empathy. The characters are predominantly Black, including the main character, with Hindu Indian American and Asian American characters also featuring prominently. Trigger warnings for racism, homophobia, and instances of and references to child neglect and/or abuse. VERDICT Language, violence, and sexual content will likely attract bans and challenges, but it's a worthwhile fight, as Bush's social realism combined with insightful representation will appeal strongly to teens eager to see themselves and their struggles represented accurately, particularly those teens who may have been steered toward athletics despite academic potential. Chelsea Lytal