Starred Review Brown's semi-autobiographical novel is a powerful and vulnerable recounting of a first-generation university student trying to navigate the overwhelming white spaces at an Ivy League institution. First-year Echo has graduated top of her class at her Cleveland high school and has her eyes set on Dartmouth. Despite the naysayers who encourage her to stay closer to home, Echo is accepted to Dartmouth. She is excited for the challenge, and for the whimsical freshman year that the brochures and flyers have promised. Soon, though, she realizes she was sold a false narrative. Although she is an incredibly bright student by her high school's standards, she is woefully behind in her academic studies and has difficulty finding comfort in a student body that alienates her. Brown paints a realistic portrait touched with fantasy in this story of a young girl struggling to adapt to a new culture while also acknowledging the harsh truth of privilege and how it impacts academic success. Although the inclusion of magic can be dizzying at times, those fantasy elements successfully explore generational trauma with a vulnerable perspective on anti-Blackness and self-worth. This meaningful account will speak to many students who are both eager about and burdened by being their family's First.

A first-generation college student finds her footing and her power in a strange new world.Echo Brown has never lived in a place so White, so wealthy, or so foreign. The 19-year-old first-year college student cannot seem to find her place at Dartmouth. Back home in Cleveland, everyone was the same: Black and working class like her and looking for a better life. She and new Black college friends Earnell and Kelicia do their best to support one another in an alien environment. They understand each other's struggles and the immense pressure from everyone back home to succeed. After her White Christian crush, Bryce, invites her to attend a hypnotist's show and she is brought on stage, Echo begins to experience the world differently. Portals appear before her, rooms rearrange themselves, demolished buildings are suddenly standing-and no one else notices. Echo worries that the stress of campus life is chipping away at her sanity. The line between reality and her visions continues to blur, Echo's grades start slipping, and she stands to lose everything she's worked for. Her journey is long and winding, but eventually she comes to a place of peace. The poetic and supernatural elements of the novel muddy the storytelling at times, and it teeters between suspense and confusion. However, Echo herself is a well-defined character.A meandering odyssey of hope. (Fiction. 14-18)