Grown

Free Choice

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Justification: I chose this title because I wanted representation of #ownvoices texts in my book selections. #Ownvoices contends that if you are an author writing a protagonist who is part of marginalized group, you too must belong to that marginalized group. #Ownvoices' goal is to improve diversity in the publishing industry by matching authors to subject matter. Personally, I have a goal of making a commitment to diversity in young adult literature in my book selections. I also picked this book because it was published just two months ago and I wanted to read something on the cutting-edge of contemporary young adult literature. Tiffany Jackson is known to tackle difficult subject matter in her novels, and Grown is no exception.

Response: In this compelling first person narrative, we meet Enchanted, a seventeen year old Black high school girl in a predominately White private school. Enchanted is active on the swim team, loves her younger siblings, participates in a Black youth empowerment extracurricular group, and most of all, she loves to sing. Enchanted auditions for a reality singing show and is spotted by Korey Fields, a 28 year old R&B mega-star. (The book is loosely "ripped from the headlines" and is based on the R.Kelly scandal). She is invited to go on tour with him and her dream of making her own music soon turns into a nightmare; she slowly begins to be groomed by Korey, then gaslighted, drugged, and sexually abused.

Although Grown contains stomach-turning dark subject matter, it manages to simultaneously be a successful page-turning mystery/thriller, which I liked. The text also addresses the important issue of victim blaming, particularly focusing on the condemnation and shaming of Black girls. This type of specific misogyny, while prevalent among Black girls and women, is not often explored in young adult literature and I felt like Jackson did well here. Although I believe the book handled themes surrounding the obsession with celebrity culture well, I had problems with the fact that Jackson doesn't really offer up any solutions to Enchanted's problems. I also felt that the vacillation between "Then" and "Now" in the book's chronology starts to get blurred towards the end of the book and the timeline gets confusing. It was almost as if Jackson needed to slow down in order to be more clear in her intent.

Conclusion: I was really, really challenged by this text. It should come with a trigger-warning. Many parts of it are very difficult to read, especially as Enchanted is being sexually and psychologically abused and Jackson is explicit in her depictions. It's a realistic portrayal of how a naive teenage girl can fall for an older man, only to be taken advantage of. A book for mature young adult readers, I would recommend this title to young adults ages sixteen and up.

APA Reference: Jackon, T.D. (2020). Grown. New York, NY: Harper Collins.