Brown Girls is a trip through life following a somewhat interchangeable and nameless group of girls growing up in Queens. It's written from the "we" perspective and shows a variety of possibilities and paths that could be taken through life. It feels like an ode to a life that was both a joy and a struggle. It's emotional and full of heart. This story made me think about my friends and daughters and students and all the intersecting and intertwining paths their lives can take.

It feels nostalgic but in a way that never falls into the trap of rose coloured glasses. I love a story that feels personal and universal at the same time and Brown Girls does that perfectly. It's funny and political and emotional and at it core a coming of age story about finding one's own path through the world.

I'm going to be the odd one out on this. The story of young women of color - across ethnicities- growing up in Queens, it has great promise. It lost me, however, because of the "we," which grew annoying. It felt as though everyone's experience was being jammed together to fit the narration, even though there are clear differences between the "girls", I liked this because it gave a voice, of sorts, to young women and the immigrant experience. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Read this as a series of vignettes, or short stories. For fans of literary fiction.

A debut novel. Done in a collection of vignettes. For me it was only a okay book. I gave it a 3 because I was liking it in the beginning. Not really my type of read. Brown Girls by Daphne Palaski Andreades.

Book: Brown Girls
Author: Daphne Palasi Andreades
Rating: 4 Out of 5 stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Random House, for sending me an ARC.

I must say that I was very impressed by this title. This is the second book in a week that I have had to double check and make sure it was fiction. Like with Joan is Okay, this one felt so real and reads so much like a memoir. The characters, the events, and their lives are presented in a way that makes it seem as if they could walk into a room at any given time. To me, this is the mark of a well thought out and well done novel. In order for your readers to feel any kind of bond with your characters, you have to make it feel real. You have to give your readers something to cheer for and give them a reason to care for your characters. I think that has been done here.

We see our main characters struggle with trying to find their way in America while trying to hold onto their culture and traditional values. This mixing really pulls at them. It’s almost like they don’t have a place in the world and are just longing for someone to see them. They want to belong, but everywhere they seem to go, they find themselves as being labeled an outsider. We see the aggressions that they must deal with on a daily basis and how everyone really questions their success. People view them as being successful because the system handed it to them, rather than seeing all of the hard work they have put into building up their lives. We see this judgement through their eyes. We feel their pain and suffering. I’m going to go ahead and say it again: It feels deal.

What really makes everything feel and seem so real is the author’s emotional and haunting writing. Everything that the characters go through, you will feel their pain. You will feel their suffering and want to find a way to make it end. You will also see just how unfair and difficult life can be for women of colour. You are given this really emotional and difficult story to read, but, yet, these things are happening in our world. We all know that people are not treated equally, yet many of us just kind of look the other way. Here, you are given a set of characters and are told their story. Yes, this is fictional, but the attachment you will feel makes everything seem all that much more real. This is one of those books that will make you sit up and really look at the world around you. It will make you stop and think about what exactly is going on-even if you don’t see it in your own personal life.

This is a short read. It’s only about 250 pages, but it is one of those books that will leave a mark on you. You will want to keep going and it is one that you will find yourself thinking about. If you are looking for an emotional, thought provoking, and powerful book, then I highly encourage you to pick this one up.

This book does come out very soon-January 4, 2022.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/brZfulct0cA

Brown girls is a short collection of almost monologs about growing up in Queens. While this isn't my usual style the short chapters and references to new York helped me finish it. Their are some great points made and that are relatable to everyone.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this digital arc. All opinions are my own.

This was a beautiful novel composed of lovely vignettes with fantastic writing. The first person plural perspective threw me a bit and I sometimes felt lost and had to reread, but, in total, this was a beautiful love letter to brown girls and I really appreciated it.

This debut novel is original, creative and bold, a complete departure from most of the books that I have read this year. It took me some time to get used to the author’s use of the “choral we” but once I got into the rhythm of the book, I thought it was the perfect choice. The reader was able to hear a much wider variety of voices and perspectives, offering a broader understanding about the experiences of many different brown girls in “the dregs of Queens”, from teenagers through adulthood. Andread was adept at portraying the ways that brown girls are similar while at the same time, showing that they are each so different. I am not a brown girl, so I can’t speak from that space, but even so, the book resonated with me. It felt immediate, truthful and relevant.

This novel is so poetic, I could hear a voice reading it in my head. I wish that I had listened to the audio version. Andread writes with such vivid detail I could almost see, feel, hear, smell and taste the neighborhoods that she crafted. I would love to see this book become required reading for high school students.

My thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way.

This would be a great book club discussion book. There was so much that made me really think and I would love to hear other opinions on it. This is not a fiction book, but really more of a study on what it's like to be a minority in America and what family means. I am curious if all minorities would agree with this depiction in the story or if it is too generalized.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars

In this intriguing debut, Andreades relies heavily on a communal narrator - the titular "Brown Girls" - to transport readers into their lives and experiences in Queens and beyond. There are some interesting moments here, but this one never quite grabbed me.

The communal narrator comes off as too gimmicky, but the bigger issue is two-fold. First, it's extremely difficult to connect with or become invested in any one character. In fact, the one character I did start to become invested in was instantly dead after she was named, so that wasn't particularly helpful. The second and more significant issue is that while I think the goal is to reflect community and shared experience, this read instead like a generalizing and oversimplification of ALL of the experiences of women who identify as part of the titular group. There are attempts to differentiate, but they are infrequent and not quite meaningful enough to distinguish these women as individuals. I had an insidious feeling of discomfort the whole time I was reading as a result of this feature.

While the content and format really fall into a two-star category for me, I will come back for more from this author because I think there is a lot of stylistic creativity and story telling ability floating underneath my gripes with these specific choices. I'll hope to see more character development and less generalizing in future installments.

This is a study of life through the eyes of non-white women. How they are raised and education choices. But most of all, whether or not to leave their neighborhood.

Really enjoyed this read! I wasn't super sure what I would be getting once I started to read this one but I overall enjoyed it. If you love books about different friendship dynamics then you'll want to pick this one up. I thought this was good for a debut and I'm interested to see what the author comes out with next!

Brown Girls instantly spoke to me from its very first opening paces. Though the characters represented are all from different backgrounds and lives are shaped by their families one thing rings universal: the experience of being a “brown girl” or being seen as other. Told in short snippets, each section navigates readers through the main characters’ lives as they grow up in Queens and see the world vividly through their eyes. I could relate to many of the cultural aspects mentioned from the food to the beauty standards, and the conflicts that arise when being seen as “other”. I think these aspects will especially resonate with readers of color.

“For some of us, brown and brown means unease— after leaving the dregs of Queens far behind, we are no longer used to people whose backgrounds mirror our own. For others of us, brown and brown means zero understanding, contrary to what we’d hoped or expected. You voted for WHO? we say, disgusted— for we are no longer the silent, desperate girls we used to be (Charming! Your friend is so charming.) Means realizing that, despite our similarities and shared experiences, we now exist on different planets.”

Though this book is written like a diary or reflection of sorts you can still grasp the cast of individual characters in each story. We learn about their dreams for the future, the families they come from, and their varying cultures. I think the author of this novel gives great attention to detail bringing Queens to life on the pages, the juxtaposition of socio-economic classes, gentrification, the hallways that line the schools, and more. It’s wholly immersive and you feel as if you’re talking to the characters themselves.

This book’s charm is the lyrical quality of writing and its great attention to detail. You feel what the characters feel deeply and the small details will resonate with readers especially the omes reflected in this story. There’s a lot of social commentaries laced within the narrative as a whole which I really appreciate. I found this novel to be very powerful, heartbreaking, and emotional, and have excellent prose. A highly recommended read to add to your reading list for 2022!

Brown girls gave me all the emotions. Told in short vignettes as a plural voice (only ever read Buddha In The Attic sort of similar) readers follow “the dregs of Queens” through their entire lives being a Brown Girl and all that that entails. Reading can transport you, put you in their shoes, make you feel uncomfortable, inspire you to root for your characters, and become attached.

Honestly I just wanted to read this book for the title and pretty in pink cover. It didn't matter what it was about. I just KNEW it was something I should read. So I powered up the Kindle and got to reading the advance copy. Oh, what a joy!

The setting is in the drags of Queens, New York. Where airplanes fly low. Where the streets are crowded. Where subways rumble above dollar stores. Where little girls grow dizzy from the advice of parents. Where neighborhoods are our own hoods and you have to downplay smarts. Yeah, I know the feeling when you're smart and the only girl on the block that goes to a school different from the neighborhood kids.

This book is oh so relatable to girls of color that grew up in a major city. All eight (8) parts of this book are strong enough to be its own short story. It is written in beautiful prose and covers themes of immigration, community, childhood, race, class and the depiction of brown girls. It is less like a novel and more like poetry to a reader's eye.

Happy Early Pub Day, Daphne Palasi Andreades! Brown Girls will be available Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

~LiteraryMarie

5/5 ✨ loved this one! an ode to brown girls

a beautiful, poetic, short story-esque piece of contemporary fiction. it’s the exploration of a life experienced as a brown girl through family, friendships, immigration, education, leaving home, coming back home, sexuality, discrimination, death, and so much more. fast-paced, snappy, straight to the point.

Gorgeous book. I haven't read anything written in this way before - vignettes in the choral "we" - but I found it beautiful and poetic. It was an interesting way to tell a full circle coming of age story for a broad set of perspectives. All of which are quite different from my own, and helped me catch of glimpse of what growing up in the "dregs of Queens" would be like. As a white girl who grew up in the rural western US, that's about as different as it gets. But it was also interesting to reflect upon the ways some themes are universal, in particular those who leave vs. those who stay, and mothers and daughters. I will never fully understand the lived experience of the Brown Girls the author has portrayed, but I'm glad this book exists to provide this perspective. If you've enjoyed Jacqueline Woodson or Angie Thomas, I think you'll like this book. (And if you haven't read them yet, you should!)

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

This is a poetic novel told in memories and as a community of girls growing up as women of color in Queens. The writing structure made this an easy and thoroughly enjoyable book to read that did what any story should--make me feel. And the difference between my emotions for this book and my emotions for, say, Malice, are that Brown Girls hit close to home several times in a way Malice didn't. Both were definitely books that touched my life and made it to my shelf, but if I had half a day as an English Lit teacher Brown Girls would be in the classroom library.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was a really unique book about a group of friends from Queens, NY. It's told in a collective narrative (we) with chapters like short essays, so the pages do turn fast. In telling the story this way, the author was able to show that an individual brown girl's experience does not tell the whole experience - I found the writing to be clever and pack a punch. However, it meant that it was really hard to connect with any of the individual characters, because you didn't know whose story you were following as the girls go through the NY school system into college (or not) and good jobs (or not). And while the title is "Brown Girls", the author speaks for all women of color, which felt strange. It was a good read, but not one I would pick up again.

Special thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Random House, NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion..

I am torn between giving this book a 2 and a 3 star rating. I think 3 stars fits because even though I enjoyed the book, I could not get with the narrative. Its about a group of brown girls, including an Asian girl. I really liked the description of the "dregs of Queens", but what I didn't understand was that this book was about 5 different girls and the narrative was told in a " we" setting. I did like some parts and I'm no expert, but I think the book would've resonated much better if it were told by different POV's rather than one girl speaking for the whole group.

Also, this book was tired as a lyrical book and I thought there wasn't a metaphor I could find to make me say "oh that makes sense". However, it was an okay read. I certainly didn't hate it, but some things if they were just tweaked would've made it a definite4 star.

This is one of the most beautifully written books that I have ever read. Each chapter is a poetic vignette into the life of a group of “brown girls” growing up in the “dregs of New York”

We get to see life events, love, and hardship experienced as the girls learn, grow, and become well rounded adults. As a queer reader I really appreciated the discussion of gender and sexuality in several of the chapters.

However, the way the book is written portrays the WOC experience as a monolith. While WOC do experience a drastically different life experience than white women, that doesn’t mean each WOCs experience isn’t unique. I would have preferred POVS that portray how each individual girl experienced her childhood differently in New York.