📖Summary: Here’s what you need to know: girl from the hood wants to make it out, so she puts in the work to become the best ball player she can be. Girl and best friend make bad decisions and get in trouble with the new girl and her family. Girl invites new girl to party, girl gets shot in drive by. Girl can’t play basketball. New girl inspires girl to use her brain to get out of the hood. Girl starts catching feelings for new girl? Maybe? Girl’s old life won’t let her go, even as she tries to make a new life for herself. Which life will she choose?

✨Rating & Review✨: Okay, this book is phenomenal!! I’m OBSESSED and cannot wait for this book to be officially published so I can own it. Straight up ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ , if I could rate higher than that, I definitely would. There’s so much about this book that I love. The marvel references, the bisexuality representation, the STEM team family, straight up nerds having fun and enjoying life. While it touches on so many things that I love, it also deals with the harsh realities of life as well. There’s homophobia, gang violence, the harmful reality of having a single mother who struggles with substance abuse, micro aggressions, racism, police brutality, stereotypes and so much more. Thank you @netgalley and @charles_a_bush for giving me this opportunity to read and review this book. It was an absolute joy.

I don't really know what to say about this one. I liked the flow to start with. But after a few chapters I just lost interest. I just couldn't read this anymore.

First, I want to say that this book could appeal to a lot of people, just not to me, unfortunately. I didn't click with it, but it doesn't mean that it's not a good book.

I liked the idea behind the plot, and some of the characters, and I even laughed a few times. This books brings up important topics like police brutality, gun violence, discovering your queer identity.

But I came across too many clichés and bad jokes. Jokes about Bill Cosby, the main character thinking that another character should stop hiding her hair, or an autistic character that felt too cliché for me.
And the writing style wasn't really my thing. The book is written from the mc's point of view, and she uses words like "the 'Gram". I'm not a fan of that.

Also, please check the TWs because some parts are really hard.

Thank you netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for a review

The themes this book presents such as, police brutality & gun violence; cultural and familial pressure to present yourself a certain way; the opioid epidemic and its impact on urban neighborhoods like West Philly are crucial in today's post-9/11 and post-Trump society. However, what I found to be one of my favorite things about this book is how a young black girl tries to navigate her newly realized queer identity. Although at times I cringed a little at the way it's supposed to be relatable to kids and teenagers now (the hashtags are a little intense), I find that showing the way the characters fit on spectrum, in LGBTQIA+ communities, surviving in urban neighborhoods, and simply just dealing with high school really made up for it.

While not marketed as a comedy, this book was extremely funny, and I found myself laughing about something in each chapter. I like the way that Charles writes Alexis, after joining the STEM team she does not suddenly change from who she used to be when she was hanging out with Britt and her other friends. She keeps making mistakes and doing things that hurt her new Team and Aamani but those mistakes make her push herself to do better. I especially liked how Aamani didn't let herself stand down when Alexis was saying how she didn't understand all the difficulties that being black had by pointing how that she also experienced racism and microaggressions (even from Alexis herself). While the very beginning of the first chapter gave off "I'm not like other girls" vibes which I found a little off-putting, I am glad I kept reading cause this was all around a very entertaining story.