Nigeria Jones has grown up in the Movement - started by her father to "divest from oppressive systems and create an all-Black utopia." Homeschooled all of her life, she finds out that before her mom recently left her, she worked hard to get her accepted to attend an elite Quaker Friends school in Philadelphia. Nigeria tries to attend but without her father's permission, it is going to be hard to stay at the school long-term. As Nigeria begins to see why her mother left and why she tried to help her find a way out as well, she starts questioning everything. This book is going to appeal to a fairly narrow group of high school students but there is a lot to discuss and ponder in this book. (However, anyone who does DEI work in independent schools definitely needs to read this book because there is a lot to unpack.)

Loved being about to discover and then rediscover the world through Nigeria’s eyes. Proves that just because you were raised with a certain ideology doesn’t mean it will serve you your whole life.

Absolutely a wonderful one by Ibi Zoboi and I like her last book! And I loved the writing here for this one as well too.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of the novel. 4/5 stars.

I have mixed feelings about this, despite my high rating. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that so much of this relies on Nigeria's clouded descriptions of the movement and her life and her relationship with her father. The movement in itself would not function under our society (albeit, the movement needs to happen). Nigeria's father, in some aspect, has brainwashed her and others within the movement (even so far as to only eat vegan food, no plastic gifts, etc) to the point where Nigeria has a panic attack when she sees white people within the school. It was difficult to read, and I will admit some of that is because I have white privilege that prevents me from associating with some portions of the book.

I do like how the book details Nigeria's quest for her own identity in the face of many difficulties, but it gets messy. The messiness makes sense in the mind of a teenager, but between her overcoming lowkey brainwashing and family drama and romance and grief (and hallucinations) there's just...so much that I think could've been done. I'm very surprise CPS was not called at all for any of the kids in the novel. I still rated this high because it has really, really good conversations in it and I also couldn't put it down...but I also think there needed to be much more closure and resolution (or at least Nigeria in therapy).

Thanks NetGallley for ARC.
2.5 rounded up. Nigeria Jones was a slow moving, introspective character driven novel. Took me lots of time to get into story and then not much happened. The surprise reveal at the end was something I figured out early on. It does portray questioning one’s beliefs and leaving the comfort of your tribe, but not sure if typical YA reader would mature enough to process this story thread.

I got an ARC of this book.

I don’t know where to start with this book. It was a lot. It gave cult vibes, it gave coming of age, it gave family dynamics, it gave non-fiction, it gave mystery. This book really did it all.

Cult vibes. That isn’t 100% accurate. There were times when the movement that her father is running was very hard to distinguish from a cult. There were some hints that maybe there were some issues that were oppressive for some members of the movement. It was clear that he was a passionate leader and had these big ideas. He was trying so hard to make a big difference. Many people believed in him. Those people didn’t seem to ever voice a fault with him though, which is where things got dicey. It made it hard for Nigeria to voice any concerns or disagreements. She was always alone. If she disagreed once, was that enough to lose her place in the family like her aunt? It got really intense at times seeing just how much the movement was regimented. There was even a scene with a blessing for a relationship that gave weird feelings. It was so well done. It was so easy to agree with a lot of what the movement was saying. It made so much sense. So seeing some cracks was fascinating.

Coming of age. It is such a great coming of age book. Nigeria was in a very intense dynamic with the movement and wanting to be her own person at the same time. She wanted to try new things and explore, but she also didn’t want to lose everything. She missed her mother so intensely that she would do anything to get any bit of her back. Watching Nigeria grow into her own woman was amazing. The epilogue warmed my heart. It really wrapped everything up so perfectly. It allowed for growth, change, love, and everything else that needed to happen to let Nigeria be exactly who she is.

Family dynamics. This starts so hard on page one. What is family? This is a huge question in this book. Is family blood? Is family the people you fight for? Is family whoever your father says? Nigeria battles a lot with who is family and what that means. This plays a lot into the mystery portion of the book as well. She wants her mother to come back so badly, that anyone who even remotely goes near anything her mother is instantly dismissed and distrusted. There are issues between her father and her aunt. There is her mother’s best friend. There are so many interpersonal relationships that all have to be worked through. It is brilliantly written.

Non-fiction. There was a lot of information in this book. It is clear that Nigeria was incredibly intelligent. She knew things that so many other didn’t. She was always aware. I would have loved to get to read the chapbook that was made. I have a new movie watch list just from one page of Nigeria talking.

Mystery. This was my least favorite part. I loved learning about the layers that was Nigeria’s mother, but the big reveal just didn’t do it for me. I would love a spin off book about Nigeria’s parents in college. I would love to see the start of the movement and their relationship. I wanted to know more. I think that was probably part of me not liking the reveal, it just didn’t feel like enough. after that much build up.

Overall, this was an amazing book. Tons of world building and amazing characters. I would recommend.

*3.5

I enjoyed reading about Nigeria's journey in trying to find her place in the world. It is such a nuanced story and I'm probably going to be thinking about it for a while. I liked the writing style and all the different ways that the author looked at the world.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Here I am, once again, coming out of a read by Zoboi that I was so excited for.. and just not feeling any of that excitement by the end of it all. I think maybe, as much as I’m enthralled by the author, excited by what they are putting out in the world, it’s just maybe not meant to be for me.

I was lucky enough to attend an event and see Zoboi speak, and speak particularly about this book, and I was just star struck. I was so hooked by how they described this story, this journey, and how it related to them personally, and I was desperate to read it. So ending up here, with this result, is a bummer.

A lot of what Zoboi has done with this story is put the usual tropes of similar journeys on their head and flipped them. This isn’t the slow understanding of injustice and systemic racism and oppression. This is from the point of view of someone who has lived and breathed this knowledge since infancy. Equally, instead of being someone who has broken down barriers and been integrated into a predominantly white school system, Nigeria’s father is actively trying to keep her out of said school because it is, well, a system. And instead he wants to her remain homeschooled with the eventual goal of realizing the Movement, allowing for a curriculum, and a safe space, untouched by white society and structure.

<i>My father doesn’t want to change the world; he wants to create his own world.</i>

But not free of the patriarchy, as Nigeria soon comes to realize.

Despite how interesting all of this was, I found myself hard pressed to push through this book. Despite the sympathy and concern and, well, rage, I felt for Nigeria, I was at equal turns frustrated and put off by her, too. I don’t know if it was the rougher cut of the ARC or how she was meant to be read but she flipflopped a lot from one mentality to the next and maybe that’s understandable with how she was raised vs what she was experiencing but it was very inconsistent. Equally, with all this heaviness, I struggled to connect or at least enjoy the characters, any character, and I’m not sure I found a single one. Maybe KD? Or maybe she was the one I liked because she was easy to like. I don’t know.

I also wasn’t all that surprised by the ‘twist’, if we can call it that, and I just kept waiting for that shoe to drop.

I don’t know, I’m all mixed about this one. So I’m taking the easy way out and leaving this unrated. I am sad about this result but I’m hopeful this was just a case of wrong time for me to read this or maybe, again, I’m just not able to connect with the author’s words despite loving their concepts. So I definitely would not discourage you from picking this up, in fact it’s the opposite. I highly recommend you give this a go. Because frustration with Nigeria’s character and circumstance aside, it’s a whole new perspective on a similar story and I think it’s incredibly important.

<i>[..] where do we draw a line between the harmful ideas our loved ones perpetuate and our own journeys to find meaning and truth in the world?</i>

And hey maybe I wasn’t supposed to enjoy it, just learn from it. And I did. But I also like to enjoy and sadly, as I didn’t, well, here we are.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story follows 16 year old Nigeria Jones. She has been homeschooled her whole life by her father and has been taught her father’s ideation. Nigeria has never focused on her own dreams nor has she even thought anything different from her father’s teachings (“the movement”). When Nigeria learns her mother no longer wants her to be home schooled and instead wants her to enter a private school she struggles to see how she can coexist with the colonizers that she has been told her whole life are not needed in her word. While this was a good read I do feel like it was a little long.

Thank you to Harper Collins CHILDRENS Books, Balzer + Bray and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

A coming of age story about a young black girl testing and exploring her restricted boundaries. With the father who is always trying to assert and enforce his agenda and a mother who she feels abandoned her Nigeria isn't adjusting well to her new normal.
When the opportunity to go to an elite school presents itself Nigeria will do whatever it takes to stay.

A great story of a teenager trying to find herself even when forces are attempting to hold her back.

"I'm drowning in an ocean of everything that I love and everything that loves me back and none of it makes sense anymore"

I found this one by the NetGalley recommended email that was sent to me. It sounded like one I would pick up so I took a chance and I’m glad it did

Coming of age for a young black woman pulled between her father’s Black Panthers Party and her mother’s dream of her finding a path that includes what it means to live in diversity.

It’s a book that finds that line between acknowledging racism with regards to generational trauma and colonialism (aka her fathers voice) but also with an emphasis on how to find a new path when her mother wants her to integrate and find her space within a majority white, private school.

Thought provoking, conversational and a real self evaluation for me as a reader. A white female reader at that.

This was a heavy, hard-hitting look at family, race, and the power struggles that exist in this country and the communities within.

Zoboi turns the black-kid-in-a-white-school trope on it's head: usually these books involve characters whose parents want them in the best schools to give them the best opportunities. However, in Nigeria's world, her community is against any white institution. They have worked hard to create their own Movement, their own safe space, their own schooling and learning.

But Nigera's mother had other ideas, and Nigeria thinks she might feel the same. She's proud of her blackness and her activism, but she's having a hard time finding her place as a black women with ideas and dreams that don't always line up with those of her father. Going against her father, however, seems impossible.

Zoboi writes in her letter to readers that Nigeria's story is not autobiographical, but it does include many lived experiences from her own life. It's apparent, too--because each page is filled with raw emotion: from rage and sorrow to joy and hope. And everything in between.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

How many plots are there? You'll hear different numbers bandied about--three, five, whatever--but they all seem to agree that you can boil everything down to just a few plots if you try hard enough. And this is definitely one of the classics: young person strives to find her place in the world, making a start on sorting out how she feels about parents, larger family group, immediate community, and larger culture.

Other than relatability, one of the reasons this is such a classic plot is that the details matter so much to it. It may be the same plot, but it's not the same story over and over again, not by a long shot. Especially not when a writer like Ibi Zoboi uses it as the framework for the story of a contemporary young woman raised in a Black Nationalist household with community leader parents.

Nigeria herself is beautifully drawn, complex and conflicted, frequently angry and confused but never one-dimensionally so. She makes bad decisions--and good ones; she doesn't always have a chance to have her say when she would like to do so, but she does speak up for herself a lot. Her relationships are complex and conflicted as well: a best friend with whom she's drifted, a cousin with whom the larger family situation has gotten complicated, a couple of new boys with very different backgrounds, assumptions, things that they want of Nigeria. And then, especially, there's her parents. Her father, whose expectations of her don't leave a lot of room for the things she wants for herself. Her mother, whose absence has become a defining presence in her life. The shape of Nigeria's mother's absence and what exactly happened is beautifully done, with the light dawning for the reader in emotionally evocative ways before Nigeria is ready to talk about them directly herself.

I'm definitely not the target audience for this book. I'm a 44-year-old white lady, and this is definitely YA--and I firmly believe that no matter how much we adults can love MG and YA, we're not the people it's written for. But you can enjoy things that are not primarily for you, and I definitely did enjoy this. It is full of respect for the young people it portrays, it wrings joy from the hard places, it is just plain beautifully done.

I read this in one sitting. It was a great look at the way different marginalized identities intersect each other and how advocating for one is not advocating for all. There were a few plot points that felt overly predictable and obvious to me, but watching Nigeria deconstruct what she had been taught was great. I loved how while everything wrapped up in the end, it didn't all end up tied in a neat little bow.

Wow! What a book Ibi Zoboi has written! Nigeria Jones is not merely a coming-of-age story, nor even a Black girl navigating a white world story, but the daughter of a noted Black revolutionary separatist leader discovering who she is in the world. Nigeria Jones has been homeschooled her entire life and is the leader of the Youth Group of her father's Movement. She knows everything there is to know about significant Black people in United States history, and she was raised learning about white oppression and racism. Her father is against all societal institutions, including schools and hospitals. Nigeria knows a great deal about many other things. She scores exceptionally high on any academic achievement tests. Her mother wants her to attend a highly regarded private school for which she attained a near-perfect score on the entrance exam. But her mother disappeared a year ago, leaving Nigeria to raise her baby brother. Nigeria also helps run her large home, which her father calls the Village House because they take in any Black person that needs help. The Movement is her life.
When Nigeria is accepted into the private Quaker school, her world is expanded in ways she never imagined. Attending the school is against her father's wishes, and going there exacerbates a family fight between her father and his sister's family. Nigeria must make many decisions about how she wants her life to progress from this point and fight for who she wants to be.
The author's style is very realistic. The story seems plausible and designed to make the reader, whether Black or white, think. The book is nearly 400 pages, and in the volume of content, it felt that long. However, the book was easy to read and did not feel lengthy. I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray for the ARC of this thought-provoking book.

Very interesting coverage of an individual's life being thrown from one extreme context to another. I liked the focus on her growing understanding of her own place in the world given all the competing possibilities thrust her way. A little long.

In true Ibi Zoboi fashion, this book brings readers into a declaration of empowerment for black women as it explores race, feminism and coming of age. Nigeria Jones is a text a woman could fall lock step in the rhythm of the text as it’s a story of the embodiment of family, culture and recognizing your own value thru true radical self courage and honesty.

Nigeria is at an impasse: she loves being Black, supporting Black culture, and fighting systems of oppression that keep Black people down in society. However, her father’s group, the Movement, seems to be fixated on how white society trods on Black men. What about the girls? In this exploration of independence and intersectionality, we see a young woman develop into herself authentically and with no small amount of discomfort and sacrifice. She’s not the easiest character to get along with as she’s been raised in the world of radical honesty. Nigeria doesn’t mince words, which can make her come across as rude and disrespectful. But viewed in the lens of her entire life, she couldn’t be any other way.

I related strongly to her desire to push away from a parent who is so diametrically opposed to how she feels and believes, as I’ve made that same choice for myself (with a great positive impact on my mental health).

I also weirdly saw a LOT of a person who was formerly in my life in her dad. Like, down to exact quotes. People who know me personally will know exactly who I’m referring to and, y’all, it is uncanny. I found myself wanting to step in next to Nigeria and debate his ass into the ground. Having different and revolutionary ideas is great—turning every conversation into a lesson, refusing to hear other viewpoints, and making people feel bad about non-harmful beliefs that simply don’t align with yours? Not great. Not great at all. It was extremely uncomfortable interacting with her dad’s character.

A strong story of the life of an activists daughter. Nigeria has grown up in a community that her father leads much like Malcolm X fighting for justice for black lives and rewriting the story of their people. Her mom has left, but got her into a private school before she left. Nigeria chooses to attend against her dad's wishes and has to learn to analyze her beliefs and fight for what she believes. In the process she will discover the truth of herself, her family, where her mother is, and how to form her own path.

I really enjoyed Nigeria's exploration of life inside and outside of her father's Black nationalist group, The Movement--definitely a unique perspective that will draw in readers. As always, Zoboi's prose is sparkling and the pace of the book clips along. Highly recommended.