Review 303: Sugar Town Queens

Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The main character Amandla acts fierce, and she has to growing up in a poor area in South Africa called Sugar Town. Her mother has memory and other issues, good days and bad. Amandla wants to know how her mother gets their money, as she doesn't seem to have a job, so follows her one day and discovers a family she knew nothing about.

Unfortunately, her grandfather is a racist, doesn't want a mixed-race girl around, nor his daughter. The grandmother on the other hand, while being very ill does want them around. The story is about how these two come to a resolution, and how Amandla learns her mother’s story.

While I enjoyed Amandla’s fierceness, I wished more of what she said in her head turned into actual words. I didn’t like how much more was inside her instead of in the outside world. I loved her friends and the other people in her neighborhood, well except for the bullies. Nonetheless the story was decent, a good read.

Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.