Goodreads | Bookshop

“Trying to reclaim your life is a lot like drowning. You attempt to stay above water as waves of new information hit you sideways, carrying you further into the unknown. People throw life preservers, but the ropes can only reach so far, and once a riptide catches you by the ankle, all you can do is wonder why you ever thought you’d be OK jumping into the deep end, when you could barely manage the shallows.”

Release Date: September 15th, 2020

Genre(s): Young adult, contemporary, mystery

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 368

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Synopsis

Grown is a YA contemporary mystery novel that follows Enchanted Jones, a high-school student, and aspiring singer. After participating in an audition she meets R&B superstar Korey Fields, and he takes her under his wing. Flash forward to the present, and Korey Fields is found dead. Enchanted Jones wakes up with blood on her hands, completely unable to remember what happened the night before. And all signs of who murdered Korey Fields point to her.

Review

When I first came across Grown a few months ago, I assumed this book to be more of a mystery novel based on the synopsis. However, as soon as I picked up the book I realized that I was about to read about some very serious subjects with this book. While this book has a lot of ground to cover in terms of the abuse that goes on in the entertainment industry, and it’s difficult to fit all of that into one book, I think Grown is a very important book, especially for younger audiences.

Grown is split into four parts, and in those parts, the perspective changes between (mostly) the past, and portions of the present-day when Korey Fields is found dead. In the ‘then’ storyline, we learn how Enchanted Jones met Korey Fields, and how Fields slowly uncovered himself as a manipulator and abuser to her. There’s a lot to unpack here – not only do you have the topic of abuse within the entertainment industry, but the book also covers the fact that Enchanted Jones is a minor. A minor about to turn 18, in fact, and how consent laws negatively impacted her case. There’s also the issue of how black women especially are treated (in the industry and in general), and how women like Enchanted Jones are considered “too fast,” even if they are the victim in a predatory situation.

Initially, I was torn about how all of these topics came together in this book. While they are all equally needed to be discussed, I wondered if it was a lot of subject matter in so few pages. Much of the book is dialogue, so I wondered whether or not some parts moved faster than they should have and should have instead focused on these issues longer. But I also think that, because this is a YA novel, that this was intentionally done in order to introduce these topics to its intended audiences in a way that it is more accessible to them. This book is already quite difficult to read given the circumstances for women like Enchanted Jones, and I think that adding even more could have taken this out of the YA category completely, instead of it being mature YA.

The only other thing that I will say about Grown that there is this strange twist towards the end. And once we find out the case, I felt like the ending wrapped up a little too quickly, and I was left a little confused as to how out of the blue this twist was. In a sense, I felt like some things that should have been left resolved were not because of the pacing of this particular set of scenes. The twist itself wasn’t even really needed, so I was pretty confused with this part.

But other than that, I can easily say that I’m glad that Grown wasn’t whatever mystery story I thought it was. This book is incredibly heavy and delves into some really hard-hitting topics.  It’s also a book that I think is needed, especially for young readers; it says a lot about the treatment of many identities (as well as the intersections of identities) and the injustices that exist there. And while I couldn’t help but feel so frustrated on behalf of the treatment of Jones, I think this book also demonstrates the importance of standing up for the injustices that exist in our world. While the writing does go a little fast for what the book covers, I’d definitely still recommend reading Grown.