Pride

Read like the author started to write a story about gentrification and then shoehorned in the Pride & Prejudice plot. The most effective scenes were Zuri's warm interactions with Madrina (the owner of their apartment building) and the numerous emotions she experiences when she visits Howard University. The love story with Darius Darcy is less successful, as his character behaves inconsistently and never truly makes amends for breaking up her sister Janae and Ainsley. Zuri's poetry was beautiful, and Zoboi is a talented author, but I wish she had gone her own way with the plot and not awkwardly tried to include all of the iconic P&P tropes.