When trying to impress someone you like, one should never lie or pretend to be someone theyâre not. It pretty much always blows up in one's face. That lesson of self love and self acceptance is at the core of ReneĂŠ Watsonâs new young adult (YA) novel Love Is A Revolution.
As a teenager, I was constantly reading books that were not age appropriate, often dealing with adult topics like erotica, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS. While I needed this very relatable and hopeful novel 15 years ago, I have to admit that reading Love Is A Revolution during the pandemic has provided a rare form of escapismâone in which COVID-19 could not be accurately worked into its storyline, and Black pain was not a main focal point.
Love Is A Revolution's narrative takes place over the course of a summer in New York precluding the high school senior year of 17-year-old protagonist Nala and her cousin-sister-friend of the same age, Imani. Since Nalaâs own mother isnât great at âmom stuff,â Nala lives with her cousin Imani who looks just like her (hence why sheâs a cousin-sister-friend), and her loving aunt and uncle.
Nalaâs main goals for the summer are to hang out and watch movies with Imani and her best friend Sadie, find a new hairstyle, and of course, find love. And while the first two of those seem easy enough to accomplish, Nala finds that in her hell-bent search for love, her quest to find herself and who she wants to be in this world is pushed to the wayside.
Also at play in Nalaâs (and our) world are the ubiquitous âwoke olympics,â represented accurately every time Nala feels judged by Imaniâs friends who volunteer at a local youth non-profit called Inspire Harlem. At the beginning of the book, the cousins celebrate Imaniâs birthday by attending a talent show fundraiser, where Nala begins to fall for Tye Brown, the showâs emcee. Nala ultimately decides to lie and say sheâs a vegetarian who works at her grandmotherâs retirement home in order to impress environmentalist Tye, an activist and avid Inspire Harlem volunteer. Indeed, Tye is worth impressing. In this book, itâs not weird at all for the hot guy in high demand to be into Nalaâs plus size figure and fun demeanor, so when she lies about her principles and fibs about a job, heâs drawn in even more.
Watson does a good job illustrating our modern world of smartphones and social media, and it doesnât feel strange at all to have them live on these pages. Itâs obviously realistic to have these items but I was happy that while reading, I didnât feel like the characters were interacting too much with their devices (like in real life). Thereâs no lengthy text message dialogues or emails included here. Instead, Watson simply focuses on Nalaâs perspective: all the messages she types out before deciding against them and then sending something more measured.
But the deeper narrative is the familial one: figuring out the source of tension between Nala and Imani⌠why does Nala feel theyâre not as close as they once were? I related to Imani in this story a lot because I too have lived with a couple cousin-sister-friends. My high school best friend Maya (whose name Iâve changed for this article) lived with my mom, brother and I for a few years in high school because Mayaâs mom wasnât meeting her needs. While I was glad she lived with us, it also felt weird to be sharing my final years of adolescence living with only my tight-knit family unit.
Some of my favorite chapters in Love Is A Revolution's were the most mundane and familiar-seeming moments that turn into juicy conversations. These include a chapter when Sadie, Nala and Imani go down to the beauty supply store to shop for packs of synthetic hair for the new braids Sadie installs in Nalaâs hair; the roller skating date with Tye that turns into a non-date; and the dialogue thatâs had around the puzzle table and whenever Nala regularly visits her grandmother in the retirement home.
Love Is a Revolution ends up being about finding, accepting and loving yourself as you are, and how vital it is to nurture important familial and friendship bondsâeven while trying to save the rest of the world.