Tag Archives: Family drama

Family Lost and Found: A review of Shut Up, This is Serious

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Shut Up, This is Serious
Carolina Ixta
HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books
January 9, 2024
Age: 14+

In a life full of heavy burdens and chaotic emotions, all Belén wants is a distraction. Her father has left the family, her best friend is pregnant (hiding it, and her boyfriend, from a strict Catholic father), and she can’t find the motivation to care about school. Maybe a boyfriend and the possibility of sex can distract her from reality? But as avoidance often does, plans backfire, and she’s left feeling worse and on the verge of not graduating. After a run in with her father, and near breakdown, Belén’s struggle is finally seen by her family and friends, getting her the help she needs to heal.

Debut author, Carolina Ixta, draws her protagonist as a brash-voiced, big personality to hide her insecurities. Weighed down by unnamed depression, Belén uses her responsibilities to the pregnant Leti and a one-sided relationship to avoid dealing with her feelings of abandonment and unworthiness. Comparison to the father she both despises and misses adds to her confusion and anger. Secondary characters are less developed in contrast to Belén, each dealing with trauma that blinds them to what is happening with the other characters. With a plot that spans a year, the pace moves from a drawn out fall full of heartbreak, questionable decisions, and painful truths, to a quick spring climax, and epilogue-like summer conclusion.

In this raw and emotional family drama, Ixta thoughtfully explores depression, cultural expectations, and the value of chosen family.

Family Legacy: A Review of The Blackwoods

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The Blackwoods
Brandy Colbert
Harper Collins/Balzer+Bray
Age 14+
October 3, 2023

The Blackwood family is Black Hollywood royalty, with an acting legacy spanning generations. When Blossom Blackwood, the family matriarch, passes away, the remaining three generations of her family must contend with the celebrity, jealousies, and pressure that comes from a lifetime of ambition and secrets. In the 1940s, Blossom dreams of being an entertainer, even if there weren’t many options available to a talented and ambitious young black woman in Hollywood. Years of hard work and sacrifice, fierceness and faith, brought her success. Blossom’s great-granddaughters, the beneficiaries of her struggle, handle her passing and her legacy in very different ways. Ardith is a successful young actress, close to Blossom through both faith and friendship, and struggles to process her loss and trust those around her to help. Hollis, the child (grandchild and great-grandchild) of famous faces, just wants to fly under the radar of her family’s stardom. The girls and their family struggle to reorient themselves when the revelation of a long-buried family secret challenges what they think of themselves and their relationships.

In this complex young adult drama, Colbert uses a dual timeline and three distinct narrators to explore how ambition, fame, and identity can impact how we trust others. Blossom is forced to make heartbreaking choices to pursue her goals—breaking off a relationship where she isn’t supported and leaving her young son with his grandmother for the chance to act off-Broadway. In her narrative, faith in herself and her family, and a desire to build a legacy, drive her ambition. In chapters focused on Ardith and Hollis, the teens struggle to live up to that legacy and do it in a media landscape that undermines their ability to trust new friends and old. Each contends with the problems of their time—discrimination, invasion of privacy, and living with the consequences of their choices—in an effort to control their own narrative. Colbert celebrates the power of perseverance and family in an emotional tribute to strong women everywhere.