Title: Grown
Author: Tiffany D Jackson
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Page Length: 384
Genre: Thriller
Age Range: YA
Rating: 4.5/5
Goodreads Synopsis: Korey Fields is dead.

When Enchanted Jones wakes with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night, no one—the police and Korey’s fans included—has more questions than she does. All she really knows is that this isn’t how things are supposed to be. Korey was Enchanted’s ticket to stardom.

Before there was a dead body, Enchanted was an aspiring singer, struggling with her tight knit family’s recent move to the suburbs while trying to find her place as the lone Black girl in high school. But then legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots her at an audition. And suddenly her dream of being a professional singer takes flight.

Enchanted is dazzled by Korey’s luxurious life but soon her dream turns into a nightmare. Behind Korey’s charm and star power hides a dark side, one that wants to control her every move, with rage and consequences. Except now he’s dead and the police are at the door. Who killed Korey Fields?

All signs point to Enchanted.

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Thoughts

Content Warning: (as listed by author) mentions of sexual abuse, rape, assault, child abuse, kidnapping, and addiction to opioids

Thank you to Edelweiss and Katherine Tegen Books for providing me with an eARC of this book.

Wow! Just Wow! I had not expected to love this book as much as I did! When I had originally requested Grown I had not realized it was more of a thriller than straight up contemporary. It has a mix of WTF is happening and hard hitting contemporary.

Enchanted is such a strong character, but makes many mistakes in this book in order to make her dreams come true. She can see when others do “wrong”, but also falls for the same thing when too close to the situation. I found this to be especially realistic. It is usually more difficult to see the wrongs at first when you’re so close to it. I think this is one of the reasons this book is so important. So many people are quick to judge and say “how could you not know”, but sometimes you’re too close to know – and that doesn’t make the situation your fault in any way!

You as the reader can see just how creepy the situation is that Enchanted is in, but at first (at least for me) I was wondering if it was just creepy because of our stereotypes towards certain relationship types. As the story goes, it really becomes apparent that we aren’t reading the situation wrong, but by that point it’s way too late.

This talks about such difficult topics and was a difficult read because of it. However, I managed to binge this book all in one sitting! I picked it up, throw on the audiobook and, even though I was uncomfortable in the situation, I couldn’t put it down until I finished and new the ending! That’s how amazing this book is. I’m finding it difficult to truly talk about because it’s best to go into it knowing as little as possible – I believe that helped with my reading experience. The best way to explain my feelings of this book is Amazing! Addicting! Heart wrenching! It will definitely be on my Top 10 (amended) Books of 2020!