Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

Sister Mischief by Laura Goode
"Listen up: You’re about to get rocked by the fiercest, baddest all-girl hip-hop crew in the Twin Cities - or at least in the wealthy, white, Bible-thumping suburb of Holyhill, Minnesota. Our heroine, Esme Rockett (aka MC Ferocious) is a Jewish lesbian lyricist. In her crew, Esme’s got her BFFs Marcy (aka DJ SheStorm, the butchest straight girl in town) and Tess (aka The ConTessa, the pretty, popular powerhouse of a vocalist). But Esme’s feelings for her co-MC, Rowie (MC Rohini), a beautiful, brilliant, beguiling desi chick, are bound to get complicated. And before they know it, the queer hip-hop revolution Esme and her girls have exploded in Holyhill is on the line."- summary from Amazon

This was a really interesting read for me. I mean, where else are you going to read about an all-girl hip-hop group with a lesbian MC? The voice was done really well and sucked me into the book; there were some times where the dialogue seemed a bit like it was trying too hard though. I really enjoyed the inclusion of the group's lyrics (as well as the occasional lyrics from established rappers) and also footnotes (I LOVE footnotes!).

Aside from the music, I loved how Goode handled the whole lesbian aspect of the novel and there's some frank discussions in here. It's hard to find a good lesbian YA novel and I'm really glad this has been published. The romance in here is sweet but also realistic, which I appreciated.

I also loved the whole free speech part and the group's fighting back against the establishment, I guess, lol. I love stories where the underdog triumphs over the closed-minded people who are just plain wrong. The road to get there though with the closed-minded people in charge frustrates me because I want to just slap them and tell them how wrong they are. That's how I want to solve a lot of the problems in my life and in the world, lol.

All the characters were great and my favorite one probably has to be Ms. DiCostanza (I'm fairly sure that's her name), one of their teachers who's on their side. She was just plain awesome. And of course I loved the four main characters too.

Overall, this is just a wonderful, original contemporary that I think a lot of readers will enjoy. There is a lot of cursing though, so if that sort of thing offends you, maybe not the book to read.

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.