Little & Lion

5 stars Not only is the story beautiful and captivating, but the cast of characters is effortlessly diverse. A+ 👌

(3.5, rounding up.) Loved the diversity of the characters and the characterization of Suzette and her journey - she felt like a fully realized person and I was entirely in her head. (Caveat: I'm neither bi nor bipolar, so I can't really speak to the accuracy of the representation, but more diversity in fiction is always a good thing.) The other characters were a little more vaguely sketched, which may have been intentional since it's such a tight POV with Suzette, but I would've liked a little more insight into Lionel and Rafaela, in particular. The plot here was a lot of buildup and then a pretty rushed conclusion, so I wish either the pacing had been different or the book were a little bit longer to give the story some time to breathe.

(Editing this review in June 2020: whoops, I am bi, denial is a hell of a thing.)

Loved this, read it all in one sitting. I love how intersectional this is–like, yes, obviously we all know people who are LGBTQ AND POC, or POC AND disabled, let's include those characters in our books for gosh's sake.

Anyway, in addition to the great variety of rep here, I loved Little/Suzette as a narrator–her voice was so strong and I just couldn't put this down, and the way the tension builds throughout this was so compelling.