A moving story of family, friendship, race, & mental health

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I enjoyed this so much more than I expected to! It's a compelling young adult contemporary set in South Africa that follows a mixed-race girl whose mother is struggling with mental illness. Amandla's mother has always been somewhat of a mystery, and one day Amandla decides to follow her--which prompts her to discover a whole family that she didn't know existed.

Throughout the book, Amandla gets to know her maternal family and discovers the truth about her mother's past, including how falling in love with a Black man created a rift in her family. Along the way, Amandla discovers the power of friendship and learns to see her mother through new eyes.

This book had me in tears by the end, and I loved seeing the shift where Amandla stopped seeing her mother simply as a burden or "crazy" but instead as a strong woman who had been through trauma. It's a beautiful story of complex familial relationships, friendship, colorism, and mental health.