Home and Away by Candice Montgomery

Abstract

Reviewed by: Home and Away by Candice Montgomery Karen Coats Montgomery, Candice Home and Away. Page Street, 2018 [384p] ISBN 978-1-62414-595-7 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 10-12 Tasia Quirk is a confident Black girl who's grown up in a McMansion with her high-powered parents and her nerdy brother. Her idyllic world takes a blow when a box arrives in the mail, full of pictures, documents, and clippings, including a birth certificate that her father isn't the man she calls Daddy—and he's white. She locates her biological father, who had no idea she existed, and she moves in with him rather than stay in a house with people who have lied to her whole life. Meanwhile, she pushes friends and family away with as much strength as she holds on to them, trying to work out for herself what forgiveness without exoneration might look like. A relationship with her somewhat immature father comes with his difficult sister, his very French parents, and Kai, his eighteen-year-old adopted brother, who soon becomes the only stable thing in Tasia's emotional tornado. Tasia's quest to understand what her new circumstances mean to her takes her through new thoughts about race and class; she thinks in provocative, multivalent metaphors that ably capture her mercurial emotions, troubled relationships, and sexy sex with Kai. Her poetic language and the dialogues she has with friends will help readers reflect on their own conflicts and reach toward that elusive goal of fashioning a livable, lovable self in the midst of a flawed but loving community. KC [End Page 81] Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois