Review: Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert follows Suzette over the summer between her sophomore and junior years of high school. She has been away at a boarding school for the year and is grappling with keeping secrets from that year, trying to figure out her sexuality, and keeping her brother's secrets at home.
This book really worked on my emotions. I cried so many times while I was reading this book, and it does an excellent job building tension as the book progresses. I was so invested in Suzette's story; she is dealing with far too much for such a young person, and watching her be paralyzed under the weight of the secrets she has is so sad. I liked the way Colbert showed her tentatively reaching out to people and the very realistic doubt and fear that kept plaguing Suzette. I also liked that Suzette was dealing with a mixture of hiding something that she did wrong, trying to figure out the correct label for her sexuality, and trying to protect her brother after he puts her in a series of impossible scenarios.
The book deals a lot with Suzette's brother Lionel's mental health. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a year earlier and tells Suzette that he has recently gone off his medication. The situation seemed to be that his dose was too high or that his current medication had some adverse side effects he was unhappy with. Instead of talking about a medication adjustment and paired with other outside sources, Lion's decision is to go off medication cold turkey. This leads Suzette to be hyper-vigilant and anxious about Lionel's well-being. Lionel is treated with empathy and as a full person by the narrative, but we are only in Suzette's head throughout this story.
I thought this story might have had slightly too many characters for my taste. So many intersecting storylines that were never confusing, and all felt like they got a conclusion. Still, at times I wanted more focus on either the previous school year or on Suzette and Lion, or Suzette and Amil, or Suzette's own self-reflection. The abundance of characters makes the world feel very fleshed out and realistic, but I still felt a bit like I could have done with a narrower focus.
I really liked reading this book and personally related to various aspects of Suzette's life. This book talks about so many things, Suzette and her mom are Black and Lionel and Saul, her dad, are white, they are all Jewish, and Suzette has to deal with a lot of questioning about this aspect of her life, she is trying to figure out if she is bisexual and there are many queer characters in this story. Obviously, this book deals with mental health concerns, but it also has a character who newly has become hard of hearing.
I gave this book five stars. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes character-driven serious YA.
