Review: Little & Lion

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you are looking for diversity, this book has it! The main character is a black Jewish girl from a blended, interracial family who is trying to figure out her sexuality while at the same time worrying about her stepbrother who has been dignosed with bipolar disorder. One of her love interests is a male friend who is biracial (black and Korean), another is a girl who identifies as pansexual, and her best friend is a lesbian.

Suzette is home from boarding school where her parents had sent her when her brother began developing symptoms of mental illness, in part so they could focus on him, and partly to shelter her. But she feels a sense of responsibility for Lionel, and her love for her brother causes her to make a very bad decision that puts his safety in jeopardy out of a misguided sense of loyalty. At the same time, she is trying to figure out her sexuality after having an affair with her female roommate at school that had a very messy ending, but also finding herself strongly attracted to a male friend.

Some have described this book as being too messy and having too many issues going on, and I have often felt that way about other books in the past. But I realized as I was reading it, life for many of us IS really that messy, and my family is a good example. We'd like life to be more simple and only have to deal with one complication or crisis at a time, but it isn't always that easy, which is something I have learned in the last year or two. Life is messy, difficult, and complicated.

I think the character development could have been a little bit deeper, but I did like the relationships within Suzette's family, how close she was to her stepfather and stepbrother. I found Rafaela, the girl Suzette and Lionel are both attracted to, to be less than honest or worthy of either of them. At times she was manipulative and seemed to enjoy being the center of attention and having siblings both interested in her, then she claimed an ex was stalking her, when it seemed she was really stringing him along because she like the attention and drama, and enjoyed having him and Lionel fighting over her. I was really suprised no one called her out on that crap and told her to get lost.

I cannot attest to the validity of the representation of bisexuality or bipolar disorder, so I will leave that to other reviewers.

This book won the 2018 Stonewall Award.

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