Book: Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
Read From: 3rd February - 7th February 2022
Rating: No Rating
Summary: Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.
I’ve not given this book a rating because whilst it’s heavily infused with magical realism and classified on Goodreads as ‘fantasy’, it’s heavily autobiographical and details our main character/author’s early life, including many difficult topics (such as racism, poverty, gender, trauma and the intersectionality between them). It’s a short book coming in at just under 300 pages but it’s one of those books where you find yourself savouring every word.
This book has a dual timeline but not in the typical way, it was done so uniquely and you’ll have to read it for yourself to truly appreciate. If anyone has read The Beekeeper of Aleppo it was similar to that where a single sentence connected the two timelines.
The fantastical/magical element of wizardry only strengthened the book’s emotional impact. It revolved all around coping with trauma, the book was broken into several ‘wizard lessons’ that detailed how Echo had to stay uplifted in order to prevent the ‘black veil’ (darkness/trauma) from completely enveloping her. It was so incredibly raw and heart breaking and I can see why Black Girl Unlimited has left so many people in tears.
Overall, this was such an impactful, meaningful and unique approach to a memoir - I don’t know exactly HOW much of our fictional Echo’s life is based on Echo Browns real experiences but given how incredible this book was either way, I think that’s pretty much a moot point. I would definitely recommend this but I do encourage you to check the trigger warnings before reading.