Title: This Book Might Be About Zinnia
Author: Brittney Morris
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Review Copy: ARC by publisher
Availability: Available July 1st
Summary: Two moments in time. Two very different girls. And one story that connects them both.
It’s the year 2024, and Zinnia Davis is on a mission to ace her personal essay. But when an admissions rep hints that her adoption story is “lacking heart,” she has to figure out a new spin. Frankly, Zinnia doesn’t know much about her birth parents; that is, until her favorite author releases a new novel—Little Heart—about a princess with a heart-shaped birthmark on her forehead and separated from her mother at birth…just like Zinnia. Could this be her birth mother?
Flashback to 2006, and teenager Tuesday Walker is barely making it through high school after experiencing a loss that had her on leave for months. To cope, Tuesday writes a series of entries in a journal, but when the journal is lost, it feels like reliving the trauma all over again. Tuesday’s search for the journal uncovers dangerous secrets about her past, her crush, and her own mother’s story.
If Tuesday isn’t careful in her search, Zinnia will have to reap the consequences in the present.
Review: Brittney Morris’s new book is a wonderful examination of the delicate effects of adoption from both the birth mother’s perspective and the child’s perspective. In true Brittney Morris fashion there is a mystery to solve, and the reader will figure out way before the characters, but you keep reading because you want to know how Zinnia and Tuesday will handle the truth. While not a very “action-y” kind of book, the story really pulls you through the characters and the various relationships both Zinna and Tuesday have, especially with their mothers.
The mother/daughter relationship is the heart of the novel as both Zinnia’s and Tuesday’s relationships with their mothers are parallel, though Zinnia’s search for her birth mother just adds to the tension in the novel. In both of the timelines, both Zinnia and Tuesday are 17 years old and are asserting their identity aside from their mother’s expectations. Zinnia always strives for perfection because she feels that is what her adoptive mother expects, and Tuesday is dealing with her mother’s disappointment from her “medical leave”. Both girls make decisions that they know their mothers would not approve of, but they feel the need to make those decisions anyway; for Zinnia that is searching for her birth mother through a newly published novel and for Tuesday it is working at a coffee shop and searching for answers about her deceased father. It is in this regard that the girls share similar traits and you see how, despite not being in each other’s lives, there is a connection there, that nature does play a part in our development, but nurture has an important role too.
Of the two main characters, I personally, liked Tuesday a bit more as I feel like she had a lot more to overcome – to find her sense of self. We realize very early that her decision to give up Zinnia was not of her own choosing and feel sorry for her as she puts her life back together. She is one of those characters who the reader can see has a strong sense of self, but that in order for her to heal, she needs to see that part of herself. The journey that she goes on through the novel is a beautiful exploration of the self and a great character study. I’ve always liked Morris’s characters, and I think Tuesday is one of her best yet.
With everything going on in the world right now, this quiet novel about identity and relationships, with an interesting mystery, was a nice escape.