A lot to unpack

What made the experience of listening to American Street the most enjoyable?

American Street is a lot to unpack. There were so many topics tackled in this book, it felt like a lot to wrap my head around, but if any book could juggle it, this one did it well enough where I wasn't extremely overwhelmed.

Fabiola, the main character, is forced to deal with a ton of self discovery and issues when her mother is detained by immigration. She's forced to live with her relatives who while she knows them, there are many cultural differences between them. While Fabiola was born in the US, she was raised in Haiti. All her cousins are American raised, and living in a small urban area in Detroit, a lot of culture clashed between them( btw there was alot of background inclusion, Black Muslim characters, queer Black characters, traditional Vodou within the text without being demonized).

I really felt for Fabiola. She spent a lot of the book knowing how she would help her mother become a citizen when approached by law enforcement to rat out a drug dealer. The conflict that came with finding out who the "real" dealer was, was so heart breaking and I wasn't sure she'd ever reunite with her mother.

What I liked about this story was how Haitian people meshed with African-American folk and how Blackness wasn't a monolith. A lot of people are confused by Haiti, and as an fellow Afro-Latinx person, I dont feel like there are enough contemporary books with Haitian main characters about young people, especially living in the US.

Immigration is often told from a brown perspective, often Central/South America folk who don't identify as black. This story reminds us that immigration doesn't have a specific face, the journey to a better life is a race-less desire.

For lack of better way to describe Fabiola, her foreign-ness brought that out more ways than if she had been socialized and raised in the US. It shared AAVE with the world that I'm almost not comfortable the world seeing, as a Black-Latinx, I'm often judged for using it, but the world loves it as long as Black folk aren't the face of it. While it's culturally specific, it opens a door a lot of non-Black people refuse to go through or learn about.

Fabiola experienced love, friendship, betrayal, fear, and sacrifice, and all that was in addition to the problems she had to face figuring out how she'd find a way to help her mother. I'm trying to be as spoiler free as possible, but I almost gave it a four because something really tragic happened and I couldn't help feeling resentful since it's so rarely celebrated in mainstream ya where black young couples(especially inter-cultural ones) are a focal point. And that slap in the face, especially since it ended in tragedy had me in my feelings. It was like Fabiola couldn't have anyone without losing them, whether temporary or permanently.

It requires a trigger warning to be honest. With so many black kids dying in the media, I wish there'd just been something that prepared me for it, because now I'm too sad to type XD

It's mostly told from Fabiola's POV, but there are occasions where the POV delves into other minor characters, made more obvious since I was listening to the audiobook. I think there are great things about this book, and while the things I didn't connect to were minor, I look forward to more Afro-Latinx representation in YA because there's so few of it, especially dark skinned heroines.

24 people found this helpful

I have a new favorite author

I purchased the book originally and then I purchase the audio because I wanted to read here and feel this story. What an amazing story it is! FINALLY a story that veers into the voodoo topic that isn't the typical Hollywood cliche. Much love from New Orleans!

5 people found this helpful

Great reader, but story falls apart

This reader is excellent, switching between accents and voices seamlessly. But the story is slow and baggy, I guess because it’s trying to have the day-to-day pleasures of a YA novel (we’re getting dressed up for a date! we’re at a basketball game!) along with its much heavier actual story. The biggest problem is that the actual story falls apart at the end: one major thread (the owed money) is totally abandoned, and the rest of the story implodes in a bizarrely improbable way. I wanted to like this book — the voodoo material was really interesting — and I’ll certainly give the author’s next book a try, but this one was a giant “meh” for me.

2 people found this helpful

A immigrant tragedy

This is a very good audiobook. Robin Miles, who I was not fond of when she narrated Binti, was excellent here. Her various accents, which felt fake in Binti, felt authentic here in part because she not only doing Haitian, but also Detroit street. The range of voices was what made the narration.

American Street is named after the street where the house that Fabiola come to live, the one where she was born. It is right on the corner of Joy and American streets, which is the reason that the house was purchased by new immigrants to the US. When her mother is detained by ICE as they go through customs in New York City (Fabiola’s mother overstayed her visa on the previous trip so that Fabiola would be born in the US), Fabiola is left to go on to Detroit and meet cousins and an aunt that she has talked to, but not met.

Fabiola’s life in Haiti, with her good English schools and her hard work, has not truly prepared her for Detroit. She is also not prepared for the realities of street life without the guidance of her mother.

American Street has significant thread of magical realism. I started American Street not long after I finished Laurus, about a 15th century doctor and holy man. Both used magical realism to communicate the belief in religious faith in remarkably similar ways. Both Laurus and Fabiola were true believers, in Christianity for Laurus and Voodoo for Fabiola. But I cannot describe the presentation in any other way than magical realism, which I have only really encountered in Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and Song Yet Sung by James McBride.

I knew nothing about Voodoo before this book, but I did not need any background to understand the story. Fabiola, as she attempts to understand this foreign world, makes sense of the world around her through the ‘social imaginary’ (as Charles Taylor calls it) of the Haitian/Voodoo world. The Voodoo is real, in a very similar way to the way that Christianity is real in Laurus. But the difference between Christianity and Voodoo (I think) what is asked for and revealed is not always what is desired here.

Ultimately this is a tragedy. A tragedy that you understand much more of as different perspectives are shared. But an understood tragedy is still tragic. This is well worth reading. Especially for the current reality of separated immigrant families and the tragic ways that people make decisions when pressed to their limits.

This is a good reminder of why fiction is so important and why I keep needing to force myself to read it, even when I am sometimes reluctant to break away from the ‘important books’.

2 people found this helpful

Great story!

This story grabbed me from the start and I couldn't wait until all was told. It was great to hear the perspective for all characters even the house. Sad to hear of Q destiny don't want to say to much on that. I could picture all the locations since I have spent many summers in the Detroit area.

2 people found this helpful

Wow

This book left me craving more. Fabiola’s journey is reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy. There is love, there is beauty, there is mysticism, there is pain. While I typically love Robin Miles’ narrations, as a native creole speaker, the Haitian accent was not authentic.

1 person found this helpful

Extra points for magical realism

Wow, what a book! I was looking for a story directed toward a YA reader that addressed immigration in a different way (immigration from Haiti isn't as often discussed as other countries) and celebrated both the native culture of the immigrants and also the new culture. I wasn't expecting the magical realism elements and the ending was not at all what I would've guessed.

1 person found this helpful

Not what I expected

Based on the description, I expected the commonplace criticisms of ICE agents. The author seems more interested in pulling back the curtain on intercity life in Detroit. Subjects like police shootings, voodoo and lesbianism are handled with a refreshing subtlety that appeals to the intellect and challenges the traditional American perspective on immigration.


WELL DONE!

1 person found this helpful

I wanted to like this more than I did.

Fabiola's voice is an interesting one, and her observations on American culture from the perspective of a recent Haitian immigrant (even though she's technically a U.S. citizen) are often insightful. The inclusion of elements of Haitian myth into the narrative is intriguing as well. But I was disappointed by several obvious plot twists, and by an ending that seems rushed, incomplete, and more than a little too convenient. Robin Miles's narration brings Ibi Zoboi's characters to life, and I'm certain that her rich palette allowed me to enjoy the audio book more than I would have the print version.

1 person found this helpful

Starts great and then loses its feet

First, I'm going to admit that Robin Miles' lyrical narration kept me glued to the book when plotpoints started to irritate me. It starts out as the heartbreaking and intriguing story of a Haitian teenage girl who is separated from her mother when she is detained by ICE at the airport. She ends up in Detroit at the home of an aunt and cousins, going to a private school, and being slapped in the face by culture shock. References to her Creole voodoo beliefs and mythology added an element of magical realism that gave me a more intimate feeling for Fabiola. The houseful of strong but imperfect women was a great setting for looking at female and familial bonding, and added some warmth and hope to the story. Unfortunately, the latter part of the book devolved into the worst cliches of teenage social interactions and gang-type bravado, drug dealing and addiction, absentee fathers, racial prejudice, and toxic masculinity that is far too prevalent in general - and in particular when Detroit is mentioned. While the examination of these topics is valuable, the plotline of the separation from her mother and her acclimation to America got lost in the increasingly lurid and frantic action, which sadly, ended in a very predictable tragedy. This is a common weakness of YA fiction... it can feel like it is trying too hard to be edgy or has too many ideas that the author couldn't quite find a way to refine and focus for best effect. A softer, slower story would have elevated this book.

1 person found this helpful