Rise to the Sun

Starred review from May 31, 2021
Johnson’s (You Should See Me in a Crown) sophomore work sees chronically heartbroken 16-year-old Olivia Brooks fleeing Indiana to Georgia’s Farmland Music and Arts Festival to outrun the painful betrayal of her latest ex-boyfriend. Prone to falling in love at the drop of a hat, Olivia promises her ride-or-die bestie that this festival weekend will be crush-free—but then she meets 17-year-old Toni Foster. Toni, a Farmland regular since childhood, is returning for the first time since the untimely death of her tour manager father eight months prior. A week from reluctantly starting her freshman year at Indiana University, Toni has come to Farmland to find her real purpose and rediscover the music she lost when her dad died, but what she finds is Olivia. Johnson’s strengths are on full display in snappy dialogue that sings, heart-stopping romance, and realistically flawed Black teen characters learning from their mistakes, one by one. Underlying these strengths are the looming specters of revenge porn and fatal gun violence. Here, Johnson pens a love letter to the healing power of music, enduring friendship, summertime love stories, and hard-won resilience. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Landis, Sterling Lord Literistic.

June 1, 2021
Queer Black girls fall in love at a summer music festival. When dating the top basketball recruit in Indiana turns disastrous, ruining her socially, emotionally, and in her mother's eyes, perpetually in love 16-year-old Olivia Brooks begs her best friend, Imani Garrett, to take a summer road trip to the Farmland Arts and Music Festival in Georgia. Imani agrees on one condition: Olivia cannot hook up with anyone on the trip. Meanwhile, Toni Jackson is heading to Farmland for the first time without her musician-turned-roadie dad, who was killed 8 months ago. Joined by her best friend, Peter Menon (whose surname cues him as Indian), Toni is trying to figure her life out--college or something else? She believes that if she performs in the festival's Golden Apple amateur competition, the truth will become clear. The four meet in Georgia, and when all the solo slots in the competition are full, Toni and Olivia agree to enter as a duo and help each other with their individual quests--Toni's to perform on stage, Olivia's to be distracted from the upcoming judicial hearing over violating behavior by her ex-boyfriend and to win the prize of a much-needed car. Although Imani and Peter feel more like devices than well-developed characters with substantial relationships to the protagonists, the exploration of Olivia's tendency to adapt to others' expectations of her is wonderfully nuanced, and her relationship with Toni is delightfully swoon-y. A solid sophomore novel celebrating love that begs for a soundtrack. (Fiction. 14-18)

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July 1, 2021
Grades 9-11 In her sophomore novel, Johnson (You Should See Me in a Crown, 2020) delivers another nuanced contemporary love story. Olivia and Toni both see a weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival as a chance to escape their daily lives. As their past traumas threaten to sabotage their experience, the girls must lean into their friends, each other, and their blossoming romance to make the most of the festival. Johnson brings sweltering summer energy to the page, perfectly capturing the muddy, breathless, and manic nature of festivals. The careful balance of festival vibes and internal conflict builds up the realism, which helps to ground the instalove of a romance that blooms over a single weekend. Readers who enjoy a more casual courtship will appreciate the light-handed approach, and character challenges such as anxiety will mirror many readers' experiences. Johnson also pays close attention to how Blackness specifically informs her characters' highs, lows, and everything in between as well as their responses to life events.

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