Unexpected

October 15, 2022
Two high school friends in Nevada face tough decisions when one of them discovers she's pregnant. Since learning she's pregnant, 16-year-old Erykah Smith has been having the worst birthday of her life. Instead of worrying about college test scores and getting her driver's license, she's going to be battling morning sickness and the judgment of her peers. At least she has her best friend, Kelaya Lancaster. The two Black girls come from totally different neighborhoods of Lynwood Heights--Erykah's low-income projects and Kelly's affluent enclave--but until now their friendship trumped any differences between them. Kelly, who aspires to be valedictorian and play basketball in the WNBA, has a wonderful boyfriend, Ray, who is quite unlike Erykah's unreliable boyfriend, Miguel. Kelly knows her friend needs her support, especially after Erykah decides to lie to her mom about what she plans to do about the pregnancy. But Kelly is also focused on her own goals, and the girls' friendship is pushed to its limits as they try to juggle the truths, the lies, and their dreams for the future. Thomas' characters are so real readers will feel like they're part of the text conversations that are scattered throughout the novel. Deftly woven into each girl's story are hard-hitting facts about teen pregnancy and Black maternity issues. Far from being a judgmental cautionary tale, the work treats Erykah's circumstances with care, offering a true representation of the right to choose, despite the odds. An empowering, relatable read. (Fiction. 14-18)

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Starred review from November 14, 2022
Black 16-year-old best friends Erykah and Kelaya, who live in Lynwood Heights, Nev., have big plans for their futures: Erykah wants to study business at Howard University, and Kelly, a talented basketball player, dreams of playing in the WNBA. But when Erykah’s unplanned pregnancy imperils her goals, her mother insists she get an abortion, and though her Latinx-cued boyfriend Miguel assures her he’ll support her throughout the pregnancy, his mercurial personality sows doubt. Unbeknownst to her mother, Erykah chooses not to terminate the pregnancy and, with Kelly’s help, keeps her decision a secret from her community. As Erykah’s pregnancy progresses, however, she struggles with unforeseen health complications, and Kelly makes a decision that drives a wedge between them. Tension around Erykah’s financial precarity and Kelly’s affluent upbringing heightens their individual conflicts. Via the girls’ alternating perspectives, Thomas expertly balances Erykah and Kelly’s vastly different home lives to compassionately dissect themes of class and misogynoir around life-changing decisions. Believably peppered with facts about Black maternal healthcare, this thought-provoking debut inspired by the reality TV show of the same name is an authentic exploration of the right to choose. Ages 14–up.