Ellie Pillai is Brown

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Yourself and Bob are much cherished in our booky world and I personally really appreciate everything that you do. Love the characters dynamic although mostly were freaking overly dramatic and Ellie did frustrate me somehow when she goes judging her opinion and not trusting her friends when they said she was good (don't go being too toxic to yourself, kiddo). From Nobel Laureates Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to theatre greats Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett to rising stars Polly Stenham and Florian Zeller, Faber Drama presents the very best theatre has to offer.

Suddenly, her misfit style, her skin colour, her songwriting and all that getting lost in the music in her head seem to be okay too. It reminded me of Never Have I Ever (which I also love) and it's different having a South Asian girl going thorough teen angst. I loved the fresh and original voice of this coming of age debut, approaching big themes with a light touch. I was at my last school for 4 years and we had ********* book fairs every term – and every term, I was disappointed by the narrow range of books.

Home to William Golding, Sylvia Plath, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sally Rooney, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Max Porter, Ingrid Persaud, Anna Burns and Rachel Cusk, among many others, Faber is proud to publish some of the greatest novelists from the early twentieth century to today. She also uses the book to showcase her own talents as there is a downloadable album with tracks reflecting the chapter themes throughout the book, accessible by scanning the liberally spread QR codes. I connected with Ellie is so many ways; from not wholly belonging to the Brown crowd, nor the White crowd to living life with a soundtrack in my head (albeit Ellie would argue her taste in music is much better, I'd have to argue that indeed it is not). The characters are all so multi dimensional and layered that again, no one felt like a stereotype or even like a character because they just felt like people you could know for real, which again was reminiscent of John Hughes (for the record, he is my favourite director/producer of all time, so this is a Very Big Compliment in case it is construed in a different way).

What’s more, might this be the year that Mrs Aachara sees something in Ellie that has only been hinted at, that we know, and then Ash, the new boy might glimpse too? Warm, funny and hopeful, this story is about a girl struggling to like herself and growing to learn that she is enough.

It really did enhance the story and I am sure readers will absolutely love this element of the book. Der Schreibstil erzählt aus Ellies Sicht und das sehr leicht und flüssig, zudem sind die Kapitel meist angenehm kurz. My rating might change to a 2 star because honestly, I didn't really enjoy this as much as I wanted to but there are some things I appreciated. Friendships are getting complicated especially now she’s fallen in love with Ash, a new boy at school who she has a real connection with and who then immediately starts going out with her best friend.

The way it did turn out, though, was for the record the way I wanted it to be, and I’ve heard there’s going to be a sequel so I will absolutely be reading that so I can see some more of these characters. I liked that her friend group could all have their own books written about them, and their struggles with their identities and home life really added to the story.Although Jess is ‘the ‘it’ girl’ who has people watching her wherever she goes, Ellie’s happy to fall into her shadow. I have even talked the head into a little revamp of the library so that we can display them properly! There were so many times I was cringing but I think that’s just because I’m not the target audience. There was a lot of good stuff here- Eliie has a really distinct voice and the topics discussed were great. Friendships are getting trickier and more complicated (check) and she doesn’t quite fit in to either side of her heritage (check).