I really enjoyed this. The setup at the beginning is a bit slow - going into this knowing it was a time travel story, I was eager to get to the time travel part, but Elliott takes her time building Genna's world in Brooklyn, New York. Her family life is rife with trouble and she's desperate for a way out, wishing to move her family to a nice brownstone in a better part of town and study pschiatry in college. Sometimes she visits a fountain in a local garden and throws pennies in as she makes wishes. but being thrown back to the American Civil War is not what she had in mind. This is a point in history that I haven't seen written in fiction. When Genna gains consciousness in the past, she has left her mother, her siblings, and her boyfriend behind. The Emancipation Proclamation has just been passed and all slaves are freed; but freedom doesn't come as neatly as all that. When Genna first wakes, she is in so much pain she can barely move, and slave catchers load her body onto their cart in hopes of getting a reward for her discovery. She narrowly avoids the fate they intend and finds herself in an orphanage, and then as a nanny for the small son of a local abolitionist doctor.

This book is a look at America's dark past and the roots of my people. A draft is in effect and many young men are marching off to war. Black men, women and children attempt to run north and escape the South's desperate grip on slavery, and not all will make it. Tension between blacks, whites, and immigrants lead to violent riots. Genna has moderate comfort living with the doctor and his family (including his volatile wife), but she is learning that a young black woman in ninteenth century Brooklyn cannot be truly free.

Elliott covers a lot of ground in discussing history and its relation to modern issues. Genna's life in the past is in fascinating contrast with her modern life. Genna is reminded frequently that black Americans truly have come far from these brutal beginnings, but still have a long way to go. Even in the 21st century, she and her family live in poverty and struggle to survive. Her personality between the two periods is also in contrast. In the 21st century, Genna seems quiet and meek, but determined. But in the past, even her insecure personality is revolutionary. Her conflicts with the doctor's older black servant, Nannie, and his wife, Mrs. Brant, alternate between troubling and hilarious.

The character development is great; characters have room to grow and reveal their layers, not always neatly. And even when they don't agree, Genna and her friends have only each other to look to for survival. There were times when the book felt a bit stream-of-consciousness. Certain elements would pop up, and characters would be introduced, that made me wonder if they'd been introduced before and I simply forgot, or if Elliott had just decided to insert them at that moment. Nevertheless, this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. It also ends on a cliffhanger, and from what I understand, Elliott is working on a sequel. ( )

This is really two books in one. The first part takes place in contemporary times. The main character, Genna, lives in Brooklyn with her mother and three siblings. She has a pretty optimistic and trusting outlook on life despite being poor and black in a world where either could keep one from getting ahead. She is intelligent and determined to go to college, unlike her brother who has taken to dealing drugs, or her sister who cares more about looking good than getting good grades.

The second part of the book takes place back in the Civil War era. Genna is pulled back into time, into a body that has been brutally beaten and left for dead. She faces a world where blacks are still slaves and blacks were a second class citizen at best.

There was a lot in this book and I was pulled into it headfirst. Though even now, I'm still not certain what point Elliott was trying to make with her story. It was a compelling narrative and I spent the entire book rooting for Genna, who despite everything remained true to herself and her convictions.

I didn't know what to think about Genna's boyfriend, Judah, and his blacks for blacks soapboxing and desire to return to Africa, which made me roll my eyes at his naivete in the face of the 1860s. I more appreciated Genna's more practical view of being stuck in time and eking out the best life she could given the circumstances and the challenges she faced. Judah made me want to reach into the book and shake him and scream into his face to wake up.

But the book overall just confused me. The ending was sudden and unresolved, and despite lots of commentary on racism (institutional, internal, and individual), there was no clear message about it one way or the other. There was also no explanation on why Genna and Judah were ripped into the past. Nor why she was the only one to return. And finally, it just seemed gimmicky to return Genna right before 9/11.

I enjoyed the book. The narrator was fantastic. But I thought the book felt unpolished or unfinished. I hope that maybe someday there will be a follow-up to tie up the remaining loose threads. There is too much unresolved to be satisfying. ( )

This! This is what I was looking for when I started the Diverse Authors Project. I bought an ARC at a kid's sidewalk sale in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. I'd already made up my mind to buy something -- it was a books 'n toys sale to earn money for a new bookshelf, c'mon! -- and the kid said this was good. It's right up my alley, being historical with a fantasy element, but had never been on my radar because Elliott self-pubbed. It came out again under Amazon Encore, so that's the ARC I have.

This is not a perfect book. The magic has no grounding; we never even find out what wish Genna made that took her back to the past. (Unless that changed after the ARC came out.) A stronger book would have used that wish to cast ripples through her adventures in 1863, and had those adventures reflect in a more literary manner on her 2001 life. Maybe I'm overreaching, but it seems like those are ways a good editor could have strengthened the book if she'd published it "for real." But part of the point of the Diverse Authors Project is to recognize how relatively few good books by authors of color get published by major companies. I can see how this might have been a hard book for even an author of Elliott's stature to sell.

Which is a damn shame, because it is a very good book. The characters are compelling; the settings in both early-2000s and 1863 Brooklyn felt grounded in reality. The book asks timely questions -- What makes someone "white" and why is that a privileged status? Are black and white necessarily at odds, or can individuals make authentic connections across race? How does class fit into racial conflict? Where does prejudice come from, and how can it lead to violence? -- in both eras, using authentic and well-researched historical examples. Most importantly, I didn't want to put it down! I even risked motion sickness on the bus ride home from New York to find out what happened next.

Two-genres-in-one can be off-putting for some readers, but it can also provide twice the openings for hand-selling! Genna spends enough time in modern-day Brooklyn at the beginning to hook realistic urban fiction readers, and those who love historical melodrama can push through that part if they know what's coming. There's a great love story, but it doesn't overwhelm the book. A lot of tragic things happen to Genna, but the book (and its protagonist) never feels weighed down by them.

Be aware that the n-word is used often -- appropriately so, but that still might be painful for readers. It also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, including a "gotcha" in the last pages: Genna returns to NYC on Sept. 10, 2001. Elliott was supposedly writing a sequel, but that doesn't seem to have happened. I hope we get one someday! ( )

Genna is a fifteen-year-old in modern-day Brooklyn. She lives with her single-parent, two-job-working mother, her flirty, sexy older sister, her drug-selling older brother and too-sweet baby brother all in a one-room apartment. Unlike her siblings, Genna works hard at school and plans to go to college and get out of the ghetto. Her poetry-writing boyfriend Judah wants to escape too, by moving to Africa. Genna’s favorite place to go is the botanical gardens where she always has a penny to throw in the fountain for a wish.
After a family crisis, Genna goes to the gardens late at night and makes a wish—one that seems to work, although in an unexpected way. Genna is taken far away (in time, not location), to Brooklyn during the Civil War, where she is suspected of being a runaway slave. Barely saved from being shipped South, Genna is taken to an orphanage and allowed to heal from horrible wounds she doesn't remember getting. Stuck in 1863 Genna must adapt to a new world, where black people have even fewer options than they had in twenty-first century New York.
Elliott masterfully draws both Brooklyns. The modern-day city is alive and dangerous and yet home. The Civil War-era Brooklyn is all those things, and yet totally different. Genna is a strong and adaptable character, one readers can easily sympathize with, and the story is both gripping and informative. Elliott brings to life little-studied events and explores the many difficulties faced by blacks, both of today and during the Civil War.
I was disappointed in the ending, but not so much that it ruined the story. Actually, the ending might precipitate discussion in a high school classroom or adult book club, for which I highly recommend it. ( )

The author has good writing skills and uses good words and phrases, but the topic just didn't interest me or hold my attention. I also didn't understand why after she traveled back in time she was bruised and very hurt. Q3P3 AHS/Mackenzie S