Anger is Only a Shadow is the latest in Acevedo’s novels. I have adored Acevedo’s novels always and listening to this via audiobook was absolutely amazing! I can always recommend to do this when the author is narrating.
Summary
Lil is anything but small. She’s rebellious, she’s loyal; she’s figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything? Lil wants to be free.
When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling.
The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles from his college. Something’s been off with him for several months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.
As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile will she stay put, or put her future freedom on the line?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I normally listen to audiobooks at 1.75 speed, but with Elizabeth Acevedo I always turn it down. Acevedo’s novels have a lyricism and even if it’s not written in verse, there’s a beauty to the writing. An intentionality that you can’t help but be enthralled by. Anger is Only a Shadow is a story about love, about family, and about being so overwhelmed. My heart broke for Lil in the ways that she is running from feeling so overwhelmed, from feeling like she’s drowning, all while trying to help her brother. We see her mistakes, but also her vulnerabilities and the ways she’s trying, she’s loving, and just making it to the next day.
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Anger is Only a Shadow is a story about doing the right thing when it’s hard. It’s easy to do the right thing when it’s easy, when we don’t have to think about it, but what if it demands everything we have and more? She’s trying so deeply to figure out her place in the world, in her family, in her school. To manage the justice system while seeing the injustices. Acevedo’s novel is a nuanced look at responsibility and pain, on healing and forgiveness, and the messiness of trying to find ourselves. Find Anger is Only a Shadow on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, Bookshop. org & Libro. fm.