Contemporary Authors

1. Rani Patel in full effect LCCN 2016013016 Type of material Book Personal name Patel, Sonia. Main title Rani Patel in full effect / by Sonia Patel. Edition First edition. Published/Produced El Paso, TX : Cinco Puntos Press, [2016]. Projected pub date 1111 Description pages cm ISBN 9781941026502 (paperback) 9781941026496 (cloth) CALL NUMBER PZ7.7.P275 Ran 2016 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms

• PW - http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/71741-q-a-with-sonia-patel.html

  Q & A with Sonia Patel

  By Sally Lodge | Oct 13, 2016
  Comments subscribe by the month

  In Rani Patel in Full Effect, out this month from Cinco Puntos Press, debut YA novelist Sonia Patel introduces a teenager living in Hawaii with her Gujarati Indian immigrant parents, struggling to find her identity and discover where she belongs. Sexually abused by her father and feeling isolated from her introverted mother, Rani takes solace in writing rap songs and performing in the early 1990s underground hip-hop milieu, where she makes risky choices that, ultimately, enable her to uncover her strengths and reconnect with her mother. The author, a psychiatrist of Gujarati descent who lives and practices in Hawaii and is an accomplished writer of rap verse, spoke with PW about creating the character of Rani – whose identical surname is hardly a coincidence – and relaying her story.

  The autobiographical strains of your novel sound loud and clear. What led you to share some gritty pieces of your life with teen readers?

  In my role as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I do not reveal my personal life to my patients. I make occasional exceptions if I think divulging bits of my experiences will be therapeutic for the patient. There are many times I want to interrupt my teen patients and blurt, “Hey, listen, I’ve been there, done that. Don’t waste your time making those kinds of mistakes. Don’t learn the hard way like I did! Listen to me!” Of course, that’s not how psychotherapy works, and it’s rarely useful to lecture. Over the years, I got to reflecting on what additional tools I might use in therapy to help guide teens away from destructive behaviors. I kept coming back to self-disclosure. It just seemed logical that my patients and their families would be more likely to consider making behavior changes if they knew I’d practiced what we were discussing.

  Why is fiction an effective medium for communicating that message?

  One day in the fall of 2014, when I was working on a new rap, I took a break and skimmed over the binder of rap I’d written over the years. I read it in a certain order, and to my surprise, that order told a story of a girl overcoming adversity. Aha! It hit me. The story could be a blend of struggles and triumphs – mine, those of some of my patients, and my imagination. This type of mix would hopefully produce a troubled but relatable protagonist. By writing a realistic YA novel, I was confident I could help teens in a way that, for some of them, might be more powerful than psychotherapy.

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  Did the key role that hip hop and rap played in your teenage life inspire its importance to Rani?

  It was never really a decision to incorporate hip hop and rap into Rani’s story. Rather, her story was born out of the rap I’d written over the years. I’d been hooked to hip hop – especially rap – since I was 11, from the first time I heard Run DMC rap to a dope beat on my boom box. Later in my teens, I put my pen to my pad and words flowed into rhymes. The rhymes gelled into rap. The rap expressed my hurt, frustration, and rebellion against my family’s dysfunction. My father’s manipulative, controlling, and abusive actions isolated my mother and me, not only from our Gujarati Indian culture but also from American culture.

  So listening to and writing in this musical genre reduced your sense of isolation?

  The bottom line was that, though my genetic ancestry is Gujarati Indian, I’ve never felt Gujarati Indian enough. Though I am the first person in my immigrant family to be born in America, I’ve never felt American enough. And though I was raised on the island of Moloka’i, I’ve never felt Hawaiian enough. I picked up positive bits and pieces of my surrounding cultures – Gujarati Indian, Native Hawaiian, and American – but these positives couldn’t balance out the worthlessness I increasingly felt as my father rejected my mother and made me into his intimate companion. Fortunately, hip hop threw me a lifeline – the music soothed my soul, and rap gave me a voice for my feelings of inadequacy and rage. All the things hip hop gifted me with kept me afloat while my family’s ship capsized – like it did for Rani. Hip hop saved her life, yo! And mine, too.

  Fast-forwarding to your adult life, how did your experience working with teenagers in your psychiatric practice help shape Rani Patel in Full Effect?

  My experiences treating teens from all walks of life definitely fueled the novel and offered a helpful counterpart to my personal experiences. Each teen I’ve treated has his or her own story and challenges. The insight they gain from therapy helps them change their behavior and tolerate a spectrum of thoughts and feelings until their self-worth improves. I try to instill them with the desire to keep striving to overcome and thrive. Through my YA fiction, I hope I can impact more teens than in my office alone. I’m looking to entertain, but also to inspire, to help, and to guide. Rani doesn’t get it right away, and that’s why her story is a realistic response to trauma. Rani repeats old, bad behaviors for a long time – that’s all she knows.

  So you’re hopeful that Rani’s circuitous path to recovery will encourage readers dealing with trauma to persevere on their own healing journeys?

  It’s one thing for me in my capacity as a psychiatrist to discuss not giving up with my teen patients. It’s another, maybe more potent, thing for them to think about the real, relatable experiences of another person. And perhaps it’s even more compelling for them to read a YA novel about a young protagonist whose world they can climb into and live in for a while. Perhaps in this vicarious manner they can gain empathy for their own situation and be inspired to keep trying to make positive change.

  Was it difficult, or cathartic, to revisit painful parts of your past to relay Rani’s story?

  It was both – and also therapeutic. “Physician heal thyself” most certainly applied when writing Rani’s story. I never had a psychiatrist growing up, when I was in the thick of my family turmoil. Deep down, I knew there was a problem, but I buried all my feelings because no one else seemed to think there was anything wrong. I figured it was just the way things were, and that I was way better off than kids who were starving or being beaten or growing up in war-torn countries.

  It was only in the process of writing Rani’s story that I found true healing. However, I also found grief – the grief I’d avoided my entire life. Grief about the reality of my family’s problems and the long-term consequences my mother and I suffered. Grief about the terribly hurtful choices I’d made. Ultimately, through the process of writing Rani’s story, I gained tremendous insight into my past and how it connects to my present. I’ve solidified my identity, self-worth, and ability to make good interpersonal decisions – something I’ve been encouraging my patients to strive for all along.

  Your novel was selected as a YA Editors’ Buzz book at BEA, and has received multiple starred reviews. As a first-time novelist, this enthusiastic reception must be very gratifying.

  Yes – it’s been such an honor! I am new to the YA world and feel grateful for this buzz. I consider myself an outlier in terms of authors, because my focus is on emotional and interpersonal realism as opposed to shock value, world building, or epic storytelling. So while Rani Patel in Full Effect may not make the New York Times bestseller list, I am already well on my way to achieving my goals as an author – to help and inspire teens.

  What is next up for you as a novelist? Any chance you will continue Rani’s story in a sequel?

  I often fantasize about writing a sequel with Rani in college in New York City. I’ve imagined her there kicking up her rap skills, and developing a strong network of female friends. Maybe someday I’ll get to that. Currently, though, I’m working on a tragic teen love story set on Oahu – a trans Gujarati boy and a girl from Hauula meet by chance. And though their lives are filled with chaos of all kinds, their love grows. They start to solidify their true identities, but then... you’ll have to wait and see!

  Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel. Cinco Puntos, $16.95 Oct. 978-1-941026-49-6; trade paper, $11.95 ISBN 978-1-941026-50-2

• Author Website / bio / interviews / reviews - https://soniapatel.net/bio/

  I am the first person in my Gujarati immigrant family to be born in the United States of America. My parents had a traditional arranged marriage in Gujarat, India.

  I graduated from Moloka'i High & Intermediate School, then obtained my bachelor's degree in history at Stanford University. I earned a medical degree from the University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine, and then completed five years of residency training in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry at Stanford University and the University of Hawai'i. Immediately after residency, I worked as a psychiatrist on both Oahu and Moloka'i.

  Currently, I practice psychiatry on Oahu. I am especially passionate about helping teens work through the emotional sequelae of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. I also do family therapy to help resolve complicated family systems issues. In addition, I've led various teen groups- process therapy groups aimed at building interpersonal and assertiveness skills for depressed, anxious, and eating disordered girls, book discussion groups with incarcerated girls from all the Hawaiian islands, and safe sex psychoeducation groups with psychiatrically hospitalized teens.

  When I'm not in the office, you can find me trekking in some lush mountain or valley. Or making hot fudge (or any other sweet treat with the magic five ingredients of semi-sweet chocolate, butter, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla). Or listening to hip hop. Or writing rhymes. Or practicing the latest hip hop dance moves (much to the chagrin of my children). Or discovering new TV shows to binge watch (my favorites include: Peaky Blinders, The Wire, Game of Thrones, and The Hour). And then there's foreign travel, which I do for two reasons: culinary pleasure and finding underground hip hop clubs. So far, the best of both are in Seoul, Tokyo, and London.

  A couple of more things.

  My gender identity flows and if you see me in a crowd, rockin' my pearls, don't assume I'm just a girl. It's complicated, yo. And you best believe that part of me is a hip hop Romeo.

  I live on Oahu with my husband, two children, and dog.

  Interviews with Author Sonia Patel

  6/7/16 Building Diverse Bookshelves: Author Interview

  6/20/16 Hawaii Public Radio: The Conversation

  9/5/16 Fragments of Life: Celebrating Debutantes 2016

  9/26/16 School Library Journal: Hip-Hop, Sexual Abuse, and Reconciliation: Sonia Patel on “Rani in Full Effect”

  10/5/16 The Moloka'i Dispatch: MHS Alum Publishes First Novel

  10/6/16 Barnes & Noble Teen Blog Open Mic

  10/11/16 Diversity in YA: Rap Saved My LIfe, Yo!

  10/13/16 Publishers Weekly: Q & A with Sonia Patel

  10/19/16 Kirkus Reviews: Interview of Sonia Patel, Author of Rani Patel In Full Effect

  11/1/16 Rich in Color: Author Interview with Sonia Patel

  12/28/16 Rendezvous with Sonia Patel - Novelist, Psychiatrist, Songwriter

  1/13/17 Interview with Morris Finalist Sonia Patel

  1/17/17 2017 Morris Award Finalists: An Interview with Sonia Patel

  Reviews of Rani Patel In Full Effect

  5/18/16 Building Diverse Bookshelves, YA Review (ARC)

  7/2/16 Kirkus Starred Review

  8/1/16 Publishers Weekly Starred Review

  8/22/16 Hip Hop is for Everyone: A review

  9/1/16 Booklist Starred Review

  9/8/16 Hazel & Wren: What We're Reading

  9/9/16 Rich in Color: Review

  9/13/16 All the Books! Podcast, Book Riot, Episode 71 (time 14:53-17:43)

  10/1/16 BookPage Top Teen Pick, October 2016

  10/3/16 Kirkus, Leila Roy's Finding a Voice

  10/11/16 School LIbrary Journal Starred Review

  10/19/16 DESIHIPHOP: Sonia Patel's Rap Verses Turn into Debut Book 'Rani Patel In Full Effect'

  10/28/16 Cleaver Magazine, Issue 15: Rani Patel In Full Effect

  11/11/16 New York Times Book Review: The Latest in Realistic Fiction for Young Adults

  12/26/16 The Pirate Tree, Social Justice and Children's Literature: Confronting Patriarchy and Abuse: A Review of Rani Patel In Full Effect

  12/30/16 The Globe and Mail (Canada): Review: Young adult books from Sonia Patel, Arushi Raina, Nicola Yoon and others

  1/4/17 Sukasa Reads Review

  2/6/17 Baltimore County Public Library: Between the Covers Shhhh...We're Reading: Rani Patel In Full Effect

• Hawaii Public Radio - http://hawaiipublicradio.org/post/conversation-monday-june-20th-2016

  When your cultural background and your environment are in conflict, the tension can pull you apart. it’s a story Sonia Patel knows well, as a therapist and as the author of a young adult novel called RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT. Sonia was raised on Molokai by a family that came here from India, and her novel takes us into the world of a 16-year old dealing with cultural clashes that threaten to destroy her. It’s a literature born of rap and slam poetry, and Sonia’s with us in our studio.

  Intro Music: Lift Me Up by Belle Ghoul

  Outro Music: Boreal by Divine Pastel

• Hawaii Book and Music Festival - http://hawaiibookandmusicfestival.com/sonia-patel/

  Sonia Patel
  Sonia Patel is a first generation Indian immigrant, who grew up on the island of Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in history at Stanford University and went on to earn her medical degree from the University of Hawai’i, John A. Burns School of Medicine. She completed five years of residency training in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. Patel currently practices psychiatry on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. She is most passionate about helping teens work through the emotional sequelae of sexual, physical and mental abuse. In her free time she enjoys hiking, baking fudge and listening to hip-hop. When she travels, she loves to indulge in culinary pleasures and discovering underground hip-hop clubs. So far her favorites are Seoul, Tokyo and London. She lives on O‘ahu with her husband, two children and their dog.

  Rani Patel: In Full Effect
  Almost seventeen, Rani Patel appears to be a kick-ass Indian girl breaking cultural norms as a hip-hop performer in full effect. But in truth, she's a nerdy flat-chested nobody who lives with her
  Gujarati immigrant parents on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka’I, isolated from her high school peers by the unsettling norms of Indian culture where "husband is God." Her parents' traditionally arranged marriage is a sham. Her dad turns to her for all his needs—even the intimate ones. When Rani catches him two-timing with a woman barely older than herself, she feels like a widow and, like widows in India are often made to do, she shaves off her hair. Her sexy bald head and hard-driving rhyming skills attract the attention of Mark, the hot older customer who frequents her parents' store and is closer in age to her dad than to her. Mark makes the moves on her and Rani goes with it. He leads Rani into 4eva Flowin', an underground hip hop crew—and into other things she's never done. Rani ignores the red flags. Her naive choices look like they will undo her but ultimately give her the chance to discover her strengths and restore the things she thought she'd lost, including her mother.

  Comments:

  "Debut author Sonia Patel offers a unique perspective in Rani, whose punchy first-person narrative, peppered with early-’ 90s hip-hop references, Hawaiian, Hawaiian pidgin, Gujurati phrases, and her own
  slick rhymes packed with an empowering feminist message, commendably and strikingly stands out in the YA landscape." —Booklist Online, Starred Review

  “A powerfully particular, 100 percent genuine character commands this gutsy debut.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

  “Sonia Patel sets her powerful debut novel in 1991, filling it with bygone rap references and an electric verbal blend of Gujarati, slang, Hawaiian pidgin, and the rhymes Rani crafts. Patel compassionately
  portrays Rani’ s entangled emotions, lack of self-confidence, and burgeoning sense of empowerment as she moves forward from trauma.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

  Links:

  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sonia-patel/rani-patel-in-full-effect/
  http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/71741-q-a-with-sonia-patel.html
  https://soniapatel.net/

  Social Media:

  Twitter @soniapatel808
  Instagram @soniapatel808
  Facebook @SoniaPatelAuthor

• Isabel Quintero - https://laisabelquintero.com/2017/01/13/interview-with-morris-finalist-sonia-patel/

  INTERVIEW WITH MORRIS FINALIST SONIA PATEL
  JANUARY 13, 2017 QUINTEROFLORESISABEL 4 COMMENTS
  image1-2

  Rani Patel in Full Effect is one of those books that isn’t polite or nice. Which is good because the issues in this book are not polite or nice; they are open wounds and heartbreak and survival and resilience. I had an opportunity to interview, William C. Morris finalist, and fellow Cinco Puntos author, Sonia Patel.

  Isabel Quintero: From the very beginning the book was tense. Very tense. Everything added to this; the setting, the relationships. I always felt like there was something that was about to happen. Was it your intent to keep it tense because of the subject matter or did it just happen?

  Sonia Patel: I am glad you felt the tension. That was my intent. The tension reflects the chaos that happens once Rani’s incestuous relationship with her father abruptly ends. While in the covertly and overtly incestuous relationship she is isolated from her mother, her extended family, her surrounding cultures, and peers. Once her father abandons her, she flounders. Even though she is intelligent, she doesn’t have enough experience in the real world. Her attempts at building her own life and identity, separate from her father, result in chaos and tension as she unconsciously tries to recreate her relationship with her father with Mark.

  IQ: One of things I appreciated about Rani is how uncomfortable it made me. Let me explain. There were many times that I was frustrated with Rani, that I was like, “What are you doing?” And I had to step back and check myself; I was victim blaming. Did you think about how readers would react to Rani’s “bad” choices, especially with Mark, and the assumption that she was making “bad” choices to begin with?

  SP: I knew readers would assume she was making “bad” choices. And that was my intention. I wanted to make it crystal clear that survivors of trauma often do this. In my author’s note I talk about how their brains are often biologically hardwired to do this because trauma can damage normal brain development. But in the story I wanted to show this biologic brain damage in the outward manifestation of Rani’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Rani often made impulsive, irrational decisions based on what would make her feel good, or at least less bad, in the moment because overall she felt sad, anxious, and unworthy most of the time. And these “bad” decisions led to situations that then presented more opportunities to make other “bad” decisions. Because of her role as her father’s “wife,” she didn’t get ample opportunity to develop her own sense of self, which is what is supposed to happen during adolescence. In more normal adolescence, children and teens make mistakes and receive individual, familial, and/or societal rewards and consequences that either discourage or reinforce the behavior. Youth thus begin to learn how to make good decisions. Rani wasn’t allowed to be herself. Plus she was distant from the protective aspects of her mother, Gujarati culture, and female peers (all a result of her father’s incestuous relationship with her). She was her father’s object and so, despite her intelligence, when she was presented with situations or relationships outside of her incestuous relationship she ended up making the quick, feel-good-in-the-moment-but-ultimately-bad choices. And that when she starts to get how the abuse affected her and begins to rebuild her relationship with her mother she gets a chance to make better decisions.

  By the end of the story most readers seem to get why she keeps making “bad” choices.

  I was surprised by the reactions of a few readers who found Rani “dumb,” “one dimensional,” “asking for it,” and “not using a big vocabulary” even at the end of the story. I could have made Rani more obviously empowered. I could’ve had her make all the “right” choices from the beginning. I could’ve used big flowery words and sentences. I could’ve developed her character beyond that of a traumatized teen who hasn’t yet healed. I could’ve developed the other characters beyond how a traumatized teen who hasn’t yet healed relates to them. But all that would be, in my opinion, an unrealistic portrayal of the effects of covert and overt sexual abuse. That kind of story, based on my work with traumatized teens, would minimize the biologic effects of trauma and reinforce intolerance, judgement, and lack of empathy of the actual trauma experience.

  IQ: Rani still seems to love her dad, even though he doesn’t deserve it. Or does he? Maybe, I am being judgmental. In, “My Hero,” you bring up mental illness, and Rani’s dad says, “The pills also made me do things I didn’t plan on,” in a way he seems to be blaming his behavior on medication and not taking responsibility for his actions. While Rani and her mom are happy to have them out of their lives, he gets another partner and more children, and there are no real consequences for him. Why is that?

  SP: I completely understand your reaction. And yes Rani’s dad is blaming his behavior on the medication and not taking responsibility. He’s got an inflated sense of his own importance. He has a deep need for admiration from others. He lacks empathy for others. Underneath it all, though, he’s got poor self-worth (though he has no insight into this). These things make it more likely that he continues his misogynistic and abusive behavior—because it makes him feel better about himself and he’s blind to how it affects others.

  Unfortunately, he gets away with no real consequences. If I’d been Rani’s psychiatrist, and I knew about the incest, I would’ve called child protective services and hopefully there would’ve been some consequences for him. But she didn’t have a psychiatrist. And often, by the time teens see a psychiatrist, the abusive parents may not be around or the teens may not want to take legal or emotional action. In many real life cases of incest and sexual abuse, there is no real consequence for the abusers. Shoot take a look at the person about to enter the White House.

  Still, there is hope for the surviving teens. Once they are safe from the abuser they can begin to heal—find words to describe their trauma, gain insight into how the trauma has affected them, and help them build their identity, self-worth, tolerance of their swinging pendulum of emotions, and social connections.

  IQ: I think Rani is resilient. Often when sexual abuse is involved, victims are expected to behave certain way; quiet, broken, anti-social. To behave in ways we associate with weakness. This is not the case for Rani. Yes, she is broken (?) in someways, but she is also fierce. I really liked that.

  SP: Yes. Reaction to trauma is variable. The biologic damage can vary. The thought, feeling, and behavioral manifestations can vary. Rani’s story is one version. I chose to present her as resilient and strong in many ways. She’s also very smart. From the outside, no one could tell there was anything wrong. This is often the case with trauma survivors, especially if the abuse is chronic. And especially when other family members remain silent or enable to abuse. The fierceness Rani presents is how she makes sure no one can tell there’s something wrong. It’s a front. Heck if her own father sexually abuses her and her mother is distant and in denial, the only way to get through that is to put on a front. In some cases this can turn into dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder). While the abuse is going on Rani doesn’t want anyone digging too deep. Because what’s really underneath is shame, guilt, sadness, fear, and self-hate. When her her father abandons her, everything unravels. Her situation changes and though she’s not being abused anymore it’s like she’s emotionally naked in the real world. She hasn’t built herself up enough yet and she becomes a jumbled mess of fierceness and vulnerability.

  IQ: I wanted to talk about your use of rap music. I know very little about it; I know I like Wu-Tang and Biggie and Tupac. You, on the other hand, seem to have grown up rapping. While rap is now a part of various communities in some way or another, rap emerged in the black community. Was there ever concern about cultural appropriation or how would you address someone who would question your intent?

  SP: Hip hop was born in the 70’s in the Bronx as a form of expression and resistance for the black community that continued to suffer the multifaceted consequences of oppression in America. I first heard rap (Run DMC’s Hard Times) on the radio when I was a kid. Back then I had no insight into whether or not I was culturally appropriating anything. All I knew was that when my parents were fighting, listening to rap made me feel better. I couldn’t talk to anyone about what was going on at home so I listened to rap. I never stopped listening to rap. I grew to love it more than Michael Jackson’s pop style music. Rap’s beat and flow lifted me. The way rappers dressed inspired me. I copied their dance moves and felt free. Rap made me feel powerful in a way nothing else had. For me as a kid, rap was my savior. It was something very personal.

  I am still a huge fan of hip hop. All aspects of it. Rap. Fashion. Graffiti. DJing. Dance. I’ve met people of all ethnicities who love and live one or more forms of hip hop. In that hip hop community, I haven’t come across people questioning each other about cultural appropriation. Maybe my experience is limited, but I don’t think so. I would never, ever want to be disrespectful or falsely represent another culture. And I am not trying to be black. I can’t. I’m not.

  But I know I love hip hop and rap. I feel it in my soul. I feel it like a first generation Gujarati-Indian person who found solace in its beats and flow throughout my life struggles (which I don’t compare as more or less intense than the struggles of others). Hip hop was my culture when I had no other. It was my emotional support when I had no other. It was how I resisted. It was how I built my self-worth. It helped my form my identity separate from my difficult past. It helped me express my fluidity on the gender spectrum. Just like when I was a kid, these things that hip hop and rap represent to me are personal. I am not trying to make like I’m a hip hop or rap expert or authority figure. I’m just trying to survive and hip hop and rap help me. I’m grateful beyond words to hip hop culture.

  IQ: Why do you think rap is so powerful and resonates so much with young people of color especially? Do you still rap? Who is your favorite rapper and why?

  SP: Rap is one form of expression and resistance for marginalized people of color. The powerful beats are universally loved. Most young people can’t help but head nod when they hear a dope beat. The lyrics are catchy, intelligent, crafty, and witty. They offer young people a voice they might not otherwise have. Rap can be written and performed for fun. For love. For political intentions. For social conscious raising. For empowerment. A young person doesn’t need much to rap. A pen and a pad. If you don’t have a fancy studio for the beats, you can get a friend to beatbox and mimic a drum machine with his or her mouth, tongue, lips, and voice.

  I still listen to and write rap. For me it’s the same as always. It’s my own therapy. My own self-expression. And a way to express my good intentions for the young people I treat in my psychiatric practice.

  My favorite rapper is…wow, it’s hard to pick just one! I love all the rappers I grew up with in the golden age of hip hop, the late 80’s and 90’s. If I had to pick one right now it’s a toss up between Lauryn Hill and M.I.A. Damn those ladies are fierce and socially/politically conscious!

  IQ: You are a psychiatrist. What made you want to write a YA novel? Not that the two professions, writer and psychiatrist, are mutually exclusive, but I’m curious.

  SP: In my years of medical training and working as a child & adolescent psychiatrist I’ve learned that the teen who presents as the patient is not always the only patient. Many times, it is the family system he or she comes from that is the true “patient.” The family system patient might be unbalanced and the teen happens to be the one that gets the attention for acting or feeling in a worrisome way. Treating just the teen in a case like this is unlikely to be effective. In these cases, it’s important to treat the entire family system. Family psychotherapy. Families can be resistant to this because they may not accept that their family unit is dysfunctional.

  I also know the effects of an out-of-whack family system based on my own family of origin experience. Sometimes during family therapy sessions I want to tell the families about my experiences in hopes that giving a real life example of why my psychiatric recommendations might be helpful. But there are reasons psychiatrists generally steer clear of self-revelation in direct patient care. So I don’t talk about personal experiences most of the time in therapy sessions.

  Meanwhile I had a binder full of rap I’d written over the years. One day flipping through the binder, I realized that if I read it in a certain order, it told a story. Parly my story and partly that of teens and women I’d treated. It hit me. I could write a YA novel highlighting family dysfunction and how it can affect a teen. I could base it on a combination of my real life family experiences and those of some of patients as well as my imagination. That was how Rani Patel In Full Effect was born.

  As a child & adolescent psychiatrist and as a person of color who grew up in a dysfunctional family unit, I think my perspective is unique. I call it diversity in diversity. In Rani I can best describe it as this: Rani is a POC. She’s growing up disconnected from two diverse cultures, Gujarati Indian and Native Hawaiian. She doesn’t have the luxury to cope only with normal teen developmental issues because she’s been her father’s covert and overt sexual object her entire life. She has to gain insight into the impact of the abuse (on how she thinks, feels, and acts) before she can even begin to make positive changes in her life and get back to normal teen developmental issues.

  It’s not just sexually abused teens that can relate to Rani’s thought, feelings, and behaviors. I’ve seen similar emotions and behaviors displayed in teens with other struggles. As a writer and a psychiatrist, I hope I can reach more of the teens that need a certain type of realistic inspiration.

  IQ: What are you reading right now?

  SP: My husband and kids enjoy playing and watching tennis as much as possible. I used to play tennis high school, but I don’t play much now. I do, however, try to support their positive habit as much as I can tolerate. That’s why I’m reading Open by Andre Agassi. I’m glad I am. It’s fascinating stuff.

  IQ: Do you have a favorite writer?

  SP: Arundhati Roy. I love that she writes powerful fiction and politically and socially conscious nonfiction.

  IQ: What are you working on now?

  SP: A YA love story. Jaya & Rasa. It’s about a 17-year-old transgender Gujarati Indian boy and a 16-year-old girl from a broken family. They find unconditional love and acceptance in each other. There are themes of depression, bulimia, alcoholism, sex trafficking, identity development, and the healing power of music (grunge, specifically Nirvana!) woven in.

  IQ: Anything else you want to let readers know about you?

  SP: Like Rani, I’ve shaved my head and dyed the stubble blonde for some of the same reasons. Times were hard. And hey it’s safer than smoking crack.

• the Hub - http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2017/01/17/2017-morris-award-finalists-interview-sonia-patel/

  2017 Morris Award Finalists: An Interview with Sonia Patel
  Published January 17, 2017
  Sonia Patel is a finalist for the 2017 William C. Morris YA Debut Award for her novel Rani Patel in Full Effect. The award winner will be announced at the ALA Midwinter Meeting Youth Media (YMA) Awards on Monday, Jan. 23, 2017.

  rani-patel-in-full-effect-cover

  Rani Patel in Full Effect grabs the mic to tell a story of hip hop, healing, and the path to self-understanding. Set in the 1990s, Rani, a 16-year-old Gujarati Indian teenager, is growing up on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka’i and is isolated from her peers. She also has a very complicated relationship with her parents to say the least. Her mother doesn’t seem to see her, and when her father gets a new girlfriend, things come out for Rani about her relationship with him that she hasn’t been to admit to herself. Her father’s betrayal has her feeling like widow, in a bold stroke, and like widows in India are often made to do, she shaves off her hair. Rani finds solace and power in writing slam poetry taking on the patriarchy in the island’s underground hip-hop scene as MC Sutra. She soon attracts the attention of the swoony Mark, who is much older than Rani. Even though there is plenty to warn her against him, she falls head over heels. This could easily be the undoing of Rani, but through pain and art, Rani is able to connect with parts of herself lost and unknown.

  Sonia Patel is a Gujarati American and the daughter of immigrant parents. She lives in Hawaii where she works as a psychiatrist working mainly with teens and their families. You can follow her on her website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

  Congratulations on your first novel and being selected as a Finalist for the William C. Morris Award for debut authors!

  Thank you so much for reaching out! I am honored and grateful for being a Morris Award finalist and for the opportunity to be interviewed for the YALSA Hub!

  You are a psychiatrist with a busy career as a therapist working predominately with teen girls and families, what drew you to writing books for teens?

  When I provide psychotherapy to a teen in my child & adolescent psychiatry practice, the teen is often not the only patient. It is not uncommon for the teen’s family to have dynamics that are dysfunctional. And it is this unbalanced family system that is many times my real “patient.” In cases like this I provide family psychotherapy. This can be a hard sell if the family does not accept that the system is flawed and needs work. I try to help them understand that treating the teen alone will not entirely address the problems. Knowing this from my medical training as well as from my own dysfunctional family experiences growing up, I am always thinking about ways to facilitate positive family system change. During many family therapy sessions I want to tell the families about my own experiences in hopes of giving a real life example of why my recommendations might be helpful. But there are reasons psychiatrists generally steer clear of self-revelation in direct patient care. So of course I mostly bite my tongue.

  Meanwhile I had a binder full of rap I’d written over the years. My own therapy for my personal struggles. One day flipping through the binder, it hit me. I could write a teen novel highlighting family dysfunction and how it can affect a teen. I could base it on a combination of my real life family experiences and those of some of patients and my imagination. That was how Rani Patel In Full Effect was born.

  Once I started writing I knew I was onto something unique, especially given my perspective as a psychiatrist. A perspective that isn’t represented in the YA world as far as I’ve seen. I think of it as diversity in diversity. In Rani I can best describe it as this: Rani is a POC. She’s growing up disconnected from two diverse cultures, Gujarati Indian and Native Hawaiian. She doesn’t have the luxury to cope only with normal teen developmental issues. She’s been her father’s object her entire life. She has to gain insight into the impact of the abuse on how she thinks, feels, and acts before she can even begin to make positive changes in her life and get back to normal teen developmental issues.

  There seems to be some similarities with you and Rani, you are both first generation Gujarati American that spent their youth in Connecticut and Hawaii. What was the transition like for you to move to Hawaii as child? What drew you back to Hawaii after leaving to attend college at Stanford?

  The transition to Hawaii was difficult. First, it was a decision my father unilaterally made without input from my mother or I. Second, I had to watch my mother cope with being torn away from the Gujarati immigrant family and friends with whom she was so close. Third, the island my father picked wasn’t Oahu. That island might have been a bit easier for my mother since there were other Indians there. But my father picked Moloka’i. It’s a beautiful island with a strong Native Hawaiian activist movement. But it was difficult for my mother to fit in there since she was completely cut off from her Indian roots. For me, it wasn’t as bad because I did whatever my dad wanted anyway. For a number of reasons similar to Rani, I didn’t have my own identity separate from him. Looking back, it’s clear that the move destroyed our already dysfunctional family.

  I grew to love Hawaii. Especially the cultural diversity, weather, and chill vibe. For my own reasons, I always knew I’d return to live and work in Hawaii. That wasn’t a questions for me even when I was at Stanford. I’d made my own connections to the islands, apart from my father’s influence. And this time when I moved to Hawaii it would be on my terms. I chose to live on Oahu. For a number of years I also flew over to Moloka’i to provide child & adolescent psychiatry services at the public schools. Today, I count my blessings that I get to wake up everyday in such a lovely place.

  One of the most rewarding transformations of the book is Rani’s relationship with her mother. As a reader we see Rani’s mother through Rani’s eyes, and we are allowed to see the shifts as Rani starts to see her differently. Are there similarities to your relationship with to your mother?

  Absolutely. In fact, I modeled Rani’s relationship with her mother on my own relationship with my mother. My mother is my rock. She always has been. And I have an amazing relationship with her now. But it took years to get there. With time I’ve come to understand why it took so long. It wasn’t that I was a bad daughter, which I used to think. Or that she was a cold mother. She was reacting to her circumstances. Though she’d immigrated to America with my father after their arranged marriage, she never fully acculturated. She loved India and her connections to India (Gujarati family & friends in America). She was raised with a confusing blend of progressive “don’t get married-be a doctor instead” and “get married-do what your husband says.” My mother really was told that “husband is god.” So unlike some of her Gujarati female friends and family, she couldn’t stand up to her husband. Like Rani, I watched her do my father’s bidding while suffering inside and growing increasingly emotionally distant from me. Like Rani, my distant relationship with my mother and my observations with how she handled her life unconsciously affected my own life—I couldn’t be assertive with my thoughts and feelings, I hated myself, and I had a difficult time in female friendships. The one major difference between Rani’s relationship with her mother and mine is that it took years for my mother and I to heal our relationship. And it started with insight. Insight usually takes a long time, rarely does it occur over the course of a school year. I talk about this in my author’s note. But in the novel I wanted to show the progression within a shorter timespan that teens could perhaps relate more to. I wanted to show teens what a healed relationship can look like. I wanted to show teens that it’s worth it to work towards healing relationships that will ultimately be a source of strength, nurturance and love.

  Much of Rani’s experience and coming of age has a timelessness about it. What drew you setting her story in the early 1990’s?

  That was the time of my own coming of age. It seemed perfect because it was the golden age of hip hop (late 80s-early 90s). It was a time of tremendous innovation, diversity, and quality in the hip hop culture. It was kind of like hip hop formed its true identity, just like Rani formed hers. Also, it was a time before cell phones and social media dominated teen life. Without the distraction of all that I was hoping to show that Rani was alone in her head most of the time. And this reinforced her one sided perspective on and expectations of relationships. She wasn’t getting much input from outside sources so it was difficult for her to see that it was a problem that she only had guy friends and no female friendships. I intentionally tried to present the other characters in the book with not as much change or depth as perhaps people want to see in novels. This is realistic in terms of how an incest survivor might view relationships—only from the point of view of how the relationship can serve them. So all the characters are from Rani’s one sided, narrow perspective. Until she gains insight into how her trauma affected her, she can only relate to people in her life in terms of how they “serve” her needs. That’s how she learned to have relationships being her father’s “object.”

  Rani finds an outlet through hip hop and poetry. What is your relationship to both, and why did you choose that medium for Rani? (Also, you have great videos posted of you doing some of the poems from the book, is there one we can share on the blog?)

  Rani Patel In Full Effect was a product of my love of hip hop and rap. The way hip hop and rap gave Rani a positive way to cope with her family’s dysfunction is also what it did for me. By writing rap Rani could fake her self-worth until it became real. Something I did as well. Hip hop was Rani’s culture when she couldn’t find solace in her own Gujarati culture. Same for me. Once I found hip hop and rap as a child there was no going back. Nothing else could give me that same healthy comfort. The lyrics and beat of rap let me express my thoughts and feelings in a way I couldn’t in real life. Later I also found the same healing quality in poetry.

  (Thanks for the props on the videos! Please feel free to share one on the blog.)

  I appreciated the authenticity of Rani’s struggle to work through the issues surrounding her abuse. Often times in young adult literature the path presented to healing is more linear. Reading this book I felt that readers got a more realistic perspective of how hard it is to work through the issues, how it is anything but linear, and how humans are more complex and can be a lot of things at once. Have you read a lot of other YA that look at issues of incest and abuse, and are their some authors you think do it well?

  I am glad you took that away from the book. It was my intention to show how difficult, repetitive, and frustrating healing from sexual trauma can be. I’ve read other YA novels that look at issues of rape. I really like Christa Desir’s Fault Line. I think she does an amazing job of discussing the complexities of the aftermath of sexual assault. In terms of books with incest themes, I like Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas, Identical by Ellen Hopkins, and Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. Each of these books offers interesting, unique ways to tell such stories.

  Layered into this book are some environmental and social issues around water rights and Native sovereignty on Moloka’i during the early 1990s. This brings in the setting of the island and the community into focus and also is a place where Rani intersects with her father. How have things progressed in regards to these issues since that time?

  The EPA designation of Moloka’i as a sole source aquifer was huge for the island. In the end, Moloka’i Ranch did not get the access to the water they wanted for their west end condo and golf course. Also in the 2000s the Ranch wanted more water to build a luxury development on some sacred land on the dry west end, La’au Point. Moloka’i people resisted and the Ranch lost their bid on the development project. Moloka’i continues to resist unnecessary development to this day. The high percentage of Native Hawaiians on the island continue to work towards preserving their culture and traditions. Current issues on Moloka’i include water access for Hawaiian Homestead lands, farming, and unemployment. There is conflict in terms of GMO vs. non-GMO farming. Many islanders prefer non-GMO farming because it is more in line with ancient Hawaiian ways. But there are also many islanders who fear job loss if GMO farming is restricted.

  Can you talk a little about your upcoming project The Calamitous Love of Jaya and Rasa?

  I am very excited about this YA novel (the title will be shorter)! I present the lives of two teens from opposite sides of the track—a transgender Gujarati boy from a wealthy family and a mixed ethnicity girl from a poor, broken family. The characters and their stories are based on a blend of real patients I’ve worked with over the years. I try to present various themes, including depression, sex trafficking, LGBTQ issues, alcoholism, and bulimia in a way that patients I’ve treated experienced. I also try to present some of the social issues on Oahu as I’ve experienced and as described to me by patients. Things like wealth, elitism, privilege, private vs. public school differences. Then there’s the sweet love story. That’s where I hope readers will see Jaya and Rasa’s true colors. Away from the challenges that life throws them. I’m working on edits now and it’s so much fun. I love Jaya and Rasa and I hope teens will too!

  — Danielle Jone currently reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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Print Marked Items
Rani Patel in Full Effect
Publishers Weekly.
263.49 (Dec. 2, 2016): p101. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Rani Patel in Full Effect
Sonia Patel. Cinco Puntos, $11.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-941026-50-2 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Rani Patel, a Gujarati Indian teenager working in her family's restaurant and convenience store on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, has been sexually abused by her father, something the 16-year-old has kept secret from her overworked and withdrawn mother. With her father's new girlfriend in the picture, Rani struggles with her identity, shaving her head and flirting with the much older Mark, despite warnings from her friend Omar and crush Pono. Invited to perform for an underground rap group, Rani finds validation through her alter ego, MC Sutra, as she becomes the first female rapper on the island. Meanwhile, she and her mother search for the strength to reject the harmful men in their lives and form a stronger bond between themselves. Patel sets her powerful debut novel in 1991, filling it with bygone rap references and an electric verbal blend of Gujarati, slang, Hawaiian pidgin, and the rhymes Rani crafts. Patel compassionately portrays Rani's entangled emotions, lack of self-confidence, and burgeoning sense of empowerment as she moves forward from trauma. Ages 12-up.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rani Patel in Full Effect." Publishers Weekly, 2 Dec. 2016, p. 101. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475224697&it=r&asid=11437685cd3cdafa153d511357300eab. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475224697
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Rani Patel In Full Effect
Children's Bookwatch.
(Dec. 2016): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 Midwest Book Review http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
Full Text:
Rani Patel In Full Effect
Sonia Patel
Cinco Puntos Press
701 Texas, El Paso, Texas 79901
www.cincopuntos.com
9781941026496, $16.76, HC, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Almost seventeen, Rani Patel appears to be a kick-ass Indian girl breaking cultural norms as a hip-hop performer in full effect. But in truth, she's a nerdy flat-chested nobody who lives with her Gujarati immigrant parents on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, isolated from her high school peers by the unsettling norms of Indian culture where "husband is God". Her parents' traditionally arranged marriage is a sham. Her dad turns to her for all his needs--even the intimate ones. When Rani catches him two-timing with a woman barely older than herself, she feels like a widow and, like widows in India are often made to do, she shaves off her hair. Her sexy bald head and hard-driving rhyming skills attract the attention of Mark, the hot older customer who frequents her parents' store and is closer in age to her dad than to her. Mark makes the moves on her and Rani goes with it. He leads Rani into 4eva Flowin', an underground hip hop crew--and into other things she's never done. Rani ignores the red flags. Her naive choices look like they will undo her but ultimately give her the chance to discover her strengths and restore the things she thought she'd lost, including her mother. "Rani Patel In Full Effect" by child and adolescent psychiatrist Sonia Patel is an extraordinary and deftly crafted novel that will have particular and special appeal to young readers ages 12 to 18. While very highly recommended, especially for high school and community library YA Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Rani Patel In Full Effect" is also available in a paperback edition (9781941026502, $11.95) and a Kindle format ($7.44).
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rani Patel In Full Effect." Children's Bookwatch, Dec. 2016. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475325134&it=r&asid=e87a2c9c24dfaae36d28ef9dc501b995. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475325134
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Y.A. Realistic Fiction
Jen Doll
The New York Times Book Review.
(Nov. 13, 2016): Arts and Entertainment: p34(L). From Book Review Index Plus.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Doll, Jen. "Y.A. Realistic Fiction." The New York Times Book Review, 13 Nov. 2016, p. 34(L). PowerSearch,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469881483&it=r&asid=024abcf150aeed8ce29ab831cb47fa61. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A469881483
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Rap Like a Girl
Annie Metcalf
BookPage.
(Oct. 2016): p25. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 BookPage http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT
By Sonia Patel
Cinco Puntos, $16.95, 224 pages
ISBN 9781941026496, eBook available Ages 14 and up
FICTION
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Sixteen-year-old Rani Patel is part of the only Indian family--Gujarati, to be precise--on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. And that family is falling apart. When Rani discovers her father's affair, he is unrepentant. After years of unquestioning obedience, Rani's mother finally finds the strength to kick him out. Feeling abandoned by her father and invisible to her mother, Rani deals with it all through the music that has always saved her: rap. Rani's deep love of hip- hop culture empowers her to write lyrics and slam poems full of swagger, female empowerment and social awareness. But while her alter ego, MC Sutra, exudes confidence, Rani has yet to confront the horrific truth of her relationship with her father. As she hones her skills as an MC and a flirtatious relationship with an older man becomes something more, Rani's past continues to intrude on her present.
Rani's environment leaps off the page in vivid and satisfying detail, from the winding roads and small shops of Moloka'i to the intricacies of '90s hip-hop fashion. The lyrics she writes are particularly convincing--good enough to show that her talent is serious, but just unpolished enough to be written by a teenager. Author Sonia Patel is a psychiatrist, and her determination to portray Rani's response to trauma truthfully is unrelenting. Rani's past affects her choices again and again, despite her undeniable intelligence and drive.
As young readers root for Rani, they wifi gain a deeper understanding of abuse and addiction through this powerful and gripping novel.
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Metcalf, Annie. "Rap Like a Girl." BookPage, Oct. 2016, p. 25. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755878&it=r&asid=7bfc75630837d45a2fae62a22e00cd2e. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463755878
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Rani Patel in Full Effect
Sarah Hunter
Booklist.
113.1 (Sept. 1, 2016): p109. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* Rani Patel in Full Effect. By Sonia Patel. Oct. 2016. 224p. Cinco Puntos, $16.95 (9781941026496); paper, $11.95 (9781941026502); e-book, $11.95 (9781941026519). Gr. 9-12.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
As the only Indian girl in her entire Hawaiian town, 16-year-old Rani often feels like an outsider. She finds some comfort and empowerment in rap and slam poetry, and when she learns about an underground hip-hop crew in her town, it seems like she's finally found the perfect respite from her home life, which is marred by her parents', intensely traditional marriage, her father's brazen infidelity, and--worst of all-the lingering trauma of the sexual abuse her father inflicted on Rani for years. That's a lot for her to handle, but when Mark, the older man who runs the hip-hop crew, starts taking a special interest in her, it seems like he's the perfect solution to her problems, despite her friends' warnings. Debut author Patel offers a unique perspective in Rani, whose punchy first-person narrative--peppered with early90s hip-hop references; Hawaiian, Hawaiian Pidgin, and Gujarati phrases; and her own slick rhymes packed with an empowering feminist message--commendably and strikingly stands out in the YA landscape. While Rani's recovery from her trauma is unrealistically speedy and conclusive--something Patel, a psychiatrist, freely admits in her author's note--most teens won't skip a beat, since Rani's voice, oscillating from righteous anger to thrilling pride, swooning crushes, and heartbreaking insecurity, will resonate with many, even those with little to no familiarity with Rani's background. Vivid, bold, and passionate.--Sarah Hunter
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hunter, Sarah. "Rani Patel in Full Effect." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 109+. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755259&it=r&asid=9d59501deac9b9a9afffd13406ffd02b. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463755259
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The big Indie books of fall
Judith Rosen
Publishers Weekly.
263.35 (Aug. 29, 2016): p23. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The strength of the many small presses that have sprung up in recent years made compiling our annual list of the best fall indie titles especially challenging. We -worked hard to balance fiction and nonfiction, adult and children's titles, and books in translation and books originally in English. PW's reviews editors contributed significantly to the effort; we also scoured bookstore newsletters and the Indie Next List, and spoke with premier booksellers to find out the small-press books they're most excited about this fall.
Emily Books
(dist. by Consortium)
I'll Tell You in Person: Essays
Chloe Caldwell (Oct., $16.95 trade paper) Author tour, 8,000-copy first printing [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The second book from Coffee House's new imprint addresses becoming an adult and the various imperfect ways most of us get there. "Chloe Caldwell writes with an emotional intensity that is insightful, heartfelt, and often hilarious," commented Shawn Donley, new-book purchasing supervisor at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore. "She perfectly captures what it's like to try to navigate your way through the traumatic first decade of adulthood."
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(dist. by PRH)
Shelter in Place
Alexander Maksik (Sept., $18 trade paper)
12-city U.S. and Canadian tour, bartender marketing campaign on West Coast, 45,000-copy first printing Chuck Robinson, owner of Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., calls this "an incredibly courageous novel that delves deeply
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into issues of love, gender, violence, and mental illness. Like A Marker to Measure Drift, Masik's earlier book, the writing is not only beautiful but is evocative of time and place--in this case the Pacific Northwest in the early '90s."
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My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
Emil Ferris (Oct., $39-99 trade paper) Author events, 10,000-copy first printing
In a story that offers a vivid embrace of 1960s working-class Chicago, 10-year-old Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her upstairs neighbor in a graphic diary, employing B movie horror imagery and pulp monster magazines. PW senior news editor Calvin Reid calls Ferris's debut graphic novel "awesome."
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Graywolf
The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood Belle Boggs (Sept., $16 trade paper)
12-city tour, Goodreads giveaways, an Indie Next Pick, 25,000-copy first printing
"The Art of Waiting is essential reading for those interested in what an essay today can do," says John Francisconi at Bank Square Books in Mystic, Conn. "Boggs is somehow able here to transform the clinical and sedate language of infertility treatments into a beautiful song of hope, and transformation. The metaphors Boggs finds for her travails sing, and the patient quality of her narration stuns."
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Grove
Christodora
Tim Murphy (Aug., $27)
An Indie Next pick, an Amazon best book of August, 17,500-copy first printing
Set in the Christodora, an iconic building in Manhattan's East Village, this novel moves from the Tompkins Square Riots and the attempts by activists to galvanize a response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s to a future New York City of the 2020s, where subzero winters no longer exist. Paul Yamazaki, head buyer at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, called it "the best novel I've read about the cost of activism."
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New Directions
The Last Wolf and Herman
Laszlo Krasznahorkai, trans. from the Hungarian by George Szirtes and John Batki
(Sept., $16.95 trade paper)
These two novellas by the most recent winner of the Man Booker International Prize showcase why he won. "On their
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own, both volumes are slender storytelling jewels, but together they are an existential inquiry into the human animal by a unique and ingenious writer," PW wrote in a starred review.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] New York Review Books
(dist. by PRH)
Zama
Antonio di Benedetto, trans. from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Aug., $15.95 trade paper)
It has taken 50 years for this classic of Argentinian literature to be translated into English. Set in the last decade of the 18th century, Zama describes the solitary, suspended existence of Don Diego de Zama, a high-up servant of the Spanish crown who has been posted to Asuncion, the capital of remote Paraguay. Don Diego does as little as he possibly can while plotting a transfer to Buenos Aires, where everything about his hopeless existence will, he is confident, be miraculously transformed. PW's starred review called it "a once and future classic."
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Oneworld
(dist. by PGW)
Umami
Laiajufresa, trans. from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (Sept., $21.99)
Winner of an English PEN award, 1,500-copy first printing [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
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This novel, which was listed as an International Hot Property by PW last year and was named one of the most anticipated books of 2016 by the Millions, takes place in Mexico City. Ana, , a precocious 12-year-old who reads Agatha Christie to forget the mysterious death of her little sister, decides to plant a milpa, a crop-growing system common in the Yucatan, in her backyard. As she digs, her neighbors delve into their own past. The ripple effects of grief; childlessness, illness, and displacement saturate their stories, secrets seep out, and questions emerge.
Open Letter
(dist. by Consortium)
A Greater Music
Bae Suah, trans. from the Korean by Deborah Smith (Oct., $13-95) Author and translator tour [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
A young Korean writer falls into an icy river in the Berlin suburbs, which sets in motion a series of her memories. Throughout, the writer's relationship with Joachim, a rough-and-ready metalworker, is contrasted with her friendship with M, an ultra-refined music-loving German teacher, who was once her lover. Some see Suah as the next big South s Korean writer to break out, following Han Kang (The Vegetarian). This is her second novel to be published in English; two more are slated for 2017.
Other Press
(dist. by PRH)
Agnes
Peter Stamm, trans. from the
German by Michael Hofmann
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(Oct. $18.95)
Chicago outreach, backlist promotion, reading group guide, Goodreads giveaways, 25,000-copy first printing
Stamm's international bestselling debut novel, a psychological romance first published in Germany in 1998, is being published in the U.S. for the first time. In it, an unnamed writer pursues a love affair with a Ph.D. candidate after meeting her at the Chicago Public Library. "'Write a story about me,' she said, 'so I know what you think of me.'" While he crafts the story of their love, their relationship is often dictated by the story itself, as he imagines what might be rather than what is.
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Princeton Univ.
(dist. by Perseus Academic)
Welcome to the Universe
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael Strauss, and J. Richard Gott (Oct., $39.95) Author appearances, advertising, 25,000-copy first printing
This heavily illustrated book by three leading astrophysicists covers topics including why Pluto lost its planetary status, whether our universe is part of an infinite cosmos, and the prospects of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
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(dist. by Consortium)
Malafemmena
Louisa Ermelino (Aug., $15.95 trade paper)
In this eclectic collection from PW's reviews director, the stories follow strong-willed women on adventures at home and abroad. In a starred review, PW wrote that "the stories' themes are elemental and affecting, lingering in the mind like parables or myths sketching something vital, sad, and true."
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(dist. by PGW)
Another Place You've Never Been Rebecca Kauffman (Oct., $25)
These linked stories, set in Buffalo, N.Y., follow Tracy from being a spunky 10-year-old to a troubled adolescent to a struggling adult. A starred PW review calls this "an undeniably moving and emotionally true portrayal of the kitchen sink of human experience." Longlisted for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
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Soho
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Never Look an American in the Eye: Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American Okey Ndibe (Oct., $25)
Author tour, 35,000-copy first printing
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Ndibe's memoir takes its name from the advice his uncle gave him when he left Nigeria to edit African Commentary magazine--advice that caused some problems when he was mistaken for a bank robber 10 days after he arrived in the U.S. Ndibe examines his development as a novelist, as well as the differences between Nigerian and American etiquette and politics. His novel Foreign Gods, Inc. was starred in PW and was an NPR Great Read of 2014.
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The Gloaming
Melanie Finn (Sept., $16.99 trade paper) 5,000--copy first printing
In her second novel after Away from You, Finn, a finalist for the Orange Prize, has created a literary thriller about a young woman whose husband has left her. After a tragic accident in the Swiss countryside, the woman flees to Tanzania, where she can't shake the feeling that she's being followed. Published in the U.K. last year (under the title Shame), the novel was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize.
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Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas
Edited by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (Oct., $49-95 hardcover; $29-95 trade paper)
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This beautifully designed and illustrated . volume from journalist Solnit and Jelly Schapiro, author of Island People (Knopf, Nov.), conveys the experience of being in New York City through 26 maps and essays by experts including linguists and ethnographers. The book, which completes a trilogy of atlases, celebrates New York City's unique vitality, while critiquing its racial and economic inequality.
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Univ. of Chicago
Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row Forrest Stuart (Aug., $27.50)
In his first year working in Los Angeles's Skid Row, sociologist Stuart was stopped on the street by police 14 times, usually for doing little more than standing still. A woman he met there was stopped more than 100 times and arrested upward of 60 times for sitting on the sidewalk. Down, Out, and Under Arrest looks at how zero-tolerance policing and mass incarceration have reshaped the social fabric of Skid Row and other disadvantaged neighborhoods.
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My Private Property Mary Ruefle (Oct., $25) 5,000-copy first printing
Excerpted in Granta, Harper's, the Paris Review, and Tin House; 5,000-copy first printing
Laurie Greer of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., comments on this collection of short prose pieces from the Whiting Award-winning poet: "Like snapshots of a mind caught in brief pauses, these fully justified blocks of language look like prose. They act like poetry, argue like essays."
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Cinco Puntos
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Sonia Patel (Sept., $16.95 hardcover; $11.95 trade paper)
This was the only book by a small independent publisher to be featured in the YA Editors' and Authors' Buzz panels at BEA. In a starred review, PW wrote: "Patel sets her powerful debut novel in 1991, filling it with bygone rap references and an electric verbal blend of Gujarati, slang, Hawaiian pidgin, and the rhymes Rani crafts. Patel compassionately portrays Rani's entangled emotions, lack of self-confidence, and burgeoning sense of empowerment as she moves forward from trauma." Ages 12-up.
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Flying Eye
(dist. by Consortium) The Journey
Francesca Sanna (Sept., $18.95)
"I am so grateful for this candid, colorful, and graceful retelling of a family's fleeing home, which transcends any specific time in history or place on Earth to welcome us all into its pages and its story of common courage and hope," says Joanna Parzakonis, co-owner of Kalamazoo's Bookbug. PW gave it a starred review. Ages 3-7
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rosen, Judith. "The big Indie books of fall." Publishers Weekly, 29 Aug. 2016, p. 23+. PowerSearch,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA462236394&it=r&asid=384de6d740038d0152ec3467672a0f8d. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A462236394
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Rani Patel in Full Effect
Publishers Weekly.
263.31 (Aug. 1, 2016): p69. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Rani Patel in Full Effect
Sonia Patel. Cinco Puntos (Consortium, dist.), $11.95 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1941026-50-2 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Rani Patel, a Gujarati Indian teenager working in her family's restaurant and convenience store on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, has been sexually abused by her father, something the 16-year-old has kept secret from her overworked and withdrawn mother. With her father's new girlfriend in the picture, Rani struggles with her identity, shaving her head and flirting with the much older Mark, despite warnings from her friend Omar and crush Pono. Invited to perform for an underground rap group, Rani finds validation through her alter ego, MC Sutra, as she becomes the first female rapper on the island. Meanwhile, she and her mother search for the strength to reject the harmful men in their lives and form a stronger bond between themselves. Patel sets her powerful debut novel in 1991, filling it with bygone rap references and an electric verbal blend of Gujarati, slang, Hawaiian pidgin, and the rhymes Rani crafts. Patel compassionately portrays Rani's entangled emotions, lack of self-confidence, and burgeoning sense of empowerment as she moves forward from trauma. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rani Patel in Full Effect." Publishers Weekly, 1 Aug. 2016, p. 69. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460285761&it=r&asid=917957672bf542a0abe0730567d6e5eb. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A460285761
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"Rani Patel in Full Effect." Publishers Weekly, 2 Dec. 2016, p. 101. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475224697&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. "Rani Patel In Full Effect." Children's Bookwatch, Dec. 2016. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475325134&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. Doll, Jen. "Y.A. Realistic Fiction." The New York Times Book Review, 13 Nov. 2016, p. 34(L). PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469881483&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. Metcalf, Annie. "Rap Like a Girl." BookPage, Oct. 2016, p. 25. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755878&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. Hunter, Sarah. "Rani Patel in Full Effect." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 109+. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755259&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. Rosen, Judith. "The big Indie books of fall." Publishers Weekly, 29 Aug. 2016, p. 23+. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA462236394&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. "Rani Patel in Full Effect." Publishers Weekly, 1 Aug. 2016, p. 69. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460285761&it=r. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.

• Kirkus Reviews
  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/sonia-patel/
  Word count: 695

  Sonia Patel
  Author of RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT
  Interviewed by Alex Heimbach on October 19, 2016
  Patel is the most common Indian surname in the U.S. The name comes from a caste of village leaders and landowners in the state of Gujarat, many of whom moved to North America in the 1970s, buying hotels and shops to support their families. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a lot of stereotypes about what it means to be a Patel: first and foremost is an intense focus on family.

  But what happens when that dynamic curdles? This is the question at the heart of Sonia Patel’s first teen novel, Rani Patel in Full Effect. Like Patel herself, Rani is a first-generation Gujarati girl growing up on the remote Hawaiian island of Molokai. Rani’s family are the only Indians on the island, and this isolation breeds dysfunction: her father treats her mother like a slave and Rani like his beloved wife—including sexually—until he abruptly abandons them for a new girlfriend. To cope with her situation, Rani turns to her love of rap, joining an underground hip-hop collective where she begins to express herself but also becomes entangled with a sketchy older guy.

  Patel drew many of these dynamics from her own childhood: the overbearing father, the traditional mother, the escape through music. Her father moved them to Molokai on something of a whim, and, without any support structure, her parents’ marriage imploded. “I’m an only child, so it’s kind of lonely when things are happening at home and you don’t know how to deal with it,” she says. Hip-hop helped her process those feelings and engage with bigger ideas about political protest and social justice.

  In fact, it was her passion for rap that led Patel to writing in the first place. Throughout high school, college, and medical school, Patel composed her own rap, without ever sharing it. But when she started seeing patients as an adolescent psychiatrist, she felt compelled to start performing. “Things got so intense sometimes that I just needed some way to release it,” she says.

  Continue reading >

  Then, after years of collecting the raps she’d written, Patel found that they told a story. “It was like this one girl speaking and this progression of things that happened in her life and how she kind of found her identity and strength through her lyrics.” That girl became Rani, and those raps appear throughout the novel.

  However, the novel isn’t straightforwardly autobiographical; Patel mixed many of her own experiences with the stories she’s witnessed in her practice. She’s passionate about helping young women move on from sexual trauma and wanted to show what that really looks like. “Some of the feedback I’ve gotten is that Rani’s not likable…she does all these dumb things, she keeps making these mistakes, but that’s usually the way it goes,” Patel says. “People who’ve been through trauma repeat it.”

  To tell such a complicated, sensitive story, Patel strove above all to be authentic. In her practice she constantly sees girls who struggle to say what’s really onPatel Cover their minds. So, she says, “I wanted to role model in a way, being real and not sugar-coating anything.” Even the novel’s most outrageous-seeming plot point—when Rani’s father demands that he and his pregnant girlfriend move back into the family home where his wife would care for the baby—is drawn from life: Patel’s own father made the same request.

  Patel hopes that despite the difficult subject matter, readers, especially teens, relate to Rani’s voice and her struggle to overcome what’s happened to her. They might even learn something about how to manage their own troubles. As obvious as it may seem, she says, “I want them to take a step back and see that they have a brain that they can use to actually think and make decisions.”

  Alex Heimbach is a writer and editor in California.

• School Library Journal
  http://www.slj.com/2016/09/interviews/hip-hop-sexual-abuse-and-female-empowerment-sonia-patel-on-rani-in-full-effect/
  Word count: 2135

  Hip-Hop, Sexual Abuse, and Reconciliation: Sonia Patel on “Rani Patel in Full Effect”
  By Shelley Diaz on September 26, 2016 Leave a Comment
  author-photo-sonia-patelIn her debut, Sonia Patel covers the gamut of tough subject matter. The title character of Rani Patel in Full Effect (Cinco Puntos; Oct. 11, 2016) is not only facing the dissolution of her parents’ marriage but has long been a victim of incest and sexual abuse. She is able to battle through this trauma via her love of rap and hip-hop. Child and adolescent psychiatrist Patel shared with SLJ what inspired her to write this hard-hitting novel set in early 1990s Hawaii.
  This is a very personal book for you, as you mention in your author’s note. What inspired you to write Rani’s story?
  My primary inspiration—survivors of misogyny and sexual abuse. In writing Rani Patel in Full Effect, my objective was to shed light on some of the real ways these traumas can affect survivors. There are YA books out there that address misogyny and sexual abuse, but I think the perspective I can offer—that of a child and adolescent psychiatrist who’s spent over 10,000 hours talking with and helping teens recover from trauma, complex mental illness, and dysfunctional family dynamics, as well as that of a person who’s lived through some these issues—gives me particular authority to write about the topics.
  The story started as a binder full of rap I’d written over the years based on these experiences. The rap was my way of creatively releasing my own intense feelings and those conjured up when I treated other teen and women. At some point, I realized that if I read the rap in a certain order, it told a story. Turns out, it was the story of a 16-year-old amalgam of me and some of my teen patients.
  What kind of research did you have to do to get the setting and the characters just right?
  Reflection on my teenage years. I grew up on Moloka’i, and the places on the island and the descriptions of Native Hawaiian culture were realistic in terms of how I’d experienced them. I was drawn to hip-hop culture from a young age, like Rani, and I’ve immersed myself in all its forms (dance, rap, fashion, and appreciation of graffiti and DJing) since I was a kid. Also like Rani, my parents had a traditional Gujarati Indian arranged marriage and then immigrated to the East Coast. Nine months later, I was the first person on both sides to be born in America. The Gujarati culture presented in the book is how I lived it. The characters, and their role in family dysfunction and abuse, are based on a blend of my ordeals and those of some of my patients. Then there’s the nine years I spent studying family dynamics, various mental illnesses, and trauma in medical school and psychiatric residency, in addition to the 10-plus years of guiding patients in recovery.
  Which character did you most identify with? Which character was the hardest to write?
  I identified most with Rani. Her voice reflects mine as a teen. Rani seemed fine and well-adjusted on the surface, but she’d stopped becoming her own person when her father [Pradip] made her into his surrogate partner. Just like me. Many of her difficulties were mine, such as low self-worth, anxiety, depressive tendencies, difficulties in close female relationships, and subconscious re-creation of the dysfunctional relationship with her father with older men.
  The hardest character to write was Mark [Rani’s 20-something love interest]. He is very much a product of his dysfunctional upbringing and doesn’t have any insight into how his past affects his present. Balancing his charming and altruistic side with his dark side was tricky. Especially because he ends up repeating the violence against women that he observed with his own parents. Initially, I wanted Mark to gain insight and make positive change at the end (unlike Pradip), but often this doesn’t happen in real life (like Pradip). I thought it more important for teens to see Rani gain insight and change because they might relate to her in some ways.
  Rani_galley_SC_HiRes
  This is a difficult novel to get through, especially because there were times when, as a reader, I’d be yelling at Rani for making the same mistakes over again. And often, she’s not very likable. What are your thoughts on “likable” or “unlikable” characters?
  It was my goal to present characters as realistically as possible. Overall, I want readers to think about the complexities of people and how their past can shape them. It would’ve been unrealistic to present Rani as a heroine who could simply “get over” the trauma and make good decisions just like that. What some readers may not realize is that trauma affects brain development, and thus aspects of thoughts, feelings, and decision-making capabilities. So a survivor may not be able to simply “power through” situations in their life in a positive way.
  Rani’s father hurts her. Yet she still wants his attention and validation. Mark hurts Rani. She still wants his attention and validation. Pono [friend from school and possible love interest] tries to help Rani. She hurts him. But Rani’s not a bad person. The reason Rani does those unlikable things is because that’s essentially how the trauma wired her brain to operate. Her brain can’t yet “will” itself out of bad decision-making or bad behavior. Other examples of unlikable aspects of Rani that result from her trauma—such as her lack of female friends because she only knows how to connect with guys and the lack of follow-through on doing the feminist things she raps about—[are] because she only knows how to function in dysfunction. As counterintuitive as it sounds, the abusive relationship with her father essentially trained Rani to feel good about herself only in those kinds of unhealthy relationships.
  As for Mark and Pradip, they are not necessarily bad people. They engage in bad behavior. They hurt others and refuse to look at how their behavior affects others, despite many opportunities to do so. They do some good things and can show thoughtfulness to others in certain ways, but ultimately they have poor self-worth and are stuck in thinking about themselves and seeking immediate gratification. That doesn’t mean their behavior should be excused, but it’s more complicated than simply saying they’re “bad” people.
  There are lots of cool music references throughout. Was this the music that influenced you in the ’90s? Why did you decide to set the story in this particular moment of hip-hop history?
  The hip-hop music references most definitely influenced me in the late ’80s and ’90s. And still today. Like Rani, positive and socially conscious rap lyrics and dope beats uplifted me, pulling me out of the negativity in my head. I was especially influenced by Queen Latifah, Run-DMC, KRS-One, Gang Starr, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, MC Lyte, Eric B. & Rakim, and Paris, and so it felt natural for Rani to be inspired by the same rappers.
  The late ’80s–early ’90s is referred to as the golden age of hip-hop because of all the innovation and creativity in rapping and beat making during those years. Many rappers became more political and socially conscious in their lyrics. So the themes of female empowerment and political and social consciousness in the book matched the shifts in hip-hop during that time period.
  The relationship between Rani and her mother, Meera, evolves over the course of the novel, from mostly contentious to mostly understanding. How do you think current teens relate to that relationship?
  Though some teens may not freely admit this, most of the teens I’ve talked with want a better relationship with their mothers. This is often very difficult to achieve because adolescence is supposed to be a time when youth begin to develop their own identity separate from their parents. So conflict between what a teen wants and what their mother wants for him or her is common. Add to that family dysfunction, such as ambivalent mother-daughter relationships, for example, and the task of identity formation can become thwarted. Teens then remain trapped thinking about, avoiding, or acting out against the relationship instead of being able to focus on their own development.
  I want teen readers to see that there can be understanding and improvement in previously conflicted relationships with a parent. In the book, it began when Meera became more emotionally available to Rani and acknowledged her mistakes and how they enabled Pradip to continue his abusive relationship with them both. This validation from her mother allowed Rani to feel love in a new unconditional, unintrusive way (opposite of the conditional, intrusive love demonstrated by her father). And this in turn set the stage for Rani to begin catching up on the normal adolescent emotional development she missed out on when her father was abusing her.
  In reality, the process of development “catch up” can take a long time. That’s why the book ends with Rani demonstrating insight and talking about what she has to continue to do to complete the healing process. She isn’t fully recovered by the end. She and Pono acknowledge that they like each other, but they aren’t going out. Rani has to retrain her brain to make good decisions based on rational thoughts instead of negative thoughts and emotions. By surrounding herself and being completely honest with her mother, Pono, Omar, and her new girlfriends (Rani had to make a conscious effort to develop and nurture friendships with these girls), she’s more likely to do this. It’s like learning to ride a bike. She’ll keep practicing in a safe environment until she gets it.
  Why do you think music and creativity is finally the way that Rani (and teens today) is able to empower herself?
  The unconditional acceptance and identification she couldn’t find in her parents Rani found in hip-hop and especially rap. Hip-hop, unlike her relationship with her parents, didn’t hurt her. The lyrics and beat she most identified with were powerful and helped her to think positive thoughts and have positive feelings. And writing rap helped her fake her confidence until she could actually internalize it.
  What are you working on next?
  Another young adult novel. This one is set on the most populated Hawaiian island, Oahu. I’m incorporating many issues I see in my child and adolescent psychiatry practice—sex trafficking, depression, bulimia, alcoholism, various forms of abuse, and the complexities of identity development—into a tragic love story of a trans Gujarati boy and a girl from Hauula. It’s important to me that these issues be presented in an accurate way. The main characters, Jaya and Rasa, are inspired by teen patients I’ve treated.
  What advice would you give young authors of color who are trying to write stories that they can’t currently reflected on library and bookstore shelves?
  Write every day.
  Remind yourself of the importance of what you have to share. It is absolutely important! Don’t unwittingly marginalize your own work even if it isn’t received strongly at first. Try not to apply conventional white YA writing constructs to your work, even if others try to do so. Stories don’t have to fit in with traditionally accepted prose, character arcs, world-building, and so on to be meaningful. For example, if others think your work is not up to par with typical white or the welcome, established POC YA canon, think again. Just as there are many kinds of teens with many kinds of backgrounds and experiences, there should be many kinds of stories to reflect this diversity. Remind yourself that it’s not necessary for everyone to like your work but that only by having more diversity in the YA world can we begin to hope that people will have equal opportunities to read stories that are not necessarily mainstream in writing style and content.
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  Shelley DiazAbout Shelley Diaz
  Shelley M. Diaz (sdiaz@mediasourceinc.com) is School Library Journal's Reviews Team Manager and SLJTeen newsletter editor. She has her MLIS in Public Librarianship with a Certificate in Children’s & YA Services from Queens College, and can be found on Twitter @sdiaz101.

• Cleaver Magazine
  https://www.cleavermagazine.com/rani-patel-in-full-effect-a-young-adult-novel-by-sonia-patel-reviewed-by-kristie-gadson/
  Word count: 1018

  RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT
  by Sonia Patel
  Cinco Puntos Press, 314 Pages

  reviewed by Kristie Gadson

  In her debut young adult novel Rani Patel in Full Effect, Sonia Patel takes us back to the era of faded box cuts, high-top Adidas, and gold chains as thick as your wrist; to the era where hip-hop reigned supreme and rhymes flowed out of boom boxes like water down Moaula Falls.

  The year is 1991, and here we meet Rani Patel, a straight-A student council president by day and an emerging rapper under the stage name MC Sutra by night. In a one-of-a-kind mixture of nineties slang, pidgin Hawaiian, and traditional Gujarati, Rani’s story is told from a perspective that’s undeniably fresh and unapologetically raw.

  From the very beginning the book ensnares you with a powerful scene of Rani shaving her head after seeing her father with another woman. As her tears fall so, too, does all of her hair, giving herself the Indian mark of a widow. Her father once meant everything to her, and she meant everything to him—or so she thought. He lovingly called her his princess, and for a time they were nearly inseparable. With her father now out of the picture Rani turns to the one thing she can count on: rap.

  sonia-patel
  Sonia Patel
  For Rani, rap is more than just the kind of music she listens to. It comforts her amidst her mother and father’s constant fighting, it’s there when her father isn’t giving her his undivided affection, and it soothes her during her loneliest moments. The lyrics of famous rappers like Run DMC, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, and De La Soul help Rani make the best out of her difficult situation. In time, Rani gets the courage to put pen to paper and let her emotions loose on the page. By writing lyrics of her own she channels her thoughts into raps that express her sorrows, her fears, and the triumph she hopes to achieve at the end of it all. “Rap saved my life yo. And it’s been saving me ever since.”

  When Rani receives a mysterious note inviting her to an underground rap society called 4eva Flowin’, she’s offered the chance to finally showcase her rapping prowess. With the help of of her friends and fellow 4eva Flowin’ members, Pono and Omar, Rani takes to the stage. As MC Sutra, Rani channels an inner strength she never knew she had. With the mic in her hand and rhymes on her tongue, Rani becomes her truest self on the stage. During those moments she is a powerful force, she can stand up to her father’s abuse, condemn him for his infidelity, and critique a culture that dictates a woman’s worth is determined by the men around her.

  Isolated wife, his alone—he’s deprivin’
  He got no love for her—cuz his ego lackin’
  Wife a commodity—mirror crackin’
  Had a kid to appease the masses, curry—curry culture
  Raise her as your boo—perverse nurture…
  …descended from his slaughter
  me and a thousand other daughters.

  As MC Sutra becomes increasingly involved with 4eva Flowin’ so, too, does Rani’s involvement with its founder, Mark. Despite warnings from Omar, Pono, and some of the 4eva Flowin’ crew, Rani can’t help but fall head-over-heels for him. Mark showers her with love, affection, and attention—the main things that are lacking in her life ever since her father left. Rani feels complete when she is with Mark, she is his queen, and she craves his love like batu (the Hawaiian slang term for crystal meth). Yet, as their relationship grows into something more serious, she notices the parallels between Mark’s love and her father’s, a harbinger of what’s to come. Despite the signs that point to danger, Rani finds it hard to practice what MC Sutra preaches.

  Sonia Patel combines her past experiences and her love of hip hop with her formal training as a psychiatrist to tell Rani’s story. With a command of language that even the most seasoned of writers would envy, Patel tackles these difficult topics with ease. Through Rani, Patel addresses sexual abuse among women, a topic that many people tend to avoid. Patel explores it head on, revealing the ways in which different cultures perpetuate this behavior and how society places a stigma upon those unfortunate to have suffered through it. Patel masterfully examines this unavoidable truth and invites readers to think critically about these issues while giving them a story worth reading.

  Rani Patel, MC Sutra herself, is so much more than a character on the page. As I read this book I thought of all the young girls, including myself at her age, looking for love in all the wrong places, whose experiences with their fathers shape their future interactions with men. Rani shows us the power every girl has inside themselves to break the cycle of abuse and reminds us that self love is what frees us up to become the amazing beings we are.

  To my ladies it’s up to you—
  Stay strong through this life like you’re bamboo.
  His control ain’t love, do not misconstrue…
  Stand up to the persecution
  and make your contribution.

  Check out Sonia Patel performing lyrics from the novel on her YouTube channel.

  Kristie-GadsonKristie Gadson is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s in English. But, formalities aside, she knew that children’s books would become her passion when she found herself sneaking into the children’s section of Barnes & Noble well after she turned eighteen. She is a strong advocate for diverse children’s books, and writes diverse children’s book reviews on her blog The Black Sheep Book Review.

  Thwack this:

• Rich in Color
  http://richincolor.com/2016/09/review-rani-patel-in-full-effect/
  Word count: 899

  REVIEW: RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT
  Posted on 9 September, 2016 by Crystal
  raniTitle: Rani Patel in Full Effect
  Author: Sonia Patel
  Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
  Genre: Historical
  Pages: 313
  Availability: October 1, 2016
  Review copy: ARC via publisher

  Summary: When Rani’s father leaves her mother for another woman, Rani shaves her head in mourning. The visibility of her act of rebellion propels her onto the stage as a hip-hop performer and into a romantic relationship with a man who is much older. The whirlwind romance, coming on the heels of her father’s abandonment, make her begin to understand how her father’s sexual abuse wounded her in deeper ways than she, or her mother, have ever been able to acknowledge.

  Meanwhile, she seeks solace in making lyrics and performing as well as in her boyfriend’s arms. Rani’s friends warn her about him but she fails to listen, feeling as though she finally has something and somebody that makes her feel good about herself—not recognizing that her own talent in hip-hop makes her feel secure, smart, and confident in ways her boyfriend does not. Indeed, as the relationship continues, Rani discovers her boyfriend’s drug use and falls victim to his abuse. Losing herself just as she finds herself, Rani discovers her need to speak out against those who would silence her—no matter the personal danger it leads her into.

  Review: Rani is a Gujarati teen living in Hawaii and she’s struggling. She’s an outsider at school for the most part, but home is even worse. She feels abandoned by her father and shut out by her mother. One way Rani deals with the pain is through writing raps. When she’s rapping as MC Sutra, she has confidence and even though she’s pretending, Rani convinces herself along with everyone else. She explains it this way:

  It’s the me
  I want to be
  the large and in charge person
  I want the world to see
  So I MC, and throw down
  my self-confidence decree
  and strive to be
  my own queen bee

  In her day-to-day life, Rani cannot see her own value. She’s unable to understand her worth without her father’s attention. For years she had measured her self-worth by his actions and words. When he not only leaves, but lavishes his attention on someone else, Rani is devastated. This is not a book filled with sweetness and light. Rani is violated, thrown aside and left wounded. There are some very raw scenes to get through, but readers also get to see Rani step out in powerful ways as she learns about herself and her strengths.

  Her emotional journey is compelling. Rani survived abuse at the hands of her father and is working to change her patterns of behavior. She doesn’t want to seek his approval anymore. With him in another relationship, that becomes easier to a certain degree, but she falls into the same habits with her new, much older boyfriend.

  During this trying time, Rani is not only moving away from her father, she’s attempting to close the gap with her mother. She wants love, comfort and support from her mother, but these things aren’t often given. The years of isolation have put a wedge between the two and change is slow to come. Rani has complex emotions. She feels a sense of guilt because of her relationship with her father and feels sorry for her mother. She also can’t help but be angry that her mother didn’t keep her safe over the years whether that was through ignorance, fear, or something more deliberate. I found their changing relationship intriguing. I was a little surprised at how quickly some things resolved, but thought things developed in a logical way.

  Rani has very few friends, but the ones she has are extremely supportive. They’re close, but they are hiding several things from her. She has a much older boyfriend, but one of her friends is also someone she fantasizes about so those relationships get complicated.

  Aside from the abusive relationship, mother/daughter issues, friends, boyfriends, and hip hop music there was another added layer – activism. This is extremely timely with the issues surrounding the Dakota Access pipeline. Rani, her father and many other people are working to protect the water supply on their island home which involves a fight against a proposed pipeline. Native Hawaiian sovereignty is also part of the discussion. I appreciated the inclusion of the activism because it added depth to the characters and the story line. This may be one layer too many for some readers, but I’m glad it’s part of the story.

  Recommendation: Get it soon especially if you enjoy references to 90s hip hop. I think I missed the effect of some of those references, but Rani Patel’s story still spoke to me with power and intensity. I felt Rani’s pain, but also her energy, determination and her hope for healing.

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• Teen Reads
  http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/rani-patel-in-full-effect
  Word count: 250

  Rani Patel in Full Effect
  by Sonia Patel
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  Almost seventeen, Rani Patel appears to be a kick-ass Indian girl breaking cultural norms as a hip-hop performer in full effect. But in truth, she's a nerdy flat-chested nobody who lives with her Gujarati immigrant parents on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, isolated from her high school peers by the unsettling norms of Indian culture where "husband is God." Her parents' traditionally arranged marriage is a sham. Her dad turns to her for all his needs --- even the intimate ones. When Rani catches him two-timing with a woman barely older than herself, she feels like a widow and, like widows in India are often made to do, she shaves off her hair. Her sexy bald head and hard-driving rhyming skills attract the attention of Mark, the hot older customer who frequents her parents' store and is closer in age to her dad than to her. Mark makes the moves on her and Rani goes with it. He leads Rani into 4eva Flowin', an underground hip hop crew --- and into other things she's never done. Rani ignores the red flags. Her naive choices look like they will undo her but ultimately give her the chance to discover her strengths and restore the things she thought she'd lost, including her mother.

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