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Published in USA
Oct 2016
224 pages
Genre: Novels
Publication Information
Sonia Patel writes out of her experience as a first-generation Indian immigrant cradled in the Hawaiian indigenous culture, an experience lushly and brilliantly explored in her debut novel.
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.
"Starred Review. Patel compassionately portrays Rani's entangled emotions, lack of self-confidence, and burgeoning sense of empowerment as she moves forward from trauma. Grade 9 and up." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. 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
"Starred Review. A powerfully particular, 100 percent genuine character commands this gutsy debut." - Kirkus
"This book is an open wound. Sonia Patel does not sugar coat or try to weave a fairy tale from heartbreak, sorrow, and patriarchy. You know, the kinds of things intended to bend and break girls who rap and chop all their hair off. Girls like Rani. But Rani writes words. Words that go boom. And in Rani Patel in Full Effect, so does Patel."- Isabel Quintero, author of Gabi, A Girl in Pieces
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sonia Patel is a psychiatrist who works with children and adults. She was trained at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii. She lives and practices in Hawaii. Rani Patel In Full Effect is her first young adult novel.
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