What's Mine and Yours

by Naima Coster, Bahni Turpin (Narrator)

When a county initiative in the Piedmont of North Carolina forces the students at a mostly black public school on the east side to move across town to a nearly all-white high school on the west, the community rises in outrage. For two students, quiet and aloof Gee and headstrong Noelle, these divisions will extend far beyond their schooling. As their paths collide and overlap over the course of thirty years, their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deeply knotted, messy ties that shape the trajectory of their lives.

On one side of the school integration debate is Jade, Gee's steely, single, black mother, grieving for her murdered partner, and determined for her son to have the best chance at a better life. On the other, is Noelle's enterprising mother, Lacey May, who refuses to see her half-Latina daughters as anything but white. The choices these mothers make will resound for years to come. And twenty years later, when Lacey's daughters return home to visit her in hospital, they're forced to confront the ways their parents' decisions continue to affect the life they live and the people they love.

WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS is a sweeping, rich tapestry of familial bond and identity, and a sharp, poignant look at the ways race affects even the closest of relationships. This is not just one love story, but many: It's the all-consuming volatile passion of young lovers and the quieter comfort of steady companionship; it's the often tenuous but unbreakable bond between siblings; and it's the unconditional love that runs between parent and child and encompasses adoration, contempt and forgiveness. With gorgeous prose, Naima Coster explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Race

Audiobook

First published March 2, 2021

About the author

Naima Coster is the author of WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS, an instant New York Times bestseller, as well as a Read with Jenna and Book of the Month Club pick. Her debut, HALSEY STREET, was a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. It was recommended as a must-read by People, Essence, BitchMedia, Well-Read Black Girl, The Skimm, and the Brooklyn Public Library among others.

Naima’s essays have appeared in the New York Times, Elle, Time, Kweli, The Paris Review Daily, The Cut, The Sunday Times, Catapult, and elsewhere. In 2020, she was named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree.

Reviews

[Naima Coster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book. I love this book. And so I had to give it five stars!

[Cody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, I wanted to like this. Giving it such a low rating pains me. Recommended for fans of Ask Again, Yes and A Good Neighborhood—books I love, both—this is a multi-generational contemporary story that covers race and racism, family, love, class, consequences.

I have to be honest: this book is a structural mess. The synopsis makes a point of the local high school opening up to poorer students from the “wrong side of the tracks” so to speak, but this plot-point doesn’t come into play until the 33% mark. A THIRD of the way. That third is spent messily setting up these characters’ (oh-so many characters, too) predicaments and dramas in a few different eras. Most of the characters don’t even interact with each other until the 70% mark. Seriously. Most of this book feels like unrelated, inconsequential side-stories featuring characters I simply never grew to care about.

Aside from Gee: I cared about Gee. We meet him in the first chapter, as a child, and it’s damn unfortunate he’s not given more time to shine. Instead the reader is treated to the nearly insufferable woes of Lisa-May and her daughters, all of them pretty damn unlikable and certainly not sympathetic. Gee is the only reason this book is getting 2 stars from me, instead of 1.

I almost feel like this book tries to do too much, and it’s just not long enough (not that I’d want it to be any longer: God no!) We get the scant story promised in the synopsis, the school letting in poor and (mostly) latinx students, and the tensions that causes, but there are also affairs, and a character trying to make it in Hollywood, and another character concealing her lesbian relationship, and another character fighting cancer. Etc. None of it ever comes together in any cohesive way.

This book is getting fantastic reviews, and I’m sure it’ll be quite popular upon its release. I usually love books like this, but this one just didn’t hit the mark. At all. They can’t all be winners, but this didn’t come close. Alas.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this early.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook.... read by the great Bahni Turpin

“ This novel has a significant amount of empathy for all its characters, even the ones that are difficult to like or you disagree with their world view”.
I couldn’t say it better.... and there were definitely a couple with characters I didn’t like.... until my own empathy expanded.
I absolutely loved watching the characters change over time.

This was a terrific novel - originally inspired by the reporting of Nikole Hannah-Jones......who covered an integration program in Missouri — White parents were opposing the admission black students.
A look at the public schools —along with bullying, marriage, divorce, miscarriage,, drug abuse, LBGTQIA, prejudice, racism, family struggles. sibling rivalry, community, theater, shop talk, friendships, love, life, redemption........etc. ITS ALL HERE.... packaged beautifully and soulfully!

Set in Piedmont, North Carolina... this novel takes place over several decades.

4.5 stars.

[Katie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's so much going on in this novel that each reader has the potential to take away something different from the story. Race, addiction, social class, and relationships are just some of the subjects the author tackles in this book. It didn't take long for me to feel thoroughly engrossed in the characters' lives. Highly recommend checking this one out if you enjoy multi-generational family dramas.

Honestly, other than having a general idea of some of the topics explored in the story, you really don't need to know too much before diving right in. To cover the basics though, the setting is Piedmont, North Carolina and takes place over the course of a few decades. Some of the characters include Gee, a young Black male being raised by his mother, Jade, and Lacey May, a white woman raising her half-Latina daughters.

The publisher synopsis mentions a school integration plot and while it certainly plays a key role, it is not the bulk of the story. The author takes her time developing the characters, which is a good thing, before revealing how everything ties into one another. I'm not saying the synopsis is misleading, but judging by a few other reviews, some of us readers were surprised it was pretty far along in the book before you even get to the school stuff.

I did have a minor problem with the story as I feel Lacey May was not a fully developed character. However, this is one of the reasons why I think this novel would make a great book club selection as there are so many things to discuss. I might completely change my mind after hearing other readers' thoughts about the character. Perhaps the groundwork was laid in subtle ways throughout the story as to some of her opinions. If it was, it went completely went over my head and instead it seemed like it came out of left field. But maybe that's more realistic as sometimes you are caught completely off-guard when learning someone's viewpoint.

I am thankful I had the opportunity to read this one as I can't stop thinking about the characters. I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but I loved how one particular storyline was wrapped up as it felt true to life. (Without giving anything away, it involved Noelle.)

I won an advance copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.

[Barbara (I can only comment 10 times!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenna Bush Hager chose “What’s Mine and Yours” as March’s book club read. She is correct, it should be read in a book club. Immediately after reading this, I wanted to talk to someone about it. This novel begs to be discussed.

At the heart of the story is two momma bears. These women are fierce in their devotion to their children; yet their devotion becomes a point of contention with antagonistic results.

The reader gets a look at how Jade and Lacey May begin their families. Jade has a son, Gee, who is sweet and conscientious. Jade is single after Gee, age 6, witnesses his father’s murder. Lacey May has three girls, Noelle, Diane, and Margarita with a drug addict, Robbie, a man from Colombia who hasn’t held a job for more than a few months. Robbie is incarcerated after a drug related crime. Lacey May raises her daughters by herself, even when Robbie returns. Robbie is a drug addict and carries all the unfortunate characteristics of an addict. These events create the mamma bears these women become.

Their lives intersect when the county school where Gee attends is merged via an integration program with a flourishing school in the suburbs of Piedmont, North Carolina. Lacey May’s girls go to this school and is not happy about the program. Lacey May is white, and her girls are half Latina, yet sees her girls as white and thinks this integration will bring down the intellectual side of the school. Jade is pushing for the integration, as this school is larger and has more opportunities. Gee is a good student, and she wants the best for him.

Things get heated at a school assembly to welcome the incoming students. This assembly is comprised of the students and their parents. The women get at it about the underlying implications of racial standards and expectations. Noelle is horrified by her mother, considers her mother to be racists. Meanwhile, Gee doesn’t want to go to a school that doesn’t want him. He doesn’t want to fight this battle. These integration fights become pivotal in Gee and Noelle’s future.

Beyond the integration debate that is foremost in the novel, author Naima Coster also delves into the different parenting styles of these two women. In my opinion, Lacey May is a nightmare. Her devotion to her drug addicted ex-husband is disturbing. Those poor girls, the mixed and confusing messages Lacey May displays through their lives is horrific. She wants her girls to have a better life than she, yet she continues to substantiate a dysfunctional love relationship with Robbie.

Meanwhile Jade is a strong black woman who pushes Gee without considering his soft and emotional side. He is raised devoid of tender love, with a hellcat of a mamma. She far more stable than Lacey May, although she’s not perfect in her actions either.

This novel definitely shows the messy side of family. Dysfunction is a development, a slow process. While all have good intentions for their own kin, they don’t see the big picture. It’s like winning a battle and losing the war.

I found the novel distressing, which means lots of fodder for a book club. Naima Coster writes a fantastically relevant story about racial beliefs and family dynamics.

[Mary Keane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a masterpiece. I loved it.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Riding the coattails of Little Fires Everywhere and The Vanishing Half, What's Mine and Yours not only tells a blow-by-blow predictable tale but one that failed to entertain or elicit any feelings other than frustration in this particular reader. What's Mine and Yours, ya basic.

To call the writing in this novel 'prose' seems misleading as this is some of the most lifeless writing that I have ever come across. That is not to say that it is bad or terrible but dio mio, does it lack heart (if someone had told me that this book was written by an ai i would have believed them). Anyway, as you might have already guessed, I did not like this book. In fact, it really really really irritated me. The only reason why I persevered was that I listened to the audiobook which is superbly narrated by the one and only Bahni Turpin (had it not been for her i would have dnfed this).

As with any other of my negative reviews, I encourage those who want to read this book to check out some more positive opinions. Do keep in mind that the summary is extremely misleading. The school integration is not the focus of the novel, merely a plot device to further the drama between the characters and create some tension for our star-crossed lovers.

SPOILERS BELOW

Positives
✓The opening chapter. It has the most fleshed-out character in the whole novel who for reasons does not make a single appearance after that.

Negatives
✕ Story & Structure
This novel gives a halfhearted attempt at a non-linear/multiple perspectives kind of narrative but unlike The Travellers it clearly favours certain povs and timelines over others. So while the summary will have you think that the story pivots around in particular on the school integration, well it does not. The chapters set in 2018, years after the integration has taken place, are the real focus of this novel, and jeez, how dull they were. There present readers with some dull family drama, three cardboard cut sisters (the gay one, the wannabe celebrity one, and the one who is having marriage problems and wants children). There is an attempt to make a character's identity into a big reveal but it was obvious who they were from the very start. So, structure-wise, this novel sucks. Why implement multiperspectives' if you are mainly sticking with two characters? The non-linear timeline adds nothing to the story, as it fails to build suspense or give a sense of mystery to certain events. The story attempts to touch upon topical & serious issues but it ultimately fails to deliver a substantial exploration of race, class, identity, and motherhood, opting instead for a very superficial social commentary that is chock full of platitudes.

✕ Characters
The characters were either lazy caricatures or reduced to one single characteristic. While I was reading I asked someone what they envisioned when I said 'Lacey May' and they made a face. And that's basically it. Lacey May is the kind of character you are not meant to like. Fair enough, as I am more than able to enjoy books with dislikable characters....as long as they are given some nuance or depth. Lacey May...is portrayed as a shrill, bigoted, 'i'm not a racist but', self-centred white woman who is so OTT she gave me a bloody headache. Do people like her exist? Probably yes. Do I want to read pages and pages from her perspective that kind of try to humanise her but not really? No. Fuck no. How about no fucking thanks. I found Noelle to be just as unsympathetic (so you have a deadbeat father, boohoo, join the club). She has no real personality and is mainly defined by the fact that she is Lacey May's daughter. Gee, who is Black and one of the students who ends up at Noelle's mostly white fancy high school, is very much sidelined in favour of drama between Noelle and her mother.

✕ Sex scenes
There was an odd amount of sex scenes that...why? They were either incredibly cheesy or just plain wtf: “He was still her husband, she his wife. They moved together for a short time. It was all liquid and soft muscle, a warm mess. ” Give me a break. We even get a scene in which Gee is masturbating and...what did that add to his story? The guy already doesn't get enough page time and you are wasting what little he has on a scene where he masturbates? Because of course, that's what teen boys do!

✕ Low-key problematic
I am so sick of stories that punish characters who have abortions. Here that character later in life has a miscarriage and wants children but can't have them. She eventually does have a child but with another man and after a period of cheesy self-reflection in which she confronts the 'ghosts' from her past.
I was also not a fan of the gay rep in this book. It had a vague hint of 'the token gay'.

This is the book equivalent of a soap opera. It was full of clichés (married man goes to france eats croissants and has an affair with a younger woman), unnecessary melodrama involving Lacey May and her daughters, and it felt vaguely moralistic (especially the way the abortion/miscarriage were handled). The uber generic writing, as previously mentioned, was not to my taste.
This is the kind of novel that seems to have been 'made' with book clubs in mind. So, if you are a fan of Jojo Moyes and Kristin Hannah, chances are you'll like it more than I did.


find me on: ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

[Derek · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really hate giving 1 star reviews, so this pains me.

The biggest problem I had was in the disjointed writing. It was chaotic. Perspectives were switched mid-page, even mid-paragraph! One sentence we'd hear and see one character's viewpoint, then the next sentence we're in another characters head. It was really confusing and hard to follow at times.

There were way too many characters that we didn't need to see their perspectives and really muddled the story. There were 3 different timelines that bounced around randomly and was not fluid.

The synopsis was misleading as I thought I was getting a story about race and the impacts of integrating schools from a "poorer side of town" but that was such a small part of the story. I think the author missed an opportunity to deliver something profound. Instead it feels like every societal topic relevant today was thrust in here and attempted to be tackled. At times it was a bit preachy. Instead of showing, it was a lot of telling. But I attribute this to too much going on and a lack of focus on just one or two topics.

There was a little twist towards the end that's so obvious it should've just been revealed up front. It's not even really a twist, but a withholding of information.

Disappointed :(

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.6] A solid drama that adeptly portrays race and class and family dynamics through multiple viewpoints from childhood to adulthood. I like this novel and Coster’s warm, skillful writing! But I wonder if it will stay with me? So many characters and I didn't really bond with any of them.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A family drama type story with intersecting characters over 30 years. Overall very solid. The book hooked me from the start (though I lost steam 60% in) and I was interested in most of the characters. It’s a lot of people doing their best through life and dealing with things like addiction, grief, incarceration, fucked up family. Very solid but didn’t quiet pull it off for me it got cliched and predictable by the end. It’s a good book, easy and enjoyable to read, but it didn’t stick the landing.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first chapter is an absolute masterpiece, with a strong and compelling central character. So vivid you can smell the donuts. The second chapter, also breathtaking. But then what? Thereafter the story strays, following an angry, distant and difficult family. It was a slog to wade through their various missteps. The story was inconsistently told, and I found the withheld information to be maddening and pointless.

[Jenna Hager · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What’s Mine and Yours” by Naima Coster is a sweeping, fresh new novel. It is the story of two American families, specifically two mothers, each fighting for a better future for their kids. As a mother myself, I related to moms Lacey May and Jade’s fierce love for their children even when they made mistakes. Nobody understands us like our families, even when imperfect.

The story is epic in scope. It is about understanding the demons and the hardships that come before us and how they affect our lives.
It will spark conversations around race, identity and what it means to belong in our families, schools and communities while racial differences, misunderstandings and personal tragedies create chasms between us.

Click here to get your copy today!

[Jordan (Jordy’s Book Club) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told over the course of 30+ years, #WhatsMineAndYours is the story of 2 families: Ray and Jade (a Black couple), who live with their young son on the mainly Black east side of Piedmont, North Carolina; and Lacey May (a white woman), who along with her charming and troubled husband Robbie (Latinx), are raising three half-Latina daughters in a predominantly white neighborhood. When Piedmont decides to consolidate and essentially integrate its school district, the two families are inextricably connected in ways that will reverberate for years to come.⁣
⁣
Reminiscent of ASK AGAIN, YES, THE MOST FUN WE’VE EVER HAD and YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY…WMAY is a complex and thought-provoking story about the sacrifices mothers make to do whatever it takes to support their families. It is also an excellent exploration of cultural and implicit bias, in particular, the character of Lacey May, a mother with a racist grudge against Jade and her family, who is no stranger to adversity herself as she struggles to raise biracial kids. Also worth mentioning the gut-wrenching twist at the end that Coster executes masterfully, tying the story together with an emotionally-impactful ending I did not see coming.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written multi-generational family saga set in North Carolina that spans 28 years in two families’ lives. The chapters shift back and forth over time, and switch perspectives between different characters in the families. The format challenged me a little bit; sometimes, I had to scroll back a few chapters to pick up the narrative thread for a character.

Coster touches on LGBT issues, racism, class, addiction, social media, poverty and probably more themes that escape me right now. She doesn’t beat you over the head with any of it, it flows naturally within the characters’ situations.

My only complaint is that some of the characters didn’t feel as three-dimensional as they could be. Lacey May, for example - I never got a handle on who she really was. She came off to me as an awful person, but her husband(s) adored her. Why?

A perfect 3.5, rounded up to a 4 for the story-telling and writing.

[Provin Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good, truthful book. It sees small town, poor living for what it really is. The story is about two different families, spanning two different generations.

The characters are well written, and the reader will be enveloped by the story of these families. This is not a light and fluffy book. This book addresses many of the concerns that generations before us have had when it comes to race and equality. The same concerns that we carry today.

If this book were a song, it would be kids by MGMT

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps 2 stars is a little harsh for this book, but it was definitely NOT for me. I would highly recommend not going into this expecting that it will deal primarily with the integration battle, as revealed in the synopsis, because that forms only the smallest part of the book. We don't even get to it until roughly 25% of the way through the book. The first two chapters were absolutely incredible, which made me think this would be the book to finally get me out of my reading slump. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.

I was originally intrigued by the two families portrayed in this novel. Gee and Jade broke my heart because of the plot twist in the first chapter, which I was not expecting at all. She also portrayed the struggle of Lacey May and her daughters after the incarceration of their father so well. I could feel her desperation, her fear, and her loneliness radiating off the page. It was like I was in that freezing house with them.

However, the further I read, the less I could stop thinking about how little I enjoyed this novel. It started strong, but I think Naima Coster was simply trying to do too much. To risk making unwarranted parallels, I feel like she was trying to do something similar to Celeste Ng in Little Fires Everywhere, but it fell flat. As I already mentioned, I went into this book expecting that it would deal primarily with the integration battle within the school system, but in reality, it was more of an in-depth look at the dysfunctional family dynamics of Lacey May and her daughters. Now, I don't normally mind stories like that, and I actually love reading about it at certain points, but I genuinely could not bring myself to care about any of the unlikeable characters, except for potentially Noelle at certain points. The sisters felt like caricatures, and there were just SO many plot lines, from one sister hiding her sexuality from the others to an attempt to make it in Hollywood. It felt disjointed and clunky, and none of the storylines had any sort of adequate conclusion.

Anyone who knows my reading taste also knows that I hate adultery and cheating, especially in lit fic, and that trope was everywhere in this novel. I acknowledge that it's realistic, it happens, and all that, but I find it as interesting as watching paint dry. There were also gratuitous and questionably-written sex scenes that felt forced into the narrative.

There were moments in this novel where I enjoyed the writing, but ultimately, I feel like nothing really happened and none of the characters grew at all. They all seemed to be dealing with the same insecurities and fears from the beginning to the end. There was no growth, no progression. In some instances, there was actually character regression. There was one plot twist at the end of the novel that took me entirely by surprise and I absolutely HATED it because it fundamentally altered my perception of a certain character. I don't necessarily mind unlikeable characters, especially if I can get behind their motives, but in this novel I just couldn't deal with it. It also ended abruptly. I turned the last page and I was like: That's it?

So, I was incredibly underwhelmed by this novel. I recognize that this is a bit of an unpopular opinion, so others might get on with it better than I did. But yeah, this was not the novel for me, sadly.

[BookOfCinz]

I think I will need to re-read this book one more time, just to make sure my review is correct.

The writing is amazing! Having read Coster's previous book, I can tell you her writing aged beautifully.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I just read - another book about nothing pretending to be more than it is. I literally thought I was missing pages at the end of the book.

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a heavy one. There is a lot to take in and process through the pages. I do appreciate these topics though. They are all important, but it is a lot all at once. Definitely not a light read. Tons of deep emotions.

[Ed Maher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The truth about ‘What’s Mine and Yours,’ is that it’s a hot mess. The author has huge potential. Her writing skills show uncommon insight. But when you fill up the plot with too many characters and severely disrupt the timeline, it’s hard to stay focused on the big picture. Who, when and where shouldn’t be so hard to keep track of. And if you require a calendar and a glossary to follow the story, there may be a problem getting your main message across. A family dysfunction novel provides enough misdirection on its own. Why make it a Rubik’s Cube?

Naima Coster, the author, bet that a revelation could best deliver her story. She calculated that by obfuscating the timeline, flooding the novel with players and springing a big surprise at the end, she could more declaratively make a statement about racial tragedy. I think her bait and switch decision only provided superficial enlightenment. Discerning readers saw it coming. If she had told her story straight up, without the writing school ploys, she could have left a more lasting impression. Instead, for most of the book, the reader doesn’t even know who the main characters really are. After the initial violent setup, she should have immediately narrowed in on Noelle and Gee. The two children whose relationship ultimately became the story. Imagine the impact they could have had in a linear timeline without all the parental and sibling theatrics sharing the spotlight. The whole notion of a collage being a more accurate reality than an individual portrait has become too popular. For a writer, a camera isn’t has powerful as a microscope. It’s just easier to use because it doesn’t require as much analysis.

Naima Coster will become a better novelist. She just needs to do a better job revealing what’s underneath instead of settling for a panoramic view of the landscape.

[Jamise · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more I kept thinking about this book, i had to change my rating to 5 stars. I'm a mood reader and from the heartbreaking first chapter to the surprise towards the end, I was invested in this story. Naima does not hold back on shining the spotlight on issues that permeate throughout society. The authenticity on the page was delightful. Naima gives it to you FULL STOP! We begin in Piedmont, North Carolina when a new county law integrates a white high school with a students from the Black community. < cue outrage > What’s Mine and Yours delves into racism, anti-blackness, integration, microaggressions, socioeconomic status, privilege, entitlement, sisterhood, motherhood, and family dynamics. I loved the nonlinear structure carrying you back and forth in time with different points of views. Chosen family vs the family you are born into was another theme that gave a nice perspective to the story. Naima masterfully delivered multiple characters without losing me as a reader. I loved the way she had me rooting for some folks and disliking others but all the while I was able to have empathy for parents who want the best for their children. As I shared with Naima during our IG Live conversation, it's maddening when Black and brown parents seek out better opportunities for their children, especially as it relates to education. They are always faced with opposition and the notion that they are taking something away from others. UGH!! I could go on and on but I'm all about feeling and this story gave me all the feels. ⁣

[Scottsdale Public Library]

In this novel, we see the lives of two families playing out through the years. There is Jade and her son Gee, and Lacey May and her three daughters Noelle, Margarita and Diane. While the plot shows the family in multiple time periods, most of the action takes place in the years 2002 and 2018. In 2002, we see Noelle and Gee grow close, despite their mothers being on opposite sides of the debate over an integration initiative to bring students, including Gee himself, from the poorer, more diverse areas of the city to the local high school. In 2018 we see Noelle, Margarita and Diane as they reunite in their hometown when Lacey May is diagnosed with cancer. Through multiple points of time and differing viewpoints, we see how these families are shaped by their pasts and their interactions with each other. While the multiple timelines and points of view may make this novel hard for some readers to follow, this is a great read for lovers of domestic dramas and novels that follow families through the years.
~Madeline C.

[Sarah at Sarah's Bookshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This character-driven, multi-generational story featuring two families who become intertwined through a school integration process begins a bit like interconnected short stories before evolving into a more traditional multiple POV / multiple timeline story. The writing is gorgeous and Coster commentates on race, class, prejudice, and gentrification through the lenses of a cast of characters I was invested in. Though I was more or less enjoying it through the first half, there wasn't anything pulling me back in each time I put it down. But, this changed as the story went on and I loved how she connected the dots at the end. A good pick for fans of An American Marriage and Ask Again, Yes.

[Karen Ford · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book left me cold for some reason. I couldn't really like or "get into" even one of the characters. While it conveyed the message of family being "messy" and yet sticking by each other or family not having to be blood relatives, I just didn't feel invested in any character or in the story.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This multigenerational saga focuses on two main families headed by fierce women who have lost their husbands—one through murder, the other through drugs. [He lives, he just is not to be relied upon, and she subsequently remarries.] The lives of their children eventually cross paths when the school seeks to integrate. Noelle and Gee are involved in a theater production of a Shakespeare play, while their mothers become involved in the real-life drama of school integration. Noelle’s mother is fiercely opposed to the students from the east side attending her daughter’s school.

However, Coster has the school conflict only as a minor plot-line. The bulk of the novel explores the lives of the main characters—the ebb and flow of their relationships with their mothers and siblings, as well as with their significant others. The complexities they face due to race is a frequent undercurrent. Sadly, with so many characters, the story meanders and becomes muddled.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first chapter. The book was extremely disjointed, reading about several sets of seemingly short stories, characters introduced with a tiny half of a sentence to explain their relation to other major characters with pages and pages and pages of overexpressed descriptions of (???) material. I wondered if the book was short stories written by the author then forced to a novel. On one of the last pages it did tie up how the stories were related but by that point I was so frustrated with the book, it was certainly anti-climatic. However, I enjoyed: the first chapter, Linetta, parts of Nelson’s time in Paris, Nelson’s letter. Otherwise, not much else. Definitely one of my least favorites of Jennas book club picks.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review for the Minneapolis Star Tribune: https://www.startribune.com/review-wh...

It's a truism that any writer who has survived their childhood has enough material to last for the rest of their days. In her latest novel, "What's Mine and Yours," Naima Coster explores how the incidents of anyone's childhood stand both to propel and to bind them for the remainder of their lives, the consequences of early happenstances, griefs and betrayals kicking off a course that perhaps no individual can fully evade.

In 2020, the National Book Foundation honored Coster as one of their 5 Under 35, and her debut novel, "Halsey Street," about gentrification in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, was a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize for fiction.

Here, in her elaborately constructed, multifamily saga of a second novel, Coster examines similar questions of erasure and inclusion, as well as how race and class impact every aspect of her characters' lives. Primarily set in a town known only as "a city in the Piedmont of North Carolina," the book's many plot lines radiate around an integration plan that brings students from the predominantly Black east side into the high school of the mostly white west.

"The town had been largely split this way," she writes, "white and Black, then white and not white, for as long as Lacey could remember," capturing how segregation and inequality in so many towns throughout America get accepted without question until citizens are forced, eventually, to confront them.

At the center of the story are Gee, a sensitive Black boy whose beloved about-to-be-stepfather, Ray, is murdered before his eyes when he's only 6 years old, and Noelle, a half-white, half-Latina girl, "bright as a lamp," whose Colombian father, Robbie, spends much of her and her two sisters' childhoods in prison due to drug addiction. Gee's mother, Jade, a nurse, is fiercely driven by both anger and "terror, for her son, the world she'd never be able to shield him from."

Meanwhile, Noelle's mother, Lacey May, is determined to deny her children's mixed-race heritage, pushing her lightest-skinned daughter to pass as white and going so far as to protest the integration with demonstrations and hateful signs.

Noelle concocts a scheme to put on Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" to unify the disparate groups of high schoolers and to provoke and resist the so-called "concerned" parents.

She persuades a reluctant Gee to participate and from then on, both students and their families collide in ways large and small.

The book's rangy unfolding takes place from the early 1990s to the present day and hopscotches back and forth from the suburbs of Atlanta to Paris to Los Angeles to the small Southern city of Noelle and Gee's youth. The point of view rotates from one character to another, allowing Coster to depict their complex situations and moral ambiguities with depth and compassion.

Weaving numerous plot threads — miscarriages, abortions, divorces, brain tumors, benders — into an intricate tapestry, Coster shows, as one of her indelible minor characters declares, that "It's only our life if we say so. Otherwise it belongs to them."

[RoseMary Achey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anyone else feel like this book dragged on and on? Jumped around and was a bit hard to follow? There was a great deal of narrative in this book that seemed to be repeated. Perhaps it was my inability to connect with the characters but I did not enjoy this novel.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of three sisters and the mess life brings

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book for the beauty of the story and the writer's skill. It's wonderful to read a novel about people of color that reads like real people with flaws (not magical like Secret Life of Bees) and who don't get saved by someone white (like The Help, ugh). Beyond those, I respect this book for its universality: the fierceness and struggles of parental love, that constant fear of failure. When Lacey May has to choose between being right and having her daughter with her, that's a struggle every parent has faced. Jade both resenting Gee yet loving him wholly was spot on. Just a great book.