Urgent help needed!

[theveg]

Hello

I am looking for a book, preferably written by an female woman of colour for 17 to 18 years olds to read. It needs to have a positive message, a wide appeal and not have too much sex and/or violence. It also has to be fairly short, under 300 pages.

Ones I have considered but discounted so far are:

White teeth - too long
Brick lane - too long
The girl with the loading voice- great but has rape scenes
The colour purple - violent
Beloved - violent
I know why the caged bird sings - maybe too literary in style??
The thing around your neck- some graphic content
Grand Union- some graphic content
Washington black- has N word, perhaps too literary although brilliant

Small island- could work? Maybe too long....

Am I better off looking for something YA??

Really would appreciate help of readers on here!!

Noughts and crosses?

I feel that is too young. I know that 17 -18 ups should be able to read non-ya but everything I look at them seems too violent!

Maya Angelou - I know why the caged bird sings. I read it when I was doing A levels and enjoyed it

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas.

Their eyes were watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid

The Hate U Give
Queenie
Such A Fun Age
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
This Green & Pleasant Land
Sofia Khan is Not Obliged

YA fantasy

Witches Steeped in Gold
Legendborn

Why do you gave such strict criteria? Are you a teacher?

I read white teeth around 18-20yo amd loved it, it's still one of my favourite books.

Clap When You Land
With the Fire on High
Slay

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. All her books are beautifully written and are about crossing cultures.
Not violent or sex content.

I read Beloved around 17 and didn't find the violence too extreme for me. It is very literary though. I guess most books set around slavery or segregation are likely to have distressing scenes.

How about Their Eyes Were Watching God? Or something by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? Americanah is quite a young feeling book.

I really liked We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo.
It starts in Zimbabwe during the economic crisis of hyper inflation and disturbances in the early 2000s under Mugabe, and tells the story of a young girl and her subsequent move to the USA and the challenges that brings in its own right. I don't recall it being violent but it was a good window into the life of a migrant.
I also loved Small Island and in my head I still like to think about the characters in that novel and imagine how they are doing

Absolutely adored Boys don't cry by Fíona Scarlett. Really short and such a gorgeous book

Sorry did not read your OP Properly, not POC. Shall think again!

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This place is still beautiful by Xixi Tian sounds brilliant. YA

Thank you all! So many great suggestions

Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

The Hate U Give

Kindred Octavia E Butler. It reads young adult but is an interesting mix of genres. Time travel back to the plantations alongside perspective on being a black women in 1970s USA.

Queenie is a brilliant book but has lots of sex. For 17-18 year olds though it would be OK?

Kindred by Octavia Butler does have some violence I think, definitely it's a threat. It was published in 1979, and is about a middle class married African-American woman who finds herself somehow taken back in time from California in 1976, perhaps suburban Los Angeles, to an early 19th century plantation in the Deep South where she is a slave. I don't remember which state but this would have been some time before California was even part of the US!

Do you want:

• books by women of colour who live and work in the UK?
• books set here? the US? Africa? Asia?
• contemporary or past

US writers: Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett, The Mothers I am reading this at the moment and the main character is about this age - it does start with her having an abortion in a Texas town (legal at the time it was set and when it was written but not now!) Attica Locke's literary crime novels are excellent Jacqueline Woodson Zakiya Delila Harris, The Other Black Girl - an interesting story with discussion but the message is complicated

UK writers
Catherine Johnson is a YA author who writes historical fiction featuring black and dual heritage characters long before Windrush but might be worth a look
Kamila Shamsie, born in Pakistan, sets books in various places
Bernardine Evaristo
Jackie Kay

Other
Tsitsi Dangerembga, Nervous Conditions - Zimbabwe from the 1970s
Irene Sabatini, 2 novels in Zimbabwe, one featuring a Zimbabwean family living in Switzerland

Petina Gappah
Aminatta Forna
Tahmima Amam

Also look at the Jhalak prize longlists - these are for books by ethnically diverse authors who are based in the UK