Jocelin's Reviews > This Side of Home

This Side Of Home is a story about twins Maya & Nikki. They were named after famous African American poets Maya Angelou Nad Nikki Giovanni. They are living in a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon that is going through a resurrection (gentrification). Because of this gentrification, it causes their oldest and dearest friend Essence to move to away from them. Essence is essentially the "third" twin. You see their life being played out with their last year of school with controversies, new friends and romances coming and the challenges of starting a new chapter in their lives.
The problem that I had with this book was not about the gentrification, not about the heated racial exchanges with the students but, it was the the weird relationship between Maya & Nikki. As a twin myself, I felt the storyline surrounding the twins was unrealistic. It seemed like they were strangers and Essence was the defining factor in their relationship. When Essence moves away, you never get the sense that they are even sisters. My second problem was the interracial romance. Maya develops a romance with her new next door neighbor Tony who's white. The romance (in secret) is sweet but, when they are in public it is non-existent. I felt like the romance was out of place and it seemed like everyone's attitudes were stuck in the 70's about it.
The story was well-written and it was nice to see twins as main characters in a book. I just wish the romance wasn't so lopsided.