Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.
Ada, which means first daughter in Nigeria, is a name that carries a lot of weight. It is a name that says, I am responsible, and I will fulfill everyone’s expectations. It is a name with a lot to live up to.
Ada, the person, is not sure she can live up to her name, or her responsibility. She feels like she doesn’t even know how to fit into her world. With her Nigerian, immigrant father and absent African American mother, she feels unsure of her culture and her identity. With her father’s devout Christianity and high hopes—and expectations—for his daughter, she feels like she is drowning. The only thing that has ever felt consistent, like home, is dancing.
As she starts her freshman year at a Historically Black College, this intersection of identity and responsibility is all coming to a head. College is a new collection of firsts: first time so far from her family, first formal dance classes, first relationships. Ada begins to question the responsibility laid out for her, and whether it is the responsibility she wants. As she explores herself, her sexuality, and her passion for dance, she learns that perhaps living up to her name does not mean fulfilling what others have destined for her, but instead what she destines for herself.
Candice Iloh has written a beautiful novel-in-verse that grapples with belonging, telling us that to really be whole, to really be free, we must be true to all parts of ourselves.
