I felt seen! This was an incredibly validating read for a black millennial like me. There were many times listening to the audiobook where I just smiled and nodded because I *felt that*. Reniqua Allen put a ton of work into this and it shows. The research was thorough and current. I especially liked the fact that we weren't limited to NYC and LA, like so many books and articles about millennials often are. There are millions of people who live in between those cities who have stories that are just as valid as the high-powered whoevers working in Hollywood and Times Square. So I appreciated that. It was a thoughtful choice for a book such as this and it brought some much needed diversity to this subject.

The whole subject of "millennials are having a hard time" is always filtered through a painfully white and privileged lens. Their problems are not our problems. Allen put in a lot of perspectives that rightfully and accurately opposed the notion of what a typical millennial is, what they look like, and what kind of dreams and goals they have. At times, I won't lie, it was depressing. Most of us are struggling. Most of us have high hopes and big dreams and so much optimism and it's hard to read this book and believe that everything will work out for them in the end.

It definitely felt like a news article, in that we get snapshots of these people's lives and a lot of cool, pithy quotes. We see the common ties they have and how it all relates back to the main idea. But it's only a snapshot. It's only one facet of their lives. Allen tried to end on a high note, even with each person she interviewed, so I give her props for that. It couldn't have been easy to figure out how to portray us truthfully and without judgment while simultaneously refusing to succumb to the "low hanging fruit" of tragedy porn.

I took away a star because it felt like the author was presenting a lot of different perspectives with varying levels of attention and objectivity. What I mean by that is she tried to approach this from a neutral standpoint... kinda.

It was hard to tell if she was taking sides or if she was being apolitical and whether that had an impact on the book as a whole. As a result that made it hard to figure out what the point of the book was. Are you presenting our lives and our challenges to a generally black audience OR are you presenting our lives and our challenges to a generally mixed-raced audience according to how radical the subjects are because that would make for a more interesting book for them? I assumed she was a very "woke" person based upon how often left-leaning ideas popped up on the page (not that I'm complaining, I'm a liberal). But I could be wrong about it's impact on the subject matter. I'm just saying that was my perception.

She was clearly distracted by the most intriguing interviewees. She seemed especially interested in the dominatrix and the imprisoned prostitute. We spent a big chunk of the Survival chapter on them, taking a deep dive into their personal lives, their thoughts, their feelings, and their personalities. The interviewees before them and after them did not get that kind of time in the spotlight. Which goes back to the question I asked in a previous paragraph. Did Allen's desire to be "woke" have an impact on what made it into the book? Were there parts of this book that was performative instead of informative? If you interviewed dozens of people, why spend this much time on the lone sex workers? Yes, they represent a side of life not often told, but almost every interviewee's story is a story not often told and deserving of more attention. There was a clear and obvious political slant to the book that varied depending on who was being interviewed. I guess I just didn't like it because it felt biased towards the most uniquely marginalized subjects AKA the person with the most odd shit going on in their lives. You know, the people most likely to prove the book and the author's "wokeness".

I also felt as if the black woman republican was there just to cover her bases. She was portrayed in that annoying "gotta hear both sides" binary without her perspectives really being challenged which further fed into the idea that she was simply being interviewed to balance out the socialist who was interviewed before her. Again, there seemed to be a desire for objectivity and for a neutral stance, but it's hard to do that convincingly when you've just spent the last three or four chapters with a pretty obvious liberal slant on things. I appreciated the effort, I guess? It was better than nothing and she couldn't just ignore the other side of the political spectrum in a book that claims to be about ALL black millennials and unfortunately and oddly enough the less popular ideals need to be given space too.

Some big, serious issues in the black millennial world were touched upon once or twice, never to be revisited again. I was disappointed when she interviewed the black male professional, asked him about dating black women, provided a couple (dare I say, controversial) quotes and then moved onto the next subject. The black queer man she interviewed about his love life also gave wonderful quotes about dating and was worthy of a deep dive IMO, like she did with the sex workers, but she didn't go there either. In the black millennial world, dating is a huge deal. She dedicated a chapter to it, but the whole chapter was lacking that something special that the other chapters had.

She pivoted away from the single folks without kids to interview three black women with kids who were unmarried. I liked their perspective. It was interesting. Didn't mirror my reality since I don't have kids and I know of several black millennial women who also don't have kids - which is common these days cause kids are fucking expensive and men are trash. Again, the single mom life is a valid life if you're black and their perspectives matter. But it felt, once again, like Allen's focus was more on being "woke" and showing how "woke" she was by choosing to NOT interview single black millennial women w/o kids in the dating field and instead giving that spotlight to the single moms to humanize them and show the world they aren't just stereotypes. Noble, but was it really the best choice?

All my beef aside, I enjoyed it. I thought it was a great idea and that she did her best to bring it to life without devolving into the usual bullshit we see about black people. She tried her best to be subversive where she could and I appreciated it. It wasn't perfect and she made choices I didn't really agree with, but it's not a bad book because of it. I thought about it for a long time after I finished reading it. I would recommend but only to certain people. It could be a tough read for people who aren't black.