God, Grades, and Guilt
Lakay. Lek l. Legliz.
Home. School. Church.
That's the holy trinity of seventeen-year-old Jo lle "Jojo" Pierre's life-and she's spent her whole existence trying to be good at all three.
A straight-A student, loyal friend, and dutiful daughter of Haitian immigrants, Jojo knows how to play her part. She keeps her head down at her elite prep school, smiles politely through church services, and recites memory verses with the kind of ease that makes her parents proud. Her life is a careful balancing act of expectations and quiet self-erasure-a constant performance of excellence rooted in faith, tradition, and survival.
But beneath the certificates and pressed Sunday dresses, Jojo is unraveling. Her best friend is pulling away. Her little sister is asking hard questions. Her body feels like it's no longer her own. And she's falling for someone she knows her family-and her church-would never approve of. As the pressure mounts and the guilt she's been taught to carry begins to buckle under its own weight, Jojo starts to question everything: her calling, her future, even her worth.
Why does goodness always feel like sacrifice? Why does love come with so many rules? And what does it mean to be chosen-by God, by your family, or by yourself?
Set in the vibrant but tension-filled world of immigrant girlhood, God, Grades, and Guilt is a lyrical, unflinchingly honest coming-of-age novel about faith, fear, and freedom. It is a story for every girl caught between generations, every daughter told to be excellent but not expressive, obedient but not outspoken.
As Jojo navigates the gap between who she is and who she's expected to be, she begins to discover a new kind of grace-one that isn't based on performance, but on truth.
For fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, Jacqueline Woodson, and Kristin Hannah, this is a deeply personal, emotionally resonant story about growing up, breaking free, and choosing your own path, even when it means rewriting the rules of your world.
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