Needy Little Things
Channelle Desamours
What starts out as a story about a teenage girl who has a gift for knowing what people need (think pepper spray, tissues or chewing gum) quickly evolves into something much darker and more serious.
Sariyah’s friend Deja goes missing at a festival. She is not the first Black girl to do so and along with the grief Sariyah feels, is angry that, when a white girl disappeared, society paid more attention. Sariyah and best friend Malcom use social media to try to find Deja and along the way get sucked into a world of distrust, half-truths and fear.
I found this to be a very interesting novel. It’s set in America and explores the themes of parental mental health, young adult relationships and, interestingly for me, sickle cell disease. The idea of Sariyah instinctively knowing what people need in the moment is a bit quirky and shouldn’t work against the other more significant issues, but it does! It has a gripping plot with the ending being both unexpected and heart-stopping.
There is much to consider by the time this has been read. Fans of Angie Thomas and followers of the Black Lives Matter movement will see this book as a useful addition to a conversation that needs to be kept going.
Published by Bloomsbury, 2025 (310 pages)
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