Summary

Chapter 1 introduces the Benitez family living in the ‘hood’ of Bushwick, Brooklyn: there are Mama and Papi, Haitian and Dominican respectively, and their five daughters named -- in order of age-- Janae, Zuri, Marisol, and the twins Layla and Kayla. Zuri is the seventeen-year-old narrator of the book. One summer morning she looks out her window to see that the mansion across the street of their run-down neighborhood is about to be inhabited by a new family. The mansion is fully renovated, but Zuri is surprised to see that the rich family moving in is not white but black, with two handsome sons in tow. Janae, her eldest sister, is coming home that day from her first year of college and thus the entire family is excited to meet her. Shortly, Janae’s cab brings her to the front of the house and...