Book Review: "Grown" by Tiffany D. Jackson
“Grown” by Tiffany D. Jackson
Bookshop | Kindle
Publisher Synopsis: Award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson delivers another riveting, ripped-from-the-headlines mystery that exposes horrific secrets hiding behind the limelight and embraces the power of a young woman's voice.
When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields?
Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point to Enchanted.
Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, drugs, mental illness, pedophilia, emotional abuse, physical assault
Rating (out of 5): 4.25
Review: This book got a lot of buzz when it was released recently, and when you read it, it’s easy to see why. The novel introduces us to Enchanted, a Black teenage girl who attends a mostly white private school and is the oldest of four children. She often has to pitch in with babysitting, and aspires to be a singer, despite her parents’ coaxing that it isn’t a feasible career choice.
After Enchanted sort of tricks her mom into taking her to an audition, Enchanted meets R&B star Korey Fields and begins a relationship with him via text. Loosely based on a fictionalized version of R. Kelly, Korey Fields is a Black R&B singer who, we learn, preys on teenage girls. The novels jumps back and forth between “present day,” in which Fields is dead (at whose hand we don’t know) and flashbacks demonstrating how Enchanted came to be seduced and taken advantage of by Fields.
While the novel’s conclusion felt a bit too rushed for me, the build-up of Korey preying on Enchanted (I refuse to call it a “relationship”) was incredibly accurate. Enchanted is somewhat of an outsider at her private school, and doesn’t fit in with her more well-off Black peers in the “bougie” “Will and Willow” group. She was, therefore, an easy person for Korey to isolate as he was able to deepen her resentment toward her parents for not taking her singing ambition seriously. We also come to understand the powerful mechanisms behind the scenes that allow characters like Korey (and people like R. Kelly) to get access to these teen girls and get away with it.
The entire book is from Enchanted’s POV, and she becomes deeper and deeper enmeshed in the abuse Korey subjects her to. Korey makes her think she’s special by telling her “secrets” and displaying (false) vulnerability. He tells her he believes in her singing career potential. He tells her his extreme jealousy comes from a loving place. He pushes her into changing her appearance to suit his tastes. Little by little, he breaks Enchanted down until she becomes convinced that “he must turn into a different person when drinks…he’s going to wake up and not remember a thing that happened. He’ll be so apologetic, begging for my forgiveness…” Eventually, Enchanted finds herself locked in a room in Fields’ Atlanta house (…sound familiar?) and realizes there are other teenage girls being subjected to what is starting to realize is abuse.
While the ending was a bit too rushed for my tastes, we also experience the abuse and harassment that Enchanted is subjected to from other women after she tries to tell the story of how Korey abused her. Too often, we put powerful men and their accomplices on pedestals, making us blind to their crimes, allowing them to continue to prey on the vulnerable and marginalized.
if you are able to get past the trigger warnings (of which there are many!) I highly recommend this book, as well as the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” (available on Netflix).
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the author’s note at the end, which concluded, “I feel like I should thank my therapist…because without her, I would not have been able to reconcile what happened to me and see that I am not my mistakes. So thank you for being so brilliant. Proverbs 3:5-6…Amen. Last…MUTE MUTHERF*CKING R. KELLY!!!”
TL;DR: An excellent fictionalized account of an R. Kelly-type star who preys on teenage girls, and the powerful mechanisms in place to protect him. I loved the nuanced take on how one teenage girl finds herself in such an abusive relationship—because it never happens overnight.
If you liked this, try:
“The Swallows” by Lisa Lutz (Bookshop | Kindle) (my review here)
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