{"id":5156,"date":"2013-08-13T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=5156"},"modified":"2020-05-08T05:53:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T09:53:40","slug":"on-the-come-up-a-novel-based-on-a-true-story-by-hannah-weyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=5156","title":{"rendered":"On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story by Hannah Weyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"Publisher\/Date:<\/b>\u00a0 Nan A. Talese, July 2013
\nGenre(s):<\/b> Young Adult, Coming of Age
\nPages:<\/b>\u00a0 320
\nWebsite:<\/b>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.hannahweyer.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"☆\" <\/p><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt came to her just before sleep, an idea crystallizing in the dark\u2014how maybe the size of your world ain\u2019t what matter, whether it expand or shrink up or expand again\u2014how maybe it was about finding your place in it. Hurdles to jump. You jump. Erase the lines, draw new ones. Chart a course and follow.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By the time AnnMarie Walker realizes how to make her way in the world, she\u2019d already been pregnant at 13, starred in a motion picture at 15, and fallen in love with a woman at 18. Her life had been full of accomplishments and setbacks, laughter and tears, kisses and bruises \u2013 but along the way, she never stopped dreaming.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the thing I love most about AnnMarie, and it\u2019s also the reason ON THE COME UP: A NOVEL, BASED ON A TRUE STORY<\/i><\/b> is one of the most compelling books I\u2019ve read this year.<\/p>\n

A novel based on a true story, On the Come Up<\/i> by filmmaker Hannah Weyer recounts the coming-of-age of AnnMarie, a teen embedded in a Far Rockaway, Queens housing project after being shuffled around the foster system. She\u2019s back living with her mother, Blessed, who left Trinidad to escape her abusive relationship. Brooklyn-born AnnMarie has typical teenage hopes: making money for back-to-school clothes (Diesel jeans especially), wanting to be noticed by the older guy on the block, better known as Darius Greene. A wannabe music producer, Darius begins to flirt with AnnMarie, and she\u2019s in love. This love manifests itself into sex with no protection, eventually leading to a baby \u2013 and of course with foolish promises of being together forever.<\/p>\n

At her school for pregnant teens, AnnMarie spies a flyer for a movie audition. Despite being 21 weeks pregnant, she lands a lead role in a film about female friendship, and the set, the cast and the director inspire her to dream beyond Darius\u2019 disappearing act, her mother\u2019s disability and deal with her new life as a mother. The movie encourages her to see a world beyond the Rock as she is swept into Sundance movie premieres and sees herself on the big screen.<\/p>\n

After her dizzying turn as an actress, reality plays a bigger role as AnnMarie raises baby Star without much help from Darius, and without a high school diploma or GED. It\u2019s her determination that lands her a job being a home nurse, while time after time taking hard-knocks.<\/p>\n

The harshest lessons AnnMarie learns are about love. Without a father figure, AnnMarie sees how proud Darius is to make a baby, but not enough to raise their child. He could dog her, beat her, and still want to call himself a \u201cfather,\u201d until AnnMarie recognizes his mistreatment is not worth tolerating just so Star will have the father she never had. Surprisingly, it\u2019s a woman who shows AnnMarie what love is, someone who actually cares about the well-being of her and Star. The kind of love AnnMarie is worthy of.<\/p>\n

AnnMarie Walker\u2026engaging, smart, and endearing. Those are the best words I can use to describe her. On the Come Up<\/i>, I must admit, is not a book for everyone \u2013 the omission of quotation marks to indicate who\u2019s speaking makes it hard to follow at times; the vernacular and grittiness of the characters aren\u2019t certain folks cup of tea; and the secondary characters could be stronger. However, On the Come Up<\/i> is authentic. It\u2019s a credit to Weyer, a screenwriter whose credits include the HBO movie Life Support<\/i> featuring Queen Latifah, who won a Golden Globe for her role. She\u2019s worked with teens in the media arts for 15 years, and it\u2019s evident. AnnMarie could have been any girl growing up in her neighborhood, but her insightfulness and fortitude is shown even from the first pages, as she\u2019s selling her kool-aid pops and Polaroid pics near the beach, when she takes the A train to an against-odds audition, as she\u2019s falling in love\u2026<\/p>\n

She thought, What the fuck you got to be afraid of. You is you. Fuck everybody and they opinion. If you love her, then you love her.<\/strong><\/em>
\nYou is you.<\/strong><\/em>
\nBe happy.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amen, AnnMarie.<\/p>\n

Reviewed August 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 Nan A. Talese, July 2013 Genre(s): Young Adult, Coming of Age Pages:\u00a0 320 Website:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.hannahweyer.com \u201cIt came to her just before sleep, an idea crystallizing in the dark\u2014how maybe the size of your world ain\u2019t what matter, whether it expand or shrink up or expand again\u2014how maybe it was about finding your place in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"NEW SOTS REVIEW: On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story by Hannah Weyer http:\/\/wp.me\/p3r7qG-1la"},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,136,229,492,517,534],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7202,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions\/7202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}