Book Review: Zyla & Kai by Kristina Forest

Publisher’s description

A fresh love story about the will they, won’t they—and why can’t they—of first love.

While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn’t surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn’t have been more different.

Zyla was a cynic about love. She’d witnessed the dissolution of her parents’ marriage early in life, and it left an indelible impression. Her only aim was graduating and going to fashion school abroad. Until she met Kai.

Kai was a serial dater and a hopeless romantic. He’d put a temporary pause on his dating life before senior year to focus on school and getting into his dream HBCU. Until he met Zyla.

Alternating between the past and present, we see the love story unfold from Zyla’s and Kai’s perspectives: how they first became the unlikeliest of friends over the summer, how they fell in love during the school year, and why they ultimately broke up… Or did they?

Romantic, heart-stirring, and a little mysterious, Zyla & Kai will keep readers guessing until the last chapter.

Amanda’s thoughts

Here’s the thing: increasingly here, my reviews feel less like reviews and more like little arguments for why, exactly, I want you to know about this book. The summaries hit the plot points, but I’m interested in talking about what specific thing or things stand out, what is unique, what recommends this book as something you should get onto your endless TBR. If I were writing this for SLJ, I would be more thorough, less chatty, and would look at the whole book. But I’m writing this for TLT, where I can talk to you in a more conversational manner. All of this is to say, if you’re reading these reviews lately and thinking they’re not incredibly detailed or focusing on just one aspect of a book, that’s true and that’s fine.

The part of this book that I really want to talk about is the fact that Kai lost his parents nearly a decade ago, he’s been in therapy forever, and he talks about this fact as well as that he deals with anxiety and panic attacks. We do not have a ton of examples of Black boys in YA seeing therapists or openly discussing mental health. I love when a book reflects an important aspect of real life, especially if it’s an underrepresented aspect, so I have something to point to if this comes up in conversation. This representation is needed. Normalizing living with mental health issues and getting help is needed. Here is Kai, he’s doing it, he’s talking about it, it’s okay! We see him at appointments with Dr. Rueben, his therapist. We see him work through things, share them with his doctor, and learn how very normal these experiences are. We see him learn to cope, to manage, to share. He casually tells Zyla that he sees a therapist and her response is, “That’s really cool. I probably need a therapist, too, honestly.” Kai replies, “I mean, I personally think everyone could benefit from therapy” (131). I appreciate this. The more readers can see these examples, can witness these conversations, can see themselves (whoever they may be and whatever their identities may be) represented in these situations, the better we will all be. While this book was really good, had wonderful dialogue, and kept me guessing what was happening as we toggled back and forth in time, it’s this specific representation of a Black teen boy living with anxiety and panic attacks and getting help that I want to draw your attention to. A great read with important rep.

Review copy (hardcover) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780593407240
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 06/07/2022
Pages: 480
Age Range: 12 – 17 Years

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