If We Were a Movie coming April 22nd, 2025 from HarperTeen; 322 pages
Content Warning: Loss of a parent, death
About the Author: “Zakiya N. Jamal was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In other words, she’s a New Yorker through and through. She holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and a MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. Her debut novel If We Were a Movie will be published on April 22 by HarperTeen. Her adult debut, Sparks Fly, will be published by Berkley on December 2. You can find her on social media at @ZakiyaNJamal” (Bio from author’s website).
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Rochelle has spent nearly all of her life with a one-track mind, dead set on graduating at the top of her class and attending the elite college Wharton. When her junior-year summer begins, Rochelle has done nearly everything to make herself a perfect candidate for the prestigious school, but is missing one key bit of experience: holding a job. So, when a position at the local black-owned theater, Horizon Cinemas, seemingly falls into her lap, she can’t pass up the opportunity. However, what seems like a sweet twist of fate soon sours when Rochelle learns on her first day that Amira, her childhood friend-turned-arch-nemesis, will be her manager for the summer. The two butt heads instantly, but as they spend more time together, Rochelle begins to seriously re-evaluate her perceptions of Amira. As their relationship develops, strange things keep happening at Horizon: a series of pranks that add extra costs to the theater, which is already struggling financially. Rochelle and her newfound friends and coworkers must unite to catch the mastermind behind the mysterious things affecting Horizon and save the theater.
If We Were a Movie is a refreshing and heartwarming YA book that combines elements of romance and mystery to create an engaging narrative that offers a powerful testament to the importance of community. While Rochelle was a compelling protagonist, what really drew me into the book was the diverse cast of characters found in her coworkers at Horizon. Something that Jamal did beautifully at the beginning of the novel was vividly capture the anxiety of a teenager about to face a monumental shift in their life (like going to college). Rochelle’s voice and fears felt very genuine and authentic, and it was both refreshing and validating to see these universal anxieties represented in Rochelle’s story. While I appreciated (and was pleasantly surprised by) the mystery element of If We Were a Movie, I felt as if the last 10% of the novel was incredibly action-packed in terms of both the romance and mystery storylines. This rapid pacing in the final pages of the book differed drastically from the medium pacing that defined the rest of the narrative, and I wished the major plot points were more evenly distributed. Despite this inconsistency in pacing, If We Were a Movie contains fun twists, exciting turns, and many touching moments.
If We Were a Movie releases on April 22nd, 2025.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and HarperTeen for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Sam Parker, Pine Reads Review Social Media Manager