Sariyah Lee Bryant can hear what people need—tangible things, like a pencil, a hair tie, a phone charger—an ability only her family and her best friend, Malcolm, know the truth about. But when she fulfills a need for her friend Deja, who vanishes shortly after, Sariyah wonders if her ability is more curse than gift. This isn’t the first time one of her friends has landed on the missing persons list, and she’s determined not to let her become yet another forgotten Black girl.
Not trusting the police and media to do enough on their own, Sariyah and her friends work together to figure out what led to Deja’s disappearance. But when Sariyah’s mother loses her job and her little brother faces complications with his sickle cell disease, managing her time, money, and emotions seems impossible. Desperate, Sariyah decides to hustle her need-sensing ability for cash—a choice that may not only lead her to Deja, but put her in the same danger Deja found herself in.
Sariyah has a premonition-like ability to hear what people need. This seems like a pretty neat power in theory, but it is more of a colossal pain in the butt. The poor girl is constantly bombarded with the wants of the people around her, and the only way she knows how to quiet the voices is to fulfill the need herself. Sariyah carries around a duffel bag, dubbed “Santa bag”, filled with random items to give out. She doesn’t know what people will need the items for, and she begins to fear that she might be doing more harm than good.
If the concept of a Black girl with psychic powers seems familiar, you may have seen the Disney Channel show, “That’s So Raven”, about a teenage Black girl who sees visions of the future and gets into wacky situations. I bring this up because at one point in the story, someone mentions, “an old sitcom about a teen psychic. Black girl like you.” I found this funny. Also, the sitcom first aired in 2003; it’s not that old.
The main theme of the book is the unequal efforts made between missing white girl cases and missing BIPOC girl cases. This is sadly true. I’ve read the summaries of many YA teen crime novels, and a good portion of them involve a popular blonde teen girl going missing and/or murdered.
Regardless of the Black girl perspective, this story is no different from all the other YA crime novels about a teen putting themselves in danger to find a missing person and/or solve a crime/murder.
A bit of a spoiler, but it needs to be said that the story ends on A HUGE REVELATION. I am not kidding. I was so dumbfounded that I slammed my hand on the table and yelled, “WHAT?!”
If you like stories about finding missing people, I recommend watching the TV series Found. The series focuses on public relations specialist and crisis manager Gabi Mosely and her team of associates who work to find missing people who have been ignored or forgotten by law enforcement and the mainstream media. This show is amazing in so many ways. Sadly, the series was canceled after only two seasons.