Zora and Nicky: A Novel in Black and White

By: Claudia Mair Burney

I really enjoyed this book. It takes on hard to write about subjects in an honest way. As a Christian book I expected it to be squeaky clean and sometimes that comes off as false. The need to be careful is a thing but the need to be real is also a thing and this book proves you can do both, at the same time.

There were parts I thought were annoying and sometimes the characters were too whiny but they are young and I am not, so I forgave them. Some of the characters, especially the fathers of both, tended towards the cliché. I would have preferred some humanity but then Zora and Nicky wouldn’t be who they are without that influence. The character of Richard was a knock off of Brennan Manning but again I forgive the author. I happen to love Brennan Manning so it was nice to see him in fiction. (Yes, I like the book and am forgiving everything!)

“The voice of beautiful Zora Nella Hampton Johnson-her name echoing the author of her favorite novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God-will take you up and carry you along until she utters her very last syllable. Anger, laughter and delight come from Zora's sharp, sassy tongue as if she is talking out loud. Burney's gift for voice is not limited to her heroine, though it takes her longer to get the other main character, Nicky Parker, the handsome but poor son of a racist pastor, to shine as distinctly as Zora. At this novel's heart are love and race-what happens when a self-described BAP (black American princess), the daughter of a famous megachurch leader, falls in love with a young white man. Zora and Nicky's dialogue about race is unflinching, with attitude, honesty and occasional humor. Burney pushes her prose to the edge of the edgiest in the "Christian fiction" genre, and then barrels right over. She doesn't sugar-coat, especially when it comes to sex, yet she manages to create a love story that's both erotic and chaste. Faith in Jesus comes to life on the page through Zora and Nicky's intense, if imperfect, soul searching. Though parts are a bit melodramatic, Burney gives readers a page-turner for all audiences, Christian and beyond.” Publishers Weekly