Rani Patel in Full Effect

Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rani Patel is a teenage MC living in Hawaii in the early 90s. She struggles to reconcile her Indian heritage with the hip hop culture she's adopted as her own. She also struggles in her relationships with both her mother and father, and begins to confide in and form an uneven friendship with an older MC, Mark. Using her own words and rhymes as a personal reflection, Rani discovers her strengths and gains the courage to be fully herself.

Simply put, this book is unapologetically itself. Nothing is watered down, and though there is a glossary in the back (appreciated and helpful for cultural outsiders like me, though definitely an "extra"), Rani never stops to explain her vocabulary or her family's meals or her clothing style - which is as it should be! Defining asides and other explanatory comments tend to take the reader out of the flow of the story, and they center a certain type of reader - aka, a reader not like Rani. I loved that this book forced me to read more about hip hop culture and MCs of the 80s and 90s, and I love that a reader who already knows these things can enjoy the book as it is, no extra explanations needed.


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