Everyone’s Thinking It

By Aleema Omotoni, HarperCollins, 2023

Aleema Omotoni is an award-winning British-Nigerian author. She writes novels that center Black teens coming of age, falling in love, and navigating all kinds of contemporary and fantasy worlds. She loves musical theater, astrophysics and rainy autumn days.

Her debut novel, Everyone’s Thinking It, won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens.

Everyone’s Thinking It is a suspenseful page-turner centering on two British-Nigerian Black high school girls, Kitan and Iyanu, who are cousins and students at Wodebury Hall, an elite boarding school in the English countryside. The novel alternates between both girls’ points of view, providing glimpses into their different yet similar experiences. 

Iyanu is a photographer with dreams of becoming a photojournalist. She attends Wodebury as a day student, staying with her family—mom, dad, and little sister Feyi—while Kitan boards at the school. Though the girls were once close, they are now at opposite ends of the social spectrum, with Kitan a member of the popular crowd and Iyanu an outsider.

Kitan is a gifted violinist, wealthy, and though her life looks perfect from the outside, she is anxious navigating the hierarchy she is a part of, always keeping up appearances. Iyanu’s circle may be small, but she is happy with her best friend Navin, taking photographs and looking forward to the future.

What the cousins have in common is that they are two of the few Black students at Wodebury. Though Iyanu is proudly Black, Kitan shies away from discussions or acknowledgements about race, but the microaggressions she experiences hurt nonetheless.

Existing in two different worlds at the same institution, the cousins’ worlds collide when photographs Iyanu takes at a school event are stolen and circulated around the school with secrets written on the back of each Polaroid. The secrets rock Wodebury, sending everything into chaos, and people start pointing the finger at Iyanu. 

To find out who stole the photos and spread the secrets, the girls must investigate. Will they join forces to find the culprit?                  

What works: Kitan and Iyanu’s perspectives are thoughtfully rendered, and their alternating views of the world lend to the authenticity of the story. The book evolves as a clever mystery, leaving the reader searching for clues and wondering who stole the photos and sent secrets swirling around the school. 

Omotoni is adept at offering multifaceted presentations of queerness, addressing intersectionality, and exploring heavy topics—mentioned below in the content warning—with a light and compassionate hand. 

What doesn’t work: The “bad” characters in the book are a bit one-note, rather than nuanced and complex like the protagonists and other primary characters.

Pass It OR Grab It? Grab It! Omotoni’s debut novel is insightful, sharp, and tender to Black girls in all their forms. The book is best for public libraries and recommended for fans of Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide and Briarcliff Prep by Brianna Peppins.

Content Warning: From the author’s note: “This book explores themes around race, gender, sexuality, and mental health…As such, discussions and depictions of anti-Black racism, blackface, blackfishing, colorism, misogynoir, biphobia, queerphobia, sexism, and panic attacks are present in this novel.”