Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! I am so excited to share this review, since I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, and I finally managed to read The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert!
The Voting Booth follows Marva and Duke as they both prepare to vote for the first time. Marva could not be more excited, she has spent the months leading up to voting day volunteering and campaigning, and is ready to cast her vote! Duke just wants to get Election Day over with, but he gets turned away at the polls. Marva sees and makes it her mission to help him vote. What follows is a day of driving around, talking about privilege, grief, and race, and looking for a missing cat. Even though they are strangers, they quickly become friends and maybe something more.
This book was really good! At first, I wasn’t entirely sure how the whole concept would play out but it all seemed very realistic. One thing I loved about this book was the way it portrayed politics. It was obviously about voter supression and about the importance of getting to the polls, but it handled it in a very good way. What this book focused on was the importance of just getting to vote, not about who the characters were voting for.
I think both Marva and Duke seemed like very real characters and both had interesting thought processes. There was definitely a distinction between the voices, which is good because sometimes I think in books with multiple protagonists and points of view, it can be hard to tell who’s who. The Voting Booth definitely did not have this problem.
This book was pretty short, probably since it just took place in a day. I don’t think I’m a super big fan of the strangers to friends to something more trope, but I still thought the relationship in this book between Marva and Duke felt very real.
Overall, this is a really important book that tackles a lot of important issues in a really real and honest way. I really liked it and I think it is especially important to read now, as issues of voter supression are still quite big problems.
Do you want to read this book? Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
Ruby Reads and Reviews 
We’re currently reading this. We will be discussing it next week at our virtual YA book club.
I hope you like it! This book brings up a lot of great discussions about voting in America!
We loved it! We just posted our review.
Awesome! I’ll have to check it out! I’m so glad you liked it!
[…] I preordered this book, but it didn’t come in until pretty late. I am so glad I read it, it was such an important book! Read my review here. […]
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I loved The Voting Booth so much!!! I really loved Duke’s sister, although I’m not sure exactly what her name was. Ida? Anyways, great review, Ruby! 💕
Thank you! Your review of The Voting Booth made me want to read it sooner! I agree- the family characters and relationships in that book were really awesome, especially Duke’s sister.