If Elena Ferrante lived in Oceanside, CA and grew up in a black church community, this is the book she might have written. 
 Brit Bennett's voice is very much her own though and it's engaging and poetic and draws you in from the first page. The book is about mothers, both present and gone, but it centers around the complex and wonderful relationship between two friends, Nadia and Aubrey. A spellbinding debut.