Living with her dad, working a job she does not enjoy and raising her 7-year-old daughter with little help, Mavis Miller finds herself standing outside her daughter’s majority-white school being asked by the Parent Teacher Association president to head the brand new DEI committee. Miller agrees, although she knows she does not have the time to take on any new responsibilities. If she says no to this new task, the probability of a crucial committee being placed into less caring hands is inevitable.
At the PTA meeting the next night, the new principal introduces himself and his excitement to get to work. This excitement does not last long though, because the very next day parents, students and teachers learn that he has been missing since the meeting. The main suspect in his disappearance is the PTA president.
Throughout the story, Bryant shares Miller’s insecurities as a single mother and her feelings of being undervalued at her job. Miller is a mother who wants more for her family. She wants to move out of her dad’s house and move up in her job. The mystery of the story fades into the background as readers watch how Miller loses her belief in herself. Towards the end, she has lost all faith in herself until she is sobbing to her dad, who reminds her that parents are not always perfect, but they can always do their best to do what is right for their children.
‘It’s Elementary’ is Elise Bryant’s first adult mystery novel and it shows. Bryant took this opportunity to write a book discussing racism, single parenting and working an exhausting job, which are topics that should be explored in novels and read by a broader audience. However, Bryant ends up focusing on these topics so heavily that the mystery becomes more of a side plot than the main plot. If the novel was advertised as what it is then there would be less disappointment about what readers think they are getting. It is expected that authors expand on the synopsis, not write a completely different book from the synopsis.
Although Bryant’s writing is always refreshing to read, her new novel lacks the adult writing aspect. Her storytelling still feels very juvenile, which was disappointing. There are random swear words that serve no meaning in the story, and Miller’s inner dialogue reads as how a high schooler might think. Bryant’s writing in Miller’s point of view is similar to how she writes her main characters in her young adult romance novels. Since she is an author who is known to write books for a younger audience, there was an excitement in seeing what other types of writing styles she can do. Sadly, Bryant fails to live up to expectations.
Readers do receive a deeper story than what was initially expected, but that story should not overshadow the mystery. Readers might realize that what they read has virtually nothing to do with the missing principal, and their enjoyment of the book might be based on whether or not they are okay with that.
