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moyir90's review
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
janagaton's review against another edition
5.0
As Angie Thomas's blurb on the cover says, this is definitely a must-read. It will (should) infuriate you as well as teach/reiterate some crucial concepts involving racism. I highly recommend. The audiobook is not long at all, and everything in this book is very important, to say the least. 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars!!
mllejoyeuxnoel's review against another edition
4.0
I received this ARC in a Goodreads giveaway.
Overall an important book with some great elements; unfortunately, I don't think it will escape comparisons to THE HATE U GIVE - here in 2017 or in the future, given the latter's enormous success. I know I was unable to stop myself from holding the two side-by-side in my mind as I read. I liked this book very much for its message, and I think it is an important one for young people to read. However, I wasn't crazy about the format of the narrative, which had a great deal of dialogue presented as if one is reading a script. It really took me out of the story; it felt more like I was back in college, learning via the Socratic method. I also found much of the plot to tie up rather abruptly at the end of the book. I would have liked to see Justyce struggle a bit more emotionally with everything that had happened to him - a place where I think THUG also has the advantage due at least in part (IMO) to its first-person narration.
Still, this book was a quick read and one well worth the time. It's a great introduction to some racial and social justice issues for young readers, and it touches on some broader topics than THUG, including affirmative action. As a white woman who grew up incredibly privileged, I wish someone had given me a book like this when I was young, because nobody at my school was explaining why affirmative action is so important and how it helps create justice. I will happily be sending this book to my niece and nephew as they get a bit older.
Overall an important book with some great elements; unfortunately, I don't think it will escape comparisons to THE HATE U GIVE - here in 2017 or in the future, given the latter's enormous success. I know I was unable to stop myself from holding the two side-by-side in my mind as I read. I liked this book very much for its message, and I think it is an important one for young people to read. However, I wasn't crazy about the format of the narrative, which had a great deal of dialogue presented as if one is reading a script. It really took me out of the story; it felt more like I was back in college, learning via the Socratic method. I also found much of the plot to tie up rather abruptly at the end of the book. I would have liked to see Justyce struggle a bit more emotionally with everything that had happened to him - a place where I think THUG also has the advantage due at least in part (IMO) to its first-person narration.
Still, this book was a quick read and one well worth the time. It's a great introduction to some racial and social justice issues for young readers, and it touches on some broader topics than THUG, including affirmative action. As a white woman who grew up incredibly privileged, I wish someone had given me a book like this when I was young, because nobody at my school was explaining why affirmative action is so important and how it helps create justice. I will happily be sending this book to my niece and nephew as they get a bit older.
drridareads's review against another edition
4.0
Yeah, there are no more "coloured" water fountains, and it's supposed to be illegal to discriminate, but if I can be forced to sit on the concrete in too-tight cuffs when I've done nothing wrong, it's clear there's an issue. That things aren't as equal as folks say they are
It's not so much in the news and social media anymore. But let's get one thing clear Black Lives Matter all the time. In 2020 there were so many protests after so many black people were killed by police. During this some people decided to educate them-self. Let me make one thing clear; it's not the job of a black person to educate us; but they are still doing it. People like Trevor Noah, Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds, Dr Yusef Salaam etc they are still educating us. And yet instead of being grateful for their hard work and promoting that it really pisses me off that even with BLM "trending" (in speech marks because it always matters) the book on top of lists (NYT, and recommendation lists by many people) was a book by a white writer (White Fragility). If I have to explain to you why that was problematic; please leave now. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT PEOPLE THEN YOU FUCKING READ A BOOK WRITTEN BY THEM. Own voices matter. Now I'm not saying that white people shouldn't write books on race or that you shouldn't read them; I'm saying that when people wanted you to support Black writers, the person on top was a white writer; I'm saying if you really want to learn own voices are the best.
Moving onto this book; I really liked the idea of writing letters to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. I know writing diaries, journals etc and even just plain writing is helpful to so many as a way to vent out. Loved this added layer to it.
This tale is dystopian. But it's real. This is the world that we live in. This is the world that black people live in. The same world; the same situation can play out so differently on the basis of race. We learn in history that racism is a thing of the past; and that's just one of the biggest bullshit lies they feed us. These history books were definitely written by white people.
I don't live in America. I'm not white or black. But fuck even here racism is real. It's everywhere A lot of people think South Asians are mostly light skinned..because that's all you see in media. In reality we're all shades of brown. It's in our songs praising the "gori" (light skin). Just recently Bollywood came up with a song "Tujhe Dekh k Goriya Beyonce Sharma Jayegi" now there are people debating that the song is not racist; Beyonce will be ashamed because of dance moves and not the other girl's light skin. But Fuck it; if you can'e even be more sensitive now. We literally have celebrities endorsing whitening creams etc. We have a "rishta culture" which in itself is problematic but fuck the way dark skinned girls are treated is horrible.
But the worst is that in countries like USA you can literally get killed if you're black for doing nothing. I would highly recommend watching 13th by Netflix; they even put it on Youtube LINK TO IT . And learn about how USA exploits prison system; how prison is the way is their loophole to slavery.
I really liked the characters. Justin our mc; felt like a teenager. I love the Nic Stone writes. And seeing his struggle. That part when he talks about "thuggish" appearance being "threatening" and he thought that would never happen to him cause he doesn't look the way.
I thought if I made sure to be an upstanding member of society, I’d be exempt from the stuff THOSE black guys deal with, you know? Really hard to swallow that I was wrong
It's funny how appearances seen as threatening are Black culture. It's funny how if a white person were to have that appearance they'd be cool. When a Black person talks in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) they're uneducated but a white person talking like that would be hip. For e.g when Zendaya wore her hair in locs; people called her "ugly" "dirty"; but when Justin Bieber wore his hair in dregs it was cool.
I loved seeing the character of Manny. How he tried to fit in with his white friends. That was brutal. And I just knew what was going to happen and still cried like a baby. If I had known him I'd want to burn the world down. It's so goddamn funny how you have all these movies with white people who quite literally go on a killing spree once their loved ones get hurt and people sympathise with them. But some property gets damaged during riots and people are crying. They literally care more about that that you know actual people being shot dead by the police. Also I'm just guessing since I haven't seen pictures of people who started the wildfires in California accidentally by a gender reveal party..but were they white? Cause i don't see anybody blaming them.
SJ was so badass. That is the kind of ally you should be.
SJ: Ah, okay... so you're saying people just need to pull themselves up by their boostraps?
Jared: Exactly.
SJ: In order to do that, they have to be able to afford boots.
I did however find it weird how only her and Jared would debate race in class.
I do want to address some reviews. Some people I saw were suggesting that Justin's mom was racist. YOU CANNOT BE RACIST AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE. THAT'S NOT HAVE IT WORKS. Yes she has prejudice against white people; but honestly can you blame her; 400+ years of injustice history against black people. I'm not saying; it's right or wrong; but I understand the sentiment.
And to all the people that started to quote Dr Martin Luther King in this time:
In that moment when I thought I was dying, it hit me: despite how good of a dude Martin was, they still killed him, man.
He didn't die; he was still shot dead.
I cannot imagine what the exonerated five must feel like after Donald Trump became POTUS. I cannot imagine how horrible it was that he gave a go to shoot innocent protesters but sympathised with the white people that were armed because of course lock-down is furious and but one of you dying is okay. That guys is a rapist and racist. He's like horrible all in one package. If you are a citizen of USA; remember to vote so a guy like him isn't in charge anymore.
Waiting for Dear Justyce!
___________
This book has been on my tbr for so long but it took so many black people being killed and a whole movement for me to read it. I'm sorry I'm guilty. I will be better I will support black writers whether it's popular to do so or not. After all that too I read a book about racism. I or anyone else should not just look to black people to educate ourselves; they are fantastic creators in general and their non racism related books should be read too. I read this book to educate myself. After hearing about black people being killed regularly now I was filled with rage. I'm not even black. Do you any fucking clue how they must feel. You've watched those movies when someone's loved one is wrongfully killed the hero burns the world down with their rage. But somehow white supremacists can kill black people expect silence and if someone is angry their the angry black man the killer is afraid of. You call them thugs so you don't have to treat them as human. You think people only people that look like you are people. It's cool to be black with cultural appropiation with cornrows etc until it's the black guy themself then you just want an excuse to show your hatred. You have token POC in your books/movies/show so you don't seem backward. You talk about racism only when it's beneficial to you. Well ofcourse you can't be racist not with that black friend you have (sarcastic obviously). You can see some companies openly showing that their absolutely racist and if you still support them then fuck you. Fuck you if you have a big following and you've chosen silence; there is no opinion about killing innocent black people; it's a fact it's a racial crime. You don't want to be political fuck you. You'd rather not be uncomfortable than let black people die you should know by staying silent you have chosen the side of the oppressors. And white people are literally the reason this problem exists so yeah use your white guilt don't just whine about it. Feeling that white guilt is okay if you're going to actually do something about it.
REVIEW TO COME. THIS BOOK IS RECOMMENDED TO EVERYONE.
BLACK LIVES MATTER. Always not just now.
It's not so much in the news and social media anymore. But let's get one thing clear Black Lives Matter all the time. In 2020 there were so many protests after so many black people were killed by police. During this some people decided to educate them-self. Let me make one thing clear; it's not the job of a black person to educate us; but they are still doing it. People like Trevor Noah, Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds, Dr Yusef Salaam etc they are still educating us. And yet instead of being grateful for their hard work and promoting that it really pisses me off that even with BLM "trending" (in speech marks because it always matters) the book on top of lists (NYT, and recommendation lists by many people) was a book by a white writer (White Fragility). If I have to explain to you why that was problematic; please leave now. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT PEOPLE THEN YOU FUCKING READ A BOOK WRITTEN BY THEM. Own voices matter. Now I'm not saying that white people shouldn't write books on race or that you shouldn't read them; I'm saying that when people wanted you to support Black writers, the person on top was a white writer; I'm saying if you really want to learn own voices are the best.
Moving onto this book; I really liked the idea of writing letters to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. I know writing diaries, journals etc and even just plain writing is helpful to so many as a way to vent out. Loved this added layer to it.
This tale is dystopian. But it's real. This is the world that we live in. This is the world that black people live in. The same world; the same situation can play out so differently on the basis of race. We learn in history that racism is a thing of the past; and that's just one of the biggest bullshit lies they feed us. These history books were definitely written by white people.
I don't live in America. I'm not white or black. But fuck even here racism is real. It's everywhere A lot of people think South Asians are mostly light skinned..because that's all you see in media. In reality we're all shades of brown. It's in our songs praising the "gori" (light skin). Just recently Bollywood came up with a song "Tujhe Dekh k Goriya Beyonce Sharma Jayegi" now there are people debating that the song is not racist; Beyonce will be ashamed because of dance moves and not the other girl's light skin. But Fuck it; if you can'e even be more sensitive now. We literally have celebrities endorsing whitening creams etc. We have a "rishta culture" which in itself is problematic but fuck the way dark skinned girls are treated is horrible.
But the worst is that in countries like USA you can literally get killed if you're black for doing nothing. I would highly recommend watching 13th by Netflix; they even put it on Youtube LINK TO IT . And learn about how USA exploits prison system; how prison is the way is their loophole to slavery.
I really liked the characters. Justin our mc; felt like a teenager. I love the Nic Stone writes. And seeing his struggle. That part when he talks about "thuggish" appearance being "threatening" and he thought that would never happen to him cause he doesn't look the way.
I thought if I made sure to be an upstanding member of society, I’d be exempt from the stuff THOSE black guys deal with, you know? Really hard to swallow that I was wrong
It's funny how appearances seen as threatening are Black culture. It's funny how if a white person were to have that appearance they'd be cool. When a Black person talks in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) they're uneducated but a white person talking like that would be hip. For e.g when Zendaya wore her hair in locs; people called her "ugly" "dirty"; but when Justin Bieber wore his hair in dregs it was cool.
I loved seeing the character of Manny. How he tried to fit in with his white friends. That was brutal. And I just knew what was going to happen and still cried like a baby. If I had known him I'd want to burn the world down. It's so goddamn funny how you have all these movies with white people who quite literally go on a killing spree once their loved ones get hurt and people sympathise with them. But some property gets damaged during riots and people are crying. They literally care more about that that you know actual people being shot dead by the police. Also I'm just guessing since I haven't seen pictures of people who started the wildfires in California accidentally by a gender reveal party..but were they white? Cause i don't see anybody blaming them.
SJ was so badass. That is the kind of ally you should be.
SJ: Ah, okay... so you're saying people just need to pull themselves up by their boostraps?
Jared: Exactly.
SJ: In order to do that, they have to be able to afford boots.
I did however find it weird how only her and Jared would debate race in class.
I do want to address some reviews. Some people I saw were suggesting that Justin's mom was racist. YOU CANNOT BE RACIST AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE. THAT'S NOT HAVE IT WORKS. Yes she has prejudice against white people; but honestly can you blame her; 400+ years of injustice history against black people. I'm not saying; it's right or wrong; but I understand the sentiment.
And to all the people that started to quote Dr Martin Luther King in this time:
In that moment when I thought I was dying, it hit me: despite how good of a dude Martin was, they still killed him, man.
He didn't die; he was still shot dead.
I cannot imagine what the exonerated five must feel like after Donald Trump became POTUS. I cannot imagine how horrible it was that he gave a go to shoot innocent protesters but sympathised with the white people that were armed because of course lock-down is furious and but one of you dying is okay. That guys is a rapist and racist. He's like horrible all in one package. If you are a citizen of USA; remember to vote so a guy like him isn't in charge anymore.
Waiting for Dear Justyce!
___________
This book has been on my tbr for so long but it took so many black people being killed and a whole movement for me to read it. I'm sorry I'm guilty. I will be better I will support black writers whether it's popular to do so or not. After all that too I read a book about racism. I or anyone else should not just look to black people to educate ourselves; they are fantastic creators in general and their non racism related books should be read too. I read this book to educate myself. After hearing about black people being killed regularly now I was filled with rage. I'm not even black. Do you any fucking clue how they must feel. You've watched those movies when someone's loved one is wrongfully killed the hero burns the world down with their rage. But somehow white supremacists can kill black people expect silence and if someone is angry their the angry black man the killer is afraid of. You call them thugs so you don't have to treat them as human. You think people only people that look like you are people. It's cool to be black with cultural appropiation with cornrows etc until it's the black guy themself then you just want an excuse to show your hatred. You have token POC in your books/movies/show so you don't seem backward. You talk about racism only when it's beneficial to you. Well ofcourse you can't be racist not with that black friend you have (sarcastic obviously). You can see some companies openly showing that their absolutely racist and if you still support them then fuck you. Fuck you if you have a big following and you've chosen silence; there is no opinion about killing innocent black people; it's a fact it's a racial crime. You don't want to be political fuck you. You'd rather not be uncomfortable than let black people die you should know by staying silent you have chosen the side of the oppressors. And white people are literally the reason this problem exists so yeah use your white guilt don't just whine about it. Feeling that white guilt is okay if you're going to actually do something about it.
REVIEW TO COME. THIS BOOK IS RECOMMENDED TO EVERYONE.
BLACK LIVES MATTER. Always not just now.
madiganinwonderland's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
This was pretty great. I'd definitely recommend this to people. I feel books like this are important if for nothing else then to show exactly what it is that certain people of color feel/the reality they live in and to experience as best as were able to from our comforted privilege, as most who read this book probably have. Overall I'm glad I read this.
This was pretty great. I'd definitely recommend this to people. I feel books like this are important if for nothing else then to show exactly what it is that certain people of color feel/the reality they live in and to experience as best as were able to from our comforted privilege, as most who read this book probably have. Overall I'm glad I read this.
hilaryannbrown's review against another edition
4.0
For me, this never reached the depth, complexity, or heart that The Hate U Give did. But I think the format of letters to MLK Jr. gives this book a unique angle and a rare sense of context. The dialogue feels authentic and the reader for the audiobook was perfect.