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dianacarmel's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
This is a unique and interesting story; it blurs the line between memoir and fiction based on the realistic characters and situations and the first person narration.
travel_through_pages's review against another edition
3.0
3.5stars
This is a great coming of age story set in South Shore Chicago. A book filled with a slew of diverse characters that tackles important issues on race, identity, family, friendship, and love.
This is a great coming of age story set in South Shore Chicago. A book filled with a slew of diverse characters that tackles important issues on race, identity, family, friendship, and love.
raisinglebarre's review against another edition
2.0
The MC is unimpressive and mediocre, as is the plot (if you can even call it that) of this book.
enidkeaner's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
valli200's review against another edition
2.0
I think that this book has it’s place and it’s audience but I think it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t get a lot of what other people seem to have gotten from it and I kept looking for it to mean something and to me it just didn’t get past the hinderance it had as a book written from short stories.
thoughtsfromtheafro's review against another edition
2.0
This just didn’t do it for me.
There was great potential for expanding the depth of the other characters, and it would’ve been great if we explicitly got more of Claude’s thoughts regularly.
The author tries to provide the nuance and complexity of situations, but a lot of it just kind of...falls flat. The last third of the book also gets a little confusing as you get the feeling he’s going back and forth in time/memories.
There was great potential for expanding the depth of the other characters, and it would’ve been great if we explicitly got more of Claude’s thoughts regularly.
The author tries to provide the nuance and complexity of situations, but a lot of it just kind of...falls flat. The last third of the book also gets a little confusing as you get the feeling he’s going back and forth in time/memories.
daniellemedina's review against another edition
3.0
Everywhere You Don't Belong is a little like a runaway train and I mean that in the best way. You think you know where you're headed and what's going to happen but then you hit a bump and things speed in a completely different direction and all you can do is hang on and hope that it all end well.
This debut novel centers on Claude McKay Love, a fairly ordinary black boy being raised by his grandmother and her eccentric gay friend, Paul, on the South Side of Chicago in what I think are the 2000s (it sounds like Obama is senator when he's mentioned although it's never confirmed). He's got a lot to deal with - abandoned by his parents, bullied by schoolmates, dealing with riots and violence outside his front door, losing friends, falling in love and having to live up to his grandmother's expectation that he'll grow into a social activist like she is - and he's not always able to cope. And even though it's set what I think is 20 years ago, unfortunately the issues the book covers are still timely - when an innocent black boy is killed by police, a riot erupts on the South Shore changing Claude's life and the lives of those around him forever.
Bump's writes in what almost feels like a stream of consciousness. It took me a while to get into the rhythm but once I did, it really added to the story. There's a lot of humor especially in the characters' bluntness (I loved Grandma and want a prequel about her backstory with Paul!) but the book also has heart and tackles some difficult topics. Claude isn't a tough guy. He actually cries over everything and you kind of can't blame him.
The second half is when it went off the rails for me (again, not in a bad way) and we follow Claude to college in Missouri. I was less interested in his experience there but by then I'd become so attached to Claude that I was willing to hold on to see how the ride ended and I was glad I did.
The early chapters of this book are close to perfection for me. Bump's writing is sharp and clever, the plot is layered and I couldn't get enough of Claude's childhood friends Nugget, Bubbly and Jonah. I wish the rest of the book had lived up to the start but I still enjoyed it. It's a really worthwhile and quick read that I bet a lot of people will be talking about. I can't wait to see what's next from this author!
Thank you to Algonquin Books, NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy to review.
This debut novel centers on Claude McKay Love, a fairly ordinary black boy being raised by his grandmother and her eccentric gay friend, Paul, on the South Side of Chicago in what I think are the 2000s (it sounds like Obama is senator when he's mentioned although it's never confirmed). He's got a lot to deal with - abandoned by his parents, bullied by schoolmates, dealing with riots and violence outside his front door, losing friends, falling in love and having to live up to his grandmother's expectation that he'll grow into a social activist like she is - and he's not always able to cope. And even though it's set what I think is 20 years ago, unfortunately the issues the book covers are still timely - when an innocent black boy is killed by police, a riot erupts on the South Shore changing Claude's life and the lives of those around him forever.
Bump's writes in what almost feels like a stream of consciousness. It took me a while to get into the rhythm but once I did, it really added to the story. There's a lot of humor especially in the characters' bluntness (I loved Grandma and want a prequel about her backstory with Paul!) but the book also has heart and tackles some difficult topics. Claude isn't a tough guy. He actually cries over everything and you kind of can't blame him.
The second half is when it went off the rails for me (again, not in a bad way) and we follow Claude to college in Missouri. I was less interested in his experience there but by then I'd become so attached to Claude that I was willing to hold on to see how the ride ended and I was glad I did.
The early chapters of this book are close to perfection for me. Bump's writing is sharp and clever, the plot is layered and I couldn't get enough of Claude's childhood friends Nugget, Bubbly and Jonah. I wish the rest of the book had lived up to the start but I still enjoyed it. It's a really worthwhile and quick read that I bet a lot of people will be talking about. I can't wait to see what's next from this author!
Thank you to Algonquin Books, NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy to review.
sarsar450's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t know how to truly describe this book except that it’s my favorite kind. I love storytelling that privileges the reader with the post-modern tendency to slingshot into the future just for a sentence. I love a lovable, highly sensitive narrator who finds themselves in subtle ways. I love Chicago as the fabric that the story is woven into. I devoured this book and cannot wait to share it with more people. It’s the kind of book where nothing and everything happens, which is how life really is a lot of the time. 10/10
sherbertwells's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Claude McKay Love, an ordinary Black teenager from South Shore, struggles to find his place in the indifferent, racist climate of the Obama era. While this book is a great reference for students of Chicago, its writing style is quintessentially YA and since I turned 14 that whole genre has been hollow to me.
“Black America still isn’t free. And black men are still dying. And black women are still dying. And there’s anger, yes, there’s anger. And that anger has to go away when you go to work or go to school or ride the bus or go to the grocery store or go to a movie downtown. And that anger has to go away—if it doesn’t, how do you survive?” (77)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Police brutality, and Abandonment
Minor: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Violence, and Vomit
sblaine0's review against another edition
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0