Reviews with content warning for Racism - Dear Justyce

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

42 reviews

cestnicka's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Writing a sequel is always difficult, especially when you weren’t planning on writing it in the first place. However I felt like this sequel completely made sense and I actually liked it more than the first one.

I appreciated that she kept it very current with what is going on right now in the real world. I also thought she paired down the “issues” she was trying to tackle in one book so I felt like the message she was trying to convey was a lot easier to follow. And it felt more heartfelt. I could tell she did a lot of research for this book and wanted to make sure that the scenarios and the characters felt as realistic as possible.

I also felt like this book is probably the book kids would relate to the most out of the two because reality is that most of these troubled kids are “quans” and not justyce’s”. What I loved is how she connected the two books/characters at the end and finished off the storyline.

The few things I didn’t love about the book was that the ending felt very fairytale. I just don’t see it being super realistic for him to have that big of a support system. And she does address that at the end of the book and stated most kids wouldn’t have what quan ended up having, but she wanted to write the story like that. But I do think it makes it feel a bit less authentic.

I also find some of the conversations between the two boys a bit juvenile,And a bit cringy. So sometimes I had a hard time getting through their conversations cause I feel like people just don’t talk like that. And I felt that way reading the first book as well. So maybe it’s just the style but it’s not my favorite.

I definitely think people should read this book as it gives a really really good perspective into what these kids are going through and what happened in their life that put the on the “troubled path”. I think it could help people understand this population better and help “check their privilege” as Jared would say

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honeyvoiced's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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ajason06's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was thoroughly excited for Nic Stone's sequel to Dear Martin.

My favorite aspect of the book was the camaraderie of the support within the community. This is a powerful realization and an important thing to remember. Even this book's themes are heavy and hard to deal with. Everyone has the right to be heard. I really appreciated the two colliding stories (the good and the bad) of Quan and Justyce and how they affected them both differently.

Great follow up to Dear Martin

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travelseatsreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I finished Dear Martin and immediately picked up Dear Justyce as I did not want to leave any of the characters behind. Sometimes a sequel doesn't live up to the first in a series but Dear Justyce sure does that and so much more.

Continuing on the theme of racial prejudice and oppression, Dear Justyce looks further at the characters of Justyce and Quan. While Stone shows the struggles that the boys face she doesn't try to portray them as either all good or all bad and honestly shows both the good and bad sides to their characters.

The last section where Stone discusses the two books adds so much, I'd recommend if you usually skip afterwards to give the time to this one, it's worth it.

A powerful, tense yet hopeful follow up to Dear Martin.

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onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Nic Stone is a gift to young readers. I have followed her on social media for years and I admire her writing, so I decided to re-read (listen) to Dear Martin and Dear Justyce. They were just as good as I remembered, and I flew through them. In the first book, Dear Martin, we meet Justyce who is an honor student at a private school and working on his college applications. The story shows him experiencing high school life and how he handles friendships, teachers, and a crush. He is facing microaggressions and outright racism at school and then has two encounters with the police that change his life forever. Justyce is writing to Martin Luther King, Jr. through out the book asking for guidance to navigate his life experiences.

In the second book, Dear Justyce, the timeline picks up with Justyce at Yale University and we get a chance to know Quan, who was a peripheral character in the first book, much better. Quan is incarcerated in a youth detention center and writing letters to Justyce as he grapples with the circumstances that led him to this situation. In their correspondence and in Quan’s reflections we see a deeper story and it’s a creative way to let the story and characters live on while showing a different angle.

If you haven’t read these books, I highly recommend that you do. They are Young Adult however the depth makes them a great read for adults too. They shine a light on unsafe and unfair experiences for Black boys and Black men in the U.S. and while this is fiction, the situations are not. I’ll end this as I started it - Nic Stone is a gift to young readers.

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