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sby616's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
travelseatsreads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
Dear Martin has been on my TBR pile for awhile and I had never gotten around to reading it. When I saw it was available as an audiobook on Scribd I jumped at the chance.
I'm so glad I listened to it. It is a powerful, emotional and gripping story which looks at the intense level of racism, prejudice and police brutality that is still being experienced in today's society.
While the book looks honestly at such harrowing topics it does so with a level of emotion and humour that doesn't feel too heavy on the reader all the time so for that reason I think it's a good starting point for a person of privilege to learn more about these issues.
I listened to this and then Dear Justyce immediately after and think that is the best way as they both were only 4.5 hours so almost felt like one book.
I'm so glad I listened to it. It is a powerful, emotional and gripping story which looks at the intense level of racism, prejudice and police brutality that is still being experienced in today's society.
While the book looks honestly at such harrowing topics it does so with a level of emotion and humour that doesn't feel too heavy on the reader all the time so for that reason I think it's a good starting point for a person of privilege to learn more about these issues.
I listened to this and then Dear Justyce immediately after and think that is the best way as they both were only 4.5 hours so almost felt like one book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality
onemorepagecrew's review
challenging
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? No
5.0
Nic Stone is a gift to young readers. I have followed her on Insta 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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and Murder
danileah07's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Gun violence
jaidenmarie11's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
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? Yes
5.0
so good💋💋 literally had to choke back my sobs in class reading this and it was worth it! I ❤️ it sm
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, and Grief
Minor: Murder
emmaa_andrews's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality
criticalgayze's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I want to be up front that Dear Martin was a pick for a grad school class, so I had to finish this book; otherwise, I would've DNFed and left it without much of a review.
Because I finished this, and especially because it was for a class on reading and evaluating texts when planning high school curricula, I did want to get into it a little bit.
My greatest issue with this book is that it lacks nuance. It is an introspectionless tour of all the trauma Black people, especially Black male teens, can face in this country. Justyce is put through trauma after trauma without processing any of it, both internal or on a larger social scale. I think this is exasperated by a poor editorial decision not to put this one entirely in first-person narrative. This lack of introspection is extra weird when given all of Justyce's avenues for exploration: he's in the prep school progressive "Societal Evolutions" class, he's on the debate team, AND his best friend's mom is a mental health care specialist. All of this leads me to believe the lack of reflective pieces was likely also a poor editorial call to slim down the narrative to be "intense" or something.
Oh, and these boys are also gross about girls. Listen, I get the possible over-sexualization of young people and the hormones and the wealth and class patriarchal elements and the whatever else of it all, but as an educator, I don't hear young boys talking like this about girls to this extent. And, even if they are, you would think a book by an adult, especially a femme author, would want to portray at least one of these male characters as progressive on this front. It's some nausea-inducing that one of the last lines of the book is the main character talking about how his girlfriend is going to "have [his] babies," which caused this one to end on a bitter note for me.
In the book's favor, the tight, "action-filled" plot is propulsive, and the book's middle was successful at pulling on my heart strings, but it still wasn't enough to redeem this one for me.
Because I finished this, and especially because it was for a class on reading and evaluating texts when planning high school curricula, I did want to get into it a little bit.
My greatest issue with this book is that it lacks nuance. It is an introspectionless tour of all the trauma Black people, especially Black male teens, can face in this country. Justyce is put through trauma after trauma without processing any of it, both internal or on a larger social scale. I think this is exasperated by a poor editorial decision not to put this one entirely in first-person narrative. This lack of introspection is extra weird when given all of Justyce's avenues for exploration: he's in the prep school progressive "Societal Evolutions" class, he's on the debate team, AND his best friend's mom is a mental health care specialist. All of this leads me to believe the lack of reflective pieces was likely also a poor editorial call to slim down the narrative to be "intense" or something.
Oh, and these boys are also gross about girls. Listen, I get the possible over-sexualization of young people and the hormones and the wealth and class patriarchal elements and the whatever else of it all, but as an educator, I don't hear young boys talking like this about girls to this extent. And, even if they are, you would think a book by an adult, especially a femme author, would want to portray at least one of these male characters as progressive on this front. It's some nausea-inducing that one of the last lines of the book is the main character talking about how his girlfriend is going to "have [his] babies," which caused this one to end on a bitter note for me.
In the book's favor, the tight, "action-filled" plot is propulsive, and the book's middle was successful at pulling on my heart strings, but it still wasn't enough to redeem this one for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
maiahhtratchh's review against another edition
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
4.5
A good but heartbreaking book. I am kind of at a loss for words. Would definitely recommend. The mixed-method storytelling (mashing traditional prose with scripts and letters and news reports) really helped capture the story from multiple angles.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and Car accident
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
blovesbooks80's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Police brutality
mishale1's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
4.5
Wow, this book pulls you right in and doesn’t let you go.
At the very beginning of this book Justyce has a terrifying incident with a cop.
Justyce was trying to prevent his ex girlfriend from driving drunk. He went out in the middle of the night to help her. He got her safely into the backseat of her car and got her keys. He was planning to drive her home and a cop saw him and practically (directly? I don’t remember) accused him of kidnapping her.
Soon Justyce was on the ground, handcuffed, with an aggressive white cop who had already decided Justyce was guilty of something.
To try to help himself deal with this incident, Justyce started writing letters to Martin Luther King Jr. he poured his heart out about his life and the world.
Justyce is a really kind, gentle soul. It absolutely breaks your heart watching what he goes through.
Things get much worse but I won’t border on spoilers.
The entire time, Justyce is trying to make sense of the world.
It’s a very emotionally read. I hope a lot of people read it and think about what these characters and people in the real world go through.
I’m not sure what I can say to explain how good this book is. Maybe just the fact that I sat down to start reading the book and never actually put it down. I just read all the way through till the end without stopping and immediately made a plan to order the second book.
At the very beginning of this book Justyce has a terrifying incident with a cop.
Justyce was trying to prevent his ex girlfriend from driving drunk. He went out in the middle of the night to help her. He got her safely into the backseat of her car and got her keys. He was planning to drive her home and a cop saw him and practically (directly? I don’t remember) accused him of kidnapping her.
Soon Justyce was on the ground, handcuffed, with an aggressive white cop who had already decided Justyce was guilty of something.
To try to help himself deal with this incident, Justyce started writing letters to Martin Luther King Jr. he poured his heart out about his life and the world.
Justyce is a really kind, gentle soul. It absolutely breaks your heart watching what he goes through.
Things get much worse but I won’t border on spoilers.
The entire time, Justyce is trying to make sense of the world.
It’s a very emotionally read. I hope a lot of people read it and think about what these characters and people in the real world go through.
I’m not sure what I can say to explain how good this book is. Maybe just the fact that I sat down to start reading the book and never actually put it down. I just read all the way through till the end without stopping and immediately made a plan to order the second book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality