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bookofcinz's review
3.0
Why did it take me so long to read this book?!!!!
Everywhere You Don’t Belong is Gabriel Bump’s debut novel that perfectly explores race, violence, love, regret, family and societal pressures. We are thrown into the world of Claude McKay whose parents left him with his grandmother at a very young age and never returned. Claude’s world is his grandmother and her friend Paul who lives with both of them. He lives in Chicago and is currently battling the pressures to stay in school and not be deterred by the violence around him. That fails when there is a major to throws his world off course.
Honestly, there is a lot happening in the book. Some parts felt unfinished but on a whole I felt the writing was immersive and honest in a way I will remember. Being in the world of a young black man from South Side Chicago who is raised by his grandmother because his parents abandoned him- well, I kinda didn’t want to leave- I wanted to cheer for him so very bad!
I also love how hilarious some moments were… I genuinely loved how the characters were jumping off the page- specifically Paul and Claude’s grandmother. This one is truly a gem and I cannot wait to see what the author writes next.
Everywhere You Don’t Belong is Gabriel Bump’s debut novel that perfectly explores race, violence, love, regret, family and societal pressures. We are thrown into the world of Claude McKay whose parents left him with his grandmother at a very young age and never returned. Claude’s world is his grandmother and her friend Paul who lives with both of them. He lives in Chicago and is currently battling the pressures to stay in school and not be deterred by the violence around him. That fails when there is a major to throws his world off course.
Honestly, there is a lot happening in the book. Some parts felt unfinished but on a whole I felt the writing was immersive and honest in a way I will remember. Being in the world of a young black man from South Side Chicago who is raised by his grandmother because his parents abandoned him- well, I kinda didn’t want to leave- I wanted to cheer for him so very bad!
I also love how hilarious some moments were… I genuinely loved how the characters were jumping off the page- specifically Paul and Claude’s grandmother. This one is truly a gem and I cannot wait to see what the author writes next.
bexrecca's review
4.0
The kind of book that sits with you after you finish. I don't read a lot of dialogue driven novels and this makes me think I should. A dynamic read.
jvillanueva8's review
5.0
I deeply loved every page of this book. It’s deeply tragic and traumatic but filled with a dark humor and ironic discomfort. Am I describing literary postmodernism? I’m not sure. Claude is a fantastic character and this is a refreshing imagination of the bildungsroman for non-white folks.
Edit to add - I am 100% here for stories where POC don’t have to be exceptional. Claude is average when measured by the metrics our capitalist society uses to grade people, but his emotional depth is heart wrenching. Normalize POC not having to excel against inherently exploitative standards.
This was a Heidi recommendation.
Edit to add - I am 100% here for stories where POC don’t have to be exceptional. Claude is average when measured by the metrics our capitalist society uses to grade people, but his emotional depth is heart wrenching. Normalize POC not having to excel against inherently exploitative standards.
This was a Heidi recommendation.
saj04's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, and Police brutality
lilylikesbooks's review
3.0
Fast read, interesting POV, didn’t have narrative closure and ending felt unrealistic
roseaboveitreads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mrsjackflash's review
2.0
This book really desperately wants to be Invisible Man (and maybe a little Queen & Slim) but lacks the punch necessary to be memorable.
I don’t think the book is bad, per se; the style is fine but the characters are bland and the pacing feels really off. Janice is textbook “dude wants to write a hot girl but doesn’t give her any concrete motivations or life outside the protagonist” she even completely forgets about the people who were her guardians. Actually it’s not even clear what Jimmy and Anette are to Janice. They’re her cousins but we don’t really know anything about her relationship with them. She has anger for the redbelters but it just feels like it’s disconnected from her own personal struggle. When she talks about them she uses vague terms like “they ruined everything” “they destroyed my life” everything is in abstracts and nothing is personal. She seems more sad about the impact on the community then for the fact that Jimmy died. She doesn’t even seem to have anything to say about her Anette abandoning her. All she does is look hot, have sex, mope around about nothing in particular, and cling to Claude.
Claude is supposed to have some sort of journey where he becomes woke but it just feels like one minute he sucks up to cops and then suddenly he doesn’t. He’s not really thinking about his identity as a black man in any deeper way, his boss at the newspaper he works at has to preach to him about injustice rather than have him think it for himself. And at the end he’s running from the cops not because he’s woke or anything but because he’s just chasing around Janice. It’s really pathetic because he lacks any motivation or interests whatsoever. He wants to be a journalist for some unknown reason but there’s no stories that he’s interested in writing. Claude either clings to his missing mom or clings to Janice and never asserts himself in anything and that doesn’t change by the end of the book
I don’t think the book is bad, per se; the style is fine but the characters are bland and the pacing feels really off. Janice is textbook “dude wants to write a hot girl but doesn’t give her any concrete motivations or life outside the protagonist” she even completely forgets about the people who were her guardians. Actually it’s not even clear what Jimmy and Anette are to Janice. They’re her cousins but we don’t really know anything about her relationship with them. She has anger for the redbelters but it just feels like it’s disconnected from her own personal struggle. When she talks about them she uses vague terms like “they ruined everything” “they destroyed my life” everything is in abstracts and nothing is personal. She seems more sad about the impact on the community then for the fact that Jimmy died. She doesn’t even seem to have anything to say about her Anette abandoning her. All she does is look hot, have sex, mope around about nothing in particular, and cling to Claude.
Claude is supposed to have some sort of journey where he becomes woke but it just feels like one minute he sucks up to cops and then suddenly he doesn’t. He’s not really thinking about his identity as a black man in any deeper way, his boss at the newspaper he works at has to preach to him about injustice rather than have him think it for himself. And at the end he’s running from the cops not because he’s woke or anything but because he’s just chasing around Janice. It’s really pathetic because he lacks any motivation or interests whatsoever. He wants to be a journalist for some unknown reason but there’s no stories that he’s interested in writing. Claude either clings to his missing mom or clings to Janice and never asserts himself in anything and that doesn’t change by the end of the book
lilmxguillotine's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
brodydollywood's review
4.0
I tore through this novel that had a sense of urgency to it, especially leading up to the Bonnie & Clyde-esque ending. A unique look into those affected by violence and abandonment. I found it slightly difficult to get into at first, but after the riot began at South Shore, I couldn't put it down.