23 reviews for:

Black Ice

Bradford D. Smith II

3.25 AVERAGE

darryn_gray's review

3.0

adventurous emotional mysterious 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: Complicated

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This book had so much potential but needed to be more developed. It was good enoughthat I was interested until the very last page, but nothing felt like it was satisfied. Either needs to have a 2nd book immedietly follow it, or to be a longer one off book. I also wish the book on the inside had colors like the outside did, it would have been even better that way. The lack of colors around Oscar's eyes made it confusing at first about why everyone was talking about his eyes.

panic_at_the_bookshelf's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I can't pinpoint what happened in this story, but it did make me wonder why certain things happen in life. A part of me wants to know what really happened. Why did Oscar get these powers? Why did he have to save the fire and/or egg? What exactly does the ending mean? I feel like there wasn't a clear explanation. Maybe that was the intention of the author. Maybe there isn't one way to look at something, maybe the author wanted people to give their own meaning to this story and maybe that's actually not a bad thing. Maybe it's none of that, but perhaps that doesn't matter. 

The book was a fast read eventhough it mentioned a lot of heavy and very important stuff. Both the drawings and the writing style made it easier to read. Since it wasn't always obvious what was going on, things could get a little confusing to me, which made it harder for me to follow some of the main character's thoughts. Though maybe we don't have to understand someone in order to hear them, in order to see them for who they are and not for what we think they are.

This story sure gave me a lot of feelings and helped me reflect about certain things in life. 

literarylocd's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I enjoyed the novel and I like Oscar’s character. I’m all for black boys and girls being powerful main characters in their stories. Even more so, I think black children (and adults) deserve accurate and tasteful queer rep in media. I would’ve liked for him to have been a little more fleshed out, I felt there was a lot of tell and not show. 

This book explores a few tough themes such as racism, homophobia, police brutality. 

there was a scene that took me kinda by surprise. there is no world where i personally want to see a grown policeman physically restrain a small boy. it felt very raw to me. i understand why the author/artist wanted this scene is but i would’ve preferred for it to have been implied instead of shown. it would’ve still worked perfectly.

It ended on a cliffhanger but I am excited to see where it goes.