pomoevareads 's review for:

Gutter Child by Jael Richardson

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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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“Don’t go looking for your reflection in someone else’s mirror.”

Oh how this book affected me and how valuable it is for people to read right now!!!

Gutter child is the story of five young people who meet at the Livingstone Academy on the Mainland of a fictional land. The children were born in the Gutter, a section that is full  of hardship and one where people can work much of their lives and not have the freedoms of the mainlanders. They are at the academy to learn to work and to do work until they graduate and are auctioned off to employers where they can begin paying off their debts with the hopes of gaining Redemption Freedom. 

The system is based on one familiar to me as a Canadian. I live in a country that has been colonized by non indigenous persons, Canada stole their land, changed the laws under which indigenous peoples could live, sent them to learn the Canadian ways in Residential schools and at times were adopted out to non indigenous families when the Canadian government determined a parent unfit to raise their children or grandchildren. 

This book is not about indigenous peoples or any other identified groups specifically but if you don’t find yourself thinking about the injustices present today when reading this book then I encourage you to go back and read it.

Black Lives Matter, protests, racism, police brutality and use of force against persons of colour. These are the things that kept coming up for me while reading this book. 

This book is going to make you think. Writing this review I am inundated with just how many relevant themes the author was able to cover in this book all while weaving a story with some hope, beautifully developed characters, lines that you want to read more than once for their beauty and that inspires me to take more actions than I currently am to forward diverse voices and stand up against hate.

Gutter Child falls under dystopian fiction but is not so far from present day reality. 

This novel is one of the best books I have ever read and I will recommend this book to anyone who will listen to me and will push it on teachers to teach in school. 

I feel like I could gush on this book all day and urge you to read it. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.