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A review by margindoodles
Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth
4.0
3.5ish stars -- this ended up being a lot less about the "teens start a band" conceit than I thought it would be, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! It's very slice-of-life, focusing on six months in the year 1980. The world feels fully fleshed out and lived-in, with Gansworth not pulling any punches when it comes to the realities of life both on and off this specific reservation.
I do feel like the pacing of the character arcs was a bit off, and I had a visceral reaction to Maggi's storyline in particular (potential trigger warning for an older man's predatory behavior towards a minor). I'm relieved things didn't turn out as badly for her as I feared they would, but god, did it stress me out in that "I'm an adult reading about a kid who's clearly unaware of the potential dangers of the situation she's in" way. I also don't have any great love for John Lennon, so his presence as an icon/inspiration didn't have emotional heft for me.
However, I did love Maggi's moment of clarity and the steely inner voice she finds by the end, as well as how she calls out Carson on his shit. Additionally, Carson feels exactly like that self-absorbed son with a good heart whom you want to both hug and shake. Love his grassroots organization of the protest against a racist store/store owner, and how he matures over the course of the text -- need him to keep working on seeing other people as autonomous beings with interiority of their own. Glad he gets called out within the text for failures of this, would like him to keep improving. I really wish there were another book of him and Maggi, if only so we could see how they keep building on the foundations of this book.
I do feel like the pacing of the character arcs was a bit off, and I had a visceral reaction to Maggi's storyline in particular (potential trigger warning for an older man's predatory behavior towards a minor). I'm relieved things didn't turn out as badly for her as I feared they would, but god, did it stress me out in that "I'm an adult reading about a kid who's clearly unaware of the potential dangers of the situation she's in" way. I also don't have any great love for John Lennon, so his presence as an icon/inspiration didn't have emotional heft for me.
However, I did love Maggi's moment of clarity and the steely inner voice she finds by the end, as well as how she calls out Carson on his shit. Additionally, Carson feels exactly like that self-absorbed son with a good heart whom you want to both hug and shake. Love his grassroots organization of the protest against a racist store/store owner, and how he matures over the course of the text -- need him to keep working on seeing other people as autonomous beings with interiority of their own. Glad he gets called out within the text for failures of this, would like him to keep improving. I really wish there were another book of him and Maggi, if only so we could see how they keep building on the foundations of this book.