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A review by papertraildiary
Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
4.0
Wow, this book. This book is intense. It’s Black Lives Matter but almost written like a dystopian war at times. It’s like The Hate U Give x10. It’s a really tough but worthwhile read.
Moss is struggling with a lot. He saw his father shot by a cop for no reason when he was a kid, and he’s been dealing with extreme anxiety ever since. He’s recognized in public during protests. There’s also Javier, a cute boy Moss meets on the subway. Moss just wants to live a normal teen life, but it gets even more difficult when his school’s employed cop assaults a student and then metal detectors are installed. A huge group of Moss’s friends and family get together wanting to do something but not sure what. I thought it was interesting to show that part, the long talks and strategizing, the reaching out to the community, the planning and outreach, the backlash, the stress. Everything in Moss’s life escalates quickly and he has to figure out what he wants to do about it.
I struggled a bit with the style of writing at first – I found myself getting confused a lot either between how many characters there were but not enough defining characteristics to set them apart. But once I got over that I sprinted through the book, needing to know what would happen next. It’s disturbing and powerful, and it will stay with me.
Moss is struggling with a lot. He saw his father shot by a cop for no reason when he was a kid, and he’s been dealing with extreme anxiety ever since. He’s recognized in public during protests. There’s also Javier, a cute boy Moss meets on the subway. Moss just wants to live a normal teen life, but it gets even more difficult when his school’s employed cop assaults a student and then metal detectors are installed. A huge group of Moss’s friends and family get together wanting to do something but not sure what. I thought it was interesting to show that part, the long talks and strategizing, the reaching out to the community, the planning and outreach, the backlash, the stress. Everything in Moss’s life escalates quickly and he has to figure out what he wants to do about it.
I struggled a bit with the style of writing at first – I found myself getting confused a lot either between how many characters there were but not enough defining characteristics to set them apart. But once I got over that I sprinted through the book, needing to know what would happen next. It’s disturbing and powerful, and it will stay with me.