A review by finallyfinnian
Southland by Nina Revoyr

5.0

After her grandfather's death, Jackie learns of an old mystery surrounding the murders of four young black males during the Watts riots of 1965. Alternating between the story of the search for the truth about the mystery and the story of the actual events of the 60's, told in the point of view of several different characters, this story is a rich and complex tale of racism, cruelty, poverty and Japanese internment camps. Revoyr tells a great story without getting too maudlin about an intense subject. There are a couple of dips into Steven Spielberg type emotional set ups, but all in all, the author allows the reader to just feel the shock and horror of the events because the events are, indeed, shocking and horrible, not because the reader is being manipulated to feel something. Excellent book and well worth a read.