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A review by lib_laughlove
The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson
2.0
I tried to read this, I really did.
I heard in passing in a discord server I was in that this was a RWRB knockoff but I had never thought about reading it until today when I saw it in my library.
Where do I start. Uhh...well there wasn’t anything I really liked about it. The writing was ok, nothing astonishing, but not horrible. The characters were also ok, nothing really stood out about them. Their names both starting with the same letter were kind of confusing, and I had to go back and reread chapters to see who’s perspective it was in.
The plot was predictable. When the characters used the app “Prometheon” to communicate, I instantly knew that the messages were going to get exposed. It was kind of a lazy plot device too. “Totally secure” is a huge red flag for dramatic irony. We know what’s going to happen. App gets hacked, messages get exposed, yada yada yada. That single line took me out of the story entirely.
Additionally, the representation in this book was also kinda bad. Let’s start with the fundamentals: The State of Us is a book about two guys who’s parents are on opposite sides of the race for President of the United States. One’s the son of the democratic candidate, the other is the son of the Republican one. The relationship is flawed from the beginning. I don’t even have words for it, it makes my head hurt. But other reviewers probably say it better.
How the book referred to certain things was...weird? I honestly don’t know how to say it.
Um on page 145 Dre says, “I wish this wasn’t personal for me...Like, how can I be friends with someone who supports someone who thinks I’m not a person?”
Do what you will with that quote but personally, as a queer poc myself, I don’t think I could truly be friends with someone who supports someone who doesn’t view me as truly a person.
Save yourself the time and pick up a different YA novel with actually good POC and queer representation
I heard in passing in a discord server I was in that this was a RWRB knockoff but I had never thought about reading it until today when I saw it in my library.
Where do I start. Uhh...well there wasn’t anything I really liked about it. The writing was ok, nothing astonishing, but not horrible. The characters were also ok, nothing really stood out about them. Their names both starting with the same letter were kind of confusing, and I had to go back and reread chapters to see who’s perspective it was in.
The plot was predictable. When the characters used the app “Prometheon” to communicate, I instantly knew that the messages were going to get exposed. It was kind of a lazy plot device too. “Totally secure” is a huge red flag for dramatic irony. We know what’s going to happen. App gets hacked, messages get exposed, yada yada yada. That single line took me out of the story entirely.
Additionally, the representation in this book was also kinda bad. Let’s start with the fundamentals: The State of Us is a book about two guys who’s parents are on opposite sides of the race for President of the United States. One’s the son of the democratic candidate, the other is the son of the Republican one. The relationship is flawed from the beginning. I don’t even have words for it, it makes my head hurt. But other reviewers probably say it better.
How the book referred to certain things was...weird? I honestly don’t know how to say it.
Um on page 145 Dre says, “I wish this wasn’t personal for me...Like, how can I be friends with someone who supports someone who thinks I’m not a person?”
Do what you will with that quote but personally, as a queer poc myself, I don’t think I could truly be friends with someone who supports someone who doesn’t view me as truly a person.
Save yourself the time and pick up a different YA novel with actually good POC and queer representation