A review by evamadera1
Invisible Son by Kim Johnson

5.0

Kim Johnson did it again. This story packed a punch and will definitely live for quite a while in my head. In this story, Andre, a high school senior, tries to make it day to day starting with serving the punishment for a crime he did not commit to quickly including the rapid descent into Covid lockdowns during the most uncertain times while living with his grandparents but without his mother, a nurse who lives separately to attempt to protect the family. This part evoked a lot of emotion in me as I remembered a student I taught that year who lost her father because of Covid. As the weeks progress in the narrative, Andre now has to deal with the response to the murder of George Floyd and all that came along with it. Living in the incredibly white city of Portland, Oregon, Andre makes a profound statement about the fact that his neighborhood now has more Black Lives Matter signs than Black people. That will stick with me for a while. Johnson also weaves in a fictionalized version of the tragic story behind a photograph of a Black boy hugging a police officer at a protest in 2014. Four years later the boy, also named Andre, his adoptive moms and their entire family died when one of the moms purposefully drove their van off of a cliff. Clearly, all of this feels like a lot yet Johnson manages to show how people like Andre live these things all the time, that "normal" life often feels incredibly heavy. This book holds so much taht even with all the words I have spent on this review, I feel like I cannot adequately express all my thoughts about this book.