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devonnotdevin 's review for:
A Good Neighborhood
by Therese Anne Fowler
100%/finished update: Holyyyyy moly. This might be the worst book I've ever read. Another reviewer called this book "trauma porn of the black experience." So much of it felt inauthentic, from the harmless issues like calling bullying teenagers in 2019 "Kathy" and "Megan" or referencing a similarly aged teen's childhood affinity for Beanie Babies. It's poorly written (the author believes in telling us about characters and settings explicitly rather than showing) and has the grabbag feel of someone playing Mad Libs while watching MSNBC. There isn't a better argument for the "Own Voices" movement than this book - so much of the story rests on the needless and excessive pain of black people, and ultimately, for what? So a young white girl pursues a career in social justice? Such a gross exploitative story clearly told by a white woman, who tells on herself in the scene where one black character explains racism to another black character. (What.) And as I mentioned earlier, there's a weird perverse pedophilia storyline alongside the black trauma that serves as a means to excuse the behavior of some of the white characters. Just gross.
77% completed review (more to come): I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but holy hell. PEDOPHILIA trigger warning. I didn't see any mention of it in the reviews and had I known, I would not have started reading this book in the first place. This book is pretty terrible for a lot of reasons (I don't really believe in DNFing so I'm on the struggle bus on this one) that I'll revisit once I'm done, but good lord was the pedophilia/incest angle an unwelcome surprise.
77% completed review (more to come): I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but holy hell. PEDOPHILIA trigger warning. I didn't see any mention of it in the reviews and had I known, I would not have started reading this book in the first place. This book is pretty terrible for a lot of reasons (I don't really believe in DNFing so I'm on the struggle bus on this one) that I'll revisit once I'm done, but good lord was the pedophilia/incest angle an unwelcome surprise.