A review by julie_responsibly
The Faraway Truth by Janae Marks

3.0

I liked the Zoe/Trevor dynamic, Zoe's relationship with her grandmother, and of course, what made me pick up the book in the first place, her budding relationship with her dad who is in jail. As an ex-public defender in MA though, I was annoyed at the old pds-don't-care about their clients and think they're all guilty anyway thing. The Massachusetts public defenders office is one of the best in the nation with an amazing training unit and a hybrid system that results in lawyers not having to take on too many cases at once. But you get paid shit. So the only people doing that work? The people who truly believe in it - the ones who go on to work for the Innocence Project. If you want to address racism and all that is wrong with our criminal justice system, I can think of about 15 other positions of power in the courtroom that would be a better starting point. But once my blood pressure returned to normal, I really appreciated what the book was trying to do, and am definitely picking up the other Zoe Washington!