A review by literaryintersections
One Of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon

dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

If I could give this zero stars I would. This book is harmful and anti-Black and I will tell you why: 

1) you have a main character who has clear (and problematic) ideas of what it means to be a Black person. Relax your hair? Not Black enough. Don't watch videos of police brutality of murder of Black people? Not Black enough. Don't wear a fro? Hand in your Black card. Jasmyn is not like Issa Rae: she isn't rooting for everyone Black, only the ones she deems Black enough. And all of that makes it hard to root for her, hard to like her. She is more than an "unlikeable main character" she is actually a horrible human. 

2) The entire plot of
Black people turning white in order to succeed. I feel like I am trying to understand where Yoon is going with this: that Black folks can self-sabotage, that the ways that we try to assimilate are hurting us in the end, that there is no such thing as a Black utopia
. But she missed the mark imo. Because what she is showing is that
in order of us to survive we need to be white. Also that Blackness is skin, accent, and culture. WHICH IS WILD TO ME. And so reductive. Again, I feel like I kind of understand where she was going with this but it feels so problematic and anti-Black to say that whiteness is the above all. That we can't beat them at their own game so let's play it by becoming them.
. The comps to Get Out are both understandable and wildly unfounded: Get Out was subtle and also hit you over the head with the point that to white people, Black folks are just body parts, just a sex, just athleticism. The white folks are the villains. And in this book? The villains are us.... but still ultimately catering to white folks. It made me ill. 

3) The husband, the side characters. Everyone was one-dimensional. Her husband? TRASH YOU HEAR ME TRASH. What he did to their child?! No sir. Murdered. I would've killed him. All the secondary characters were like charicatures - that one friend who had the art gallery and was doing the fists all the time like did Nicola know Black people when writing this book? It feels like every person is a stereotype. They all gave us nothing and added nothing to the story

4) The violence by police was not only ripped from the headlines it literally was the headlines. Just using different people's names. Talk about commodifying the murder of Black people! Just again disgusting 

I have enjoyed Yoon's previous YA books but this one? Absolutely horrible, offensive, disgusting and anti-Black. 
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