Gilly Segal

This is a tough one to rate. The voice and narration in this are absolutely stellar, and characters like Lena are so very uncommon and valuable in the YA cannon right now. But other than that, I found myself unable to suspend disbelief and get absorbed in the story. Ultimately, is it worth the read though? I think so.

A few minimal spoilers ahead.

My biggest problem here was that all the events felt so random and I wanted more context and explanation instead of the constant moving away. This revolves mainly around riots that come out of protests, but starts off with a big fight at the girls' high school. I wanted more details on how this fight went down. I didn't buy that the teacher just forgot about them. I wanted more information on where everyone went--there was a whole football field of students that just...disappeared? Surely other kids were leaving in vehicles. Surely they could have at least asked for a ride.
And then these riots. Yes, yes yes yes. I have a lot of thoughts about rioting as a form of protest, and I really appreciated how they acknowledged in the book that it's one of very, very few ways to get attention and that though it might not seem fair, breaking and vandalizing is arguably necessary in order to get any attention to a cause while a peaceful protest is very easy to ignore. However, I found it hard to believe that all of the events of the night strung from a protest and weren't more preplanned. Generally, protests take place during the day because government officials aren't really in their offices on Friday nights. I could have believed this, but I needed a lot more context--maybe through these news reporters or through texts, or maybe Campbell might have checked Twitter or something--in order to suspend my disbelief.
So if one or the other had happened, I'd believe it more, or if there had been a clear connection drawn (a single line! to ackowledge it!) I might have believed it more but it just seems so very unlikely that these would both happen in one night. And I don't think that's my privilege talking.
And then the blurb--"chaos born from violence and hate"--completely dismisses the idea that protesters had anything to do with this. I just really wish that the authors had delved that little bit deeper in and really explored what the roots of all these horrors were.
And Lena and Campbell were both reasonably intelligent, it seemed. So I really struggled to believe that they would just keep moving into this warzone and not be like "well, guess I'm walking a couple of miles tonight!" Campbell had a phone--surely Lena knew other people she could have used social media to contact? I just don't buy it. Surely they would have walked in a different direction. Black had a car, yes, but there are other cars in Atlanta, and since it took them hours to walk to him, why not just walk home?

And setting! Campbell mentions once that they're in Atlanta but I actually had to go back and find that line. I've never been to Atlanta (two weeks until Shaky Knees!) so maybe if I were familiar with the area I'd get it more, but it felt so very insert-generic-city-here. (Also, Campbell's mom moves to Venezuela--what? for a job? what year was this written? why? if you're going to move someone to Venezuela for a job, you need a line about what her job is.)

But on the other hand, this book exCELS in capturing voice. Campbell was a character that could have been plucked from any generic YA book, but Lena felt like a real live black girl and I'm so glad that she used real slang in actual context and it felt very natural. They did an excellent job of observing inherent racism and prejudices that we all have whether we like it or not which is super important, especially to those of us who might not often think about it. The blurb and cover are a bit misleading as they pit the girls against each other when in reality they just didn't know each other outside of having a class together--neither was actively against the other despite their prejudices.

I'm glad Black turned out to be less of a radishweed, but I also wish Lena had stood up to him and put him in his place because wow did she deserve better.

BUT WHAT ABOUT MARCUS????????? DO WE JUST LEAVE HIM TO DIE???????? I was SO upset when I hit acknowledgements without hearing how he was after just being taken to hospital! (Which was also weird. That Lena would just trust that the police would take him to hospital? And not lock him up? After all of her understandable mistrust?

I guess I have a lot to say about this book because it had such potential and did some parts so well, but I feel like it almost got caught up in patting itself on the back about what it did right. I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars when I started writing this, but I think I'm actually at 2.5 now. There were just so many times where I thought "but why not just do this?" and couldn't suspend my disbelief.… (mais)

4 stars to balance out the other reviews which I think are really unnecessarily harsh, but really more like 2.5-3 stars. I'm generally not a fan of YA but I liked it. It was a quick read and interesting, and even though there were quite a few unbelievable plot points, the characters were a bit unrealistic and mostly unlikeable, and it felt like the authors dumbed the characters down because they're teenagers, it definitely kept me wondering what was going to happen and there were definitely some thrilling moments. I think it was trying to be the next The Hate U Give and it wasn't, but it definitely wasn't a terrible book. I read it because of the Overdrive book club and I don't think I'd go out of my way to recommend it to anyone, but I wouldn't discourage people from reading it, either.… (mais)