Dear Martin
"Powerful, wrenching." -JOHN GREEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down "Raw and gripping." -JASON REYNOLDS, New York Times bestselling coauthor of All American Boys "A must-read!" -ANGIE THOMAS, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning #1 New York Times bestselling debut, a William C. Morris Award Finalist. Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student, and always there to help a friend--but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up--way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack. "Vivid and powerful." -Booklist, Starred Review
"A visceral portrait of a young man reckoning with the ugly, persistent violence of social injustice." -Publishers Weekly
"A visceral portrait of a young man reckoning with the ugly, persistent violence of social injustice." -Publishers Weekly
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Community Reviews
Update: Reread this for my book club. Then I came here and reread my review. While I do still agree with the sentiment of what I said about Malcolm X, that was some pretty Karen shit to say. I feel like Iâve grown some since I read this book the first time and I feel like me now would not be so intense with my phrasing. This time what caught me was how Justyce had no answers but was just trying to move forward. How he kept interrogating what he was doing and analyzing himself and the world around him. He (and therefore the author) asked difficult questions and didnât provide ready answers. It makes me want to read the other book(s) in the series.
Short, moving story about systemic prejudice and racial inequalities in modern America, told both from the third-person-POV of Justyce McAllister, a young black man with a promising future, and letters written by Justyce to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While not quite as good as The Hate U Give (a high bar by any standards), this was an especially good look at how seemingly small things can spin out into much bigger things. This book also, I think, did a good job at explaining why so many people think young black men are "angry" and the struggle they go through to feel and express genuine emotion without crossing the forbidden line into the "angry" that will get them killed. Like the title implies, as well, it delved into the teachings of MLK and what those teachings might look like today, and how to put them to use today. I also think it asked more questions than it answered, which in my book is always good.
I do have a couple of criticisms, though. The style wasn't always consistent. It would often jump back and forth from quotation marks around dialogue to colons a la script format, often without any rhyme or reason. That's easily fixable, and I don't know why it wasn't.
My other criticism's a lot bigger. Also, spoilers ahead.
When Justyce is really feeling beaten down, he contemplates joining a gang, because out of all the people he knows, they're most likely to understand what he's feeling and going through. Understandable, if misguided. The gang is called "Black Jihad" and the entire portrayal of Jus's interaction with their leader is very Malcolm X. When he's lead into the house, there's tons of African art on the walls, African patterned clothes and pillows, just lots of Africa-positive stuff in general. The leader speaks of the true Islamic definition of "jihad," the struggle or striving, talks about how royal blood flows through their veins, talks about how it's important to know those African roots. All this is so Malcolm X it hurt a little. Which would have been fine -- Malcolm was often portrayed as being the polar opposite of MLK's, so I guess it doesn't hurt to include references to him, right?
Well, no. Because Justyce, after spilling his guts about how he's feeling and what he's been going through, gets all jittery. He says things like, "the illusion fell away" and realizes he's in a super-sketchy situation. It's a sketchy situation because "gang," but the idea gets conflated with the imagery and reminiscences of Malcolm X. To me, it felt like the author was saying, "Malcolm might be tempting, but MLK is the one true African-American representative and it's his teachings or the highway". I'm not into that. First of all, Malcolm X is really interesting and had some awesome ideas. Yeah, he had some less good ideas as well, but that's no reason to portray him or reference his teachings like they're the devil in disguise. There's no call for that. And secondly, we should learn from all the great figures of history and not close out some because their ideas don't necessarily connect with our hero's or because they thought something different. It just felt really heavy-handed anti-Malcolm and I didn't care for that.
Otherwise, though, I thought this book tread carefully between being too preachy and too pandery and telling a meaningful story. I'd definitely recommend it.
Short, moving story about systemic prejudice and racial inequalities in modern America, told both from the third-person-POV of Justyce McAllister, a young black man with a promising future, and letters written by Justyce to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While not quite as good as The Hate U Give (a high bar by any standards), this was an especially good look at how seemingly small things can spin out into much bigger things. This book also, I think, did a good job at explaining why so many people think young black men are "angry" and the struggle they go through to feel and express genuine emotion without crossing the forbidden line into the "angry" that will get them killed. Like the title implies, as well, it delved into the teachings of MLK and what those teachings might look like today, and how to put them to use today. I also think it asked more questions than it answered, which in my book is always good.
I do have a couple of criticisms, though. The style wasn't always consistent. It would often jump back and forth from quotation marks around dialogue to colons a la script format, often without any rhyme or reason. That's easily fixable, and I don't know why it wasn't.
My other criticism's a lot bigger. Also, spoilers ahead.
When Justyce is really feeling beaten down, he contemplates joining a gang, because out of all the people he knows, they're most likely to understand what he's feeling and going through. Understandable, if misguided. The gang is called "Black Jihad" and the entire portrayal of Jus's interaction with their leader is very Malcolm X. When he's lead into the house, there's tons of African art on the walls, African patterned clothes and pillows, just lots of Africa-positive stuff in general. The leader speaks of the true Islamic definition of "jihad," the struggle or striving, talks about how royal blood flows through their veins, talks about how it's important to know those African roots. All this is so Malcolm X it hurt a little. Which would have been fine -- Malcolm was often portrayed as being the polar opposite of MLK's, so I guess it doesn't hurt to include references to him, right?
Well, no. Because Justyce, after spilling his guts about how he's feeling and what he's been going through, gets all jittery. He says things like, "the illusion fell away" and realizes he's in a super-sketchy situation. It's a sketchy situation because "gang," but the idea gets conflated with the imagery and reminiscences of Malcolm X. To me, it felt like the author was saying, "Malcolm might be tempting, but MLK is the one true African-American representative and it's his teachings or the highway". I'm not into that. First of all, Malcolm X is really interesting and had some awesome ideas. Yeah, he had some less good ideas as well, but that's no reason to portray him or reference his teachings like they're the devil in disguise. There's no call for that. And secondly, we should learn from all the great figures of history and not close out some because their ideas don't necessarily connect with our hero's or because they thought something different. It just felt really heavy-handed anti-Malcolm and I didn't care for that.
Otherwise, though, I thought this book tread carefully between being too preachy and too pandery and telling a meaningful story. I'd definitely recommend it.
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