Jay Coles

teen contemporary fiction (set in urban Alabama, Black Lives Matter, #ownvoices)
I stayed up late reading; my eyes were tearing up through the whole middle 100 pages just from the unfairness of it all.
The ending was hopeful and light; a tiny bit forced from my cynical view of the world but also necessary and good.

This book was engrossing from beginning to end. It jumps right into content there is no fluffiness to it. I read it all in one night because I didn’t want to put it down. I think it’s an important and well-told story that needs to be discussed. I think it is a well-crafted story that is eye-opening for those who do not witness this reality on a daily basis. It provoked conversation in my home after I finished it.
I don’t think the story is really character driven. There isn't much show more development of any of them. You really don't feel a personal connection to any of them. Perhaps that was by design? The characters are good enough to get the message across but it’s about the moments more than it is about the individual characters. I think it’s what allowed the story to move at such a quick pace. There really is no downtime to it.
I think it would have been a more emotional book if the characters were a bit more flushed out. Tyler is pretty flat. We know he's acting a little different towards his brother but we don't know what they were like before. By the end of the book, there is still no reveal as to what was going on with Tyler.
Johntae is not at all integral to the story but for a while, it seems like he might be. He's not. He's not a worthy villain or foil for anyone in the story.
The pseudo love story that plays in the background is just unnecessary noise. The character of Faith could have been useful to the development of Marvin or Johntae but she isn't. She just is. Their romance is flat because of that.
There is strong language and a lot of it. There are some sexual references that seemed unnecessary to me. There is also a sex scene although not too graphic it just seemed out of place. It didn’t add to the story probably because the characters weren't fully developed emotionally
All that said - the story is important. The events and responses by the community are thought-provoking. They need to be discussed and I appreciated the perspectives that were shared. There were some things that made me rethink my previous thoughts on things like BLM and the black experience. show less

Another entry in the cannon of books coming from the BLM movement & the dialogue happening around police violence against young black men. This debut novel feels to me like it gets it right. The story revolves around twin brothers on the brink of adult hood (high school seniors) at a time when policing in their neighborhood is becoming increasingly intrusive & it comes to a tragic head when one brother is missing after a neighborhood party & then its revealed that he was infact shot by the show more police. Marvin, the surviving twin has to juggle school life, trying to keep his brothers reputation & memory intact, as well as his own & his mothers grief. Its a strong & heartbreaking read. show less

A young adult book coming of age novel that focuses on being true to yourself and finding your real family. Gio has always had a big hole in his life, the void left when his birth mother abandoned him and his little brother. His father is a pastor and has remarried a wonderful woman, but it just isn't the same. What did he ever do that was so bad to be abandoned? Gio has two best friends whom he can lean on but the dynamic changes when a new white kid moves in across the street and joins the show more basketball team. He slowly starts to join Gio and his friends and when he announces he's bisexual, Gio has some feelings. To make matters more complicated, his birth mother has shown up, announced, and wants to be involved in her sons life again. Will Gio let her in his heart again? Will Gio let in romance? A good coming of age novel that deals with a myriad of issues that teens will relate to. One of the reasons I really enjoyed this book was that it was set in Indianapolis, specifically at Ben Davis High School, a school that I've been to in real life. It was neat to read about a place I had actually been. show less