Holy shit this hit me like a ton of bricks. This ticked all my boxes:
LGBTQ characters/story lines for my Pride Month themed reading- check
Diversity - check
Social Justice story - check
Made me think - check
Made me feel - check
What Oshiro did here was write a story that could have been ripped from the nightly news about real people. The only thing fictional about this story, sadly, is the incident and specific people, but something near to or even almost exactly like what happened to Moss and his school and friends and neighborhood have happened, are happening. Think Oscar Grant. Think Eric Garner. Think Tamir Rice. Think Ferguson.
Moss goes to a school that is neglected and falling apart, literally. There aren't enough books, the lockers don't work, the paint is peeling, doors are falling off the hinges....Moss lives in a community that has militarized its police force. And the two have joined force, his school and the police, in a pilot program that goes horribly wrong.
It is hard to sum up a book so powerful but the closing line of the book does a pretty damn good job
"Stop killing us."
(Finished June 30, 2018)
No comments:
Post a Comment