#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WILLIAM C. MORRIS AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME
After a traffic stop turns violent at the hands of the police, a young Black teen grapples with racism—and what it means for his future. Critically acclaimed author Nic Stone boldly tackles America’s troubled history with race relations in her gripping debut novel.
"Raw and gripping." –JASON REYNOLDS,#1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You
Justyce 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 without cause.
When faced with injustice, 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 and a friend spark the fury of an off-duty cop. Words fly, shots are fired, and the boys get caught in the crosshairs. But in the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.
"A must-read!” –ANGIE THOMAS, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give
"Powerful, wrenching.” –JOHN GREEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down
This is one that I was super excited for because I was riding on the hype for The Hate U Give and was ready to read alllll of the books on the same (or similar) subject matter. Unfortunately I didn’t really like it. SORRY. Please don’t shout at me. Or do. Whatever.
My main issue with Dear Martin is that it was far too short. It’s a measly 210 pages. This meant that the story jumped around from point to point without connecting anything. This was either a result of heavy editing (why?!) or poor writing. Or both. I feel like everything could have done with being more developed.
I also really didn’t like the author’s use of transcripts in place of actual descriptions of scenes and dialogue. There were so many of them, and the switch between “normal” writing and these transcripts threw me off. It came across as really lazy and poor writing.
All that said, I really liked the main character, Justyce. He was adorable, and reading about him was a great experience, despite the poor writing. I adored his friendship with Manny as well 3
Obviously the book tackles a very important subject matter, and I would recommend reading it for that, if not for anything else. I’m really disappointed that I didn’t love this.
