genre: young adult novel in verse
When you've seen your brother killed in the street and you KNOW the rules, the only thing you can do is get revenge. It's the code that's been passed to you, the only roadmap you've ever known. But when Will gets in the elevator to do what needs to be done, he's reminded that he's not the only person who knows - or has known - the rules.
Art. Pure and simple. When I finished reading the last words of this book, I got actual chills and tears came to my eyes. My brain is still sort of reeling with what Jason Reynolds has done here. An endless cycle of toxic hatred and destructive masculinity that's practically hereditary, the way each generation teaches it to the next, is deconstructed - it's guts splayed open and its ugliness laid bare. I loved, though, the richness of relationships, that these men and boys do love each other in nuanced and deep ways - love complex enough that they are "willing" to destroy themselves for each other. The language itself, his use of words as composition, the ghostly ambiance that made me sink into my own suspended disbelief, all of this added up to a really satisfying and thought-provoking reading experience.
I am grateful that my kids studied it in high school - there is MUCH to discuss.
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