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kaerene's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment
stacy_27_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
honeyvoiced's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Cancer
ajason06's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My favorite aspect of the book was the camaraderie of the support within the community. This is a powerful realization and an important thing to remember. Even this book's themes are heavy and hard to deal with. Everyone has the right to be heard. I really appreciated the two colliding stories (the good and the bad) of Quan and Justyce and how they affected them both differently.
Great follow up to Dear Martin
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
travelseatsreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Continuing on the theme of racial prejudice and oppression, Dear Justyce looks further at the characters of Justyce and Quan. While Stone shows the struggles that the boys face she doesn't try to portray them as either all good or all bad and honestly shows both the good and bad sides to their characters.
The last section where Stone discusses the two books adds so much, I'd recommend if you usually skip afterwards to give the time to this one, it's worth it.
A powerful, tense yet hopeful follow up to Dear Martin.
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
mandi4886's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
dodi05's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
Minor: Cancer
jojo_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Cancer, Death, and Racial slurs
booksthatburn's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
DEAR JUSTYCE follows Quan from DEAR MARTIN as he tells his friend Justyce about his life before he was incarcerated during the previous book. Told in a combination of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, this is a contemplation of the past with a chance at having a future.
There’s so much care in this story, it’s evident in every page. In terms of narrative structure, it begins with the MC in prison, waiting for the outcome of his case but not hoping for much. It traces how he got there, how the turning points never felt like choices because of the system stacked against him as a Black boy then a Black teenager, then a young Black man. It's not trying to be a litany of traumas or disasters, the framing is that most of the sudden traumas were a long time ago, and that distance helps a bit. He's slowly gaining the tools to place his life in context and see how the pieces fit together, while also keeping tabs on the present.
Now for the sequel check. The whole point of this story us to wrap up some thing left hanging from the previous book, namely: what happened to Quan after the events of DEAR MARTIN. There are several storylines which start in this book and were not present previously. Technically a bunch of the stuff that is resolved in this book was started in the first one, but this is definitely its own story within the series. I don’t know if there will be any more in this series, it looks like the first one was intended to be a stand-alone book, and this features someone who was a secondary character there. If this is the end of the series, it feels pretty complete, but there are definitely a lot of good candidates for another story if the author continues the series. Quan’s voice here is distinct from Justyce’s narration in the first book. This would definitely make sense if someone started with this book and hadn’t read the first one.
Some of the secondary characters don’t get very much narrative attention here, but given that Quan literally isn’t able to spend any time with most of them, it would be more surprising if they had a lot of space on the page. As it stands, the snippets were enough to remind me of who they were from DEAR MARTIN if they were returning characters, and it was nice to see most of them again. The author is really good at making characters distinct and vibrant with minimal description, and that shone here.
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, and Police brutality
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug use, and Sexism
CW for sexism (minor), alcoholism, drug use, confinement, panic attacks, cancer, domestic abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, gun violence, violence, police brutality, major character death.