Reviews with content warning for Racism - Things We Couldn't Say

I enjoyed this a lot! My favorite part about this book is that it showed the hood from a very loving pov. There’s good and bad about the hood, but it really is a community and this book showed that.

And I really appreciated this quote in relation to the gang that runs the neighborhood: “They’re more like the Avengers of the hood. All they want to do is protect The Haven, but sometimes they make bad choices and fuck shit up. But so did Cap and Iron Man and Thor.” We never get the same grace for our bad decisions as white people do.

I loved Gio and his relationship with Theo, his little brother. I need to see more sibling relationships like this because it was so heartwarming. I also really loved Malik, Karina, Ayesha, and Ms. Diane. There were some amazing characters in this story! I didn’t feel a lot toward the love interest though. I thought he reacted very badly to a situation within the story and I just could never get over it🤷🏽‍♀️

Overall I just really enjoyed this book and I think it deserves way more hype!🙌🏽

Content Warnings

bluehairedlibrarian's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’m having a hard time putting my feelings for this book into words. It’s an achievement of emotion and expressing intersectional marginalization for a Black queer boy, but at the same time I found the pacing to be haphazard. I found it difficult to keep track of the passing of time bc days would randomly pass in a sentence and days of the week didn’t always match up with the timeline explained by characters within the story. I know this is a me issue, but I also know this is an editing issue. The same goes for movement and placement of people in space. As someone with a visual imagination, a character suddenly being in a different part of a room throws me from the emotional beats of the story. Once again, a me thing.

There are a lot of pop culture references, many of which seemed a bit odd for a teenager of this generation. A lot of the details didn’t into the flow of the writing for me either. But when I could get passed my issues with the writing, this is a beautiful story about a boy learning who and what he wants his family to be and finding a way to be brave in the face of adversity.

Content Warnings

zombiezami's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I liked how earnest this was. This book addresses a lot of issues that teens face. However, as others have said, the prose and characterization weren't quite right, given that the characters were teens. I also don't think it was necessary to describe the sexual encounters between teenagers. Otherwise, I liked this.

Content Warnings

xoodlebooks's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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