amysdenn's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
4.0
alittleoverdue's review
3.0
A terrific coming of age, young adult novel. Set in 1992 in Los Angeles amidst the Rodney King riots, this book deftly explores the myriad of ways micro- and not-so-micro-racial aggressions play out in the life of a black person. Fans of "The Hate You Give" will see a lot of parallels, though this book takes a much more internal approach to its characters and plot. I wish there had been further character and plot development, but found the book compelling throughout. This book is extremely timely given the current racial unrest, and a searing how we've evolved (or in many ways, not changed at all) as far as race in American society.
**I received a free e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review**
**I received a free e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review**
andrearbooks's review
4.0
The Black Kids by Christina Hammons Reed is a story about a black teen in LA in 1992. Ashley lives in a world full of privilege. Her parents have intentionally raised her in this way and area of the city. When the riots happen after the Rodney King verdict, Ashley begins to explore questions around her identity, as well as the relationships she has with friends and peers. I was in elementary school during this, so I honestly don't have a strong memory of what happened, so it was interesting to read a novel set in this time against this backdrop. Anyway, as the protests happen, Ashley begins to realize what she thought to be true is not. For all the work her family and she has done to "fit in" to the world of privilege, she is different. She starts to realize she is indeed a black kid, and she begins to learn what that means. It means some relationships aren't what she thought, and it means she has to figure out where she does have connections. This was such a captivating and emotional story. The characters were so authentically written, especially Ashley as the character who is centered in it all. While a fiction read, there was so, so much truth in this, and it is one that y'all absolutely need to read. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this recent release!
lynz88's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
literarynessie's review
I listened to this on audiobook but I absolutely need to get myself a physical copy.
Every description is written with intention.
The prose flows seamlessly.
The nostalgic voice felt so real and honest.
This is an example of what YA literature should be. When people say YA isn't valid or they can't find good YA, I would strongly encourage them to consider The Black Kids. This book has set the bar high for what I look for in a YA novel. Reading this story felt like opening up a time capsule. I found myself relating to Ashley. While I was born in the 1990s, the MC grows up in the 1990s. The events that unfold when we're young impact us forever. Throughout the story, we feel the Rodney King riots hanging over Ashley's world like a storm cloud. Many people think that riots and protests only happened during MLK Jr's time. This story serves as a reminder that work is never done. I'll be honest and say that this was not an easy ready but I was wholly absorbed. I listened to the audiobook and I hope to reread the physical copy.
Every description is written with intention.
The prose flows seamlessly.
The nostalgic voice felt so real and honest.
This is an example of what YA literature should be. When people say YA isn't valid or they can't find good YA, I would strongly encourage them to consider The Black Kids. This book has set the bar high for what I look for in a YA novel. Reading this story felt like opening up a time capsule. I found myself relating to Ashley. While I was born in the 1990s, the MC grows up in the 1990s. The events that unfold when we're young impact us forever. Throughout the story, we feel the Rodney King riots hanging over Ashley's world like a storm cloud. Many people think that riots and protests only happened during MLK Jr's time. This story serves as a reminder that work is never done. I'll be honest and say that this was not an easy ready but I was wholly absorbed. I listened to the audiobook and I hope to reread the physical copy.
cookiemic's review
challenging
emotional
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
4.5
sunniestories's review against another edition
3.0
The Black Kids is a book that I had been really looking forward to reading for a while, and so when I happened to see one lone copy on the shelves of my local bookstore, I decided to treat myself. I was excited to get started because of all the books that I've decided to buy this past year, I've loved every one of them. In the end, I did like TBK, but I didn't love it in the way I'd hoped.
The good:
✧ I loved the realness and the relatability of the characters. I loved LaShawn, and I loved Lana, but for me, it was Ashley (the main character) who stood out. I found her incredibly relatable, probably because of the way I can see so much of myself in her story. She's a black teen and is affected by race, but she also has the privilege of being able to distance herself from the way race affects others in her community because her parents have grown her in a privileged bubble. When the Rodney King riots strike LA, she's torn between knowing how much she should care, and turning a blind eye to the issues at hand. Her primary friend group is all-white; she finds herself creating an 'us vs. them' mentality when she compares herself to the other black kids in her school. She's been hidden away from her own family's history. She's also a teenager learning how to overcome her flaws and deal with the growing pains of high school.
Jo, her sister, is almost the antithesis to Ashley. In her family's eyes, Jo feels too much. She fights for the rights of herself and her people (in fact, for anyone in need), at the risk of endangering herself. There's a perpetual weight on her shoulders that the rest of her family can't seem to wrap their heads around. The dynamic between Ashley and Jo was perfect. They were tethered to each other, even if they couldn't always see eye to eye.
✧ One of the things that struck me about this book was the timeliness of it. The story is set in 1992, and yet, unfortunately, it felt as if it could be set in 2020. The opening to chapter 22 struck me in particular - it could be lifted almost word for word and used to describe this past summer. It's disheartening, and very coincidental considering that this was released in August, but the message of the book hits harder because of it.
✧ I really liked how TBK tackled several issues: race, class, and even some feminist themes popped up. I think the fact that this story was told from the perspective of a young and wealthy black girl made this a really interesting read. It's also not very often that we get narratives across media which portray a black protagonist that's well-off.
The not so good:
✦ This, for me, was a really slow starter. I started reading this book, got about 40 pages in, and wasn't inclined to pick it back up again for about three weeks. I was going to mark it as DNF and come back to it in a few months, but I decided to just start again and managed to read through until the end. For me, that was a big turn-off; it's one thing to not be hooked in the first few chapters but another to put the book down and be reluctant to pick it up again for long enough that you forget who the characters are and what's happened so far.
✦ TBK is very much character-driven rather than plot-driven. That's not a bad thing, but for me, I tend to enjoy plot-driven stories much more. With character-driven stories, I often get 50-75% of the way through and start to wonder "where is this even going?"
✦ The narrative is a little jumpy at times, especially towards the beginning, which made it a little tough to follow at first. There's a lot of jumping between points in time and it was part of what turned me away from reading the first time around.
✦ I found the blurb to be a little misleading. It says that once the riots start, Ashley suddenly finds herself as one of the black kids. But actually, this doesn't really happen. In fact, much of the storyline centres specifically around how Ashley doesn't associate herself with the other black kids, and she isn't pulled into or personally affected by what's going on around her until one particular instance later into the book.
Overall, I did like The Black Kids, even if it took a little longer than expected for me to sink my teeth into. I would still recommend this book because I think it tackles a lot of very important issues, all of which continue to be highly relevant in today's world.
The good:
✧ I loved the realness and the relatability of the characters. I loved LaShawn, and I loved Lana, but for me, it was Ashley (the main character) who stood out. I found her incredibly relatable, probably because of the way I can see so much of myself in her story. She's a black teen and is affected by race, but she also has the privilege of being able to distance herself from the way race affects others in her community because her parents have grown her in a privileged bubble. When the Rodney King riots strike LA, she's torn between knowing how much she should care, and turning a blind eye to the issues at hand. Her primary friend group is all-white; she finds herself creating an 'us vs. them' mentality when she compares herself to the other black kids in her school. She's been hidden away from her own family's history. She's also a teenager learning how to overcome her flaws and deal with the growing pains of high school.
Jo, her sister, is almost the antithesis to Ashley. In her family's eyes, Jo feels too much. She fights for the rights of herself and her people (in fact, for anyone in need), at the risk of endangering herself. There's a perpetual weight on her shoulders that the rest of her family can't seem to wrap their heads around. The dynamic between Ashley and Jo was perfect. They were tethered to each other, even if they couldn't always see eye to eye.
✧ One of the things that struck me about this book was the timeliness of it. The story is set in 1992, and yet, unfortunately, it felt as if it could be set in 2020. The opening to chapter 22 struck me in particular - it could be lifted almost word for word and used to describe this past summer. It's disheartening, and very coincidental considering that this was released in August, but the message of the book hits harder because of it.
✧ I really liked how TBK tackled several issues: race, class, and even some feminist themes popped up. I think the fact that this story was told from the perspective of a young and wealthy black girl made this a really interesting read. It's also not very often that we get narratives across media which portray a black protagonist that's well-off.
The not so good:
✦ This, for me, was a really slow starter. I started reading this book, got about 40 pages in, and wasn't inclined to pick it back up again for about three weeks. I was going to mark it as DNF and come back to it in a few months, but I decided to just start again and managed to read through until the end. For me, that was a big turn-off; it's one thing to not be hooked in the first few chapters but another to put the book down and be reluctant to pick it up again for long enough that you forget who the characters are and what's happened so far.
✦ TBK is very much character-driven rather than plot-driven. That's not a bad thing, but for me, I tend to enjoy plot-driven stories much more. With character-driven stories, I often get 50-75% of the way through and start to wonder "where is this even going?"
✦ The narrative is a little jumpy at times, especially towards the beginning, which made it a little tough to follow at first. There's a lot of jumping between points in time and it was part of what turned me away from reading the first time around.
✦ I found the blurb to be a little misleading. It says that once the riots start, Ashley suddenly finds herself as one of the black kids. But actually, this doesn't really happen. In fact, much of the storyline centres specifically around how Ashley doesn't associate herself with the other black kids, and she isn't pulled into or personally affected by what's going on around her until one particular instance later into the book.
Overall, I did like The Black Kids, even if it took a little longer than expected for me to sink my teeth into. I would still recommend this book because I think it tackles a lot of very important issues, all of which continue to be highly relevant in today's world.
girlreading's review against another edition
4.0
3.5* A poignant exploration of finding your place, people and voice in a world that's fighting to make it as hard as possible for you to do so.
The fact that this book felt like a contemporary (despite being set nearly 30 years ago) and the way the events of the 1992 LA riots are still being mirrored to this day, shows just how far we as a society still have to go in tearing down and standing up agains systematic racism and police brutality and I thought this book did a brilliant job at highlighting this. But this book doesn't only explore police brutality, it also tackles topics such as privilege, family, self discovery, Black history, mental health, sex, toxic friendships, protests and more. One aspect I particularly enjoyed about The Black Kids is the way it allowed its characters to make mistakes and question authority and what they've always known. We slowly got to watch Ashley take back the power of her voice and use it to stand up for herself and those around her and part ways with that which was no longer good for her and I thought that was really powerful. Whilst I had a few issues with it here and there, I'd had no qualms recommending this book to YA readers young and old and I'm definitely excited to see what Christina Hammonds Reed writes in the future.
TW: police brutality, suicide, racism, racist slur, homophobic language, fatphobia/body shaming
The fact that this book felt like a contemporary (despite being set nearly 30 years ago) and the way the events of the 1992 LA riots are still being mirrored to this day, shows just how far we as a society still have to go in tearing down and standing up agains systematic racism and police brutality and I thought this book did a brilliant job at highlighting this. But this book doesn't only explore police brutality, it also tackles topics such as privilege, family, self discovery, Black history, mental health, sex, toxic friendships, protests and more. One aspect I particularly enjoyed about The Black Kids is the way it allowed its characters to make mistakes and question authority and what they've always known. We slowly got to watch Ashley take back the power of her voice and use it to stand up for herself and those around her and part ways with that which was no longer good for her and I thought that was really powerful. Whilst I had a few issues with it here and there, I'd had no qualms recommending this book to YA readers young and old and I'm definitely excited to see what Christina Hammonds Reed writes in the future.
TW: police brutality, suicide, racism, racist slur, homophobic language, fatphobia/body shaming