Reviews

Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro

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mikkareads's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

High school student Moss Jeffries struggles with anxiety and the trauma of witnessing his father's murder at a young age. His school, West Oakland High, is plagued by issues like racism, violence, and problematic over-policing, which deeply affect the students and the community. As tensions rise, Moss and his friends rally to address the systemic problems they face; they begin to organize protests and advocate for change within their school and community.

But will anybody listen? Will Moss ever get to be just Moss – loyal friend, loving boyfriend and all-around good kid? To get there, he will have to face his fears and his hate.

»Anger Is a Gift« is powerful in so many ways. It's a thought-provoking exploration of social and political issues, like racial injustice, police brutality, LGBTQ+ identity, and the power of collective action. It's not a story that lets you watch from a safe distance. With raw emotional energy, it pulls you right into the eye of a storm, asking you to feel the pain, breathe the despair… And yes, channel an anger that is not only justified, but might just be a catalyst for positive change.

Moss and his friends bravely defend their right to justice, safety and acceptance, while the whole world seems intent to beat them down at any cost. Be warned: the author takes the story to deep, dark places I did not expect it to go. At one point, I felt like I was drowning, losing all hope for any kind of positive change – but I think I needed to feel that, to truly understand what the characters were going through.

Above all, this is an authentic, empowering portrayal of diverse characters and their struggles, more than worth the read.

wintermote's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative 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? No

4.5

That was CRAZY! Very anti-police. Interesting story. I learned a lot

nourb's review against another edition

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such. a. good. book. never wanted to put it down. love the kind of open ending. very very good.

ericwheeler's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative 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? No

4.25

Content Warnings

ninasri's review against another edition

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5.0

This is not a pleasant book to read. But I still feel like everyone that is considering reading this to do it!

I'm sorry if I spoil the story with this, but I think it's really important that I include these trigger warnings: police brutality, racism, homophobia, transphobia, on-page depictions of intense violence and death

It's not a comfortable read, but the book still has its happy and hopeful moments.

Anger Is a Gift is the story about Moss who is a 16-year old black, gay teenager living in West Oakland, CA. It's a story about how his school and the city's police department turn Moss and his friends into criminals and their school into a zone of oppression and protest.
It's a story about the trials and tribulations of racial minorities in the United States and especially their fight against police brutality. It's a depiction of the daily lives of people in danger of getting assaulted simply because of who they are.
This book doesn't offer a resolution and that's exactly the message I took from it. I needed so badly to get closure to be able to move on and be at peace with the story but because I was denied this closure, I started to think about the reality of what I had just read.
Tbh, some scenes did feel like they were taken straight from a sci-fi novel they were so hard to believe. But they still happen today irl, regardless of how surreal they seem on page.

I'm a white, cis-gender woman living in an economically, socially, and politically stable country in central Europe. I am not a person who gets to talk about their version of this story. And I don't claim to be able to. But I've received the message this book sends out.

Emotionally, the story destroyed me. The first half of it speaks of the hardships the students have to go through. But it also shows their acts of resistance, their ways of coping with what is thrown at them. These actions gave me hope and made me see some way out of the situation.

Now for some spoiler-y thoughts:

Spoiler

Moss' love story especially made me incredibly happy and so hopeful for him. The fact that this is ripped from him and that Javier's life ends so early made the story so much more impactful to me. I sobbed when reading the shooting scene. Javier as a person and his relationship with Javier had so much potential and I think Oshiro did so well with showing us how much this kid could have done with his life if given the chance. With this in mind, his death seemed so much more devastating. We were given direct access to his hopes, dreams, preferences, his likes and dislikes, his fears, his passions. He was a real person that was taken from the world way too early.

And even though he's "only" a character in the book, he represents all the people that fell victim to the racial profiling and extreme police brutality that people of color still suffer from in the United States and so many other parts of the world.

Oshiro doesn't coddle his readers and that's exactly what makes this book so impactful, in my opinion. He sees the importance in confronting his audience with the reality of the world around us and shows us both its beauty and its terrors.