A review by bookedbymadeline
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

 I’m so confused, there’s sooo many people being mentioned that I had no clue what was happening in the beginning. 

The story allows you to view the story from multiple perspectives and gives an unbiased account of what happened. I had sympathy for both Sasha and Richard as the book tells the story of the tragedy of what happened to Sasha, how poorly the case was handled, and the injustice in the criminal justice system.

I don’t get why the author felt the need to deadname some of the people though, really unnecessary to the story. Because it’s written in 2017 (and apparently even when read even then, my point would still stand) some of the terms and discussions on gender and gender identity are outdated.

Disjointed storytelling as the story jumps all over the place; it’s apparently written in a nonlinear timeline. This left me feeling confused and pulled me out of the story. Also the writing style is very detached and almost feels like a textbook especially when it’s interwoven with definitions and statistics. The audio narrator sounds robotic so I would recommend a physical/ebook copy if you’re interested in reading it!

It’s difficult to rate non fiction especially when it’s about someone’s life so my rating is purely based on the author’s writing style choices and the audio narration. Overall it’s an important story that’s easily accessible for both adults and teens to learn from.

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