A review by applesaucecreachur
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Where to start? 

A Good Neighborhood's best quality was its characters. First of all, the narration style was fascinating. I've never read a story told quite like this and I ate it up. As for specific characters, Juniper was full of flaws and virtues,
Spoiler Brad and his relationship with both Juniper and her mother
was something I loved to hate, Lily was adorable, and Xavier and his mother Valerie were just perfect.

They were too perfect. For a story that on more than one occasion
Spoiler flung the N-word at its Black characters
, told the terrors of modern-day racism from a Black woman and her biracial son's perspective, and covered such horrors as
Spoiler hate crimes and a young man's suicide by the penal system </spoilers>, it had a very clear audience: White people. White like the book's author. Of course Xavier had to be a star citizen and half-white to boot – How was a white audience to believe
Spoiler his purity of character otherwise?
I don't know that white authors shouldn't write from the perspective of non-white protagonists. I do know that this story of racism coming from a white woman was far too stiff, far too orchestrated to be believable as the true Black experience. Are fictional stories of anti-Black racism in the U.S. valuable? Absolutely. But their telling is best reserved for those who have experienced it, and who are willing to use their creativity to share it with the world. This book did move me because like I said, the author is excellent at developing (most) of her characters. I just wouldn't put this title on a list of... well, any required reading, really. 
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