Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

*A different bookcrossing label is used.

Promised to emmejo as a wishlist tag.

I received another copy of this book. I read that copy and loved the book. So this brand new copy that I bought some time ago and haven't read is going to emmejo. This is one of those books that should be widely shared.

This arrived today. Thank you so much!

I think one of the tricky things about reading a book that has become a face of a movement, an icon and image of a new YA literary surge, and a regularly recommended item for folks looking to learn about countering racism and police brutality, is that it can set strange expectations for the novel itself. This is a good book, but I think my brain had set expectations that were not reasonable and expanded beyond "a good book". The result was an unfair moment of letdown that I recognized was kind of silly even as I experienced it. This is a YA novel, not an anti-racist handbook or education between two covers.

That's not to dismiss it. This book has been a much-needed major force for increasing diversity in YA novels. And it is a needed viewpoint and setting that tends to be ignored or presented as poverty-porn. Yet, at the heart, it's about a teenage girl, whose life, loves, and dreams are much the same as 90% of YA heroines. The tragedy she survives and her decisions about how to best react to her friend's death mark her heavily, but these world-shattering events run in tandem with everyday teenage dramas. She's human and still a child, struggling with a messy, harmful world. I think this book might have been more impactful if I had read something like this when I was closer to her age, but it still hit solidly as an adult.

Sent to the winner of the US-version of the Colors Sweepstakes, themed around the color pink. With it's bright pink binding and cover text, I figured this one counted even though pink is not the predominant cover color.

Thank you emmejo for including this in my box of pink goodies! I think there is definitely enough pink on the cover to count. :-)