Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This book, though set in the 90s, can unfortunately be easily transported almost exactly to present times. The plot line surrounding murder of Black people at the hands of police and protests are super relevant, and there’s a lot of great content and commentary surrounding that subject. This debut follows a Black teenager named Ashley, who grew up in a rich white neighborhood and attended the white school, surrounded by white girlfriends who are sometimes realistically awful. Following the events of the 1992 LA riots (a topic I am woefully uneducated about), Ashley is forced to rethink her friend group and her place in her family and society.

There are definite bright spots in this book that shows promise for the author. I enjoyed how Reed wrote the familial relationships, like Ashley’s relationship to her parents, her sister Jo, and her cousin Morgan. I also loved LaShawn and his role, though I wish he had gotten a bigger role sooner in the book. Ashley’s friendship with Lana was also great, and I liked the ending!

The downfall of this was the pacing and editing. I felt that the plot was clunky, and that the writing felt sort of random and out of place at times. It might have been the format of the ebook, but the narrative was a bit confusing when switching between past and present, so maybe the print copy will fix that.

Overall, I think this is still a valuable book for today’s issues and it definitely shows potential for this author. I learned a lot about the ‘92 riots that I never knew before, and the characters were interesting and well-written.