TW: racism, ableism, bullying (main storyline revolves around a lot of it), stereotyping, mentions of a homophobic slur (not said on page), the ableist 's' slur, vomiting

Note: this review comes from a white, autistic ADHD person

3.5 stars

A complicated and interwoven story of similar yet drastically different cercomstances thrust on two boys.

Joe is disabled with SPD (sensory processing disorder) and constantly bullied. The way his SPD is written seems quite accurate to my own and other family members experience with it, but I also liked his broad imperfections as well. How he was accomidated at school for the most part was heartening, aside from his one teacher giving him 'busy work' which was litterally a collection of useless and mundain tasks such as 'find a page in this magazine with no pictures in it, then copy all the words that start with t' etc. She's trying to teach him to remember instructions which just... no? Just accomidate him like you've had all the other teachers do, where his instructions are written down, rather than trying to not only force his inability to be constantly brought up but also infantilize him with these random 'tasks'. Joe's father's ableism also goes largely unresolved by the end of the book, with both his ableism of wanting his son to 'man up' and also his racist comments going unchallenged.

Ravi's story I'm unqualified to comment on, and I recomend one takes the reviews of #ownvoices reviewers before mine in this area. I will say he also seemed a complicated and well flawed character who experienced a lot of positive growth. Overall I'm glad to have read this book.