Review: DEAR MARTIN by Nic Stone

 

Dear Martin by Nic Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'A powerful, wrenching, and compulsively readable story that lays bare the history, and the present, of racism in America' John Green, bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down
'Absolutely incredible, honest, gut-wrenching! A must-read!' Angie Thomas, bestselling author of  The Hate U Give
 
Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut.
 
Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League – but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighbourhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.
 
Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.
 
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up – way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty police officer beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.

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Reading this book was like being punched in the gut. Repeatedly.

I'd actually been sitting on this book for a while. It's been on my kindle for a good year or so, and I don't know what exactly was stopping me from reading it--I guess, maybe, the hype. Because I'd heard so much good stuff about this book, and that always makes me nervous in case the book doesn't live up to my expectations.

I've been trying to read more Black authors this year, and having recently finished books by Kimberly Jones and Tiffany Jackson, I decided to give this one a go.

I normally don't get hooked on books written in third person--I need that intimacy and immediacy that first person offers--but this book is an exception. Dear Martin is phenomenal.

It examines racism and police brutality, when Black young men are gunned down by police for no reason. Justyce, our main character, is complex. He's a young Black man who, right at the start, experiences racial profiling. We see his thought processes as they unwind, see how he tries to forget about this, but only has it circling more and more in his head. He writes letters to Martin Luther King as a way to cope with this racism, and we see how his hope is gradually replaced with despair, to the point where he stops writing to Martin.

Spoilers ahead now--So, let's talk about the big moment in this book: Manny's death. Manny is Justyce's best friend and is also Black. And just after halfway through the book, he is killed by a police officer in front of Justyce. That was such a gut-punching, heart-wrenching moment. I didn't see it coming at all. And it's Manny's death that prompts our MC to question everything. He begins to question what the point is in even fighting people's assumptions, when they don't change their behaviour. He considers joining a gang. It's all just so powerful and raises so many questions and discussion points.

This is a great book to start a conversation (a hugely important and vital one) on race, police violence, and racism.

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