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A review by solly
Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
2.0
To be entirely honest, I don't think this story is for me for various reasons, and that's not a bad thing. One of the reasons it's not for me is because I'm not USian and though police brutality exists in my country, it's nothing like what happens in the US.
Anyway, I have no criticism of the story itself, of the unapologetic anger (I loved that), of what it's trying to say overall. It's a powerful book, and though I do like my books to be more hopeful than this one was overall, I don't think my frustration at that was a bad thing, I think it shows the book did what it wanted to achieve.
My problems are more with the characters and writing than anything else, especially anything concerning the plot or themes. The writing was not super easy to get through, and I don't know if I would have finished the book if I hadn't had the audio and the physical copy at the same time to help my brain with it. I can often look past writing I find to be meh if the story and characters are really good, and honestly I would have given this a good 3 stars if it wasn't for the two character-related things that bothered me the most.
I know this has gotten criticism for ticking diversity boxes, or the queer characters not experiencing enough discrimination at school or whatever, but this didn't bother me, far from it, I enjoyed the rep within the group of friends immensely.
But everything relating to Reg's disability was... bad. First, the scene where the metal detectors destroy his leg got me out of the story instantly. Metal detectors don't do that. Even if they did (as it's explained vaguely later that the machines weren't actually normal metal detectors), I can't believe that in the whole school that went before Reg, nobody forgot to take out their keys or to take off a belt, nobody had braces, etc. It's a technicality but one that changes the plot massively if it's changed so. I felt weird about it. But let's say I manage to suspend my disbelief about that. Reg taking the time to smile and thank Moss for being such a good ally before passing out from overwhelming pain did not sit super right with me. I could have ignored that if there wasn't then a scene where students carry Reg's wheelchair without asking him when he comes back to school. Please, isn't this politeness 101? Then, a tiny bit later, they stage a walkout using a hashtag called something like "EveryoneWalksInWestOakland" and... did Reg approve of that? Did someone ask him about it? At the very end, too, Reg has to reassure Moss that he didn't fail him and that he's so amazing for caring that his friend got hurt when no one else would have and I just rolled my eyes so hard. I didn't like the treatment of disability at all here, and that's probably my biggest critcisim of the book to be honest.
I didn't like the storyline around Esperanza either, but I feel like my opinion on that is a little bit more subjective and personal. I just felt like she was the only character that was truly flawed and had room to grow, and that she was punished for it. Esperanza is Latina and a lesbian, adopted by white parents. Her white parents do white parents stuff that I expected to happen, but I was a little taken aback by how badly she was blamed for her parents' actions. And for saying some stuff that was influenced by her parents. All stuff that could have probably been resolved by difficult conversations with Moss, but the book ended up going in the direction of "ah, now that she's gotten beaten up by the police, she understands, and she profusely apologizes to Moss for not understanding" and like... okay, not the best route I could have hoped for, but the worse was Moss' reaction that was like "oh now she gets it, but I don't know if my best friend getting beaten up by the police will ever be enough for me to forgive her for not 100% understanding me and agreeing with me on the first try". It just didn't really work for me, Moss' hatred for Esperanza over a few ignorant comments felt so difficult to understand, and honestly maybe it's a failure on my part, but I just couldn't go along with it.
I know a lot of people have also disliked the fact that a gay character dies, and I think I would have too if I hadn't read it in the TWs before reading the book, because it can be quite difficult to stumble onto, but I didn't really mind, I understood the point of it.
I was less convinced by Moss' character in general. I don't mind the unapologetic anger. I kind of have weird feelings I'm not sure I can articulate around how everyone around him had to centre his anger over theirs. His mom, in particular, never gets to be angry or at least upset at him for his outbursts, she always soothes him. And I get that they have this amazing relationship, but there's one scene where it really felt like she had to make her desires and feelings smaller than her son's anger.
Anyway yeah, I liked the story, and the tone, and the message. I mostly enjoyed the plot, weird metal detector scene aside. I had more trouble with the character, how some of them were treated, and I guess how glorified the MC was at times, compared to his actual role in staging the protests and all that (especially in the first half, it's more understandable later on). It would likely have been 3 stars still without the ableism (the carrying the wheelchair scene was what put me off the most, I think, and after that I had a bit of a hard time getting into it again).
Anyway, I have no criticism of the story itself, of the unapologetic anger (I loved that), of what it's trying to say overall. It's a powerful book, and though I do like my books to be more hopeful than this one was overall, I don't think my frustration at that was a bad thing, I think it shows the book did what it wanted to achieve.
My problems are more with the characters and writing than anything else, especially anything concerning the plot or themes. The writing was not super easy to get through, and I don't know if I would have finished the book if I hadn't had the audio and the physical copy at the same time to help my brain with it. I can often look past writing I find to be meh if the story and characters are really good, and honestly I would have given this a good 3 stars if it wasn't for the two character-related things that bothered me the most.
I know this has gotten criticism for ticking diversity boxes, or the queer characters not experiencing enough discrimination at school or whatever, but this didn't bother me, far from it, I enjoyed the rep within the group of friends immensely.
But everything relating to Reg's disability was... bad. First, the scene where the metal detectors destroy his leg got me out of the story instantly. Metal detectors don't do that. Even if they did (as it's explained vaguely later that the machines weren't actually normal metal detectors), I can't believe that in the whole school that went before Reg, nobody forgot to take out their keys or to take off a belt, nobody had braces, etc. It's a technicality but one that changes the plot massively if it's changed so. I felt weird about it. But let's say I manage to suspend my disbelief about that. Reg taking the time to smile and thank Moss for being such a good ally before passing out from overwhelming pain did not sit super right with me. I could have ignored that if there wasn't then a scene where students carry Reg's wheelchair without asking him when he comes back to school. Please, isn't this politeness 101? Then, a tiny bit later, they stage a walkout using a hashtag called something like "EveryoneWalksInWestOakland" and... did Reg approve of that? Did someone ask him about it? At the very end, too, Reg has to reassure Moss that he didn't fail him and that he's so amazing for caring that his friend got hurt when no one else would have and I just rolled my eyes so hard. I didn't like the treatment of disability at all here, and that's probably my biggest critcisim of the book to be honest.
I didn't like the storyline around Esperanza either, but I feel like my opinion on that is a little bit more subjective and personal. I just felt like she was the only character that was truly flawed and had room to grow, and that she was punished for it. Esperanza is Latina and a lesbian, adopted by white parents. Her white parents do white parents stuff that I expected to happen, but I was a little taken aback by how badly she was blamed for her parents' actions. And for saying some stuff that was influenced by her parents. All stuff that could have probably been resolved by difficult conversations with Moss, but the book ended up going in the direction of "ah, now that she's gotten beaten up by the police, she understands, and she profusely apologizes to Moss for not understanding" and like... okay, not the best route I could have hoped for, but the worse was Moss' reaction that was like "oh now she gets it, but I don't know if my best friend getting beaten up by the police will ever be enough for me to forgive her for not 100% understanding me and agreeing with me on the first try". It just didn't really work for me, Moss' hatred for Esperanza over a few ignorant comments felt so difficult to understand, and honestly maybe it's a failure on my part, but I just couldn't go along with it.
I know a lot of people have also disliked the fact that a gay character dies, and I think I would have too if I hadn't read it in the TWs before reading the book, because it can be quite difficult to stumble onto, but I didn't really mind, I understood the point of it.
I was less convinced by Moss' character in general. I don't mind the unapologetic anger. I kind of have weird feelings I'm not sure I can articulate around how everyone around him had to centre his anger over theirs. His mom, in particular, never gets to be angry or at least upset at him for his outbursts, she always soothes him. And I get that they have this amazing relationship, but there's one scene where it really felt like she had to make her desires and feelings smaller than her son's anger.
Anyway yeah, I liked the story, and the tone, and the message. I mostly enjoyed the plot, weird metal detector scene aside. I had more trouble with the character, how some of them were treated, and I guess how glorified the MC was at times, compared to his actual role in staging the protests and all that (especially in the first half, it's more understandable later on). It would likely have been 3 stars still without the ableism (the carrying the wheelchair scene was what put me off the most, I think, and after that I had a bit of a hard time getting into it again).