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A review by judebarrett
Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
1.0
This is my first review on Goodreads, and it is out of pure dislike of this book.
Do not come into this book expecting representation. You will be met with tokenism and 2-dimensionality. Countless characters like Bits, Esperanza, Njemile, and Rawiya are introduced just to receive absolutely no characterization or depth. Bits is non-binary and...what, doesn't say a lot? That's not even really true in the book, as Bits has extended conversations with Moss and other characters. Who the hell is Rawiya? She only exists to check off "Muslim" on the checklist and make her a "cool different" Muslim by having her enjoy punk music. Which isn't even explored. There is not one character who grows during the course of the book, or even has any character depth to begin with. Lines are spoken to no effect and have literally no consequence on the rest of the book.
This is a poor man's The Hate U Give. I'm not even done with it and already the dialogue is much better than the stilted crap you get in this book. Teenagers don't...talk like that. They don't act like that. It's utterly hilarious that the author is Latinx, because the Hispanic characters' dialogue....holy shit. No one talks like that--no one just throws in random words in Spanish while talking in English. Just...what???
I thought this book was going to be interesting-hell, isn't the synopsis something to behold? A young black gay teen with a mental illness deals with the effects of police brutality. That sounds extremely promising. I started out the book optimistically--when I saw Moss and Esperanza, his adopted Puerto Rican best friend who is also a lesbian, I was over the moon. Wow, I thought, I can't wait to learn more about her!
The situation with Esperanza, and indeed most of the women in this book is probably the most dire of all. First of all, Esperanza is immediately demonized for her lack of perspective in issues facing people of color. You'd think the book would show some sympathy for her-she feels out of place in both worlds, she can't connect with her own identity, her BEST FRIEND shuns her and verbally abuses her for weeks just because, what, she made a comment that pissed him off specifically and wasn't even bad? No no no no, Esperanza was in the WRONG here. SHE has to apologize to Moss, the whiniest, most violent and ill-behaved character in the book. She is put in her place for being around white people. How dare she...have been adopted by well-off people, I guess. That's really the extent of it. I'm not even going to get into the misogynistic ways other women who """wrong""" Moss are dealt with in the book.
God, I could go on forever. Moss is never accountable for anything he does wrong, every white person is evil by default, diverse characters need only ~exist~ to be well-written and count as representation, and there's some...weird pseudo-CIA shit going on in Oakland? I don't know.
tldr; Don't read this book, not if you're a POC, not if you're white, not if you're queer, not if you're straight, do not read it under any circumstances. It is 500+ pages of uninteresting hateful dialogue between characters whose only character traits are their minority statuses.
Do not come into this book expecting representation. You will be met with tokenism and 2-dimensionality. Countless characters like Bits, Esperanza, Njemile, and Rawiya are introduced just to receive absolutely no characterization or depth. Bits is non-binary and...what, doesn't say a lot? That's not even really true in the book, as Bits has extended conversations with Moss and other characters. Who the hell is Rawiya? She only exists to check off "Muslim" on the checklist and make her a "cool different" Muslim by having her enjoy punk music. Which isn't even explored. There is not one character who grows during the course of the book, or even has any character depth to begin with. Lines are spoken to no effect and have literally no consequence on the rest of the book.
This is a poor man's The Hate U Give. I'm not even done with it and already the dialogue is much better than the stilted crap you get in this book. Teenagers don't...talk like that. They don't act like that. It's utterly hilarious that the author is Latinx, because the Hispanic characters' dialogue....holy shit. No one talks like that--no one just throws in random words in Spanish while talking in English. Just...what???
I thought this book was going to be interesting-hell, isn't the synopsis something to behold? A young black gay teen with a mental illness deals with the effects of police brutality. That sounds extremely promising. I started out the book optimistically--when I saw Moss and Esperanza, his adopted Puerto Rican best friend who is also a lesbian, I was over the moon. Wow, I thought, I can't wait to learn more about her!
The situation with Esperanza, and indeed most of the women in this book is probably the most dire of all. First of all, Esperanza is immediately demonized for her lack of perspective in issues facing people of color. You'd think the book would show some sympathy for her-she feels out of place in both worlds, she can't connect with her own identity, her BEST FRIEND shuns her and verbally abuses her for weeks just because, what, she made a comment that pissed him off specifically and wasn't even bad? No no no no, Esperanza was in the WRONG here. SHE has to apologize to Moss, the whiniest, most violent and ill-behaved character in the book. She is put in her place for being around white people. How dare she...have been adopted by well-off people, I guess. That's really the extent of it. I'm not even going to get into the misogynistic ways other women who """wrong""" Moss are dealt with in the book.
God, I could go on forever. Moss is never accountable for anything he does wrong, every white person is evil by default
Spoiler
(except Hailey, who dies a chapter later, do with that what you will)tldr; Don't read this book, not if you're a POC, not if you're white, not if you're queer, not if you're straight, do not read it under any circumstances. It is 500+ pages of uninteresting hateful dialogue between characters whose only character traits are their minority statuses.