I had very conflicting feelings about the first section of the book. It's a good way to teach kids about fascism and the horros of American history, and present day honestly, but many of the elements left me feeling sour toward it.

Then I read the next section. Things made a lot more sense.

Despite not liking it at first, this would've been the perfect book for me around this age. It would've warped my little brain, I would've been obsessed with it, I know it.

Some / many of the ideas and characters were irresponsible concepts to have children read about until you get to Black and you learn the story is actually coming from a 12 year old girl trying to make sense of the world. My opinion changed because this was the same stuff going on in my 8 to 12 year old mind. Outside of that context, my opinion on the book would've been bad / worse.

The writing is good and I didn't feel like it talked down to the target age range, more like it met them where they were, which I appreciate.