Nic Stone’s first novel, Dear Martin, is a powerful work right up there with Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give. It’s about 17-year-old Justyce McAllister, a black college-bound senior with an outstanding GPA at an elite prep school, whose world begins to turn upside down the moment a pair of white cops arrest and assault him for trying to help drive a drunken girlfriend home in her car. Through charges are dropped, Jus begins to feel that despite his academic accomplishments, he’s being judged by all around him (his mostly white classmates in his debate class, the kids from his old neighborhood, and his mother) on the color of his skin.
Jus is so conflicted by all of this that he begins writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King to himself in an attempt to sort everything out. Jus can also still count on his fellow classmates Manny (the only other black student in their clique) and Sarah Jane, with whom Jus has a crush on. But another encounter with one of the cops who had previously arrested him leads to a horrible tragedy and a sobering comprehension to Jus that racism and social injustice will always exist in one form or another unless everyone works together to fight this situation.
Well-written and detailed, with strong characters and situations, and a surprisingly hopeful final chapter, Dear Martin will definitely hook you into its narrative willingly!
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