Like The Hate U Give, this book is absolutely necessary. So we’re all lucky that it also happens to be very, very good. The book follows a very similar plotline to The Hate U Give: a young person of color makes discoveries about racial injustice and how it relates to them personally due to shocking and tragic circumstances, and figures out how to navigate that while also navigating the usual teenage issues. In Dear Martin, Justyce McAllister begins to wake up to just how racist his community is when he is harassed and abused by a police officer, and just as he is beginning to notice more and more of the racism around him (and also notice his interest in a bright, activist, white classmate), a horrific tragedy strikes and causes him to reevaluate everything.
I am using vague terms here because one of my favorite things about the book is how perfectly it timed that major plot point, and how impactful it was to me as a reader, and I don’t wish to spoil it too much. The book threads the reader along artfully, investing you in all it’s major characters before anything major happens, unlike many YA books that expect you to care deeply about a character you know very little about after the action has already started. I also really appreciate the fact that while the main character is a young boy, there is an interesting, developed love interest who isn’t just there to be The Love Interest.
Much of the book won’t be shocking to anyone who has followed the news about the epidemic of police violence against people of color, especially black men, in America, or to anyone who is generally invested in racial justice. But it is still a worthy read for the way it explores it’s character’s reactions to those things.
That being said, there are a few minor faults. One is that some of the devices used to interconnect the plot feel both forced and needless: those points would have been just fine not being connected at all. The other is that the book presents fine research and statistics, but even though most of the characters who present them are members of a debate club, they are still presented a bit more formally than most humans (especially most teenagers) talk. At those times, you do feel a bit like the characters are just being used as mouthpieces. But since I agree with what those mouthpieces are saying, I don’t mind too much. I see others criticizing the book for what they perceive as white villainy that would never happen IRL, and to those people I ask: have you been watching the news at all? Paying attention to the world at all? Maybe read the book again after doing that.