Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Clean Getaway by Nic Stone

1 review

morganperks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


I'm not sure how to explain my thoughts. I liked the road trip aspect. I liked Scoob. He was a good kid. You see from his internal reflection and conversations with his grandmother that he's contemplated his actions. Scoob has clearly learned from his mistakes at school and wants to be better. I also liked how Scoob talked about his dad. He recognized that his dad loved him and wanted to protect him. I thought the commentary on traveling through the south during the civil rights era was well done and informative, much needed in middle grade. I liked the moral/ethical questions the book brought up.
It aggravated me how G'ma was painted as this civil rights activist throughout the book. Then reveals that she let her black husband (the alleged love of her life) go to prison for a crime she committed. Don't even get me started on her list of petty crimes. It's completely selfish and inconsiderate to admit all of this to her 11-year-old grandson, leaving him with either the guilt of carrying these family secrets or the burden of telling his dad. It might have been fine if the above events still happened as long as we got to see a resolution. I don't need a happy ever after, but there must be a sense of closure. At the very least, there needed to be some internal thoughts of Scoob working through the traumatic (yes, very traumatic) information he now knows. Also, G'ma continued to steal jewelry with her Black grandchild after what happened to her husband. She chose to put him in danger of being wrongly accused because of his skin color WHILE educating him on the history of racism in the south. Idk about you, but that seems a little Get Out to me.


I picked this up as a potential read-aloud but I'm not sure I would use it. I do think the kids would like the story and it does lend itself to some good discussion questions but I'm not sure if I could get through this one again.
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