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A review by thepetitepunk
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
4.0
"You can't change how other people think and act, but you're in full control of you. When it comes down to it, the only question that matters is this: If nothing in the world ever changes, what type of man are you gonna be?"
I wish I could say Dear Martin is painfully unrealistic. I wish I could say the horrific events described don't happen in real life, and if they did, the criminal justice system would not treat Justyce—or any other black person for that matter—the way it did. I wish I could say that no human could ever be this violent, malicious, hateful, or ignorant. But I can't say that, because this is the world we live in. Through Justyce's experiences, Nic Stone captures the painful, frustrating reality of the racism we often overlook in our ever day lives.
I appreciated the fact that Stone depicts racism in a variety of ways. Arrests, shootings, funerals for those who should have had years and years ahead of them: these are the things that leave a hole in our hearts. But the hatred that causes these events starts somewhere, and Stone does a great job of showing how racism can be present in seemingly harmless conversations and actions. In fact, he does this so well, I wish Dear Martin was longer so that some of these issues could be explored even further. Sometimes, especially in a short books, an author might tackle too many serious issues at once and it becomes a mess since there are only so many heavy concepts you can adequately cover in one novel. I did not think that this was the case with Dear Martin; Stone's portrayal of life as a black teen was realistic, and it definitely did not feel like he was just trying to throw in as many buzz words concerning social justice as possible. But still, I loved Justyce's character and really wanted to see a larger portion of his life.
Although Dear Martin was an emotional ride, I did find it a bit hard to get into. It's not that the beginning was slow; it just wasn't very interesting to me. This may have been because I was reading the e-book version, but I also had a very hard time getting used to the format of the book. The "Dear Martin" letters Justyce writes were fine, but I didn't like how half of the dialogue was written almost like a play. Other than that though, the second half of the book was fantastic. Heart-wrenching and relevant, Dear Martin is an important book that will hit close to home.
I wish I could say Dear Martin is painfully unrealistic. I wish I could say the horrific events described don't happen in real life, and if they did, the criminal justice system would not treat Justyce—or any other black person for that matter—the way it did. I wish I could say that no human could ever be this violent, malicious, hateful, or ignorant. But I can't say that, because this is the world we live in. Through Justyce's experiences, Nic Stone captures the painful, frustrating reality of the racism we often overlook in our ever day lives.
I appreciated the fact that Stone depicts racism in a variety of ways. Arrests, shootings, funerals for those who should have had years and years ahead of them: these are the things that leave a hole in our hearts. But the hatred that causes these events starts somewhere, and Stone does a great job of showing how racism can be present in seemingly harmless conversations and actions. In fact, he does this so well, I wish Dear Martin was longer so that some of these issues could be explored even further. Sometimes, especially in a short books, an author might tackle too many serious issues at once and it becomes a mess since there are only so many heavy concepts you can adequately cover in one novel. I did not think that this was the case with Dear Martin; Stone's portrayal of life as a black teen was realistic, and it definitely did not feel like he was just trying to throw in as many buzz words concerning social justice as possible. But still, I loved Justyce's character and really wanted to see a larger portion of his life.
Although Dear Martin was an emotional ride, I did find it a bit hard to get into. It's not that the beginning was slow; it just wasn't very interesting to me. This may have been because I was reading the e-book version, but I also had a very hard time getting used to the format of the book. The "Dear Martin" letters Justyce writes were fine, but I didn't like how half of the dialogue was written almost like a play. Other than that though, the second half of the book was fantastic. Heart-wrenching and relevant, Dear Martin is an important book that will hit close to home.