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A review by alexisrt
Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
3.0
I don't read a lot of YA, and rarely review it when I do, but a friend specifically recommended this book to me.
The good: the book portrays important social issues with power and immediacy. The portrayal of life in an underfunded school is spot on. (The metal detectors, though. At least he explained it with the magnetic body scanner, but it still doesn't 100% make sense: they'd put such an expensive piece of equipment in a high school? Even suspending my disbelief that they would not train officers in how to use it. I get that he was trying to work in the militarization of the police, but the way it was squashed in made it feel like he hadn't done enough research on actual implementation. And ICE didn't exist when Esperanza was born.)
The bad: characterization is, for the most part, weak. The novel reads too much like Oshiro decided he wanted to write a Very Important Novel with a Very Diverse Cast. The characters lack individuality. I remember who is black, who is Muslim, who is nonbinary--but I remember very little about them as individuals, just as identities. Only Bits stuck out at all. They fit into slots in his diverse cast. Esperanza exists as a bridge between her parents (white, well off, well meaning individuals) and the diverse teens of color of Moss' world. She serves a function, but isn't enough of a person. Meanwhile, her parents exist as a plot function--the well meaning white people who betray the kids. Mr. Jacobs plays a similar role. The characters aren't afforded moral complexity--instead, the story functions as a morality play with predetermined slots.
The good: the book portrays important social issues with power and immediacy. The portrayal of life in an underfunded school is spot on. (The metal detectors, though. At least he explained it with the magnetic body scanner, but it still doesn't 100% make sense: they'd put such an expensive piece of equipment in a high school? Even suspending my disbelief that they would not train officers in how to use it. I get that he was trying to work in the militarization of the police, but the way it was squashed in made it feel like he hadn't done enough research on actual implementation. And ICE didn't exist when Esperanza was born.)
The bad: characterization is, for the most part, weak. The novel reads too much like Oshiro decided he wanted to write a Very Important Novel with a Very Diverse Cast. The characters lack individuality. I remember who is black, who is Muslim, who is nonbinary--but I remember very little about them as individuals, just as identities. Only Bits stuck out at all. They fit into slots in his diverse cast. Esperanza exists as a bridge between her parents (white, well off, well meaning individuals) and the diverse teens of color of Moss' world. She serves a function, but isn't enough of a person. Meanwhile, her parents exist as a plot function--the well meaning white people who betray the kids. Mr. Jacobs plays a similar role. The characters aren't afforded moral complexity--instead, the story functions as a morality play with predetermined slots.