I had no idea what this book was about before I read it, and I'm not the target audience as this is a YA novel (which I also didn't know). I'm very glad that I read it though and the story really touched me. I'm not American and from what I have heard from non-white people, the racism in the UK is different, a more subtle racism that isn't as stand out in your face as the American kind but is no less destructive. Our Met police are currently going through some terrible press where systemic racism is being highlighted again and again, so we are not immune from this. However the culture around guns is so different here that we do not have police shooting people on a regular basis and so I can't imagine the rage and frustration when police repeatedly shoot black people who are not armed, and suffer no consequences whatsoever.

I thought the tone of this book was very well written; it wasn't preachy, it wasn't one dimensional, and it showed the compromises that this young black girl felt she had to make to get along. It shows the family dynamic in a really complex way that didn't demonise or glorify. I thought it was very well done and while I can't say I enjoyed it, because of the subject matter, I was definitely invested in it from the start. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially teenagers.