"In the stunning and hard-hitting sequel to the New York Times bestseller Dear Martin, incarcerated teen Quan writes letters to Justyce about his experiences in the American prison system.
Shortly after teenager Quan enters a not guilty plea for the shooting death of a police officer, he is placed in a holding cell to await trial. Through a series of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, the protagonist of Dear Martin, Quan's story unravels.
From a troubled childhood and bad timing to a coerced confession and prejudiced police work, Nic Stone's newest novel takes an unflinching look at the flawed practices and ideologies that discriminate against African American boys and minorities in the American justice system."
Last week I reviewed the book Dear Martin which is the first book in this "series". I wrote my review from a teacher's perspective and shared how I would use the book in a classroom. I had high hopes that this would be a good follow-up book that could be recommended to students, but I was extremely let down. Dear Martin was well thought out and had a solid storyline. This book felt haphazardly written.
Dear Justyce is told from the viewpoint of Quan who is in prison for murdering a police officer. Quan grew up in the hood and did what he had to do to survive. For him, that meant joining a gang. He found a place where people wanted him and had his back. But now Quan is a teenager in prison being charged for a murder he didn't actually commit. Through flashbacks of Quan's life, conversations with his mentor Doc, and letters written to Justyce, we learn how Quan got to where he is and the truth behind everything.
This book was written in a completely different format than Dear Martin. In Dear Martin, the story was told by Justyce and stayed in the present the entire time. Periodically there was a letter he had written to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This book jumped around... a lot. There were flashbacks of sorts that made us aware of why Quan had taken the path he had. There were letters to Justyce of course. They mainly focused on him talking through things and analyzing conversations and questions that Doc had asked. And of course, there was the present when Quan was having conversations with Doc. Once I had gotten used to the format it was an easy read and easy to keep up with... until we started getting the viewpoint of Justyce, SJ, and Jared. This was Quan's story to tell, but it was hijacked halfway through so that we would know what Justyce, SJ, and Jared were doing to try to get Quan out of prison. While it was good to get that point of view, I honestly could have lived without it. I wish the book would have stayed in the format of letters, conversations, and flashbacks. I feel it would have better represented Quan and his telling of the story of his life.
My biggest complaint of this entire book came at the very end of the book in the final chapter. We learn that Quan and Justyce's mentor Doc is gay. Both of these boys looked up to Doc and he was present in both books and asked hard-hitting questions of both of the boys. I hated that Stone just slid the fact that Doc was gay and married in at the very end and didn't address it earlier in this series. I felt like this could have and should have been brought up in the first book. It came across as being an afterthought or a way to "qualify" as a diverse book supporting the LGBTQ+ community. I felt like it needed to be taken out and not even addressed or it needed to be brought up and weaved into the story from the beginning.
I would have loved to have seen more of Quan's life in prison. I think that was just passed over instead of really sharing what life in prison was like for him. The book was okay, but it lacked some sense of reality. I think that people who read the first book will definitely want to read this one to find out if Quan really shot the cop or not. I give this 3 stars. It wasn't great, but it was good to get some answers that I had at the end of the first book.
