Rating:
5 Stars
Themes:
Young Adult, Race, Fiction
Thoughts:
I absolutely devoured this book. I knew from the off this was gonna be a deep and intense book and it didn’t disappoint. Jerome is so mature in his actions caring for his family when alive and at the same time we can see him acting his normal age when he gets frustrated with it all. I’ve seen kids behave like that myself so Jerome feels like a very real child of that age in those circumstances. It’s interesting that we see so much about the family of the cop who shot him, especially the daughter but I can see how some may interpret it a little like it centres the sympathy of the perpetrator a little too much. Although I personally did like the angle it took with that in terms of the purpose of these Ghost Boys and the reason why we need to see a lot from Sarah and the cops perspective. I liked that it flipped back and forth between dead and alive as it built up the tension and also reminded us just how young and innocent Jerome really was with his school day being shown through the alive bits. I also liked that there was so much thought put into the afterword, further resources for parents and educators and even analysis provided at the end.
Favourite Quote:
“Me and all the other boys on her computer screen have names. Jerome Rogers. Tamir Rice. Laquan McDonald. Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Jordan Edwards. We're people. Black kids.
Colour shouldn't make anybody scared. Is it because slavery happened? Is that why some whites are afraid of black people? I don't know. Wake up, people, I want to tell everyone. Fear, stereotypes about black boys don't make the world better.”
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