The Black Kids Book Review
Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.
On October 10, 2020, I started reading The Black Kids and finished on October 16, 2020.
My Writers’ Group and I had been overwhelmed lately—mentally—with everything currently happening in the United States in addition to personal shifts in both our lives. So, doing Book Club felt appropriate.
Our latest selection was The Black Kids—an official debut novel—by Black Writer Christina Hammonds Reed. With everything—ongoing coronavirus pandemic, toxic presidential election 2020, and the Black Lives Matter Movement 2020 with all the recent protests, riots, and looting related to Breonna Taylor and all the other murders—going on right now, reading this novel also felt appropriate.
Published on August 4, 2020, The Black Kids follows Ashley Bennett and her friends celebrating the end of senior year going into summer and college. The novel is set in Los Angeles 1992 when Rodney King was nearly beaten to death by four officers, which is the main driving force of the novel. The riots and protests that followed the verdict shattered Ashley’s “charmed” life—exposing her to the harsh reality of America.
Christina Hammonds Reed—since this is her official debut into the writing world—will go far in this world as long she keeps sharing that beautiful vivid imagery with us in future novels. The vivid imagery was easily the strongest aspect of the novel—which also set the overall tone of the story—with Reed providing a strong attention to details about the city of LA and the time period of 1992.
The only main issue I had with the writing was the transition between past and present scenes that occurred; they weren’t always consistently smooth—some were actually structured great like chapter 9’s “Me and Kimberly: A Friendship in Three Parts”—but I also might be unfair since I’m comparing it to The Bonesetter’s Daughter’s flawless transitional scenes. However, that was the only major issue I had with this novel. Everything else in the novel was pretty darn spectacular—starting with the book cover.
In Reed’s Acknowledgements, she admitted the book cover made her “shed the happiest of happy tears the first time [she] saw it”, and I’m not remotely surprised (Reed, page 361). The Black Kids’ book cover is a stroke of genius—a subtle sneak peek—that brought Reed’s vivid imagery to life before even hitting the first page. I enjoyed taking a minute to admire the cover before diving back into the story.
Incredible artwork has been a major thing for me lately—as I’m also an avid manga and Webtoon reviewer—so examining the cover and how it conveys the plot of the story was pretty noticeable to me right off the bat. Also, the book cover is also super gorgeous, so The Black Kids had that going for it too on a simplicity level—and perhaps a marketing level because it is definitely an eye-catcher.
Christina Hammonds Reed also did a fantastic job on building her main protagonist Ashley and her struggle to identify as a Black person. Ashley’s best—and only—friends are all White girls, and she grew up wealthy and privileged with them from childhood to senior year of high school. Ashley doesn’t associate with the other Black kids at her school, which makes herself question her own Blackness and Anti-Blackness at various times throughout the novel.
Ashley grappling with her identity throughout this novel is likely relatable to other Black readers—I am not Black, so I cannot say I totally relate—and how Reed conveys the microaggressions and direct racism through Ashley’s perspective does help the reader fully understand her hurt, confusion, and fear that comes from every incident she encounters, even if Ashley doesn’t fully realize it herself at first.
I would boil with intense rage whenever one of Ashley’s White friends made a micro aggressive comment or use the n-word like it was a joke. How Ashley never held them accountable—at least not right away—was infuriating in addition to her own Anti-Blackness affecting another character named LaShawn through a thoughtless rumor, but she did undergo character development to “make it right”—something that is said throughout this novel regarding everything she had done wrong.
The “I miss us” remark was also a powerful quote in this novel, relating to Ashley and her White friends’ friendship and “normalcy”—a status quo that allowed racism to continue unchecked. I use “normalcy” because “I miss us” is equal to what people are saying about “going back to normal” regarding all the awful things—all the stuff I mentioned earlier—ongoing with 2020.
Going back to normal—or neglecting to hold people accountable because “it won’t change their minds”—will definitely not solve anything and allow history to repeat itself. The story was set in 1992, but it holds a frightening resemblance to what’s been going on with today’s world—which obviously strengthens my point to hold people accountable.
Ashley’s family life was also explored, and how she was vastly different from them—particularly her older sister Jo in terms of personality and their opinions on the riots, protests, and looting happening throughout LA. The class and social difference between Ashley and her immediate family to her cousin Morgan and Uncle Ronnie was also explored through their Grandmama, a family-owned store, and a gun-related incident with the racist neighbors.
Overall, The Black Kids was a powerful—but heart-wrenching—debut for Christina Hammonds Reed. She tackles the subject of racism and all its different forms with such substantial relevance—ensuring the readers remain aware of what’s been happening in this novel—the past—and how it’s not all that different from current state of the United States now with the Black Lives Matter Movement 2020.
I would highly—wholeheartedly—recommend reading this novel at some point in your life. I’m also looking forward to seeing what she writes next. I have no doubt that she’s only getting started. Thanks for reading this book review, everyone! My Writers’ Group and I had ourselves an educated time with this one.