I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh. My. God.

I found myself avoiding this book after starting it - because I didn't want it to end.

Ashley Bennett is an upper middle-class girl living an upper middle-class life in an upper middle-class school with her upper middle-class friends.

Ashley Bennett is the only black girl in her friend group, one of few black people in her school and in her neighbourhood, and it's L.A. in the spring of 1992, right as the Rodney King riots begin.

This book is written so beautifully. Christina Reed seamlessly joins together past and future so that the reader is given a full view of Ashley's life - from her relationships with her family and friends to the racial micro- and macro-aggressions she experiences throughout her life.

Ashley is a great character - despite her constant misgivings about being a selfish person, she's a good kid who feels a bit lost. And Jesus, wouldn't you be?

An engaging and impactful coming of age story, following Ashley, a Black teen living in a primarily white and privileged area, who has lived a sheltered life in comparison to many of her Black peers. We read as Ashley becomes more socially and politically awakened, and truly comes to terms with her friends ignorance, micro aggressions and comes to understand and support her sisters passion and activism, which she previously dismissed. With plenty of social commentary and exploration of the LA riots following the assault of Rodney King at the hands of Police and how this event, sets off major repercussions for the city and in Ashley's own life. Although the novel is set in 1992, it has some extremely relevant moments and messages that can be applied to current events, reflecting that as far as people think we may have come, there is SO much work yet to do to dismantle a system which not only perpetuates racism but has been inherently flawed and unjust, and structured against BIPOC from it's very inception.

Full review to come closer to release date!

This book is set in 1992, following the horrific incident of police brutality against Rodney King in LA and the riots that ensued. It's incredibly terrifying, frustrating, and heartbreaking that this book could be set in 2020 and would require very little changes, showing just how little progress has been made in the area of civil rights and the reform of the police in over two decades. Hammonds Reed did a very good job of illustrating what it is like to be a young Black person growing up in the US, particularly in a time of increased tensions. I particularly liked how this book showed different perspectives of people's lives and how they experience racism—for example, Uncle Ronnie and his family live in a poorer neighbourhood and their home and business are directly impacted by the riots, whereas Ashley's family live in a rich, white neighbourhood and her parents try to shelter their kids from the racism they themselves faced (which, of course, is impossible to do as POC—especially Black people—will unfortunately always face racism, despite their wealth and social status, as various incidents throughout this book highlight). We also see how Jo and Ashley struggle with understanding their identity and feeling like they are making a difference but in very different ways.

There were some issues I had with this book, which is why I only ended up rating it 3 stars, but I won't go into them here as I don't want to put anyone off reading it. I really do recommend people read this as it covers such an important and relevant topic, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for some time. I'm also aware that this is Hammonds Reed's debut novel and I am genuinely very interested to see what they write next and see how they evolve as an author.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I started reading this book the George Floyd protests had been going on for a while - not just in America, but UK and Australia and other countries too. The book is set at the time of the Rodney King murder and there is a paragraph about choke holds from 10 years previous to that, and there were protests before then, again and again . It's all been going on for so long - for far too long.

This is an amazing book, I learnt a lot from it. If you want to know a little more about why black lives matter then read this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read an advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinions.

This book confused me a lot. There are lot of back and forth between past and present and sometimes I just didn't know what I was reading. But I really the main character and how the conflit was developped. There was a lot of thing happening in this story but I mostly enjoyed. I thought the author really portrayed teenage years.

The Black Kids is emotive, educational and groundbreaking, Christina Hammonds Reed uses her voice to encourage readers to leave the comfort of their privilege and speak out. Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, Reed weaves the past and present in this coming of age drama, about a war between the world and racism. This might be one of the most important books of the year. 

This book is a historical fiction, centering around the LA Protests in 1992, a true historic event I'm ashamed to say I knew little about. A state of emergency was declared in April 1992 as LA erupted into riots after four white officers beat a Black motorist. These events, despite taking place more than thirty years ago, are strikingly similar to the news of today, echoing the importance of supporting Black Lives Matter movements, and Black authors.

"It's not just about the cops, right? It's all of it. Yes, the LAPD is racist as hell, and black and brown communities get policed differently than white ones. That's a fact. But also, the school suck. There's no jobs. You don't give people any opportunities to make something of themselves."

We follow protagonist Ashley, who lives in a wealthy neighborhood with her family, and attends a prestigious school. Her parents have done their best to shelter her from the violence of racism, and the heritage of her family, ensuring she is financially funded and has a secure life. But Ashley can't stay young forever. All the Black Kids have to grow up faster than the rest, with injustice meaning they have to learn how to act around police, and what they can't do even when their white friends do it anyway. Life isn't easy for her, and it's only going to get harder. Ashley is such a compelling narrator, and her voice feels so real. She acknowledges her fear about speaking out, her reluctance to make new friends and the struggles she faces navigating her last few weeks at high school. We see her inner battle as she endures racism from her childhood friends, who see it merely as a joke. Her narrative is thought provoking.

"I'm always saying things are cool when maybe they aren't. Sometimes I have so much to say that I can't say anything at all."

I want to take a moment to discuss her friends. Courtney, Kimberly, Michael, and the rest of her friends all felt uncomfortably realistic. I'm sure we have all met someone like these characters, and allowed them push others around in their self centered bubbles. They joke that sneaking around would be easier without Ashley because she is black. Even when it came to the protests, kids were only taking part because everyone else was and they wanted to look cool, or simply have a day off school. The mailman in one of the very first scenes does a double take when Ashley's Black parents answer the door. All of this is not right. Reed places them in the story to remind us to have uncomfortable conversations with our family, to challenge our friends, and stand up for people like Ashley.

"If all the heroes in our stories are white, what does that make us?"

The Black kids is unflinching when it comes to mental health representation. We see Jo, Ashley's sister and Michael's mother struggle through depression. We also have the portrayal of domestic violence, and the young kids who have to endure it because they don't have anywhere else to go. I wish I could thank Reed for her honest portrayal of these issues.

The tone shifts throughout the novel. In the beginning, Ashley is with her friends, its bright and full of imagery. However, as we progress, the tone gradually becomes mellow and blue as though we feel the sadness of LA weighing upon the narrative. We begin to shift back and forth in time, learning the history of Ashley's family, what she endured in childhood and school. One moment that stuck out to me was the list Ashley compiled of each age she had endured a racial slur. It was harrowing, a reminder of the harsh reality Black people face, no matter how financially privileged they are.

Overall, I can't recommend this enough. As a YA contemporary and historical fiction, it is one of the most impactful books I have read this year. I encourage everyone to read it.

"It's about all of us. About all our black and brown brothers and sisters struggling to make ends meet in a system set up for them to fail. We have to change the system."

Set in Los Angeles in the early nineties, The Black Kids follows seventeen year old Ashley in her seemingly perfect privileged life. She attends a good school and lives in a rich neighbourhood, and she has rich-kid white friends. Ashley, personally, has never really known the struggles of life for her fellow Black people, nor paid much attention to it.

This changes for Ashley when Rodney King is beaten by police officers, and those same officers are acquitted despite their actions being caught on camera. L.A. erupts into protests and riots, rightly screaming about racial injustice. Ashley opens her eyes and sees everything she has let slip without speaking up about, from the micro aggressions from her friends, to the treatment of the other Black kids at her school.

As a coming of age story it cleverly explores race, identity, privilege and ignorance from a Black character’s POV. It highlights things that are still happening today, so to read this in 2020 and know the book is set in 1992, it’s sad to see nothing has changed when it should have long before then.

Even though this isn’t out yet, I highly recommend it. It taught me about Rodney King and the riots, and serves as a reminder that history keeps on repeating itself because of racial injustice and inequality that needs to end.

One small issue I (and a few others, I noticed) did have was with the switching between past and present, it seemed to get a little muddled up in places, but I’m putting this down to the formatting of the eARC and not the author/editor.



Did I like the book? Yes

Did I love it? Yes! I loved everything it stood for and what it taught me.

Would I recommend it? Yes! Not just for now, but to read at any point in time due to the historical moment within. It is honest in its plot and characters and doesn’t shy away from its portrayals.

The Black Kids is an engaging coming of age story set against the backdrop of the 1992 LA riots.

This is a debut novel with real promise, and the author has a brilliant turn of phrase. Some of Ash's observations of other characters and the racist power politics that surrounds them all are genuinely thought-provoking and powerful. The comparisons with The Hate U Give are justified - The Black Kids takes a similarly insightful and nuanced teen perspective.

It's a shame that some of the impact is lost with poor editing. There is some slippage between tenses and jumps in perspective that didn't quite work, and a lot of excess backstory that could have been cut (especially in the opening half). I like that Ash is a complex, and not always likeable heroine (I found her realistic and engaging), but sometimes her tangents distract from the real message of the story.

The Black Kids is a great YA that could've - and should've - hit harder with a few minor tweaks and the right editorial steer.

I am not sure how to feel about this book at all! At times it's amazing. It's historical fiction that is absolutely relevant today. But there were a few things that I didn't like.

The writing style is great, but in places the plot is hard to follow. I think this is an eARC format thing, but the present / past switching isn't smooth.

Ash is the kid of well off Black parents. She goes to a school where most of the kids are rich, and all of her friends are White. Her parents have made sure she has grown up sheltered, and in doing this she sort of just lets her friends get away with being jerks. They are bullies and often racist. Ash doesn't feel like she fits in with them anymore, but doesn't see herself as one of the Black kids at her school.

The historical elements are important, and are almost being replicated in present times. This book definitely educated me as I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know about the 1992 LA protests before. I also liked how Ash grew as a person, and she was definitely much more mature at the end of the book having made a lot of mistakes. She starts standing up for herself and calling people out and I love that.

So what didn't I like? Mostly, that Ash is super judgemental about weight. I think this is partly due to her friends' influence, and her mother's who does exercise tapes really early in the morning. But if someone looks like they've gained weight, Ash comments on it, and that made me super uncomfortable.

Overall, a very educating read but I feel like the plot could have had a better flow. And I wish Ash hadn't been so judgemental, but she was ALOT better than her friends, who are the worst.

The Black Kids is a coming-of-age novel set during the 1992 Los Angeles riots that remains ever relevant to today. Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a free Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book.

"If there’s not justice for one of us, there’s no justice for any of us."

Our protagonist is Ashley, a Black high school student from a relatively financially well-off background. She begins the novel as unaware of the political events and protests happening around her. However we do see plenty of her white friends enacting micro-aggression’s and she tells us of more overt acts of racism that she and her family have experienced. As the novel progresses, we see Ashley become embroiled in the events surround her.

"The officer was younger than my mother, with the same wispy blond goatee he must’ve had in high school. He looked like a bullied kid turned bully, the kind of kid who’d been too big, too poor, or too dumb and now more than happy to pull over anybody he deemed too anything. In our case, too black."

Although I’m not a huge reader of YA Fiction, The Black Kids was too intriguing to miss given the amount of excitement I’ve seen on social media about it. And it turns out the people on social media were right – this novel is so so good! Ashley makes for a compelling character and reading her journey throughout the novel was incredibly thought provoking. I found the personalities of her white friends to be uncomfortably accurate, having seen their behavior in those around me.

I also want to highlight this quote:

"People glorify protest when white kids do it, when it’s chic, frustrated Parisian kids or British coal miners or suffragettes smashing windows and throwing firebombs at inequality."

This was something that I had not thought about before, and something that I myself am guilty of. I live in the heart of an area where the British coal miner strikes happened, and it’s true that these events are somewhat glorified by my community. ‘We were fighting for our rights,’ says an acquaintance old enough to remember the riots, and in the same breath they’ll say ‘I just don’t think Americans should be looting.’ We can’t be lifting one community up and bringing another down for the exact same actions and I will do more in the future to call out this behavior.

The Black Kids is a fantastic novel that I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Above all it is infuriating that so little has changed in the forty years since the riots of 1992.

The Black Kids is a coming of age Historical fiction set amongst the 1992 LA Riots. Through the book we follow Ashley, a fairly privileged in comparison to many, black kid as she navigates the complexities of friendship, race and privilege in the midst of a hugely significant time in history.
Firstly, I appreciated this book for how much of a history lesson that it gave, in particular appreciating the complexities of the lived experience of being black and navigating different worlds. It was confronting and heart wrenching, and at this present time indicates how history appears to be repeating itself! The almost cruel irony that the events of current day are similar to that which Reed writes about in this book will hopefully serve an educational purpose. I for one learnt a lot about riots that were before my time and that I had never been taught about in the educational system - yet again another reason that we have to try harder!
I also really loved the characterisation in the book, Reed wasn't afraid to write about unlikeable characters and didn't shy away from some of the flaws that teenagers often have. To an extent it felt as though we were learning alongside Ashley, and this is always something I respect in this type of literature - as we know, nobody is perfect!
My only misgiving with the book is that it changed from previous occasions to current events and sometimes changed tense with almost no warning which often led a little confusion. Although, this could because of the layout in arc and in actual print it may appear a lot clearer.

The Black Kids is a coming of age story about finding the right friends who see you as you truly are without the boundaries of the skin you have. It was about settling in home with the people who are willing to reciprocate the same feelings you have for them. To be there for one another and figuring out the things and the company you keep that matters most.

This story set in 90's and I'm reading it now in 2020 yet they are still facing the same thing. Nothing much has changed nor are there any progressive development. Why exactly is that? We currently live in the 21st century and black people are still fighting for their rights.

I know I will never be able to understand the circumstances and the situations that black people have gone through and are still going through against racists and oppression but I stand solidarity with them and their cause. But what I can do is by knowing, listening and reading more about their voices and stories. Just like this story, The Black Kids is capable of making me live through their eyes and have empathy on them.

I don't know why people would have so much hate merely just because of the colour of their skin. And the main character Ash faces this on a daily basis with the people she call her own friends. And just like her, I really question why she's still putting up with them.

There are parts when its about the present and it swiftly moves back to the past and then back again to the present. I'm not sure if its the format of the ARC or the story is written this way but I got confused. It was kind of hard to differentiate that. I'm a bit saddened to say this but I wasn't really feeling this book. The premise is captivating and the story was enough to pull the readers in but I just couldn't really get into it.

t is a fact that what they go through is extremely unfair and injustice. I feel their anger and I wish I could fight along with them. Honestly, this book is exactly what's happening across the world over there in America. The protests, riots and fighting for their rights. Racism is not something to make excuses for and it is utterly intolerable. #blacklivesmatter

The Black Kids is an unflinching and honest exploration of the everyday racism members of the black community face. It looks at privilege, class and the battles young people face as they move in to adulthood. It's one of the most powerful and necessary reads within the YA world.

It's hard to separate reading this book from the background of news reports about George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. Almost 30 years after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when this story is set., you wonder if we have learned anything as human beings. We need this story, we need to hear Ashley's voice and see the changes in her life as the events after Rodney King was brutally attacked unfold. Ashley is such a believable character; her parents have protected her, carefully chosen which area they live in and which school she attends, but this has made her blinkered and naive. Her teenage life is very relatable; parties, friends, relationships, school, family... she makes mistakes, she isn’t perfect and this is why I like her so much. Her life pivots on this moment in time; school is ending, friendships are broken and made, family split and come together, she discovers family secrets and more about her own identity. The riots are a crucible of fear, anger and frustration and it is this shock to Ashley's system that enables us, through her eyes, to experience what it means to be an African-American.

Thank you to netgalley for this advance review copy. (For reference I read this during Covid lockdown)

I enjoyed being in Ashley’s world for a while.

It was a nice read, quite dark in parts, but truthful to real life. I love the colour and it is the sort of book you can re-read whilst feeling like your reading it for the first time. Love it!!

Reed's novel deals with so many themes; race, girlhood, growing up, privilege, sisterhood, identity. Compelling, sincere, powerful.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more of a crime/thriller reader however this story intrigued me. I absolutely loved it, truly one of the best books I have read. I am extremely pleased and grateful to both for opening up my mind to something totally different.