Plot:
Set against the backdrop of the 1992 Rodney King riots, Ashley, a wealthy Black teen, learns that no matter the wealth and status of her family she will always be one of the Black kids. With the acquittal of Rodney King’s murderers comes burning unrest and riots across LA and questions of class, race and identity for Ashley as her sister is drawn into the violent riots and her friends help spread a rumour with the potential to ruin the life of one of her fellow Black kids.

My thoughts:
This book is incredibly topical this Summer following the murder of George Floyd (which was incredibly similar to the violence against Rodney King - multiple white police officers being caught on video beating a Black man) and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. It’s an incredibly important exploration of race and class and also a fun and engaging read. Also can we talk about that cover? GORGEOUS!

This book is set during the time of the Rodney King riots but it’s very much a coming of age story focused on Ashley’s character and her identity, family and friends. We see her struggles with her all white peers and their treatment of her as a Black girl, she is constantly surrounded with casual racism and jokes she has no choice but to bear. The book also explores the ways her family’s privilege has taken away her connections to her extended family, history and fellow Black kids and the limitations and dangers of sheltering someone too much.

I loved the stream of consciousness narrative style and found it incredibly effective with the context of exploring Ashley’s feelings and identity. It felt personal and created a real connection with her. The writing in general was great and I felt that it really captured the time period (though I wasn’t yet born so don’t take my word on it) and created an authentic voice. I also loved how the tone changed throughout, from the light and happiness of the start to more serious and often negative as the riots progressed and Ashley began having more realisations and was more personally affected by the riots. This book was incredibly honest and did not shy away from exploring difficult subjects. Most prominently, there were many instances of racism both remembered and in the present day which affected the characters at different ages, and the devastating lifelong effects of this were explored.

Overall, this book tackled several important themes with incredible sensitivity and authenticity. I would highly recommend this not just for those themes and its discussions around race and racism but also as a coming of age novel about family, friends and finding your voice. This was well written and expertly told, gripping and thought provoking.

Oof this book packs a punch.
In the span of these pages, this book not only tackles subjects such as systematic racism, privilege, and identity, but it also presents one of the most authentic depictions of teenage life that I've read. The complicated family dynamics that come from wanting to protect those you love while acknowledging how ignoring problems can only make things worse. The conversations about knowing when it's best to leave a friendship behind, instead of merely settling for what's comfortable. Knowing what's worth handing effort to, even if it initially seems more energy than necessary. All of these things, told through a tale of the good and the bad parts of teenage life, really struck me as an authentic representation without my fantasy-loving-heart finding it tedious to follow. It all just worked.

I have to give a massive appreciation to the ending - no spoilers, of course. All I'll say is I'm highly impressed it managed to give me the satisfied "everything will be ok in the end" feeling while notably not being typically ok. Things aren't wrapped up in a sweet little bowtie and served on a platter for your amusement. It feels real, and while the way various strands of this book ended can't necessarily be considered happy, it did still manage to feel like an ending of sorts.

I really enjoyed this book. I can see myself pushing it into the hands of many. I sincerely hope this reaches the same level of hype and acclaim as most popular YA contemporaries, because this is one of the strongest I've read by far.

This book covers so many important topics. There’s so much more to this than focusing on the riots, and I particularly liked the way the author shared Ashley’s friendships with us. They felt so authentic and how complex they can be. I found it hard to keep up with the timeline jumps, however this could be the arc copy and how it reads on my e reader.

I don’t read a huge amount of YA (far less than I should!) but I loved The Hate U Give and the premise of this combined with the ‘perfect if you loved THUG’ taglines and general buzz about it really pulled me in.

Ashley is well-off, spoilt (by her own admission) and black. Until recently, the latter hasn’t played much part in her thoughts or her daily life – her best friends are rich, white kids; her home is in a rich, white area and her life has almost always been as theirs is (although, as we see when she starts to reflect on it, perhaps it hasn’t and she’s just chosen to ignore the more casually racist behaviours around her).

We’re told in the synopsis online that

…everything changes one afternoon in April, when four police officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.

but it’s not quite this clear cut.

The LA riots of the 1990s (that began when the officers who beat up Rodney King were acquitted) do form the backdrop to the novel and they do become increasingly intrinsic to Ashley’s choices, feelings and actions, but their effects – on Ashley and more broadly – are not quite so quick and defined as this.

The book begins with Ashley herself admitting that she wasn’t all that bothered by the case to begin with; she and her friends are on the cusp of Summer, graduation and college. Life is a lazy time of skipping school, going out and having fun as they all prepare to go their own ways.

On the surface, it’s a stereotypical scenario – well-off teens skipping school to sunbathe, swim and smoke, mess about with boys/girls and generally enjoy themselves without thinking too much about anyone or anything else.

However, it’s as we spend so much time just ‘hanging out’ with Ashley and her friends in this way that we see – both in their interactions and her memories of growing up there with them – that we see the casual, incidental racism embedded in their lives. Little comments, ‘jokes’ and assumptions made; the knowledge that when they’re stopped by the police for trespassing she’s probably the reason and definitely the one at risk.

However, they’re her friends. They don’t mean anything by it. It’s just how things are. It’s okay.

Or is it?

Gradually Ashley begins to see the racism around her, amplified by the riots, and the contrast between her sheltered, protected life and the lives of the other black kids in her school and in neighbourhoods being looted, burned and vandalised.

It’s likely we’ll see a flux of books about racism given the current climate, but this one especially tackles it somehow subtly and frankly all at once and really addresses how larger events that seemingly have “nothing to do with us” can suddenly feel much closer to home.

In light of the fact that nearly 30 years on, as Black Lives Matters protests continue and we still have police officers kneeling on black necks and abusing their stop and search rights, we don’t seem to have changed at all.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

There are so many layers to this book, so many clever ideas and angles and so much to love about it that it’s hard to review without a sprawling essay full of tangents and spoilers.

It’s less a book I want to review and more a book I really want to talk about and share thoughts on.

So, I will instead keep it short(ish!) and say just this – it is superbly written with complexity, understanding and excellent characters and relationships.

It takes quite something to take a group of wealthy, spoilt brats and give them depth, but that is exactly what we get here. It doesn’t necessarily make them likeable, but it does make them believable and understandable.

Ashley herself is judgmental and self-absorbed (to begin with at least) but it is as she learns from her mistakes and opens herself up to possibilities, people outside her friendship group and begins to consider the wider world that we see her grow.

Her sister Jo and ‘nanny’ Lucia are both fantastic characters too who bring much in the way of context, contrast and social commentary.

Ultimately, this is a book about racism, but it is also a fantastic coming of age story, a realistic and sometimes difficult examination of family and an honest look at friendships – their evolution, their end and the beginnings of new ones. And the themes interplay brilliantly.

I feel like I’ve not done this book justice here, but it is a gripping, thought-provoking, complex and believable read.

It also references some awesome music and I very much need an accompanying The Black Kids soundtrack now!

4.5/5

For clarity, the only reason that I docked half a star is because of something that the main character does which didn't sit right with me.

Otherwise, I genuinely loved this book. It is by no means a book with an entirely happy ending or one with any real sense of being wrapped up completely, but that's kind of what makes it perfect. I think having the sense of perfect ease and happiness would have defeated the purpose of the book and the messages it shares. The Black Kids asks so many questions about what it means to be Black at any time of your life, let alone during a time of heightened racial profiling and police brutality. It asks us why we hold on to lifelong friendships when we know how toxic they are and how damaging they are to our sense of self and identity.

I'm not Black, but I found it difficult and uncomfortable to read the (numerous) scenes depicting racial profiling and police brutality. I think Christina Hammonds Reed handled the topic perfectly, balancing a sense of cautious storytelling with this need to tell a story so important and so relevant. But this book isn't just about Black trauma, it's also about Black living; about friendships forged, romantic relationships, platonic relationships, scholarships, college applications and prom.

I really loved this book. I don't want to be that person who compares every Black book to The Hate U Give because it was so revolutionary, but it really is very similar. The most obvious difference would be that our main character doesn't get involved in the protesting, she's more so on the periphery looking in while her older sister takes a more active role in it.

Trigger/content warnings: racism, graphic depictions of racially charged brutality, police abuse/neglect/brutality, recreational drug use, alcoholism, parental neglect/child abuse, cheating, homophobia, cancer, AIDS, bullying, mention of attempted suicide, white people using the N-Word.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

As the end of high school nears, Ashley and her friends spend more time away from school than in it. Though Ashley is all too aware of the differences between her and her white friends, of the need to ‘be better’, she doesn’t pay much attention until the murderers of Rodney King are acquitted, and the city she lives in becomes engulfed in riots.

The Black Kids is a coming-of-age tale, a story of a young woman trying to find her place in the world and work out who, exactly, she really is. Ashley is caught between two worlds. Because of her parent’s wealth, she’s part of the rich kids, but her skin colour and her family’s history mean she’ll always be different.

This book is going to get compared a lot to The Hate U Give, but these are two very different beasts. Starr and Ashley are very different characters. The books share similar themes, but Starr witnesses the death of her friend, while Ashley for most of the novel remains removed by the events happening around her.

That removal adds to the strength of the book, as she tries to work out her own emotions and feelings, tries to dig deep and understand why she feels how she feels. One way I really connected with Ashley is in how she processes her emotions. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, and at times it feels like she uses such words to mask herself and avoid confronting her own emotions.

The problem is, Ashley feels things very deeply. Her numbness is a way of her holding onto control, and it can at times make her seem like she doesn’t care, but throughout the book it’s clear she really does. She just has so much going on she doesn’t know where to start caring.

The settings are different in The Hate and The Black Kids, too. These two characters are from completely different worlds, and in each case Starr and Ashley have more in common with each other’s cousins than they do with themselves. Ashley lives in a ‘good’ (aka rich, majority white) neighbourhood in L.A. The tone is different, the attitudes, time period, etc. There’s more to separate these two than bind them, but both are amazingly fantastic books everyone should definitely check out.

In short, The Black Kids is a beautiful, lyrical coming-of-age tale, Ashley is a character lost, confused and struggling, her parents paying more attention to her wayward sister than her, and who is completely engaging. I can’t wait to see more from Christina Hammonds Reed.

The Black Girls is a brilliantly written and engaging book, with a deceptively chatty tone that lures you in to a sense of comfort, before a perfect, powerful sentence snaps you to attention. This is an arresting book about growing up and drifting apart from your friendship group, learning who you are and who you want to become. It’s about facing history head on and understanding how the past impacts the present and the future. It hits hard on social injustice, race and class, opening the eyes and hearts of the characters and the reader. Although Christina Hammonds Reed doesn’t gloss and filter or provide unrealistic happy endings, The Black Kids is an ultimately hopeful book, looking to a future that could be better. Should be better.
The comparisons with The Hate You Give are well deserved. I loved it.

I really really loved this. I had only watched the documentary LA 92 recently so when this popped up on my Goodreads I was buzzed to read it.

I read this in practically one sitting, only taking breaks for the bathroom and food and it is because I was so engrossed I wanted to know what happened next. I really liked Ashley, it was sad to see her struggle with her identity but it was amazing to watch her development throughout the story. I did not like Kimberly from the minute she was first mentioned.

The book deals with some important topics and issues that we need to be constantly speaking out about, not just when it is popular on social media. I am really trying to educate myself more because it is my duty to do so, the responsibility should not fall on others to do so.

Please please pick this book up when it comes out. I cannot wait to read what the author puts out next.

I'm going to find it hard to review this one. To start, I did enjoy The Black Kids, and would recommend, especially to fans of YA. But, and there is a but... I didn't find myself rushing back to read more, even at 90% of the way through, I was finding it more of a chore to finish. There may be a few reasons for this: 1. Lockdown has done strange things to my reading pattern- I find as soon as I start to read I'm fast asleep, so it's hard to really get into a novel when you only read a few pages at any one time. This is not the first book I've had this with; question is, would I still be like this with a 5 star book? 2. The pacing of this one did not sit well with me. Initially I found it slow - interesting, if not too deep when simply learning about the lives of these teenagers - but slow. Then half way through, it picked up, and this was the part I enjoyed the most. However, nearing the end it got waaaay too fast and the last part of the book breezed through. To be honest, I'd have enjoyed this one more if it started in the middle and spent more time on the latter parts: those were the most interesting, and as a blurb suggests, the parts that really explored and reflected upon race, and racism, alongside class, power and gender. I loved when Ashley started to become friends with Lana, and 'The Black Kids'; when she finally seemed to mature. In fact I'd have maybe enjoyed this more if it has been narrated by Ashley's sister, Jo; perhaps as I near my 30s I am (sadly) no longer in the right space to be able to emphasise with these YA characters. I'm likely being unfair, Ashley is portrayed absolutely accurately for a nearly 18-year-old: shallow, amicable, insipid. Yet she is likeable, and having had friends like Kimberly, I can definitely relate to the Mean Girls vibe. What Hammonds Reed did well, was allow me to, if not emphasise (I can't given I am white), but feel better educated about the everyday micro-aggressions Ashley faced, the ways she was silenced and oppressed, even by her 'friends', and I found myself thinking, that maybe this was the 80s, but apart from a few choice words, it seems there have been far fewer changes than we would wish in the fight against racism and injustice, the fight for true equality. Certainly for those insights alone, this is a debut worth reading, and I learnt a lot about the history of riots in LA. 3 stars from me, but I'll certainly be looking out for Hammonds Reed's next novel.

*I received an advance review copy of The Black Kids from the publisher through NetGalley.

I was torn with this book because I really wanted to enjoy it, I thought the plot idea of this book is excellent and so necessary. but I got 30% in and the author had mentioned "jews" 4 times already. I was torn about why.. was this subtly trying to engage in a diverse neighbourhood in LA? that's one possible reason. however, I truly feel like it didn't come across that way. either due to poor writing, or poor aims, it unnecessarily pointed out "jewish" characters (the first mention she called herself 'jewess'. for these reasons I decided not to finish it. however, I'm sure the book will be loved by many.

This is a coming of age story set In L.A 1992 Ashley is a black girl sheltered by the wealth of her family, so her parents chose for her (and her sister) to go to a private school where she's one of the very few black people. All of her best friends are white but who they are not good people in general. Her parents also seem detached and kind of selfish. There aren't many good people portrayed in the book, and the occasional racism made me question a lot of things about the writing style or the book or the real problem with systemic racism and body image. The writing is ok, it was good for the most part but some scenes were so smooth and linked beautyfly but some others were abruptly cut and left alone never to revisit some ideas or scenarios.

The book is character driven so the best parts are Jo (Ashley's sister) Lucia (Ashley's Guatemalan baby sitter), LeShawn a promising black player, and Lana a bit of a loner but a good person a little rough around the edges, who i think was bisexual but it didn't get more development after just one mention, so I felt the author added that part just to be inclusive and it's mention that she's half Egyptian near the end of the book
Another incredible thing about the book is the setting and the description of the riots and the emotions that some people developed during and after this whole thing blew up. Jo is the person who really feels and understand the need for the anger and frustration of the people she is the voice that shakes your thoughts and makes you feel alive and woken up! Having this kind of read in this time and age feels like history repeating itself #BLM #icantbreathe
Id love if the printed version came with a playlist to listen while reading the book, as the music mention really help to put yourself back in the 90's
I really loved how it created confusion amongst all the delicate white people who easily judge and blame one another. (No, sorry that didn't happen the only one confused and judgemental was Ashley as the white people didn't care at all) and that's when the book fell short for me. Though we see very little growth in Ashley I just didn't care for her.

I didn't like our main character at all she's not particularly smart, witty or sensitive, to the contrary, she's just one of those girls at school who judges everybody, by their looks even skin colour (yes she's black and a bit racist herself) she fat shames people and judges her mum for exercising with Jane Fonda Video tapes. She sleeps with her best friend's boyfriend knowing she will hurt her friend and still didn't care about the consequences I didn't like much being in her brain reading her thoughts so I tried to finish this parts faster.

Something else I think was a little confusing for me was the adults, in most of the YA they are mostly non existent and they are always stupid or just kind of hovering around the story with out much to do, in this book the parents are a core part of the story in the way they educate this girls and they mention the values they want them to follow and they teach them how hard they had to work to study hard to do the best they can, the parents argue and the feel I got from them was that there fell out of love but they tried to be the best they could yet there's an incident involving policemen a kids and the mother (after talking to the girls) and they do nothing!!

This book made me think and feel I even went online and watch part of the coverage of the riots and also I played some of the music mentioned and for that reason is 3.5 stars. Some of the issues I have with the book might be mostly because of the genre and its tropes which I thought might not exist in historical fiction.

Took me a little while to get into the story and after a week I manage to get at 20% after that it felt better and the pace took off until maybe 75% after that I was kind of wondering where this is going? The very last 10% dragged for too long I'm sure it can be edited I think the last part of the book is not necessary to read and that's a big shame.

The Black Kids is a powerful and timely novel about growing up as a black woman in 90s Los Angeles.

It explores racial inequalities in a way that holds a lens to our own time. Here are three reasons I would recommend it:

1. The Black Kids is filled with complicated relationships - between both family and friends. It explores growing up and moving on, and finding people who value who you are. It also reflects both the difficulties and importance of reconnecting with family, and understanding your family's history and where you come from.

2. Ashley undergoes a lot of character growth throughout the novel. She makes mistakes and learns to live with the consequences, as do many of the other characters in the novel. This story shows the importance of owning up to the things you have done wrong, and forgiving others for mistakes they have made.

3. The Black Kids' bittersweet ending ties up loose ends, but reminds readers that in real life, no ending is perfect (or final) and that sometimes the future can take us in unexpected directions.

Bonus reason: 90s LA, in the midst of the Rodney King riots, made a vivid and dramatic setting that will draw you in immediately, and stay with you long after you've read the final page.

I was provided with an advanced copy of The Black Kids for review via NetGalley

This book deals with so many themes including diverse friendships, race, growing up, growing up privileged, and even sisterhood! It was a great read based during a time when riots were happening in 1992. The Black Kids is huge exploration of the everyday racist remarks and issues that the black community deals with. It looks at class and privilege young people face as they transition into adulthood. I believe it is a very powerful read that all young reader's and people of all ages should read!

Wow - this is one of the best YA books I've EVER EVER read. Really important, especially with current events, but also as a historical novel.

I am slightly too young to remember the LA riots properly, but the implications that still have effects today are felt worldwide. I loved this.

This was a little slow to begin with but as you get into the story you become invested in in Ashley's coming of age story. I think it would have been really insightful to get more of Jo's side of the story given that she was more aware of racism in society to the point where she decides to try and do something about it.

Ashley and her sister Jo grew up wealthy without having to worry about anything, which is what her parents intended for them. This prevented Ashley from being fully aware of the fact that her skin colour will make people judge her possible for the rest of her life.

This book is set in the 90s around the riots in LA when Rodney King was murdered. I’m going to be completely honest until recently I didn’t know anything about these riots but I have been educating myself a lot in the last month and a half and this book was extremely impactful, emotional and should be required reading if you ask me. And as I’m not the target audience for this book (this is a Young Adult book), I know that this will be even more impactful on that target audience.

This book really hit me where it hurts. I started reading this about a week or so after George Floyd was murdered and a lot of the content of The Black Kids applies to almost exactly what has been happening recently which is crushing as it’s over twenty years later. This book is really well written and even though it was a slower read, it made sense. You also flip between the past and present in this book and it was easy to follow.

This book is all about racism and is a very character-driven book. There are a lot of microaggressions shown in this book and it really displays just how hurtful they are as Ashley's friends are awful. I really hope when teens read this book they get that message loud and clear. Something I found to be extremely important in reading this is that it displays that racism affects all Black people, even the wealthily. I know from people around me that white people can assume that wealthily people don’t experience it.

"If there's not justice for one of us, there's no justice for any of us"- That just sums up the whole book!

I think this book is a perfect read for what is going on in the world today and also it educates us how little things have changed in the forty years since the riots of 1992.

I learned a lot from reading this book. I think it does a good job highlighting the hurt and injustice that black people face in their day to day lives.

Also, kudos to the author as this is her debut novel, I am eagerly looking forward to more books by her.

Highly recommended to everyone!

Thank You NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for this ARC!

The Black Kids was one of my most anticipated reads for the second half of 2020, I was hoping to learn more about what LA was like in the wake of the Rodney King verdict after a group of police officers were found not guilty after beating a man viciously and being caught on camera.

There are points to this novel that should not be overlooked, the causal racism that the characters face, the fact that they are regarded as suspicious. Mostly the fact that this novel could have been set in America right now and it wouldn't have been out of place.

While I feel there are important parts of the novel, overall I couldn't connect with it. It is mostly because I just didn't like Ashley as a character - she seemed rude, self-centred and quite frankly quite boring. She didn't seem to care about what was happening until it directly impacted her and her friends were really, really awful people. It meant that I didn't really care about Ashley even in the end I could only muster so much for her.

Jo was one of my favourite characters and I wish we could have gotten to know her a little better. I would have been happy to read the entire book from Jo's perspective as she seems to have more of an understanding of what was going on and was a more rounded person.

I'm not sure if it would be different in the printed version but I also felt that the plot moved around a lot and I couldn't always see where the jump was.

Overall a 3 star read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a copy in exchange for review.

I have no words for this book. It is such an important and relevant read. I never wanted it to end. I loved the characters and the development throughout.

I loved this, great book about the LA riots of 1993 and a privileged black girl living nearby. She hangs out with white people and finds that they don't really care about her and her life. Her sister is living in a neighbourhood with riots and wants to join in.