This one is definitely a lot to read and so hard to rate. Ever since his parents died, Alex has been able to see the immediate future of anything he touches. He's learned to live with it, but it's affecting his relationships with his girlfriend and his brother, especially when he has visions off is girlfriend angry with him and his brother dying. Every single vision of his comes true, so Alex must race to spend time with his brother and protect him from a world and a future that may be impossible to avoid.

Brittney Morris is a writer that just knows how to create an environment where you feel. I read Slay by this author and adored it so I couldn't wait to read this one, boy I didn't know what I was getting myself in for. Throughout this whole book, Alex is extremely anxious that his brother Isaiah is going to die. As an anxious person myself, I like to see representation and felt a connection with Alex throughout this book but 300+ pages of anxiety is a lot. If you're sensitive to the subject of loss and intense anxiety I would keep that in mind before diving in but if you do pick this up be prepared to be hit in your feelings.

The relationship between Isaiah and Alex grew beautifully throughout this book and read was a great connection to follow. Morris talks about the impact of generational trauma that weaved in so well between the family bond of the characters. This is a powerful story about joy and brotherhood in the face of loss and pain. A true inspiration Brittany Morris is a must-read author who brings you to a place of complete immersion. If you want something that's going to hit in all the right and wrong places this book is for you.

First of all what a stunning cover. I liked the premise of this, boy with the ability to see the future feels his gift is a curse and hides from the ones he loves. After seeing a vision of his brother dying he must act fast to prevent this vision from coming true. It’s an emotional and heartbreaking read and I loved that it centres the brothers relationship. Themes of family, grief, and at its heart what it means to be Black in America. However at times it’s a slog to get through and some decisions characters make are exhausting. Still it’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story told in an inventive manner, and definitely one to hand to all the teenage boys in your lives.

This was really good! I'd never read a book by Brittney Morris before but I would totally read another book by them again! It was so so good, and now I need to catch up with their back-catalog. SLAY will deffo be going on my reading list. I would deffo read this book again

I wanted to love this one, and it was a surprising read, but as unexpected as the story was, I'm not sure how memorable it was for me!
I expected a thriller, which this wasn't. It was a fascinating premise, of how people behave if they know how they die, and I loved the siblings' relationship, but this wasn't as strong for me as others I have read.
It is well written, and a good book, but I felt that if I had connected with the characters more, it would have had a much stronger impact on me.

The Cost of Knowing is a powerful coming-of-age story about a Black boy's struggles in modern-day America. I found it to be an engaging read that is highly relevant to today's world; recommended YA reading.

This was such a beautiful but heartbreaking read. I could feel Alex's crippling anxiety through the pages about his powers. The magical realism in this book really added a wonderful element to the story and I really enjoyed it.

Really must pick up more by Brittney Morris.

The Cost of Knowing is a powerful and heartfelt novel that packs a real punch. Described by the author as a love letter to all the black boys who grew up too fast, this is a very real and very raw novel. We follow Alex, a teenager who sees the future of anything he touches, whether that be object or human. It makes life difficult enough when he sees these snippets of the future when handling customer change or trash, but when he touches a photo and sees a vision of his younger brother's imminent death, his world falls apart.

Despite it's moments of heartbreak, The Cost of Knowing is also a poignant and joyful book. Whilst Alex's anxiety over his cursed gift of touch is very real and present, it doesn't detract from the love he feels for his family. The scope of his visions can be as mundane as seeing himself putting the ice cream scoop back in its holder to as traumatic as seeing his car totalled or his brother's grave. Yet throughout this, I loved the way the relationship between the two brothers was built up from the ashes of their parent's tragic deaths.

At it's heart, The Cost of Knowing is a real and true depiction of the struggles a young black man faces growing up in the Western world. It delves into generational trauma and how the fears and struggles of those long gone lives may have been different to the modern day, but also share some striking and heart-breaking similarities. But it's also a story of family, of love and of loss. Alex's visions make it slightly fantastical, it still felt utterly real.

Perhaps my only complaint is that the ending felt... rushed. You get a lot of repetition throughout the novel about Alex's visions and his anxiety spirals and yet one of the most important events in the novel is over so quickly that if you blink, you'll miss it. You almost instantly move to the after-effects, which are powerful... but I had to go back and re-read to check what had happened.

Even with that minor niggle, this is a powerful and well written testament to the lives of black boys who have had to grow up far too fast.

Many thanks to NetGalley for my free review copy of this title.

love love love love love love love love... I don't think I could possibly think of anymore words for how I feel about this book. read it, read it now!!!!!!!

OMG, I loved this book. Like in Slay, Brittney Morris does an excellent job on talking about racism, privilege and the way anxiety is portrait is pretty accurate. The last 15% are intense, everything happens at the last bit and I wish the passing was a bit faster throughout the book and not just on the last bit. The high of the book is the relationship between brothers and the how they came together. I will definitely keep reading Brittney Brittney books, for sure.

The Cost of Knowing is heartbreaking. It's powerful. It's like a sucker punch to the gut with the amount it makes you feel and the emotions it invokes. It's a book that will change you and one you will not hesitate to pass on to friends so they too can feel its impact.

Wowzers!! Just as powerful as The Hate U Give and Dear Martin, this stunning story - a mix of contemporary with fantastical elements - focuses on n9t only the challenges facing young black men in America today, but also how to cope when you learn that something will happen to your nearest and dearest - and there's nothing you can do to stop it? Can't recommend this enough!!

The Cost of Knowing at it's core is an examination of race relations in America, but it is much more than this. The time shifting premise of Alex being able to jump into the future when he touches, people or objects is a deft vehicle to explore the deeper ramifications of actions taken and how destiny can not be altered...or can it?

Morris sets the narrative within a grieving family - two orphaned sons living with their Aunt in a different part of town, their life story rewritten by fate. Alex limits himself and his potential to the safety net of his immediate surroundings and flashforwards that he can to an extent control, but it is his brother Isaiah with his own secrets that are equally devastating, who provides the turning point. This is a gripping tale of expectation - both personal, societal and universal that will hook the reader in to explore what ultimately is the cost of knowing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I devoured this book in just over 24 hours (work and sleep got in the way) and I can't imagine anyone not being compelled to read the whole thing as fast as possible. The characters leap off the page and Morris cleverly uses elements of science fiction to explore contemporary problems, such as the epidemic of young Black male deaths and unconscious racism in America. This is a book that needs to be read as widely as possible, and particularly by white people.

The Cost of Knowing has to be one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. It’s a tough but necessary read with a fascinating concept and heart-breakingly emotional punch.

Morris tackles racism and its insidious nature, particularly how prejudice and casual racism allow for the toxic culture of white supremacy to wreck havoc. She perfectly demonstrates the consequences of casual racism and prejudice. They’re just as harmful and dangerous when left unchecked. They create this horrific environment that sets the stage for tragedy to occur. This is a book that pulses with anger and sadness the whole way through, striking back at a society that just stares on uncaring. Unfortunately we’ve seen this same narrative play out over and over again. It’s up to us to stand up and take action, to declare that enough is enough and call for real structural change.

This book made me properly sob. Few books achieve this, but this tragically powerful story did. Morris creates such wonderful characters that are so easy to connect to. At its core, this is a story about family, grief and the impact of racism on young Black boys. Morris dedicates it to all the Black men who had to grow up too quickly and you cannot leave this story behind without burning with that same fury and frustration at a world that would allow this to happen. Morris’ writing is sublime. She conveys these emotions so strongly in a compulsively readable story. You have this fateful sense of where the story is going, but you cannot draw yourself away from watching it unfold.

A huge standout of the book is Alex himself. His power is explained is realistic and understandable terms right from the start and that intriguing concept is fully explored through the book. He has such a distinctive and engaging voice. You fall in love with both Alex and Isaiah fast and hard. They’re just so loveable and fractured by the weight of their grief. Their fear of losing memories hangs over them, as does the constant prejudice they face.

The Cost of Knowing is a heart-breakingly emotional story that will truly change you.

Alex Rufus is sixteen. He lives with his Aunt Mackie and his younger brother Isaac in an upmarket neighbourhood in Chicago - the only black family on their street. After the accident that killed his parents, Alex woke up in hospital and discovered that everything he touched gave him a vision of something that would happen to that object in the future. He can't tell anyone - they'd assume he was lying or traumatised - so he lives with the visions every day.

It's a great idea for a story. Alex narrates his life, constantly explaining the visions he sees. While some visions are important - an unidentified man buying the ice cream shop where he works - others are a constant source of annoyance: visions of typing in the lock code when he picks up his phone, or paying for something when he takes his card from his wallet. When he sees a vision of his younger brother's death, he starts looking for ways to protect Isaac, and ways to spend time with him in case he can't stop the vision from coming true.

I loved this idea, and the way the book explored the impact on Alex's life. While seeing visions of the future sounds like a superpower, Alex comes to regard it as a curse. He has never found a way to escape the visions - whatever he does, they always come true. He is sure that Isaac is going to die, and he has a good idea when it will happen, but he feels powerless to prevent it.

Alongside this engaging story, the author gives us a wonderful cast of characters. Alex feels real and relatable, in spite of his visions. It takes a while to get to know Isaac, but the relationship between the brothers deepens as they start to spend time together. Aunt Mackie is fantastic - a real-estate agent with a million-dollar house and a seat on the neighbourhood housing association. She's a no-nonsense guardian to the brothers, but she has a sense of humour, and it is clear that she loves the boys in her care. Talia is Alex's girlfriend, and their relationship is strong and supportive, even though he can't tell her about his visions. I loved getting to know the characters, and following Alex as he gets to know his brother.

I won't spoil the story, but there are some scenes towards the end of the book as Alex spends time with Isaac that are filled with joy and excitement. I could feel the delight - Isaac in his experiences, and Alex as he watched his brother. It was an uplifting and heartwarming moment in their relationship, and as a reader I felt as if I was standing with them. I really enjoyed these scenes, and they provide a counterpoint to the underlying theme of the book - the constant obstacles faced by Alex and Isaac as young black men in the US today.

'The Cost of Knowing' is an interesting take on brotherhood, the issues around the Black Lives Matter movement, black history and heritage, and the cost of working through traumatic experiences. The author takes a unique approach to all these aspects of the book, and uses them to shape an original and engaging story.

Thank you to netgalley for early access to this E-Arc.

I loved this book more then Brittney Morris’ first book and I liked slay a whole lot. She writes about the American Black experience so well. Even with the fantastically elements of powers and seeing the future. Morris is able to solidly root the story within America today. To show the pure joy of being black in America and the problems that racism causes both overt and covert racism. Morris is a auto buy author for me now.

The Cost of Knowing follows Alex, who has the ability to see into the future when he touches something, after finding out his brother is going to die, Alex finds himself trying to repair their damaged relationship and save his brother.

The book is a short read which takes place over the span of a couple of days, but I really liked Alex and Isaiah’s relationship, even though we saw very little of them together it was nice to see them helping each other through their grief and confusion over what they were dealing with, I liked the focus on the development of their relationship. The plot focuses on the brothers a lot with Alex trying to be the best brother he could and trying to stop Isaiah’s death and the book does also deal with various topics like grief, racism and anxiety and I liked how they were dealt with in the story.

My only issue was the pacing of the book. I did enjoy the writing style of the book, but I felt like the book at times was very quick paced and it made the story seem very rushed especially towards the ending whilst as some points the story moved slower, it was just a bit weird and made it hard to connect to the story and the side characters.

3/5

As much as I loved this authors debut, this was orders of magnitude better. It has this magical realism element that I was hooked on from the start and mix in with the sprinkle of racial tension and this is explosive. And I just adored it. Thanks to Hachette and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review an early copy of this. All opinions are my own.

This is absolutely a necessary read that really conveys the difficulty of being black in a society like we have today, even more important after recent events but timeless in the tragedy that so many people face on a daily basis. I haven't the authors other work, but i immediately went and ordered a copy after finishing this because their writing was just so incredibly engaging.

An e-ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange of an honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.

The Cost of Knowing is one of those books which are hard to read; not because the writing style is shitty or because the plot is shitty as well but because the author throws the truth at your face — and this truth isn’t the happy one. When I say « truth » I only talk for non-Black POC and white people because sometimes we kinda want to close our eyes and act like nothings happen when Black people — especially Black boys, in this book — are facing that reality everyday. Because for them it’s not a matter of truth but a reality. I don’t know if I made any sense here but all I want to say is Brittney Morris described her book as a love letter to all the Black boys who had to grow up fast — and it is, really — but in the same time, I feel like for all the non-Black people readers, she wrote the truth that some of us don’t want to acknowledge.

The author explains that in the society we’re currently living, Black boys don’t have the privilege to take their time growing as adult. They don’t have the privilege of being simple kids, playing, running around or doing whatever they want. And they don’t have this privilege simply because of the color of their skin and what other people think of them when they see their skin. And as heartbreaking as it is to read about that, you have to acknowledge that and the fact that if you’re not Black, you’ll probably never understand how it is to grow up as a Black person and especially as a Black man. My heart broke while reading the story of those two boys and the fact that a simply thing as running in their neighborhood could have them killed. They are so young — Alex is sixteen while Isaiah, his brother, is twelve — but they grew up knowing they couldn’t do anything they want without looking suspicious.

I don’t know how the author did it but while reading her book, you feel the fear in Alex and Isaiah — not only the fear because Alex knows his brother is going to die — and sometimes, I felt like as much as they wanted to live, living was scary for them. I actually don’t know if the author wrote her book wishing this is what we should take away from it. The duality was omnipresent: they want to live but living, for them, also means fearing the fact that they could become the ‘next twitter hashtag.’ And it hit me so hard when Alex said that saying ‘when I grow up’ is actually a privilege. I never thought about that before, about the fact that that simple wish — thinking about your future and what you’d do when you grow up — isn’t a privilege that anyone can have. Black boys don’t have that privilege because what society shows them is that they can be killed, at any moment, for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, only because of their black skin.

Ironically or not, I’m writing this review shortly after watching a Grey’s Anatomy episode where a 12 years old Black boy was shot by the police because they thought he was a burglar. He was 12 years old, simply a boy who was trying to enter his house. But the police didn’t saw that. They saw a Black man trying to enter a house. Never mind asking questions first, they just shoot him. Following these scenes, we then saw Bailey and Ben — they’re both Black if you don’t watch the tv show — having The Talk with their son. And by ‘The Talk‘ I mean that they have to explain to their son what he’s supposed to do when he encounters the police force aka: no running, no talking back, no hands in the pocket, etc. And I believe this is what Brittney Morris wanted to say when she wrote that this book is a love-letter to all the Black boys who had to grow up faster than anyone else. Because early in their lives — in Grey’s Anatomy, I believe Bailey and Ben had this Talk with their son when he’s 12 — they hear that they can die if they’re not behaving in a certain way. In this Grey’s Anatomy episode, Jackson Avery — a Black surgeon — says that the Black boy who was shoot was robbed of his childhood.

Brittney Morris explores racism and how ‘good intention’ can be and actually are deadly, especially to Black people. I don’t know how to properly explain it but to put it simply, I guess I can say that ‘good intentions’ aren’t enough anymore. More than that, ‘good intentions’ are now use as excuses when white people are racist against POC and especially Black people. The author perfectly shows it in this book: without spoiling anything, several things happen in the book and each time, white people try to explain it as ‘we were trying to help’ or ‘we did that for your protection’ or stuff like that. But the thing is that Brittney Morris shows that thinking you’re doing it with ‘good intentions’ don’t matter because those intentions are a part of what kill Black people because in white people’s minds, ‘good intentions’ are against Black people. When a white person says they did that to protect you, what they actually meant is ‘we were trying to protect you against Black person.’

The author also mentions white feminism and how white women are as deadly as white men are. There are a bunch of articles and studies out there that show how white women use the fact that they’re women to actually be racist without being called out. Why do you think white feminism is a plague? But why do you think white women are praised for the bare minimum while being openly racist without any consequences? I mean, them being mad about being called ‘Karen’ should show you how little they actually think about BIPOC being oppressed but here we are I guess — and it’s so funny how the white woman in this book is called Karen.

There are still so many things to talk about but I believe this review is already quite long. Brittney Morris also explores rap music and how it’s not as bad as some white people may think it is, especially when the rapper is a Black person. In this book, the rapper uses his music to broadcast to all the people who may listen to him how the US incarcerations system is fundamentally racist. The author concludes, in her author’s note, by saying that The Cost of Knowing may not be a Black boy joy book but is a Black-boy-joy-despite book and I believe there is no other way to describe this book.