Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: 17th October 2017
Publisher: Crown Books For Young Readers
Source: Bought
Add it: Goodreads
Rating: 
Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut.
Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.
This is one that I was super excited for because I was riding on the hype for The Hate U Give and was ready to read alllll of the books on the same (or similar) subject matter. Unfortunately I didn’t really like it. SORRY. Please don’t shout at me. Or do. Whatever.
My main issue with Dear Martin is that it was far too short. It’s a measly 210 pages. This meant that the story jumped around from point to point without connecting anything. This was either a result of heavy editing (why?!) or poor writing. Or both. I feel like everything could have done with being more developed.
I also really didn’t like the author’s use of transcripts in place of actual descriptions of scenes and dialogue. There were so many of them, and the switch between “normal” writing and these transcripts threw me off. It came across as really lazy and poor writing.
All that said, I really liked the main character, Justyce. He was adorable, and reading about him was a great experience, despite the poor writing. I adored his friendship with Manny as well <3
Obviously the book tackles a very important subject matter, and I would recommend reading it for that, if not for anything else. I’m really disappointed that I didn’t love this.
ahh, thanks for the heads up. I was able to grab a copy of this for free. I’ll definitely keep your thoughts in mind. Great review, Amber 🙂
I’d heard really good things about this one so it’s a little upsetting to see a slightly less stellar review. I still think I’ll try and get a hold of a copy at some point because there are important issues in it. I will prepare myself for the writing style and shortness, though.