The Problem With The Other Side

Kwame Ivery

If you want to read a book that tries too hard to prove points to the point they have to make multiple analogies and statements, With characters that are so blatantly different races, that is further proven with the ridiculous slag in every sentence and so repetitive and stereo typical, and no real development within the first few chapters, this is the book for you. I really wanted to like this book…. I thought finally and little rep, not many books are written as mixed raced, especially in YA (but its starting to happen more which I’m happy about) but it was a huge disappointment. This book read like an early 2000’s movie, you have characters who are so obviously two different races with the way they talk and act, as well as their families….. my rating 1.5/5. I read about 10 chapters of this book before I DNF’d it. I know this books was own voices, but…. I could not relate what’s so ever. To give this a little insight; I’ve been in a mixed race relationship for 8 years new which started in high school. Maybe its just a completely different environments I’m not sure…. There were many things I wasn’t a fan of in the first few chapters of this book. One, the big point to the beginning is how Uly feels like a fraud because in a school play he faints and in his words “black people don’t faint”. (My first red flag) Two being the slang used. Which you get a big indication in the first chapter. With words like “truthanasia” and sayings like “real talk (used 4-5 times in the first few pages of this book) and for a lack of a better description taking things too far for us as readers to get a point their trying to make, for example Sallie asks why “why are they called spaghettini movies and Uly explaining why Italian movies are “spaghetti movies, than goes on to explain “its like calling a movie made by ( insert country) a (insert country’s stereo typical insinuation) multiple times with different country’s. In my opinion this was completely unnecessary. We also have. Uly explain that while he finds white girls attractive he’s not ATTRACTED TO them and yes the words are capitalized isn’t he story. But he thinks she’s sexy….. again what….. as we know that this whole story is based on their relationship…. And don’t even get me started on the sister, and family situation. I know that she’s supposed to be the not likeable character and (claps) the job was done, but it was so obvious , she didn’t have ANY redeemable qualities and was so in your face obvious. “You wouldn’t even last two episodes on the dyke channel” and so on. I was expecting as her being the “villain” in the story and the sister of one of the main characters we’d get a little more from her….. This whole story (the 10 chapters I read)like I said at the beginning was like an early 2000’s movie. In the era of the Bring it on movies the one that came to mind was All or Nothing. I know we are reading from a highschooler’s POV but….. I didn’t feel within what I read we got any development from out characters and things were repetitive in behaviour and vocabulary. I like what this story was supposed to do and what we were supposed to get out of it but…. It missed the mark for me. My fist DNF of the year.