Dear Justyce - Nic Stone

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Shortly after teenager Quan enters a not guilty plea for the shooting death of a police officer, he is placed in a holding cell to await trial. Through a series of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, the protagonist of Dear Martin, Quan's story unravels.

From a troubled childhood and bad timing to a coerced confession and prejudiced police work, Nic Stone's newest novel takes an unflinching look at the flawed practices and ideologies that discriminate against African American boys and minorities in the American justice system."

Nic Stone's author note says it all when she says the hardest thing about telling this story was "knowing the most fictional part is the support Quan receives." The entire time I read this, all I could think about was how different life would be for countless young people in the United States if they had a support system. Even Quan, although he connects with a solid support system while awaiting trial, could have gone down a completely different path if he had that kind of support earlier on. (Spoiler incoming)

There were big things that went wrong for Quan, but there were so many tiny ways society let him down, too. Imagine, for instance, if when Quan's math teacher went on maternity leave, the substitute who replaced her was as supportive as she had been instead of being actively the opposite. How different could things have been? This book shines a light on so many of the ways we as a society have let each other down. It shines a light on our broken criminal injustice system, as Justyce refers to it, and how badly it needs to be improved.