This weekend, I finally finished The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed. This was a very good book in my opinion.
Synopsis:
Los Angeles, 1992
Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.
Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD 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.
As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.
With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?
Like I stated in my previous post Currently Reading…. I feel as though I connected most with the main character Ashley. I had many different friends and grew up where there wasn’t any violence around me. I would tend to let other’s decide things for me and I would let them say things that I knew wasn’t right. High school was a doozy.
Mostly with this story, I wanted Ashley to stand up to one of her friends throughout this entire book, but in the end, she didn’t. I mean she was the bigger person in the end. No matter what Kimberly did or said to her, Ashley chose to ignore it.
All in all, the ending is what left me wanting more. It kind of just left me on a cliffhanger. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I know I felt as though I needed more from the story. I guess in the end, the people that were there for Ashley were here real friends. I gave this book 4 stars, but only because of the ending.
Now I’m on the hunt for something light to read. My go to authors are usually Stephen King, James Patterson or Jackie Collins. My search on Amazon continues…
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A Girl And Her Books 