“Anger Is a Gift” by Mark Oshiro is a powerful and emotionally charged novel that tackles important and timely themes with raw honesty. Oshiro’s storytelling is deeply impactful, and it left me both heartbroken and hopeful.

The protagonist, Moss, is a compelling character whose journey is filled with pain, anger, and resilience. Oshiro expertly captures the struggles of marginalized communities, shedding light on the injustices they face and the importance of fighting for change.

The book’s exploration of police brutality, racial discrimination, and the complexities of identity is thought-provoking and heart-wrenching. Oshiro’s writing style is gripping, evoking a strong emotional response that lingers long after finishing the book.

“Anger Is a Gift” is not only a compelling narrative but also a call to action, reminding readers of the power of standing up against oppression and fighting for justice. It’s a gripping story of friendship, love, and the strength found in community and solidarity.

I highly recommend “Anger Is a Gift” to anyone seeking a thought-provoking and impactful read that challenges societal norms and encourages us all to be agents of change. Mark Oshiro’s debut novel is a remarkable achievement that deserves to be read and discussed widely.

Reminiscent of Angie Thomas' The Hate You Give series, the characters in this novel have a lot of heart and community support to guide them through mounds of grief and police brutality. While I occasionally found myself disassociating from the story because of the prose there were a few poignant lines that make this story a bit more memorable.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection on preorder and will recommend it to students.

Oshiro's voice is beautiful and strong, his writing is fluid and sucks you in immediately and I found myself lost quickly inside this book and enveloped in emotion very quickly. I've been recommending it proudly to all of my students and many of them have been enjoying it greatly!

Words are failing me right now. I mean really failing me.

This is an extremely important story to read and it will make you feel uncomfortable and I think that is the intent of the book. Stick with it...it needs to be read.

Anger is a Gift was a good book overall, there were elements I liked and some I disliked but Mark Oshiro is an author I will definitely be keeping an eye on in the future.

Content Warnings: Racism, police brutality, death, violence, ableism, gun violence
Representation: LGBTQIAP+: Gay main character and love interest, sapphic side characters, trans & non-binary side characters, ace side character.
POC: Black main and side characters, Latinx love interest and side characters + undocumented characters.
Disability: Side character has pins in his knee, uses crutches and a wheelchair.
Neurodiversity: main character has anxiety and panic attacks.
Religion: Muslim side character.
Fat: main character.
Complex and honest, Anger is a Gift reminds oppressed people that they have every right to the feeling they are often demonised for: Rage.
Anger is a Gift packs so much into its pages.
We follow Moss as he is still healing from losing his father to police violence while police brutality is becoming more common in his own school. He’s had enough, he’s hurting and angry and he’s ready to fight back.
This book uses Oakland as its backdrop to talk about so many topics. The cast of characters is incredibly diverse, god-tier diverse. Did you see my rep list at the start of this post??? It’s incredible and brilliant.
So many people are represented in this book, so many readers will find a character that mirrors themselves and that’s damn important. It’s casual and yet still revolutionary.
These characters aren’t caricatures of their identities, they’re complex people they’re not afraid to talk about how their identities intersect and affect them.
All these characters are teenagers who just want to feel safe in their school and learn, but unfortunately, a very strong force keeps getting in the way, the Oakland Police Department. Instead of doing their job of protecting their community, these officers are terrorising children.
Because they can. Because they know they’ll get away with it. Because power is one hell of a drug and racism is systematic.
There were many choices the author made that shocked me but I think they were great choices for this story. I could feel they were made with love and understanding and not just purely for the shock factor or just as a plot device.
I couldn’t stop reading it. I needed to know what happened to these characters who felt so real that I could pull them from the page and bring them into the real world, my world, and sit with them on the bus or walk alongside as I walked home. That’s because their stories are real ones, they’re ones people experience daily. Oshiro put so much truth and reality into his book and it shows.
Oshiro really captured the feelings of these kids. Their anger, their hurt, their heartbreak.
I loved the sense of community he crafted between these characters. They help each other, they support each other and they’re there for each other when all hell breaks loose. I was so deeply invested in these characters' well-being and that’s a credit to Oshiro’s writing.
I loved the conversations between the teenagers, they’re so great at communicating with each other and despite that not being realistic to my experience when I was a teen, I believe it sets a brilliant example for teens today. It’s so important to teach kids from a young age the value of communication and how to carry it out respectfully and effectively, Anger is a Gift does that and it does it bloody well.
I believe this books strength’s lies in its characters, in the community they’re part of, and it’s message. My heart soared and broke with theirs, I came to a dead stop while reading this on my walk home because I couldn’t do anything else while I processed what was happening and how it made me feel.
I’ve read many books that have made me so emotional, but none have made me stop so suddenly and burst into tears in public like that.
Anger is a Gift is not a quiet book, it is not asking kindly for you to listen, it’s not trying to mould its message into something easier for you to swallow.
It is loud, and righteous in its anger. It is giving you the truth of a world you might not experience yourself and telling you: it exists, we exist, but we are dying, we are being murdered. It asks: what are you doing to stop it?

Anger is a Gift is a YA contemporary that follows our black gay protagonist, Moss, whose father was killed by the police due to the color of his skin. Moss suffers from several panic attacks and constant anxiety because he knows exactly why his dad was killed, police brutality.

The book picks up a few years later revealing Moss and his friends that feel like prisioners in their West Okland high school – they feel the need to stick together to fight agaisnt this clear as water racism. In this story we get to read about Moss falling with love with another boy and it talks deeply about teens of color standing up for the rights they deserve. Keep in mind that most of these characters are queer so the conversation regarding blackness and sexual orientation is brought up many times and an incredible topic to read about too.

These kids that go through this cant control the color of their skin and their background therefore it is extremely messed up to see how violence is inflicted on them and the amount of suffering they go through really made my blood boil and remind me of how I need to use my white priviledge to be a better ally.

Has I mentioned previously there are gay and trans and asexual and lesbian and biromantic and non-binary side characters, as well as a hijabi Muslim side character and immigrant side characters, a disabled character and it even touches on adoption. The most fascinating aspect of this factor in the book is that these characters dont fit into a label, they are allowed to express their identity in an intersectional way.

It is impossible to put this book down because of how much it touches you due to its powerful writing. Mark Oshiro does a impecable job at describing the emotions felt by these characters which results in the reader creating a really strong bond with them. I truly believe that every person should read this book because it has a bit of everything in it and it will certainly please most people. Pick up this book if you want to simultaneously have a lot of fun while your heart is slowly being broken.

It's difficult to find the words to convey how beautiful, heartbreaking, and extremely important this book is, especially today. It also has one of the rarest representations there is: a gay POC. The representation by no means stops there. Hopefully my lack of words conveys what I'm having trouble articulating. The highest of recommendations.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this title. It just wasn't a good fit for me. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this title. I will not be posting a review online, in order not to skew the ratings.

Super inclusive, urban setting.
Anger, so much anger. It's a theme in many of the books I'm reading right now. Very indicative of our society right now.

My rural students need to read this but probably won't be able to relate.

This book has trigger warnings for: police violence, graphic violence, character death (on and off the page), racism, homophobia and transphobia, ableism, and extremely effective depictions of depression, anxiety, and panic attacks.

And despite the violence, the brutal realism, and the heartbreak, this is also a hopeful book, because it's about learning, as the title says, that anger is a gift that allows for action. It took me a while to get into this book - contemporary fiction isn't usually my thing, nor is the sparse writing style - but I was drawn in by Moss and his friends. The characters in this book are excellent, fully fleshed out and realistic both in their diversity and in their struggles. Friends hurt each other, people mean well and screw up, people fight their enemies and their friends and their own minds. Although there's no solid victory here (as the author's note says, it just wouldn't be fair to have one), the fight itself is worthwhile and enough to celebrate.

Anger is a Gift is rough going, but it's an extremely valuable and timely book.

I wanted to like this book as the content matter is incredibly prevalent in today's society of police brutality and blatant racism; a (Western) society that has been made possible due to the likes of that orange gibbon Trump, and the absolute shambles of the Spitting Image puppet, Theresa May.

This book did make me angry, but not for the reasons Oshiro intended. The main protagonist, Moss, is portrayed as this perfect example of a human being - I haven't seen an author with a hard-on for their own character so much since Rowling with Harry Potter - however Moss is, quite frankly, an awful person. He is written as though he is all innocent and delight, with character flaws being written off as anxiety and 'a broken mind'. What tosh. He delights in his supposed best friends' beating and submissiveness; he is immature, and he is rude. There was such scope to flesh this character out but Oshiro's prose is so flat that it doesn't work and Moss, and indeed all the characters, seem completely distant and vague.

The diversity in this book is also a bit off, and there is such a thing as too much. It was like Oshiro didn't want anyone excluded and had a checklist he could use in order to include someone from every gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity etc. It just seemed so forced, expecially as a lot of the characters may be mentioned once, with emphasis on skin colour, and then never mentioned again.

What kind of metal detector can attach someone to its interior who has pins in their legs?! The science and general lack of research behind this is laughable. Metal detectors aren't exactly a new premise, anyone who has travelled thorugh an airport can concur that they aren't as dangerous as this. This entire section really annoyed me, and seemed lazy in respect that it was used a catalyst to prompt the plot along.

The dialogue is very badly written and stilted, and is the contraction "y'all" really used as much in reality as it is in this book? Absolutely awful to read, and it was in practically every paragraph!

This book had a lot of promise, but it really does not deliver. Oshiro is not a strong writer and could do with attending some creative writing classes as his descriptions and dialogue are very contrived and his characterisations rather wooden and unrealistic.

If I could take Mark Oshiro's writing style and add it over top of the story in The Hate U Give I think it would make for the best YA story about USA police racism and prejudice against minorities. Oshiro's style is far more compelling and emotional than that of Angie Thomas. Additionally there are elements of each story that are done just a little bit better.

Comparison to The Hate U Give
I can't help but compare these two stories. Unfortunately the Anger is a Gift I read The Hate U Give first and so my emotional response to Anger is a Gift was perhaps lessened. I remember my emotional response to Thomas' story having high impact on me. Given that I read The Hate U Give at least 6 months ago, and have become more educated about the police problem in the USA, I think that meant that I wasn't surprised by the eventual outcome or the way the story played out in Anger is a Gift. It's unfortunate as I am sure Oshiro's story would have been just as impactful, if not more so (as the writing is superior) than Thomas' story.

Character Development
I really liked the development of our main boy. Oshiro gives a flawed, realistic teenage personality to our lead boy. Unfortunately, the love interest boy is not nearly as well developed. This bothered me. I felt like there was a lot more to know about him and that his feelings and conflicts could have been more developed. I'd have liked to know more about him overall. While his character is not the lead, he is the primary reason there is a story to tell here and so I wanted a lot more of him than we got. Although maybe it's appropriate, that I feel like we didn't get to know him very well, given the context of the story.

A Crazy Reality
Having been relatively sheltered in Canada from the racial police violence; the last few years of media coverage and outrage from the USA has really allowed me to get a better understanding of some of the problems and situations Americans are faced with. Purely by numbers, Canada does not appear to have the same systemic problem with racial profiling. That's not to say it doesn't happen; because of course it does, but it's just not as widespread or obvious. Part of that may be because we don't have the same rampant gun ownership in Canada as there is the USA (but that's a whole other topic on it's own).
I like to believe it's because Canadians are more welcoming and overall less racist than our neighbours to the South... However, as I handle statistics all day long at my day job, I know that numbers aren't always the best representation of something. It's all relative. And so while I hate, hate that anyone is profiled (in any way ever); I know that we need these stories and need to keep telling them so that the issue(s) receive the attention deserved.

Overall
I won't lie, if you've read The Hate U Give you've pretty much read Anger is a Gift. Just place a boy and his gay (almost) boyfriend in place of the girl and her male friend and you've got, more or less, the same story. That's not to say that both aren't worth the read. They are both definitely worth a read; but maybe not back-to-back as you might feel like it's redundant.
What I really liked about this story was that the boys being gay wasn't the primary concern of the book. It just was what it was. This is the second book this year (2018) where the lead gay character has had other issues or stories to tell besides focusing entirely on how they are gay. It's great to see this! And really important that it keeps happening. The more books we have that take race, sexuality, religion, identification and other 'differences' that have divided people in the past as the norm and focus on other issues, the closer we are to having some semblance of equality.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

This book had so many tones of the Hate U Give. Moss is just a kid. He experiences high anxiety and the confusion of how you're supposed to feel when everything has been turned upside down. This book deals with race and violence. It takes a look at the way teenagers are having to adapt to security measures, police brutality, racism, etc. and the damage it is causing. This book is intense, but beautiful.

Wow, this book. This book is intense. It’s Black Lives Matter but almost written like a dystopian war at times. It’s like The Hate U Give x10. It’s a really tough but worthwhile read. Moss is struggling with a lot. He saw his father shot by a cop for no reason when he was a kid, and he’s been dealing with extreme anxiety ever since. He’s recognized in public during protests. There’s also Javier, a cute boy Moss meets on the subway. Moss just wants to live a normal teen life, but it gets even more difficult when his school’s employed cop assaults a student and then metal detectors are installed. A huge group of Moss’s friends and family get together wanting to do something but not sure what. I thought it was interesting to show that part, the long talks and strategizing, the reaching out to the community, the planning and outreach, the backlash, the stress. Everything in Moss’s life escalates quickly and he has to figure out what he wants to do about it. I struggled a bit with the style of writing at first – I found myself getting confused a lot either between how many characters there were but not enough defining characteristics to set them apart. But once I got over that I sprinted through the book, needing to know what would happen next. It’s disturbing and powerful, and it will stay with me.

Moss Jeffries is just a kid with anxiety trying to get by in school. He doesn't like being thought of as 'that kid who's dad got shot by the police'. He's met a guy he likes, and it looks like for once, things might work out.

When things start to get tense at school, with new draconian rules, random locker searches and police violence--instead of being afraid, Moss works past devastation and towards anger. Sometimes anger can be a gift.

This book is gloriously diverse, and totally devastating, much in the way that Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give is devastating. It's Oshiro's first book, but you'd never know it--he has a confident prose, and his characters are multidimensional and interesting.

Holy fucking wow. This book ought to be required reading. I keep saying that about young adult books that are coming out these days. This book actually even came with a reading list at the end of it that of course included The Hate U Give, but also:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

In the author's note at the end, the author writes about this originally being the first book in a sci-fi series and, honestly, as a white person in Australia reading this, some of the events that occur in this book really do read as sci-fi or dystopia. The idea that this stuff can happen in the real world is utterly astounding and eye opening.

The story really begins when West Oakland High enters into a partnership with the Oakland Police Department to ostensibly try to make their school more safe. It's a lower socio-economic school that needs help with state funds to deal with peeling paint on the walls, books for the students to study from and just resources in general. Instead, they put funding into locker searches.

When two of Moss' friends, Shawna and Reg, are injured in the course of this 'partnership' with the police department, Moss has to take a stand. He and his friends organise a walkout. The way that everything is described with regards to social media and the support from the community is honestly needed, but it's not heartwarming. There's too much awful happening in it for any of this book to be heartwarming.

Even the end comes across as bittersweet. And I kind of liked that. It sends a very clear message all the way through. This book is all but unputdownable.

“Anger is a Gift” is not just another book about social injustice and systematic oppression that has plagued people of color for many years; it is story that needs to be told. While reading this book, I couldn’t imagine the horrific events and graphic violence this book depicted against people of color, mostly boys and men. It easily could be construed as a dystopian novel because things like this should not happen to people in our country today, but the truth is they can and they do. This book — although fictional — is factual in many ways and tells the story of what so many black citizens face today. Horrible things happening to decent people in cities and towns across the country day to day and it needs to stop. This book is intense, it is emotional, it is violent and it is too real.

Holy shizballs this book was amazing. The whole story was just ripping it was gruesome it was violent but it was a learning experience. The main character, Moss, was so angry. He was fueled by this anger with the police and the society That it made me want to just jump into the book and punch somebody like it was that intense and impactful that I just felt this fire bloom within me. I feel like this book represents police brutality more so than it did in The Hate U Give just because that it was more real like there wasn’t any sugar coating in there wasn’t any hype surrounding it like The Hate U Give that it just felt more realistic. I’m glad that there is a novel like this out in the world. It makes me want to fight and do something for this type of cause.