The premise for this book is really interesting and I like that we follow different characters throughout the story and get different perspectives. I wanted to know more about each character, but overall, a really enjoyable book and I will definitely recommend to my students!

My students will find this interesting, but I thought there were some parts that didn't quite gel. My rating may be influenced by how much I enjoy Rob Thomas in the past. I wonder if I would have been this generous with an unknown author.

Slave Day was interesting, but I feel that it could have been so much better. Each 'chapter' is only a couple of pages long, and they move between eight different characters, so it's hard to connect to any of them. I couldn't pick out a plot. It seemed like the different point's of view never really connected.

Because this should have been a brilliant book. It tackles real issues, issues that are very important no

Between the slow start and so many points of view, the message of this book really gets lost which is a shame.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a slow start to me. There were several characters to keep straight. While it was thought provoking, it left me feeling that there could have been more.

Eight points of view. (!!)
1997 setting.
Money raised for dance by auctioning off teachers and student council members.
Race issues, insensitivity.
Change of perspectives.
Change of events.

Slave Day had a very gripping premise, but I have to say that the part I enjoyed the most was the foreword. Abdul-Jabbar had a clear voice and an eloquent way of expressing his connection to YA literature that honestly made me want to seek out his books more than I wanted to read any of Thomas's other works after finishing Slave Day.

I love multiple-perspective stories, and it seems like that's a big trend in a lot of the recent and upcoming releases that I've come across. However, I think that Thomas bit off more than he could chew. There are so many perspectives that Slave Day feels fractured, and I don't feel like I got a satisfying dive into any of the characters' perspectives or journeys.

There were a lot of heavy topics in Slave Day that had the potential to be great conversation starters among readers and just general food for thought: tradition (when is it good? when should it be forsaken?), consent, peer pressure, stereotyping. Like the characters' themselves, these big themes did not get the spotlight that they deserved.

This was the first novel that I'd ever read from this author, and I'm really uncertain as to whether I'd pick up another one.

Librarian: I my pick this up if we need more real-life books. Otherwise I’ll pass. There’s nothing here to stand out as a must add to the collection.
Reader: I really wanted to like this book. Really I did. I’ve been a fan of Thomas’s TV shows for years, and I thought that meant that I would like his books to. That was unfortunately not the case. Instead of the well-crafted, surprisingly deep stories that we get on his tv shows, this was a trite teen novel about a teenage SJW fighting a battle that literally no one cared about. (Which admittedly describes 90% of the battles fought by teenage SJWs, but still.) I would not recommend it unless you're a fan of trite teen novels.

It starts with a black student who wants to end Slave Day at Robert E. Lee High School. He thinks he has his chance when he buys the black student president, but he's the only one he knows he doesn't have a plan, and now he's stuck all day with a guy who doesn't like him. Meanwhile, the mayor's daughter shows up late with orders from Dad to spend $100 on the auction. So she does. A boyfriend buys his girlfriend, but what happens during the buy might change their lives. What follows is a day of missed chances, unexpected pairings, social activism, individual conniving, crushes, and realizations. Told in a variety of voices that lets us know the characters, Slave Day will keep you turning pages until the end.

so it's about the practice of holding a slave day auction in high school where students AND teachers are sold off for charity and have to do whatever their buyers want for the day. it's from many, MANY points of view, both slaves and slavers and a lot of it is social commentary on both current slave day as well as historical slavery and oppression. also some about other social divides along age and popularity and so on. it was good and enjoyable but also TOO MANY POVs. seriously, too many.

For a book meant to address a topic that is still (unfortunately) a huge issue in our society, it did surprisingly little to actually address the topic of race relations and reparations. I don't know if it was a sad case of severely underestimating the interests and capabilities of teenagers or just a lack of ambition, but this novel barely even grazed the surface of the complex and complicated issues that lie beneath the racist traditions that continue to exist. I wanted more. And the teens this book is aimed at deserve more.

My Goodreads linking does not seem to be working, so I attached the link.
Overall, am interesting read but not the kind of book I would really push at my students as I do not feel some of the issues were handled in the most moral way.

I really liked the premise of this book, but found that it lacked any emotional impact and finality to the plot. The characters were too cliche to take seriously.