LA California - 1992 - the Rodney King Riots

This story captures so many tough topics and is considered an historical fiction but could truly be read as a non-fiction story that reflects the thoughts, feelings and people actually living in 1992 during this time.

As a YA novel, this is a mega book shining a light on big topics told for all to understand and take notice.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Please excuse my tardiness in posting my review. My TBR list is continuously growing and I keep finding so many amazing books being requested + added to my pile! I have so much gratitude for this copy that has been shared with me.

I tried on this one for SO LONG but it was a DNF for me. The book was written in a tone that was moderately confusing and the main character had annoying tendencies (bad decision making, lack of self awareness) that made it hard to care about her. I wish I had more to say but I didn’t make it to page 100.


Thank you so much to the publisher for the arc!

This was a fantastic coming of age story following Ashley as she navigates through life in LA during the early 90’s, we follow Ashley as she deals with High school, college applications and her sister taking part in the Riots during 1992. The writing was fantastic and highlighted friendship and family issues. Very well written and executed.

Would recommend this as a fun read for anyone to enjoy. Although the main character felt a bit dry the whole book was a nice and heart felt read

A really great story of a teenage girl living in LA during an incredibly difficult period of time, 1992. A well off family, in a great neighbourhood, going to a great school. The problem? She’s black. Should this be a problem? Absolutely not. But the period of time she happens to be living through is an extremely hard time to be black in LA, with the riots due to the disgusting, absolute trash farce of a trial for the beating of Rodney King.
Ashley Bennett is the younger sister to Josephine, who is the focus of their parents attention. Joe is going through some things, and Ashley is caught in the middle. She doesn’t want to cause her parents any extra stress, so she doesn’t come to them with her issues.
Ashley’s friends, Kimberly, Heather, and Courtney are all white, and constantly make small racist comments, but Ashley doesn’t want to be THAT girl, and so she keeps quiet. She goes along with them, she doesn’t make a fuss. When she does “something” that will absolutely cause huge issues amongst her group of friends, she doesn’t tell a soul for fear of what may happen because of it.
I loved the growth we see in Ashley, in the recognition she finds in herself for who she is. The things that seemed like the end of the world once no longer seem to be as troublesome as they once were. She learns to accept herself, yes, but also to stand up for who she is. She becomes an honest person, and changes the way she sees and treats other people, which leads her to discovering friendships she never would have considered.
I didn’t love the flow of the story sometimes, it felt quite jumpy from topic to topic, but I did really enjoy the style of writing. It often felt more like poetry that a novel, which I really enjoyed.
All in all a really great story. Not everything is easy to read, but sometimes the best stories are the ones that really rock you back on your heels and make you think about the world.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a really fascinating read, a lot of interesting commentary. a bit of a slow start

I really loved the immediacy of Reed’s prose and the way that the story unfolded so quickly. Right from the start I was captured!

Normally reality fiction is not something I rave about; but this book change that for me! This is one of those books that I couldn’t put down and finished in less than 24 hours. The main character is Ashley, an African-American teen, whose parents both have a higher education and have good paying jobs which means they now live in a good (rich) neighbourhood. Her sister Jo recently married a white man but they do not make much money so they live in a low income area. Ashley is very aware of the fact that she is black and the inequalities of exist.

The author made an interesting choice in setting the novel in 1992 in LA during and after the Rodney King trials; it allowed her to highlight the severe racial and socioeconomic inequalities that existed, and still exist. It allowed her to show the effect of racial tensions similar to those that have occurred in the past year, without focusing on those events. I also found the setting interesting in how Ashley’s thoughts differed from her white “upper class” friends. This was increasingly apparent to the reader and Ashley as the book continued and this quote stood out as a turning point in Ashley’s understanding of her friends and their ideas:

“You guys, my parents are talking about moving away if this continues,” Courtney says. “They’re really scared. They think Los Angeles is getting too dangerous.”
“They’re rich white people,” I blurt out. “Who exactly do they think is coming after them?” My friends all turn and look at me like I have five heads.

This was one of many moments in which Hammonds Reed did a great job of jumping inside the teenage head in a way that was interesting and poignant.

This novel is quite possibly my favourite reality young adult fiction I’ve read in a very long time and I will definitely recommend this to some of my older students.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

Loved this one. Absolutely love the way the author tackled the story of identity. Was so much more than I expected.

Looking for your next read? Look no further! This book is important & should be on everyone’s TBR list 📚

This YA book was brilliant 👏🏻 the writing itself flowed beautifully, & the characters flashbacks throughout, as well as the educational aspects were so very important 🥰 It was written in a way that not only told a story, but also incorporated topics, & past events, that NEED to be talked about.

This book explores race & class identities through the eyes of teenagers, & even though it is a heavy read, it is a MUST READ 📖

And Ashley’s journey of self discovery drew you in from the very beginning, as well as seeing the impact the verdict, & the unjust reality, had on the characters

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This book taught me a lot about what happened in LA in 1992. It feels strange to me to be calling a book that is set in the year I was born historical fiction but here we are. I really enjoyed Ashley as a character and how evolved over the course of the novel. This book has many different parts that were woven together well. The end dragged a little but overall the pacing was good. Even though this book is set in 1992 the themes of racism and police brutality are very present in today's society. The writing was phenomenal and you really feel the words leap off the page and pierce your heart. I really felt the pain and vulnerability. The characters are complex. The heartbreaking parts are balanced out with family elements, friendships, and sweet boys. This book should be taught in schools.

This is one of those books that everyone should read. It’s YA, and it’s an important read for teens, but I also think it’s a must read for adults. I listened to the audiobook and with it being written as a stream of consciousness, it worked well on audio and the narrator was so great.

This book is eye opening, powerful and relevant. It explores a variety of important topics and also dives into friendships, identity and coming of age. This book is set in the 90’s ...yet sadly, it feels all too similar to the world right now and that hurts my heart. We have a lot of work to still do. Read this.

I just didn't love much about this book even though I really wanted to. The story line and basic premise of the book was all over the place, the characters were unlikable and selfish.

I think holding any book to the extremely high standard of The Hate U Give might be a bit of a determent to the book and overall expectations. I do see some younger readers enjoying this book with the main character being in her senior year and I respect the fact that the author choose to write about such a difficult topic that should be discussed.

This book held my attention and was really well written. A great one for discussion and talking about racial justice.

This was such a great book! I've since seen it do incredibly well in my store and and I'm so glad I can share my thoughts about it with my customers!
The writing style fit the story well, and the characters were really well fleshed out

Ashley is a high school senior, living in a wealthy, white neighbourhood, with primarily white friends. Even though her parents have tried to shield Ashley from the realities of growing up Black in America, her family soon finds themselves caught in the whirlwind of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

This story, and the way it was written, was so powerful and gripping, I didn’t want to put it down. With Ashley as our narrator, we got to go on her journey of self-discovery right alongside her as she navigated the stresses of her final year of high school, life long friendships and family drama, which while heartbreaking at times, still had moments of pure joy.

This book deserves to be read. While it may be set in the 1990’s, it parallels 2020 on so many levels. Definitely recommend picking this one up.

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed is an incredibly important and powerful story. Although set in 1992, it is clear that the topics covered in this book are just as, if not more, relevant almost 30 years later. This book reminds me in ways of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Both follow young Black female protagonists who grew up in more privileged (and predominantly white) areas, and are quickly realizing that the world is unfair, violent and can be full of pain, especially if you're not white. This story isn't a copy of Thomas' book, and I think Reed does an excellent job making the story her own, while adding (unfortunately) familiar aspects.

Reed's writing style stood out to me as being incredibly accessible as well as realistic. For the most part, the characters talked to each other as real people would and their conversations didn't feel overly stylized.

I also liked most of the characters, and think the characters we weren't supposed to like were well written. I did enjoy watching the transformation Ashley went through from the beginning of the book to the end. I thought the "stream of consciousness" writing style really worked for this type of book but I do wish we would have gone even deeper into Ashley's thoughts sometimes.

I do think some plot points were smoothed over a little to quickly, and felt there would have been larger repercussions for some of Ashley's actions, but overall I thought the plot moved smoothly and succinctly. I think I would have liked a bit more reflection on Ashley's part after some of the more reckless moments, just to further see her working things out and growing.

I really loved Lana and Jo's characters too, and would have loved to spend more time with them. I wonder if the author will turn this into a series with novels set from other character's perspectives? I would definitely check those out!

Overall, I think this is an incredibly emotional and well-written book. Once I picked it up I read the entire thing in 2 sittings because it was so easy to just read chapter after chapter. I would certainly recommend this book and am excited to see what the author writes next!

I loved reading The Black Kids. It's interesting to read through Ashley's point of view as she goes through her life, especially with what has happened this year and all of the years before that. This book opened by eyes to a lot that I hadn't even considered. Not to mention that it was well written and the story was riveting, keeping me reading right until the end. I look forward to reading more from Christina Hammonds Reed.

The Black Kids By Christina Hammonds Reed (2020/12/25)
Rating 3/5 Stars
Disclaimer: Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher (Simon & Schuster Canada) for providing me with an ARC to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Black Kids is a coming-of-age novel that is set in Los Angeles in 1992. It follows Ashley Bennett who is a wealthy black teenager and in her senior year of high school. However, her life changes when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death.

I liked this novel. I appreciated the hard subject matters that the novel spoke about. Like police brutality and social classes. I also found it refreshing to read about a wealthy black teenager’s point of view. I loved the side characters like Jo, Lana and LaShawn, they really made the story so much more impactful. I loved that at the end Ashley started to embrace her culture and started to make views who have her best interest.

What hindered my enjoyment of the novel was that I had a hard time clicking with Ashley as a protagonist. I felt like she felt like an outsider for major of the novel. This made it really hard to understand her thoughts and feels and empathise with her. I also didn’t like the friend group in the novel, and I feel like the story focused too much on them when it wasn’t necessary for the plot.

Overall, I do think that the Black Kids is an important novel that people should read and despite not loving it, I still would still recommend it to others.

Tw: Cheating, Police Brutality, Child Abuse, Talks Of Suicide, Talks Of Drug Overdose, Social Injustice, Racism, Social classes.

I think this is a book that everyone should pick up, it's branded as a YA but felt like I got a lot out of it reading it as an adult. This book is certainly a conversation starter, however, I don't think my review will do it justice. This book was a 5 star read for me, and I urge everyone to read it at some point in their life.

The story takes place in 1992, we follow Ashley Bennett as she grows up in a posh LA neighborhood with her parents and attends a private school. Her family has done everything to give her a better upbringing than they both had - and Ashley feels that they're sheltering them too much from the real world. As the book progresses, we are guided through the events and aftermath of the Rodney King Riots that took place that year in April/May.

As Ashley attends a private school, there are only a handful of black kids that attend the school and the majority of her friends are white, she even shrugs it off when they make racist comments about the other kids. I really loved watching Ashley's character evolve and stand up for what she believes in, we watch as her older sister Jo gets involved with the riots and sadly watch her Uncle's store being threatened by looters. I loved how in the end there was a strong family unity, and truly enjoyed the progression of Ashley from start to finish.

I look forward to reading more of Christina Hammonds Reed's work, as this is such a gripping debut novel.
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I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.