There were a lot of things I liked about this. I really appreciated the messy family relationships, especially between the sisters. I thought the exploration of YouTube and social media personalities, and the idea that some followers misunderstand how much they see of a person on those platforms, was very apt and insightful. The cognitive dissonance that we see towards the end with a particular character is not unlike the cognitive dissonance I often see in the real world. That all felt really positive to me.

But while ambitious, ultimately I think this book was just trying to do too many things to be completely successful with any of them. It also introduced some moments that are likely considered spoilers but were particularly triggering for me personally, and I think were meant to underscore the morals of the book, but ended up feeling heavy-handed and traumatizing.

I received an ARC of this book via the Publisher's Weekly giveaway.

This book follows the lives of a few young women affected by senseless deaths at the hands of police (current day) and racist (past.). (Though it could be said the current day police were also racist.).
Opinion
This is a very powerful book that will leave you in tears throughout. There are many instances that gave me, a white woman, pause thinking what it must be like. I learned about our history and cried for what happened. This book is a must read for young adults.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

This book is a masterpiece. The way that the narrative explores the concept of "one of the good ones" is so well done, the ending brought me to tears.
I will admit that I had trouble getting through this book at first. Following a family dealing with the grief of a beloved sister's untimely death is a hard topic to read about. Mix that with recent current events and it was hard to lose myself in the story.
However, I am SO glad that I finished the book. Not only was it beautifully written, the ending of the book (with a very well-done plot twist) made this one of my favorite books that I have read this year.

Where do I even begin? This is DEFINITELY a must-have for my classroom library. This book follows the story of multiple families whose history intertwines in the past and present. However, the story mostly focuses on the death of a young, YouTube activist, Kezi who died at the hands of law enforcement. To honor her memory, her sisters (and friends) go on this well-planned road trip based on her research of the Green Book (look it up) and the history of Route 66. This book gripped my attention from the beginning to the end. (It really picked up towards the middle of the book. I couldn't see this plot twist coming from a mile away.) I would rate this book ten stars if I could!

The first half of this book was very well done. The story of Kezi trying to make a difference in the world and her being a victim of police brutality was relevant and perfectly crafted. Also, Happi, Genny, and Kezi's friends trying to get over her death were emotional and realistic. However, halfway through the book, there is a "surprise twist" which didn't work for me and negated a lot of the authors' message. Also, the entire road trip storyline felt underdeveloped and disappointing. These authors are skilled storytellers and I will keep reading their books but the second half of this book was not great.

4.5 stars

This was definitely an emotional ride for me with some surprising developments and I was very impressed by how well the author wove the various threads together. Although I'm loving audiobooks more and more these days, I think I'm glad I read this one, partly because it is not a linear timeline and the POV shifts pretty frequently. Each section is clearly identified, though, so I didn't find myself getting at all confused. But now that I've read it, I would be interested in listening to it eventually and see if I get something different out of the book. This is a story about Kenzi and her life and her beliefs, but also about her death and her loved ones left behind. While her parents are definitely part of the story, the present-day story is mainly driven by her two sisters and her girlfriend. Without revealing any spoilers, the past follows the story of their grandfather's parents, especially his mom. The way the author connects what happens in the past to the present day (which includes many of the challenges faced by POC in this country) had me angry, sad, frustrated, moved, laughing, and even on the edge of my seat at times. The title of this book is also one of the major themes in this book--that we only care about POC being hurt when they are "one of the good ones" as if they're only valuable because of that, and not because they are human beings worthy of our care. I think this book would be a good one for teens and above to read and discuss.

One thing I will say about this book is that it started out somewhat unevenly and I wasn't sure if it was going to hold my interest. But as the story developed, things started to feel more focused and I could feel things start to connect and threads that I read near the beginning started making more sense. So I would say this is one of those books that gets better as you move along and by the time you see the twist you realize that some of what you read at the beginning was set up so that the twist would make a lot more sense. Overall, I would say the authors did a great job with this book and I look forward to reading what they put together in the future!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I had never read anything by Maika and Maritza Moulite before, but I was drawn to the premise of One of the Good Ones and its present-day relevance.

This book is multilayered, rich with Black history and how the cycle of racism repeats itself in the depictions of the lives of its contemporary protagonists, sisters, Kezi, Happi, and Genny, and friend Shaqueria, juxtaposed with the sisters’ grandmother during the Civil Rights era.

And while the “flow” of the story could have been troublesome, with the jerking back and forward in time and following multiple different people, I found this comparatively easy to follow compared to other books in a similar vein, and felt each character managed to bring a sense of their own experience of the shared racial trauma.

I think this book has a lot to say about what it means to be considered “one of the good ones,” and to have that determined based on skin color alone. If you’re looking for a YA book that unpacks our present moment that also has a bit of suspense to it (it’s being comped as “The Hate U Give meets Get Out”), I would strongly recommend this one.

One of the Good Ones by Maritza and Maia Moulite is such a well written book that teens and adults can enjoy. The characters were well-rounded, and at times I forgot they were even teenagers. The story centers around Kezi a young YouTube influencer, and activist who is killed while in police custody after a protest. The story flips between the present and past with highlights on Kezi’s grandparents and great-grandparents. After Kezi’s death her sisters Genny and Happi head out on a road trip in her honor along with her friends Ximenia and Derek. As the group takes the trip, and follows the route Kezi planned to take they discover things not only about themselves, but about Kezi as well. Happi is dealing with her guilt for the last things she said to Kezi, and Genny is just trying to hold it all together in Kezi’s honor. As the trip unfolds the group learns a lot abut their great-grandfathers death and the role it had in Kezi’s life and intentions. The group is detailing all of their travels on Kezi’s YouTube page, just as she would’ve, but the more they view her channel they see someone was sending weird messages to Kezi, and Happi wonders if the person sending the messages knows more about Kezi’s death than anyone would’ve even guessed. This book has a major plot twist and comes off as a really good mystery. I really enjoyed this book and the fact that it had such a great twist with strong Black leads to the story. This book covers family, loss, love, racism and social injustices, and really fits in with what we are dealing with presently in the US.
Thank you NetGalley and Inkyard Press for this ARC.

The Internet. Social Media. Youth. Racism. Woke! Heritage. Generations. Sisters. Parents. Friends. Loss. Love. What do you get when you put all those words together? An Oprah Book Club worthy novel! Oooh! My! God! Did I fall in love with these characters, story, and the whole nine! Where shall I begin?

A parent’s worst nightmare is the loss of a child, and to add insult to injury, when the loss of that child was due to a senseless act. Kezi Smith grew up in a God-fearing household with two parents who were pastors. It was one thing for her to have very religious parents, but she was also under the watchful eyes of two sisters, Genny and Happi. Kezi was the middle child and everyone knows what is usually said about the one in the middle, but Kezi played her role well and was the jewel in the family.

Kezi ran a successful YouTube channel and had hundreds of thousands of followers. Kezi was all the way woke when it came to African-American history and especially the history of her own family. So much so, that she began researching her family’s heritage. Her good friend Ximena’s grandmother possessed a copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book which is a book that was provided to black motorists back-in-the-day to navigate throughout the United States without getting themselves killed. Kezi thought it would be a wonderful journey to use the book to take a cross-country trip on the infamous Route 66. She researched this idea so well she put all the stops on her channel for her followers to tag along and learn a little something too.

While Kezi was getting her trip coordinated, a young black man was killed by a white police officer, yet again! Umph, this was nothing knew to Kezi and her family. They watched the news and could hear the whispers throughout the community about how police brutality was killing our people. Kezi decides that she cannot take it anymore. This time she was going to get up close and personal with racism and face it head on. When Kezi advised her family she planned to attend the protest, immediately she was met with resistance.

Her parents flat out denied her and put the brakes on such a notion. They did not want to be the next parents standing at a podium advising people not to get violent and cause chaos throughout the community. There wasn’t any way Kezi was going to that protest. Well, Kezi was 18-years old. She’s grown. She was gonna do what she wanted to do! Her followers expected this of her. She and her bestie, Ximena, head on down to the protest.

Needless to say, the young teens were excited to be out and among the people. Fists pumping in the air, police standing guard with riot gear on, protestors chanting—the energy was intoxicating! Kezi has her camera streaming live to her followers when she spots a white police officer and a black man getting ready to stand off with each other. She focuses in and while doing so, another white police office spots her filming the whole thing. And that, readers, is where our story takes off down the road!

My goodness, when I tell you I loved this story, that is truly an understatement. I was so impressed with the building of this story and the strong characters that inhibited the pages. Sisters Genny and Happi have to learn how to deal with the loss of their sister. I enjoyed their growth throughout the story. The lessons these young women learn about Kezi and themselves is truly remarkable. Again, I say, I’m not sure why this book isn’t on Oprah’s Book Club list? If it is and I’m not aware, my bad, but if it isn’t there, it most definitely should be! The Moulite authors did an amazing job showing each character’s interaction and backstory that eventually get woven into a huge comforter that you will take solace in its warmth and want to remain for eternity. This book was amazing!

There are some unavoidable ugly truths about this country beginning with the horrendous, biased and violent treatment of black men and women for hundreds of years. This book brings to the forefront the history behind that violence from the Jim Crow Laws, sundown towns and The Green Book, which was created to give safe passage to black people traveling around this country. Unfortunately, that violence is not in the far past and today we see new versions of this violence in police brutality, housing laws, inequities caused by decades of racism and the disappearances and violence against black women. This book ties together all those issues and the generational trauma that this violence inflicts as two sisters deal with the senseless death of the third sister and her friends and family try to find their voices and their hearts on this metaphorical and literal journey. Be prepared for your heart and soul to take a beating and for some of us (allies especially) to really analyze what it means to be “one of the good ones”.

This book was so amazing, heart wrenching, and moving. I was hooked right from the start. I loved the multi-POV and the time lapses. It was so cool to see so many different time periods.

The story was so well rounded. I loved the characters and I really felt Happi’s grief was so authentic. The way she moved through her grief and grew after Kezi’s death was so inspiring.

I feel like this story is just so important and raises a lot of questions about what it means to be “one of the good ones” and why it downright offensive. A human life being cut short senselessly is terrible no matter if they were “one of the good ones” or not.

This book is so perfect for the time we live in and I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys social justice reads.

I absolutely adored this book. I would describe this book as painful, honest, brutal, and... unexpected. This is difficult to review because I don't want to give anything away, but, I HIGHLY recommend sticking this book out to the last third because Maika Moulite really shakes things up. This book is both a retelling of the real-life horrors of racist police brutality that we see in the news and on social media over and over and over and at the same time, it is COMPLETELY original. I have never read anything like it, and I could not recommend it more highly. It's The Hate You Give meets a Riley Sager novel. Get ready to hear me yelling about this in 2021!

This was a hard book to rate. I feel like I read two different books and I was waiting for a better way to link the two story arcs together. I feel like the first half was too long of a setup for the final act of the story.
I was invested in the characters and the story was compelling ( in two separate parts). I will reccomend to my patrons and I am excited to see what else the Moulite sisters write.

with the commentary on police brutality and the heartbreaking consequences of systemic racism, this book stands on its own merit, being compared to The Hate you give. Would recommend toYa readers.

I hope never to experience losing a friend or a family member to police brutality. One of the Good Ones is as close to that feeling I ever want to get. For this to be fictitious, the Moulite sisters did an excellent job conveying the emotion of experiencing just that. I don't think grieving involves being sad all the time. Sometimes people want to escape for a little while. While some people would find Kezi's little sister selfish, I understand that Happi wants things to be different. Happi wishes she can change how she treated her family before the fatal event, and she struggles to work out her feelings and emotions after Kezi's death. Between switching points of view from Kezi and Happi, we see how the family dynamic plays out before and after the demise.

With the build-up from the entire novel being so grand, I was disappointed in the anticlimactic ending. I was expecting raw emotion and an updated point of view from each narrator. What I got was an incomplete scenario that left me wondering what happened after? The last remaining questions will never be answered, which will bug me for the rest of my life.

Overall, this was a good read. It is "one of the good ones." Yes, I know it's corny, but I couldn't help it. I never imagined the Moultrie sisters could add an element of surprise in a story initially meant to highlight Black American problems in the country. That plot twist alone changed my expectations of this book. It took me by surprise, and I think it will do the same for you.

I picked up this book because the main characters go on a road trip inspired by the Green Book, a guide for Black individuals/families of safe places for them to stop when taking trips on America’s highways. It was widely used until the 1970s to find safe lodging, gas stations, restaurants, and car repair shops. I read the Overground Railroad by Candacy C. Taylor earlier this year and found it absolutely fascinating, and I was hoping that this book would talk more about the characters finding old places that were in the Green Book and what they looked like today. However, the actual stops in the Green Book sort of took a backseat to everything else that was going on around the Smith family.

Here is the super condensed version of the plot: It is ultimately about the three Smith sisters, Happi, Kezi, and Genny. Kezi has amassed a YouTube following by posting videos reacting to injustice she sees in her life and educating followers about race and social justice issues. She goes to a protest supporting a Black man who was recently slain by police, and when things go wrong and the worst happens, Kezi is arrested and presumed to have been killed. Before she left, she created a road trip for herself and her two best friends following their grandparent’s Green Book as a tribute and history lesson to her followers. Genny, a reluctant Happi, and Kezi’s two BFFs take the trip and record it for her YouTube page in her honor. There are carefree, frustrating, and poignant times on this trip that changes all their lives forever.

Overall, I liked this book. It was a good read. It touched on social issues that are so relevant and important to today’s teens, but it also had a sense of mystery/light thriller-type vibes which I was not expecting. This book has a lot of layers: it’s not a book about just police violence or grief or internet culture or respectability politics, it is all of those things and more without being too overwhelming.

The book is told from the perspective of different Smith family members throughout time, which I found a little confusing at times. I wasn’t a big fan of this mode of storytelling until the end when everything sort of came together, but it did ultimately make sense to me. This book is great for teenage readers, as it is educational about Black American history in the early/mid-1900s while still being entertaining and easy to read. There is a TON of plot and social commentary packed into this novel for sure, but I would recommend that my library purchase this novel as soon as it comes out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the ARC!

In One of the Good Ones, Kezi Smith, a YouTube star, dies at a BLM-esque protests. Her sisters, Happi and Genny, and her best friends set off on the road trip Kezi had planned to take the summer after she graduated. Guided by the Greenbook for Negro Motorists, the group honors Kezi by posting on her channel on their trip.

This book was a touching tale of sisters grieving and searching for connection with their sister. These characters are fully-fleshed out teenagers - they have hopes, and fears, and frustrations. And top of that, they are exceptionally aware of the pressures put on them as Black girls in America.

Highly recommend!

How many times have we heard he/she was one of the good ones? More than I can count. It seems to make bad news worse because it wasn't supposed to happen them, right? It also adds pressure as though someone is exempt from bad behavior ever. It sets a very high level of obedience and expectations. It also casts a dark light on one of the "bad" ones as if they were born to disappoint. So when I saw the title of this new novel, One of the Good Ones, I was more than interested in reading an advance copy.

The description says, "The Hate U Give meets Get Out." I totally disagree and don't see the similarities. Sister-writer duo, Maika and Maritza Moulite, come together again to explore prejudice in a new novel. Teen social activist and history buff, Kezi Smith, is killed after attending a social justice rally. Her sister, Happi, narrates through her grief, road trips with family and questions the idealized way her sister is remembered.

Was she really one of the good ones? Why are only certain people deemed worthy to be missed? Are those we lost automatically idealized and seen as the perfect angel? True points made by Maika and Maritza Moulite.

Sometimes YA books do too much; One of the Good Ones is an example. I almost lost the overall message while going back and forth with alternating points of view (Kezi leading up to the day of arrest and Happi in the aftermath). I think it may be too confusing to follow for some young adults.

Even I had to make lots of mental notes to chronicle the story for it to make sense. This took away from my actually enjoying it when I had to break out with sticky note tabs to create my own order of reading. Sorry I couldn't get into the person Kezi was and the person she shaped to be in her sister's memory. I appreciate the authors humanizing black people, just not in the writing style chosen. However, it may be a totally different experience for you so give it a try.

Happy Early Pub Day, Moulite sisters! One of the Good Ones will be available Tuesday, January 5, 2021.

LiteraryMarie

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book that I’ve read from these authors and I truly was intrigued with the storyline. The book follows the events leading up to the arrest and death of an 18 year old YouTuber and activist. For most of the book I was confused because it switched between three storylines. I was waiting for an explanation as to how the stories were related. At the end, it briefly tells how the stories correlate but it was really rushed and didn’t make the best sense. I loved what the storyline represented and I loved the characters but something was missing. The plot twist was unexpected and happens around the 70% mark.

I’m giving three stars because while I loved what the authors were trying to convey, I could not get passed the constant switching between the storylines. I finished this book. There are topics which include: LGBT, Black Lives Matter, and Racism

Isn’t being human enough?
Who are the “good” ones? What exactly makes one “good?” One of the Good Ones seeks to answer these questions. It’s a much needed, thrilling, emotional roller coaster ride, page turning, good read.