3.5 Stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for a chance to read this book!

“When you look like us—brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades—people think you’re trouble. No one looks twice at a missing black girl from the projects because she must’ve brought whatever happened to her upon herself.”

Jay is used to covering for his sister, Nic, ever since she got caught up with her drug dealer boyfriend. Jay doesn’t want to play his sister’s keeper anymore so the night she calls being sketchy, he assumes she high again and wasting his time. Problem is that Nicole seemingly vanishes off the face of the earth after that call. Now Jay’s on the hunt for his sister and he won’t stop until he brings her home.

‘When You Look Like Us’ is a solid book dealing with the very real issue of Black girls going missing in America and as a Black girl, it felt familiar in the best and worst ways. Pamela Harris does an excellent job describing the workings of Jay’s neighborhood─ the good and the bad. She nails the sense of community when you grow up somewhere like the Ducts, everybody knows everybody and someone’s grandma is always trying to feed you. Every character felt like someone I’ve come across at one point or another. She touches on the difficult issues too; microaggressions, the cycle of poverty, and the way people assume they know all there is to know about you because they know your skin color and zip code.

The cast of side characters is diverse and entertaining. The only problem is that I found myself more interested in them rather than in the MC Jay.

Jay is a great grandson, a good brother, but a pretty terrible friend. He constantly pushes away people and convinces himself it’s for their sake, but it really feels like some unresolved insecurity. He can be so contradictory that it gets frustrating at times. He manages to be a total pushover one minute and then stubborn as a mule the next, but never at the right time it seems.