This book is good and this book is important. Yes, it is about police brutality and the unfortunately, horrifically still relevant conversation regarding injustice in officer-involved shooting in the black community, but it is also about being a teenager.

All of the characters are well written. Nobody--not even the side characters--are flat. All of them actually act like real people. We get a glimpse into Starr's performative dichotomy of roles and how she struggles to keep her two worlds and selves separate. We see a community acting like a real community, even when their situation pretty much sucks. We see how the death of one person affects everyone, even those who don't know him. We learn to fight injustice.

This book is good. This book is important. And you should read it.