This book is…WOW. 

I think this may be the best thriller I’ve read. The horror behind these horrible actions and the fear in Chiamaka’s and Devon’s perspectives are so impeccably depicted. This entire book is written so amazingly, and it is CHILLING. 

What is even more chilling is how

this plot behind the school

can represent how society works and the institutionalized racism that works in the background for white people but right in front of people of colors’ eyes. The way that petty high school drama can turn so quickly into questions of life and death. The danger that people of color face in society because of these racist systems designed to take them down. This book and its

fictional school

make up a perfect metaphor for the world and what it does to black people simply because they’re black.

Àbíke-Íyímídé so seamlessly threads this story together and makes it begin as what people may assume is any regular YA high school novel but chips away at that facade bit by bit until the readers sees

the violence and horror beneath every section of Devon’s and Chiamaka’s lives.

Two ordinary high school students become the center of

an entire mass cult’s eugenic plot to wipe out black people from society, and the kicker? It’s been this way the whole time. They never were normal students. Their peers and teachers alike merely tricked them into believing that their lives were normal or that they were safe in any way.

And this was all revealed with perfect pace and just the right amount of foreshadowing, misleading, and anticipation. I am definitely excited to read more of Àbíke-Íyímídé’s work going forward!