We Are Not Like Them

I thought this was fine. It's giving Dollar Store Jodi Picoult. It would be great for a book club of nice white ladies to discuss in the summer of 2020. The conceit of splitting narrative between Black and white narrators and being co-written by a Black and white author is interesting but I think for me it still doesn't quite land. The bestieship between the two main characters felt more Told than Shown and it made it hard to understand what Riley was getting out of this friendship in the first place.

But the drama did keep me reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the book.

This book is written by two authors and told from the perspectives of two different people having two different experiences. Both women are connected by a lifelong friendship. But after a young black boy is shot by police, both characters are forced to confront racial tension that has always plagued their friendship but was never spoken about and threaten to divide them.

It was a good story overall. I usually don't like going back and forth between characters, but with this book, I enjoyed reading both characters' perspectives. I found myself wondering what the other was thinking while I was reading about another. I do feel like something went unresolved near the end, but maybe I have to give it another read.

But a really good story overall, that is very relevant to our times.