Dual Perspectives

I tend to like books with a dual perspective, as long as it's done well.  As in, you can definitively tell when the POV has changed.  This was one of those books, but more than that, it was a dual perspective that we needed.  Not to get too much on a soap box here, but we, as a people, need to get better at seeing things through other people's eyes.  We need to open our minds and hearts to the struggles other people are facing.  And most importantly we need to be willing to truly SEE what is going on around us.  I think this book, along with other books like The Hate U Give, are paramount to getting us to this point.  The following is my review, but my words won't do this book justice.

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I'm Not Dying With You Tonight by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones

This was an amazing book and so important.  I loved the way it showed, through alternate points of view, what it's like in a situation like this as both a white person and a black person.  Though obviously the events are scary for both girls, different aspects hit differently depending on their background and understanding of what's happening.  The authors did a marvelous job of showing this through each girl's thoughts and behaviors.

The book also does an excellent job at showing how fast things can go from tense to riots and violence.  So much can go wrong so fast, and a majority of it is because one side refuses to see things from the other side's perspective.  I think that's the biggest point that Lena was trying to get across to Campbell.

I hope more people will start reading books like this and educating themselves through fiction.  While white people will never know what it's like to be black, we can open our minds and read stories from their point of view and by black authors and try to empathize and understand.  I think it's vital for our future.