Read Three Strike Summer

[conuly]

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60320600

Despite the sunny appearance of the cover, this definitely is a well-written book of the old school. Sure, nobody's mother technically dies, but... that ending, guys.

I guess I never expected to read a book where the end result of organizing is "somebody snitched to the boss and Dad barely escaped with his life, and now we gotta go down the road and pretend we never heard of our civil rights, so same old, same old. Also, can't really blame the snitch, he's just looking out for his kid, so...."

And yet, that's the book I just read! Honestly, I would've been less surprised if her mother had died in a freak kerosene accident.

Still, it was worth a read, despite the downer ending. Things get better for the USA, of course, the Depression eventually is going to end, but maybe nothing is going to get better for our protagonist and her family, not right then.

Comments

[silveradept]

It's very much a book about being a kid and having a kid's priorities and not actually getting any victories at all in the way you want them, with the backdrop of the Depression and people being taken advantage of.

[conuly]

Yeah, that.

And I'll be fair, the dose of unjust realism is at least... freaking bearable, even if it leaves everything feeling unsettled. It's not as bad as the awardbait that came out when I was a kid and earlier, so beloved of teachers.

[silveradept]

Yeah, it's not that everything resolves, but neither is it that everything falls apart into tragedy, which seems like maturity in the part of authors and editors to recognize that readers like having those kinds of stories.

[conuly]

Yes, it's definitely a more accessible ending to readers who may want hard truths but not necessarily for all dogs to die.