Spine Crackers discussion

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

I tried to read this as my "before I go to bed" book. After reading the first two chapters I realized I can't do that for this book.

The book reads so easily that I thought that time would be a good fit, but I very quickly realized that the context of the book deserves better then my bedtime brain, and the writing will keep me up all night.

Can't wait to start this book! I've heard about it from several friends. It's definitely very in-demand - I'm on the wait list at my lib! Hope to get it soon.

Julie wrote: "Can't wait to start this book! I've heard about it from several friends. It's definitely very in-demand - I'm on the wait list at my lib! Hope to get it soon."

Oh the wait list for this book is insane! On Libby the audio book wait was 6 months! Somehow (thankfully) the e-book borrow was available immediately. A few other people who use the Libby app to borrow from the Library said the wait is 6 months for both.

I will say, being about 50% of the way through the book, i'm probably going to buy it when i'm done.

Oh em goodness. I do not have words for this book! The author takes such a sensitive topic and writes it with such beauty, sensitivity, and empathy. I'm a white girl from the suburbs of Detroit, but even so I found that I could identify with Starr, and empathize with her.

I loved her relationship with her family and Chris. I loved her growth as a person. I loved that her parents had hustles and made a good life for their family despite bad decisions when they were young.

A story that we sadly hear too often. I hope people read this book and take it to heart.

SPOILERS















First of all, I love that she calls 115 by his number not his name throughout most of the book. I feel like whenever this sadly happens in the world today, people always try to humanize the cop and make the victim out to be at fault. The fact that Starr calls the cop by his number turns that on its head and flips this situation completely over. It is clear that the cop is in the wrong here. For this reason, I found the TV interview with 115's dad and Hailey's reaction to it completely infuriating because they were so realistic. It was so frustrating!!! I also hated that the kids at Williamson were only protesting to get out of class and not actually to protest the cop. I feel like the white people in this book (except maybe Chris) all had their priorities wrong and were more concerned about themselves than the fact an innocent teen just lost his life.

I do like that towards the end of the book Starr starts referring to the cop as his real name, I feel like that really shows her character arc. While she still thinks that what he did was wrong, she is finally able to see him as a person. I don't like that he doesn't really get punished in the end, but I appreciated Starr's reaction because it was so real and raw. She riots because she can't do anything else and she is so frustrated that she went through all the pain to relive everything and tell her story so many times and that the jury still didn't do anything. This novel is so well written that even though one can predict they won't do anything it is still heart wrenching when it all goes down.

I appreciated this book because, even though it's fiction, the story it tells is too real in today's society and I appreciated hearing Angie's voice.

This book was so worth the long library wait list! I had it recommended by a friend and then of course, here. I am still trying to process this book. I did end up reading most of it before bed, because that's just when I have the most time to read, but often found myself crying (although there were a few laughs, too). I really enjoyed the characters and couldn't believe how 'real' this work of fiction was. I was sad to find myself so desensitized to the 'When it Happened' portion, because we do hear these stories so often.

There were two moments that really stood out to me. The first was Starr's conversation with her dad about what THUG LIFE means. Not just what it stands for, but how society continues to put down the oppressed. The second is when Starr truly discovers a friend is racist - and removes her from her life. I found this inspiring in the climate that we live in, and think we should all find the strength not to put up with behaviors and attitudes like that even though it might be uncomfortable.

That's all I have to say right now - but definitely glad to have read it and am already recommending it to others!