Quan has been in and out of the incarceration system since he was 11. He came from home of trauma with a mom in an abusive relationship and a dad who is there for him until one night he gets carted off to jail, the night that lives in QUan’s nightmares.

Despite Quan’s best efforts in working hard, studying and making As, no one believes in him. His teachers assume he cheated and his mother agrees with the teacher. His mom’s ex calls him “Delinquent Jr” on account of his dad, insinuating that he will follow in his father’s footsteps, and with no supportive figures, he does in his corner telling him that they believe in him and that they will stand by him even if he makes a mistake, he does.

Stone’s sequel focuses on the incarcerated black kids that most need our compassion and support, but recieve condemnation, highlighting how circumstances affect decision-making and self-esteem. Of course, it’s not just how circumstances before Quan gets incarcerated that suck but the actual prison system disproportionally targets POCs when they commit crimes like him getting a permenant record for stealing when it was just a pack of cards. Which yes, it’s stealing but it’s also called shoplifting and so many people get a misdemenour for that one, not jail.

Maybe Quan’s story won’t be seen as paltable as Justyce who had his difficulties confronting the internalized racism embedded in the system but still had a supportive family, friends, money and choices. Quan’s choices. . .never felt like choices but decisions made to survive than turned to debt and desperation. But that’s the point, even if they’re supposedly “bad kids,” “career criminals,” shoudn’t we be trying to do more to fix the system and support them so they feel they have a choice to do better?

Much like Dear Martin, this book isn’t straight prose but broken up by letters from Quan to Justyce, photo snapshots of the past and how it led to Quan’s circumstances and the present prose. It keeps the book engaging and creates an interesting time-frame as you connect the events with Quan as he goes to therapy and see how those memories affected his actions to the present.

While this is a heavy topic, there is hope as it is actual a dual narrative! Well I’m not sure it can be classified as a true dual narrative as Justyce only has four chapters to himself in Part 2 but it is the most hopeful, and fictionalized part of the book Stone admits. Justyce, SJ and his newfound friendship with Jared (yes he’s a still kinda a douche but he is working on himself so he’s a lovable douche and provides the comic relief) use their lawyer connections and intelligence to help Quan get acquitted, revealing the unfairness of the judicial system and the difficulties getting out of “the life.”

Part Two can get a bit repetitive as Quan is processing how the lack of support from male or any figure in his life led him down this path but it makes sense as Quan never really had time to process anything, so on the survival and providing for his family mode. Also I think Stone was trying to emphasize this point to readers so I’ll let it go as a personal nitpick.

But what I found fascinating was Quan’s crisis of hope. He can’t let himself hope that he’ll get out because it will make it worse if he doesn’t. It also ties into his recently realized abandonment issues which tie to him finding a family or sorts in Martel’s Black Jihad. He cannot cut his loyalty or his debt to them by being a snitch since they were the only ones there for him even at the risk of going to jail for life. Which connects to his own feelings of abandonment and inadequecy that he finds it hard to believe people will invest in him just for him, without ulterior motive because he doesn’t see what skills he provides to the world. Which circles back to his fears that he actually might get out and he fears that he has nothing to provide for the world, no skills or worth since he’s been emotionally beaten down so much. It all ties together!!

So besides that one nitpick, I can’t say there’s anything bad about this book. It’s insightful, compelling, moving and has some room for levity and hope amidst it all.

5 stars.