SOMETHING LIKE RIGHT

After Black biracial Xavier gets in a fight with a 12th grade bully while protecting the boy’s 9th grade victim, he’s expelled from school.

Zay must now finish his junior year at Broadlawn Alternative School, which is located hours away. The day he finds out he has to move in with his aunt and uncle (who live near Broadlawn), his white father is released from prison. Zay isn’t happy about Keith’s release; he feels betrayed by Ma for not telling him that Pops was getting out, and he isn’t sure how to connect with his pops, who’s been like “an imaginary friend” whom he’s outgrown over the past 12 years. Hunter deftly depicts the mental and emotional complexities incarceration causes for both the newly released and their family members. Despite Zay’s reluctance to leave home, the move turns out to be positive. He quickly bonds with his uncle, learns more about his parents, befriends Kenny (who’s in his second stint at Broadlawn), and falls hard and fast for Feven, a girl who’s new to the area and is originally from Eritrea. The voices of the three young people are outstanding; they each navigate significant emotional landscapes—Kenny faces the school-to-prison pipeline; Feven reckons with the pressures of immigration; and Xavier deals with the impact of generational trauma. The adults are notably also fully developed characters.

An original setting for a highly relatable and memorable story about first love and second chances.