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Theresa's avatar

I am old enough to remember when Du shot and killed Latasha Harlins, back in 1991. Du got probation. Latasha had the $2.00 to pay for the orange juice in her hand. She was not shoplifting.

Nothing has changed in LA to prevent this from happening again.

I was born in Watts, LA. My parents lived there during 1965 rebellion for the shooting of a Black teenager by the LA police. It’s called the Watts riots, but of course it wasn’t a riot.

We were lucky to move out of Watts, or my sisters could have been Latasha.

Everything stays the same- time is neutral and does nothing. That said- “we are all more than the worst thing we have ever done.” Brian Stevenson

https://eji.org/about/

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Alex Segura's avatar

A lot of genre novels, particularly mysteries that hinge on a big reveal or twist at the end (which I don't think this great book does, but just explaining) limit POV and withhold facts based on POV or timeline...but I'm sure you get that. I agree it's not "cheating" - it's good writing, and spotlighting characters before a seismic choice or event to contextualize how they've changed is a smart play.

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Noah Berlatsky's avatar

true! I should have made it clearer that it’s the reason for the twists rather than the twists themselves that are the key here.

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Robert Spottswood, M.A.'s avatar

Very cool. Thanks for explaining this, as it touches some sense that it is very true.

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Stephen Breyer's Ice Cream's avatar

Ah. It's the 𝑂𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 trick.

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