Also, I felt like the characters were all really naïve for their age. I really appreciated the fact that I was listening to it so I could speed up the playback and hurry through that discomfort. Realistic (or not) dialogue is one of the biggest aspects of a book that can make or break a read for me. It was basic and choppy and the dialogue was incredibly stilted and awkward. The biggest, most pervasive issue I had, and one that affected a lot of my interactions with the plot, was that the writing was simply…not good. Let me start with the things that bothered me, that made me want to give it a bad rating, because then I can end on a positive note. I want to give it two categorically different ratings at the same time and I don’t know how to compromise that.

This is the most difficult review I’ve had to write in quite a while. Though things continue to get worse before they, hopefully, take a final turn for the better. And things go from bad to worse for Moss, who must face his fears in order to get justice for himself and his friends. So, they plan a peaceful protest…that turns deadly when details are leaked to the police. But the student body is not having it the school cannot blame them for the violence on its campus. His school is decrepit and, after an SRO attacks one of his friends, the school installs metal detectors to “avoid” future similar events. At the same time that his relationship with Javier is heating up, things elsewhere start to fall apart. But that boy, Javier, seems to be totally accepting of it, and Moss excitedly and nervously embarks into his first dating experiences. And now, as a sophomore in high school, he’s still struggling with anxiety and PTSD about the event – a fact that he is very embarrassed about, especially when it causes him to have a panic attack in front of a cute boy he just met. Years ago, Moss Jeffries’ father was killed by the Oakland PD. He couldn’t separate them, and he had to learn to live with both.” And, as it was in honor of Bullying Prevention Month, it was very convenient that the cover was also blue! Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro Also, this ended up being my book for the October Just One More Pa(i)ge Reading Challenge prompt – read a book centered around close friends and relationships – because there was such a wide and complex set of friends in this book. The combination of it being available at the library as an audiobook just when I was looking for my next listen meant the time was right. I don’t have a big or exciting intro about this one – it’s been on my TBR since I first read about its publication last year.

Anger is a gift