While Moss himself derides much of this social outrage as "tragedy porn," trendy stories to be forgotten in time like his father's death, the book doesn't manage to effectively differentiate itself from just this approach in its extensive account of countless tragedies turned to peaceful protests turned to war zones, washed and repeated again. Yet when the boy Moss is dating gets murdered during a walk out at the high school, the real-life issues at hand, the novel struggles to balance the ironic juxtaposition between the Bay Area's progressive reputation and Oakland's longstanding legacy of combatting injustice with the sheer emotional labor of it all. As Moss and his friends shift from depressed resignation to anger, Oshiro's novel asks both its characters and its readers what to do next. All of this becomes impossible as events at school-supposedly random locker searches turn violent, newly installed metal detectors injure a friend-reveal how hyper-policing has become endemic to Oakland's citizens of color. He starts his junior year at West Oakland High just wanting to heal, to see what'll come from the cute boy he met on the train, and maybe to start considering college. suffers from panic attacks whenever he's reminded of his father's murder at the hands of police officers six years ago. In Oakland, California, sixteen-year-old Morris "Moss" Jeffries Jr.
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