The Problem With the Other Side

[Bailey]

I really enjoyed the premise of this book -- Uly is a Black student who starts dating Sally, a White student, and shortly after both of their sisters begin competing for class presidency. Sally's sister Leona calls for the school to end their Send/Receive policy, which allows surrounding communities (which happen to predominantly be communities of color) to go to their high school. Regina, Uly's sister, is inspired to run against Leona as her campaign becomes increasingly racially-coded and borderline dangerous. Regina's entire campaign is centered around making all types of students feel safe and accepted at school, while Leona's campaign centers around the direct opposite, ending "Wokeness" and "PC culture." The third candidate, a White athlete with assault allegations against him, is also introduced, though this character does not get explored as in-depth as the previous four. Throughout the entire novel, the racially-charged motives of Leona's campaign become more and more evident, seen in the increasing racist attacks on school grounds. Sally is faced with the difficult realization that her sister is not who she believes her to be, and a lot of the novel explores Sally's privilege in being able to ignore and not accept this right away.

Told through first-person alternating views, Uly and Sally reflect on the state of American politics in a school setting, based on their own experiences. The book explores a HUGE range of topics that have become 'hot-topics' in modern politics--interracial dating, transphobia, xenophobia, abelism, White supremacy, patriarchal norms, and that's not even the half of it.

While the premise of this book is great, I don't believe the story was told as well as it could've been. For one, I had trouble with some of the writing--while I do understand this is a novel for teenagers, the author seemed to try and write almost TOO much like a teenager, if that makes sense; it was borderline cringey at parts, and I'm sure a teenager would feel the same. While I applaud the author for the representation within this novel, I think the author took on too many topics and didn't focus on a wide range of them justly. The author mostly focuses on themes of interracial dating, racism, and White supremacy, which I do think were explored efficiently, especially in a way that can be relatable to a teenage audience. By basing these issues in a school-format, it allows high schoolers reading this novel to relate it back to their own school, people they know, experiences they have seen, etc.

The part of the book I struggled most with was the end. Out of nowhere, the book abruptly stops, and is catapulted nine years into the future. While the novel focuses on the battle for class presidency, the actual Inauguration of the class president is only a couple paragraphs, and ends in a school shooting that is only talked about in a matter of a couple pages. This is why I think the author might have been trying to deal with too many topics at once; something as impactful and traumatic as a school shooting in a novel for teenagers deserves to be explored, especially given the morbid way the author chooses to describe it. There was definitely hints that a school shooting was in the works, but it happened in the last 20 pages, and really didn't get the type of attention I believe it deserved. I think, however, there is a lot of potential from this author--pacing and content can be learned with time, and I'm interested to see how the author learns from this novel as he writes more.

Despite its shortcomings, I think this book provides a lot of learning opportunities for high school students. It covers complicated politicized information in a way that is easily digestible and easily understood, with concrete examples and discussion on racism and White supremacy. By providing alternating perspectives from a couple with complete different backgrounds, readers are able to intimately get into the mind of someone different than them and experience distraught, heartbreak, and the devastating effects of bigotry. As a school psychologist, this would be a fantastic book to provide to teachers who are willing to use a discussion-based format that allows students to reflect on their own biases, experiences, identities, and understanding of privilege.

Reference:
Ivery, K. (2021). The Problem With the Other Side. Soho Teen.