Something like right

Things are going poorly for Xavier "Zay" Rogers at the start of eleventh grade. After a fight, he's expelled, and his mother sends him to live with his aunt Mel to attend Broadlawn Alternative School. There he finds a new friend in Kenny, a love interest in Feven, and a supportive uncle in Smith, his aunt's boyfriend. Zay is biracial (his mom is Black and his dad is white), Feven is from Eritrea, and Kenny is Black. Hunter lightly touches on what it means to be a Black immigrant, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the difficulties of reintegration into society after a stint in prison--or just at an alternative school. Zay's candid and illuminating first-person narrative reveals a caring teen who makes bad decisions but who ultimately survives his junior year, making this a hopeful, uplifting story even during his darkest hours. Zay's journey to understanding who he is and how to make his own mark in a world that would see him crushed will surely resonate with readers who love Elizabeth Acevedo's With the Fire on High (2019).

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. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.