Nickel Boys (2024)

When the cops pick up a guy on suspected auto theft, his innocent teenage passenger is sent to Nickel Academy, a segregated juvenile detention facility in Florida. It's bad there -- like unmarked graves on the land for the black kids who wouldn't fall in line bad -- and I should've been occupied by those horrors. Instead, I was forced to think things like what the hell am I looking at? and am I Elwood or Turner right now? due to the bad idea of shooting this thing as though we're seeing through the eyes of the two main characters.

There's a reason that so few books are written in second-person: it's weird. The gimmick obviously works well for "Choose Your Own Adventure"-type things where the action is designed to be driven by the reader, but this felt like go-pro courtesy of a first-timer. I often had no idea where or even who I was. My husband lasted only 5 minutes, while I was sure that the conceit would be dropped after the introductory scenes (I was wrong).

In short: the power of the subject was completely overshadowed by the confusing perspective.

D+