Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro

 

For my next read, I decided to pick up a YA contemporary book that had been sitting on my shelf for a long time- Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro. I wasn't drawn to it for any particular reason aside from wanting to read from my own shelves and I had no memory of what it was about before I got started with it. I dove in ready for some contemporary YA goodness.

The plot follows high school junior named Moss Jeffries. He lives in Oakland, California with his mother. His father was tragically killed by the police when he was a young kid and he still struggles with his emotions and anxiety from this event. As his father was innocent of any wrong doing and the killing was a case of a series of errors made by the police, his death has become a symbol of the movement for police reform in his community. He is often recognized by the public and becomes the subject of a lot of unwanted attention from time to time. This only serves to increase his anxiety around both the public and the police. Luckily, he has a very close relationship with his mother and a good group of friends in place to support him.

Moss would like nothing more than to make it through high school like a typical kid, but that's a difficult prospect considering the state of his school. It is in desperate need of repairs and lacks the necessary funding for essentials like textbooks. What's more, there is a police officer stationed in the school that regularly bullies and intimidates students. It feels more like a prison than a place to learn and prepare for the future. These feelings get worse when the new school year begins and random locker checks are instituted. This further increases the amount of conflict between the officer and the students. After a few incidents that escalate into violence occur, Moss and his friends decide to band together to advocate for themselves. They plan a peaceful walkout to protest against the changes. However, the school is tipped off early about the protest and they increase the police presence on campus. When whole event ends in tragedy, Moss and his friends must find the strength and courage to keep fighting for their rights against an oppressive system that treats them as suspects instead of students.

I had somewhat mixed feelings about this book. It explores a lot of difficult topics related to mental health, grief, racism, policing, and protesting. Some aspects of these are handled very well, and others I felt were a bit heavy-handed. Starting with the positives, I liked Oshiro's writing in general. Moss felt like a very complex character. I liked how close he was with his mother and his friends, and the way his anxieties were portrayed felt genuine. He was the kind of character you root for while you're reading and want to see succeed. The representation throughout the book was good as well. A wide variety of genders, sexualities, cultural backgrounds, and family structures were present without being the complete focus of the story. The students and most of the adults throughout the text respected these differences. It was quite nice to see all sorts of people just being themselves. The story itself was consistently engaging too. I was invested in it and wanted to see how it would end all throughout my reading.

Most importantly, the discussions of systemic racism and the tactics commonly used to frame narratives about protesters and police were well done. Oshiro uses his story to explain how language and optics can become powerful weapons in the hands of authorities with a desire to maintain the status quo. Lawful assemblies can easily be turned into unruly riots and innocent victims turned into dangerous threats when the right words and images are presented to the public. The portrayal of trying to organize people and successfully protest an issue felt realistic. The characters found it extremely difficult to take any action without receiving threats, sabotage, or violence in return. One of the prevailing themes in the novel is the importance of showing bravery and perseverance to order to create change, and Oshiro got this message across successfully.

Where I thought the story was a bit weak was in the amount and degree of violence Moss and the other characters endured. Now, to be clear, I firmly believe that systemic racism and police brutality are real and important issues that need to be addressed and fixed. I also believe that everything Oshiro brought up in the course of the plot has a real-life example from somewhere in the United States to support it. However, it felt like the police in this story enacted all of the worst human rights violations possible within a few events. During the walkout, they use tear gas and pepper spray on students, beat them with batons, use sonic weapons on them, kick and punch them, hit the principal in the face with a baton, and even shoot and kill a student. During the final public protest of the novel, they use the methods I previously listed, plus use a vehicle-mounted weapon called a Silent Guardian that uses microwave rays to make people feel like they are on fire, hit Moss' mother across the face with a baton, break a reporter's arm, and shoot a tear gas canister directly into the face of a protester, killing her. Again, I am well aware that these things have happened in real life, but having all of them happening at once over the course of just a few weeks took me out of the story a little bit. However, I do have to consider that this novel is meant for young people, so perhaps being heavy-handed with the violence was a deliberate strategy to get the importance of these issues across to a teen audience. For an adult reader though, it did feel over the top.

Overall, I thought that Anger is a Gift was a good novel that fearlessly took on some very weighty themes. It is important for young people to interact with these ideas and consider how they play out in the real world. As Oshiro shows through his story, enacting change is hard and often very scary, but it is the only way to disrupt entrenched inequities and make the world a better place. This wasn't a special favorite for me, but it was an interesting and thought-provoking read that I am sure older teen audiences will love.

2025 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 2/40

Clear the Shelves 2025: 2