Bonus book for #BlackHistoryMonth - I try to focus on Black British authors in the thread but i think #DearJustyce by @getnicced deserves a mention. Just finished on #NetGalley, sequel to Dear Martin & from the pov of a Black youth that doesn't have Justyce's support network. https://t.co/hIsnLf0Iry

An absolutely brilliant sequel and shows such a vastly different set of perspectives than Dear Justyce, showing what a difference a support system can make in both stories, and adding in at the end in her notes that unfortunately, support systems are lacking as a whole for many kids in Quan's predicament. Quan is another genuine and real character from Stone and he is utterly heartbreaking, brought up in a world that's told him he's not good enough to the point that he believes it, and how could he not with systematic racism? I really enjoyed having Justyce, SJ, and Jared back and appreciated that Stone gave Jared a redemption arc when she didn't have to.

Overall this was a powerful, emotional, and brilliant book, a stunning sequel that I loved even more than Dear Martin. It's definitely a 2020 favorite of mine.

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a follow up to Dear Martin, you don’t necessarily have to read the first to follow the story but it does give you a little background into the story.
I thought this book was a bit slow at the beginning and then all happened at the end. I would have loved to have seen more of an insight into prison life but I suppose the letters were the main part. I did enjoy the book but thought it definitely could have been longer as all seemed a little too perfectly and quickly wrapped up at the end (although it’s always good to have a positive outcome!)

This story, told through a series of letters, flashbacks and present day events is a heartbreaking, raw and thought provoking look at the lives of young black men (and females) today.
I don't want to give a synopsis and give much away as a lot of the story you work out through the events but this book really makes you think, especially with recent events and the BLM movement.
I couldn't stop reading this book and I recommend it to everyone, no matter what genre is your preferred I think everyone would take something from Nic Stones words.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an early copy.


It sounded risky to write a sequel to Dear Martin – kind of how it'd sound risky to write a sequel to The Hate U Give. They're both such wonderful, powerful books, that I was afraid a sequel would make them slightly less magical.
And still, I couldn't resist, because if there ever was a time to read a sequel to Dear Martin, it's now.

So, does Dear Justyce live up to its bigger brother?
No need to try and be suspenseful: Yes. Yes, it does, and it does so with high honours.

Dear Justyce is one of those books where you can feel how much love, frustration, and pain the author was feeling as they wrote it. And it only makes it more beautiful, more raw and touching.

So, sure, there are some aspects that can be a little off-putting (I'm mostly thinking of those parts of the book where, suddenly, there's sort of poetry sneaking through the lines), but man, how beautiful that book is.
It proves just how important it is to have own voices, and how what some could see as a "simple" book is way, way more than that. It's a note of hope and a cry for help at the same time; a beautiful retelling of what the author has seen and heard throughout her life helping youngsters.

So, thank you, Nic Stone, for allowing us to step back into Justyce's world, to get to know Quan better (such a beautiful character!).
It was truly a beautiful read.

Author: Nic Stone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: E-Book Advanced Reader Copy
Published: 6th October 2020
Originally Published: 29th September 2020
Pages: 258
Rating: 4.5 Stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, however, this in no way influenced my opinion. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Children’s UK for providing me with a copy.

Content Warning: Domestic abuse, panic attacks, anxiety, PTSD, and police brutality.

This review contains spoilers.

In Dear Justyce, the sequel to Dear Martin we follow Quan Banks, who is in juvenile detention after being arrested for the murder of a police officer. While in prison Quan begins to write letters to Justyce, who is a childhood friend of Quan. When Quan reveals that he is innocent Justyce, S.J, Doc, and Mrs. Friedman look into his case.

This was an incredibly important and gut-wrenching read, I honestly could not put this book down, it was gripping and I just needed to know what happened next. I have to say that I enjoyed this one more than Dear Martin. I enjoyed following Quan’s journey and my heart just broke him and everything he has had to deal with from a young age. However, I do want to highlight that you can read this as a standalone novel but the first book is great so I suggest picking it up. I loved getting to see the characters from Dear Martin and find out how they were doing at college. I especially enjoyed seeing Justyce again and finding out what he was up to and how his and S.J’s relationship was. Another thing I really enjoyed was that this novel discussed the sociology and psychology of crime and why young people join gangs. There were many themes explored throughout this novel including; hope, police brutality, mental health, and the prejudices within the justice system. I especially found the way hope was explored through the novel to be very thought-provoking and emotional.

Overall this was a powerful, thought-provoking, and raw YA Contemporary novel that examines the prejudices of the American Criminal Justice system. I highly recommend picking this one up, especially if you have an interest in criminal justice.

Dear Justyce is the sequel to Dear Martin and is a damning indictment of the huge impact race and inequality can have on young black lives. It isn't strictly necessary to have read its predecessor beforehand as they both work perfectly as standalone novels but it is also a worthwhile read. At a time when race relations are being discussed much more, not just in America, where this book is set, but across the wider world, stories such as these are so very important. It is an emotional, unflinching and captivating read which explores topical societal and political themes such as race, equality, abject poverty and discrimination, to name a few, and introduces them in a compelling manner where it doesn't feel forced, preachy and doesn't overwhelm the overarching plot. It's gripping, accessible and raw and the writing flows from page to page and much like reality, there is sickening institutional racism experienced by the characters on a regular basis.

The characters Stone has carefully and beautifully crafted capture your heart and are so vivid that they jump right off the page; you feel as though you actually know them intimately in real life. I can't give a book higher praise than that. The two main characters, Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister, have both taken vastly different ”routes” in life and end up in totally opposite situations despite having grown up in the exact same area of Atlanta. Sadly the whole story is reflective of real life. Through a rich and moving narrative, we hear how Quan ended up incarcerated on a murder charge having been driven to participate in gangland life through issues from adversity to poor circumstances, stereotyping to racial profiling taking place in his everyday life. It is every bit as amazing as the first book and just as immersive and meaningful. Recommended. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Children's UK for an ARC.

After finishing Dear Martin back in July, I wondered why it was getting a sequel. Justyce’s story resolves neatly in the first book in this series, and I couldn’t for the life of me see where the story could go from there.

Little did I know that the sequel was going to end up impressing me far more than Dear Martin. In fact, I think Dear Justyce is probably the most important book I’ll read this year.

If you’ve read Dear Martin, you’ll know that a large part of the story is told through letters. Justyce writes to his idol Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asking for advice after being racially profiled, questioning the way that the justice system treats black teens and confiding his attempts to be a model citizen in the hopes that he’ll never have another run in with the law.

In Dear Justyce, instead of focusing on Justyce we focus on Quan, a background character from the first novel. Quan has been arrested for the murder of a police officer, and he’s facing life imprisonment. Quan starts writing letters to Justyce and eventually tells him the story of the night that changed his life, and it turns out that things aren’t as clear cut as they seemed…

I think the reason this sequel works so well is because in some ways it’s telling the other side of the same story. In Dear Martin, Justyce is a straight-A student from a well-off family and he gets treated terribly by the police. Dear Justyce takes things one step further, exploring what happens to the Black student who is flunking out and living on the rough side of town when they come up against the long arm of the law.

In a year when the public scrutiny of the actions of police officers has reached new heights, it would be brilliant if I could say that the events in Dear Justyce were unrealistic. Sadly, this is the reality faced by all too many young men due to systemic racism in American law enforcement. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if cases were handled incorrectly – in fact, hardly handled at all – and coercion was used, because once a decision has been made (and has usually been made based off of the colour of someone’s skin), it’s nigh on impossible for the black mark on their record to be completely removed.

Nic Stone does a wonderful job of exploring the motivations behind Quan’s actions, and the way that the daily instances of microaggressions combine to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people constantly treat you as though you’re stupid, as though you can’t succeed, as though you’re destined to become a lifelong offender, then soon enough you’ll start believing it, no matter how hard you try to defy them.

This is one of the most necessary sequels I have ever read, and I am so grateful to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advanced copy via NetGalley. I couldn’t see a way that Dear Justyce could surpass Dear Martin, but this book is uplifting and hopeful, focusing on the importance of friendship and having a strong support system in the face of corrupt power structures.

If you’ve been wondering whether it’s worth continuing on with Justyce’s story, I can confirm that it 100% is.

To be honest, I had almost the exact same problems with Justyce as with Martin. I didn't find the story very engaging or deep. It said what it wanted to say and it did solid work but that was about it. We don't get to see much of what prison life is like for an unfairly treated Black youth, which after all is where 75% of the book is set. I also questioned the connection Quan had with Justyce at first - I was wondering what the purpose behind their new friendship was except to justify a sequel, but it made more sense later on when we saw more of Justyce and his friends. Anyway, the plot didn't manage to surprise me or excite me but it spoke a clear message of hope. It all seemed pretty straightforward and if anything somewhat too simple.

Wow this book was so powerful but just like Dear Martin it left me incredibly sad. This novel has an authors note both at the beginning and at the end and they really add to the power of the message and the story within.



I really loved the way this book links with Dear Martin, that these two characters are from the same neighborhood and that neighborhood still has the same issues uncovered in Dear Martin. This book also really highlights through the narrative and also through Nic Stone's choices the importance of support. Support within your community and having someone who believes in you. So much of the pain these young people have gone through could be so easily avoided and yet because of he way society has been and is today, they are almost unavoidable.



One of the things I also really loved about Quan's story is that he highlights the power of a supportive teacher and someone at school who believes in him. As a teacher this really warmed my heart and helped to reinforce my ideas around the power of what happens within the school building. I think my being a teacher is one of the reasons this book felt so sad so much of the time for me. There are some wonderfully funny moments between Quan and his friends and he never really looses his sense of humour throughout the novel but I was so sad the way things so quickly declined for him and the reasons behind so many of the choices that he made.



This book can be painful to read sometimes and feels so close to home I struggled to believe it was fiction in points but it is an important read and it does give us a sense of hope as well as that affirmation of the importance of having someone in your corner who believes in you.

Having just read the prequel, which focuses on Justyce’s story, Dear Justyce is Quan’s chance to tell his story. And his story is heartbreaking. It took me a while to warm to Quan; he’s no Justyce, he’s in a detention centre facing a murder charge - this is some serious stuff, far away from Justyce’s life in an Ivy League college. Whilst they’re similar (they’re from the same neighbourhood, knew each other as kids and both are bright) but that’s about it. And Dear Justyce helps you understand how someone can go from having the world at his feet to being someone facing a murder charge before he’s even an adult.

Right from the start Quan doesn’t shy away from his life expectations “Honestly, we don’t even know if we’ll live past the age of 18.”, which to me as a white person is just shocking. In the Western world, in one of the richest countries in the world, at the forefront of science, industry and being the best you can be, these kids don’t expect to live past 18. How is that right?

The thing that stuck out for me was that, through circumstance and misunderstanding, Quan had no one. No one in his corner, no one supporting him. “I needed backup. Support without judgment. People who hadn’t—and wouldn’t— give up on me. I needed a family.”

When he did his best, tried his hardest, it wasn’t enough; “What was he supposed to do?  . . . good in school got him a cheating accusation and in-school suspension.  . . . his very best wasn’t ever good enough.  . . . what he could felt as limited as his hands did in the cuffs.” It’s o wonder some don’t even bother.

Whilst Dear Justyce has a different feel to it’s prequel, this is an important story. It’s important to see how the rules of society are stacked up against them, life is a constant battle (literals and figuratively). That has to change. Nic Stone’s author note us also worth a read.

Nic Stone has a magnificent way of making hard-to-read, difficult topics accessible for a younger audience.
This is an excellent and incredibly important skill to have.

Dear Justyce is a must read and not only did it keep me absorbed to a point I couldn't put it down, It has the potential to start some important and much needed conversations.

|| DEAR JUSTYCE ||

As I read the first chapter, I knew this was going to be phenomenal. I’ve been waiting for Quan’s side of the story since Dear, Martin. It sucked me right in with just a few heartfelt words. How Nic Stone can pack such an breath-taking, brave and unflinching account of the cruel life of incarcerated African-American who just want to survive in this cold world, into such a short book is unbelievable. Already I could feel all the pain and loneliness Quan was suffering with in his prison cell, at home, his school. I just wanted to reach out and hug away all his fears and problems. To protect him from all the injustice thrown at him his whole life. This book truly was heart-breaking and yet still managed to make me smile (while crying happy tears).

Everything seemed to be going to hell for him after his dad’s arrest. He was trying to do his best, to stay above all the bad things, get good grades, take care of his family but eventually he came crashing down and things couldn’t have been worse
The first part of the book reminisces about Quan’s early years and how and what exactly got him into prison. To think that he suffered through so much; losing his dad, getting arrested, being abused by his step-father killed me. The things he had to do to keep his family from going hungry; joining gangs, befriending the wrong sorts, all that potential down the drain, all because no one really believed him. Now he wonders if he hadn’t done all of that, would he still be in jail or was he always going to wound up there?

In the second part, Justyce is determined to clear Quan’s case and Quan actually realizes the support he has, something he wish he had when he was younger. Maybe it could’ve changed everything for him?
My favourite parts were the letters between them. It was if we were getting a look into Quan’s mind and thoughts. I loved the ‘new’ Jared character arc with his unflinching support, and the close relationship between Justyce and Quan, with their hilarious banters. He was like a ray of hope in Quan’s endless void of despair, and it made their interactions all the more heart-warming.

It disgusted me realizing how unjust the system is, prolonging arrests for African-Americans for just petty crimes, while the whites get away free. All blame falls on them, whether they take part in it or not. That was something that really hit me and knowing that that is a problem that we constantly face is horrifying. We need to make them realize that we care about them, that we believe in them, that they have the privilege to make this world a better place, to live without fear of being put down. The support that they need does not have to be fictional. WE can change that, we have the power to HELP them, its what they deserve.

[[THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND PUBLISHER FOR GIVING ME THE CHANCE TO READ AND REVIEW THIS BOOK]]

Thank you for the advance copy. I love it when I come across a book which the more reluctant reader as well as the enthusiastic reader will enjoy, and this is certainly one of those books. It was very well written and the voice bounced off the page. It will be the starter of many a conversation and I certainly will be recommending this book for the next young person's book club we have at the Iibrary.

Thanks to NetGalley for free ARC

After reading Dear Martin a couple months ago I couldn't pass up the opportunity to request this book.
What a roller-coaster it was from start to finish. We meet some of the well known characters from the previous story and go on a very emotional journey with our main character who's going through some very hard and undeserved times.

Really enjoyed it and I would gladly read more of Nic Stones work

Read in one sitting. An important and compelling read. It's not necessary to have read Dear Martin before reading, but it will add so much more to your understanding and ennoyment of the Dear Justyce if you have. The author's note and dedication are just as impactful, let us all be a support to each other & a force for change.

I liked that Dear Martin was able to turn into Dear Justyce. Although this work of fiction is new, the story it tells isn't, but it's one that is still prevalent and almost overlooked because of how often it happens. As such, it is important to keep telling stories like this one.

Quan was a great protagonist, burned with having to take on the weight, name and face of the thousands of people he represents, he handled it with all the naivety, sensitivity and raw honesty that was hard to turn away from.

Really enjoyed the way the story was told, through letters that brought up the past, juxtaposed with what was happening in the present.

Another necessary gem from Nic Stone.

Dear Justyce is a follow up to Dear Martin and it tells us Quan’s story. This could be read as a standalone but I would highly recommend reading the first book beforehand.

Quan grew up in a rough environment and unfortunately had very few people in his corner who pushed him to do the right things and made him feel worthy. And once those few people disappear from his life Quan ends up making a bad decision after a bad decision that eventually gets him locked in a juvenile detention centre.

The story is written through Quan’s flashbacks, his time in detention centre and letters written to Justyce, his childhood friend, and tells us how injustice American’s justice system is for black people, how on a daily basis they are faced with systematic racism and how hard they need to fight to get what is an ordinary thing for us, the white people.

It was shocking to read but we need those stories to be coming and we need to make sure they will be read by as many readers as possible. This is an amazing YA novel that I will make sure my kids are going to read too.

Nic Stone has an amazing writing style, every time I read her book I feel like she’s personally telling me the story. I find her storytelling very engaging and I get consumed by it from the beginning of the book.

#DearJustyce #NetGalley

Dear Justyce was a joy to read. Now, this is not a joy found in the essence of it's subject matter, but within the promising content, approach and caustic tone that Stone uses to present narrative, characters and setting. Yes, this book is issue heavy - it focuses on the plight of a young man in prison. It's equally topical, slotting neatly into the currency of BLM and similar cultural, social and political concerns. This however is a set of contexts, that given the intended readership, that do not overpower the essence of the story.
Quan and Justyce's epistolary dialogue is real. Between prison and the world outside that continues regardless of Quan's ongoing, ever extending incarceration. It is believable, and in a matter of pages, Stone has you rooting for their friendship. Quan is entertaining - a somewhat reliable narrator, with a mature and devastatingly acute perception of his destination in life. We root for him. And, though in the role of the incarcerated black teen, does not mosey into stereotype territory. Never. Not once. He remains an honest voice amongst the noise of the faulty American youth justice system.
Equally, Justyce's presence is once again reassuring, echoing frequently the unpatronising educational voice that Dear Martin mastered so perfectly.
Yes, perhaps at times, there was a triteness to the narrative's trajectory, where it ends on a positive outcome which was maybe easy to foresee, it also brings hope. But let's remember the intended readership in amongst all of this. Stone represents them with gusto through Quan's outspoken realness. She creates a compelling moral tale, with an enigmatic page turning quality. And thus a powerful sequel is born. Mind you, this stands wholly on it's own regardless. And for these times, on these topics, hope is what is necessary. This is a devastatingly brilliant premise. it's an excellently executed piece of story telling. This book is important.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children's UK for providing me with an e-arc of Dear Justyce in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Justyce tells the story of a young black boy, wrongfully incarcerated, as he looks back on his life and how he came to be imprisoned. Through letters, flashbacks and traditional storytelling, Stone creates a story which is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. This is a story of friendship, of justice and of systematic racism which plagues not only America, but the world.

Though this is a sequel, it is not necessary to have read the first in the series - though it would be advised, if only to continue reading Stone's wonderful work.

The book deals with difficult topics and these are handled with delicacy and talent, offering the reader a host of unique, compelling characters. Through Stone's unconventional (at times) writing style, the protagonist Vernell comes to life, engaging and relatable as the story unfolds.

Overall, this is a powerful novel which offers a strong narrative, well rounded characters and a message which should linger within the reader.