I was blown away by the depth of the characters in this book. A beautifully co-written novel, that is at once heart-wrenchingly moving, gripping and powerful. It tells an important story about race in america, about friendship and about justice. I read it in one sitting!

Such a strong and powerful book that is a must read for everyone.
I never called myself a racist but after reading this I clearly have unconscious bias, as I'm sure lots of people do.
This is such a thought provoking book and one that will never leave me, and actually has changed my way of thinking-to become conscious of my unconscious bias is where I'm going to start.

Everybody needs to read this book! The story of Jen and Riley really resonated and is both current and tells an important story which is relatable to so many people.
The story itself was so so powerful and is gripping from the opening pages. A rare find which was beautifully written. Thank you NetGalley!

A brilliant and sensitivley written story. I literally couldn't put it down. An amazing coming of age story x

Thanks to Net Galley and HQ for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Wow! What an awesome read. Powerful and emotional.
Two friends, Jen who is white, six months pregnant, married to Kevin who is a cop. Riley who is black is a tv news reporter. The two woman have been friends since high school.
Their friendship is tested when Riley finds herself covering the high profile case of the shooting of a black teenage boy, Justin, shot by the police, Jen’s husband is one of the policemen who fired his weapon. Can their friendship survive now that they are on opposite sides.
The characters in this story are so real, you can feel the tension, atmosphere and the heartache of Justin’s mother.
This book is exceptionally well written, and very thought provoking , not everything is simply black or white.
A powerful story.

A very controversial subject but written very well seeing the issue from both sides. It features a very strong bond between two ladies and how it's tested when the issue of colour and violence comes into their lives.
I thought it was written really well and I found I couldn't stop reading to find out what would happen!!
Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC book for an honest review.

Jen and Riley have been friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters. though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young, and after years of trying, is finally pregnant. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is posed to be one of the first female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown, Philadelphia. But the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen's husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of a black unarmed teenager.

Not only is this story of Jen who is white and Riley who is black, the book is also written by two authors, one black, the other white.

Jen's husband, Kevin shoots and kills an unarmed fourteen year old black youth and Jen and Riley are forced to confront racism. When the friends since kindergarten are forced to pick sides, the women have to choose between history, family and friendship. This is a sensitively written and thought provoking read. I found the prologue heart-breaking. Loved this book.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HQ and the authors #ChristinePride #JoPiazza for my ARC of
#WeAreNotLikeThem in exchange for an honest review.

A timely important novel looking at the relationships between two long term female friends and how this is changed and defined in terms of race particularly when their relationship is stressed further after one woman’s husband shoots dead an unarmed black teenager
2020 and the Black lives matter campaign bought home to many for the first time the unconscious racism inherent in modern culture .For may of us it may have been the first time that we seriously looked at our own views and challenged ourselves to uncover any unconscious biases we held .
The two main female characters are fantastically well described and defined ,the book was written by two women who were able to look at each woman with fantastic detail and describe their friendship since childhood beautifully .
After the shooting their long held comfortable way of behaving with each other is challenged and stressed and at times it seems impossible that they could ever regain the momentum and balance in their friendship
In comparison to the detail and time spent on describing the women ,the men in their lives receive very little attention in the book .In particular the husband who in his job as a police officer shoots deaf an unarmed teenaged boy seems a rather flat one dimensional person and I had trouble understanding his views .
Difficult as it is to criticise this book as it clearly has worthy aims which in no way should be belittled ,I nevertheless felt that the storyline was rather predictable.and lacked the extra something that would have pushed me to give 5 stars
The book got me thinking about my own unconscious biases and I am very glad that I have read it
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published 5th October 2021

Certainly a very different book to my normal read, this is absolutely heartbreaking and leaves you questioning your own ideas and beliefs. Everyone should read this book. Well written and so powerful.

This book has one of the most gripping and distressing first chapters I've read in a long time and continues to be thought provoking and challenging throughout. While feeling fortunate not to live in a country where the police are armed, the importance for communication across all races can never be emphasised enough.
Thank you to netgalley and HQ for an advance copy of this book

An incredible, heart-wrenching piece of writing. Not for the faint of heart, but an important read when ready.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Art is an abstraction of life, yet we cling to truth and reality throughout it. The Mona Lisa is a more popular painting than The Weeping Woman because the figure portrayed is more realistic and therefore relatable, we say jokes are funny because they're true, and writers are always advised to write what they know. "We Are Not Like Them" gives us a story we know to be true, but with the protection of knowing it’s fiction.

Two cops shoot and kill an unarmed teenager. You don’t need me to fill in the rest - it’s a story we’ve all heard too often. By wrapping these familiar events in fiction can we step back slightly from the emotions that are stirred? When we know the blood and tears that are shed don’t come from real people can we find the space to see something else and have better conversations? It’s certainly an idea being floated around this book, and on some level I can see it happening, but I also think it does a good job of addressing a lot of important issues in itself and for some it will become a replacement for talking to someone else.

That said, this isn’t just a book about how to talk to other people. It’s fiction, not self-help. This is a good story too. Put everything to one side for a moment and you have a book that deserves praise for simple storytelling. The plot flows easily, it stays clear and true with only a few minor detours that ultimately fold back in, elegantly. The key characters have substance too. There are details that make them human, nuances that remind us people aren’t binary entities.

The whole book is about the space in between the extremes in fact. So much of life exists on a scale. That even deeply held absolute beliefs can have clauses and exceptions. That relationships can have highs and lows. That we can struggle to talk about the elephants in the room with our closest friends but we can share intimate moments with strangers.

Despite what so many professional talking heads try to push on us, the truth is that the extremes are that, extremes. When people shout at each other it’s harder to hear what’s being said. The recurring message in this book, the one that transcends every thread of the story, is that we need to communicate. Those conversations may be uncomfortable or disappointing, but they bring us together. We can find our commonality. We may find we’ve made mistakes, but we can’t fix them until we know where we went wrong. And this story allows us to talk in more abstract, almost hypothetical terms. Because we should be looking for these answers before the news comes on, not after. After is when we shout because there’s nothing left.

Read the book because it’s good and powerful. Share it with everyone you know because they should read it too. Even the people you deep down know will sneer at it and brush it aside. Maybe one day they’ll pick it up, even if just to understand why you grew apart.

My thanks to NeyGalley and publisher HQ for the electronic copy.

This is an extremely thought-provoking book about interracial friendships, co-written by two authors, one black and one white which, I'm guessing, informs the differing points of view of the two main characters Riley and Jen.
The story brings to the fore contemporary situations experienced where the shooting of a young black man by two white police officers in Philadelphia is involved - can thirty years of friendship between Riley and Jen survive the aftermath?
The reader learns of Riley and Jen's childhood where Riley's grandmother Gigi hosted childcare and Jen's single-mother placed her there. The only white face amongst others. They are untouched by the prejudices of the outside world, to a degree. Riley eventually goes to college and becomes a successful journalist, moving from Birmingham back to Philadelphia where she dreams of becoming the second black woman to anchor a news programme. Jen's mother cannot afford to send her to college so she waits tables until she meets and marries Kevin who decides he wants to follow in his family's footsteps by becoming a police officer.
Kevin and his new partner are involved in the shooting of 14yr-old Justin.
Jen desperately wants the comfort of talking to her friend Riley, but Riley is assigned the lead on the story.
How can they support each other?
It's an impossible situation which could tear their friendship apart - do they have to take sides?

This is an absorbing read where the reader is given an understanding of prejudice on both sides.

We are not like them is a very appropriate book for the current times we live in, as race has become a massive talking point and so it should be, but this novel is interesting for the fact it’s been written by Christine Pride who is Black & Jo Piazza who is White, so you would expect a balanced view within the overall book, and as much as I enjoyed the story about childhood friends Jen & Riley who it seems have never really felt race was a massive problem with in their friendship, everything suddenly implodes & changes the night that Jens policeman husband is involved in the shooting of a young unarmed black teenager. Suddenly the friendship is tested beyond anything they ever would of thought possible and they are both left confused and hurt at what will happen to their relationship now, but what I felt was, it could of gone into more depth at why certain things that people come out with, is racist? For example there is a moment in the book where Jen who is under attack from journalists is asked if she’s a racist ? and she says no, as her best friend is black ! because in Jens eyes how can you be racist and have a black friend but when Riley hears about it, she is upset but the book doesn’t clarify why it’s upset her so much apart from the fact she feels Jen is using her colour as some sort of statement of proof and it’s not the right thing to say but it’s not elaborated on as what is the right thing to say? As I’m white and I don’t feel I’m a racist either as I wouldn’t dream of treating anyone differently because of their skin colour but some people might perceive this as I’m a racist for thinking this way, so I found I was left with lots of thoughts about how should I react or behave that I have no answers for and it saddens me that in the 21st century when we are supposed to be becoming more accepting of everyone the divide just seems to be growing bigger & it’s a shame we can’t just be like the innocent children Jen & Riley once were, where colour isn’t an issue & we just like each other for who they are.

I liked the story in We Are Not Like Them very much. I also found it deeply enraging. It encourages us to have the uncomfortable conversations with those we love about race and understanding. It also puts all the heavy lifting onto the black characters rather than the white ones. As a person of colour, everytime I have conversations about race with white people, I get told that I am angry, or asked why I didn't say anything before. Riley isn't anywhere near angry enough for my liking.

Oh my gosh. This book is so so good. I loved the way that it was written. It's a book about race written by two women, one black and one white, which I think gives such good insight into the character's relationship. Riley and Jen have been friends forever. Riley has helped Jen to fall pregnant with her first baby by giving her money for IVF, which she can afford as she's rising through the ranks of her profession as a TV reporter. Jen is married to a police officer and they're both looking forward to their baby. In one awful moment, Jen's life is turned upside down. Her husband shoots an unarmed black teenager, Justin, in the line of duty. Jen wants to support her husband through a time where his job and freedom are on the line. Riley becomes the face of the story, reporting daily on the news, and speaking to Justin's family - becoming very much a support for them. Jen feels abandoned by her friend, and Riley feels confused about what she should be doing. She wants to stand up for her community but knows what Jen's husband did was wrong.

I feel like this book just made me think so much! The two perspectives worked really well. The two women had never before had to look at race as a barrier between them both, they had always been as close as sisters and talked about even the most personal things, but neither of them knew how to approach race without the possibility of offending or upsetting the other. I liked that the message in the end was to just keep talking. Keep the lines of communication open. I've recommended this to a couple of friends already, and will definitely keep on recommending it.

A tragedy occurs and two lifelong friends are put in an impossible position .

The ideas for the story are very current and relevant

The subject matter of this book is horrendous in real life, and making fiction out of the issue can seem callous, but the authors have done a good job and made it very thought provoking. The story is written with dual narrative, each of the friends taking alternate chapters. Characterisation is good and the story flows well.

The book is well written and the story well told.

Thank you NetGalley.

I very much wanted to enjoy this universally-acclaimed novel but I realised I needed to give up when I found myself trying (and failing) to read the first chapter for the third time. What a pity.

I found the writing / editing to be rather strange with commas placed where they weren't needed and missing where they were.

I also just didn't relate to Riley at all and knew that this was going to be the case for at least half of the book.

Wow. This is a story that really stays with you and makes you think. I found it gripping and hated having to put it down in order to get on with the things I have to do. The story of two female friends, one white, one black and how their friendship is challenged by a tragic incident is seamlessly written by two authors.Also two women, one black one white. The view points of all of the characters were written so well and blended so well style wise that the two authors must be congratulated on their achievement. Whilst the incident is a well visited one,, and hence some people may accuse the storyline of being predictable, it is totally necessary in order to examine the relationship between the two central characters. The simmering rife racism and prejudice in society is compellingly confronted and described. It’s appearance in various forms throughout history is laid bare making you wonder how such a foul undercurrent can ever be eradicated. This is a very special book, a shocking book in many ways, but also a hopeful book for change and for the future ..

What a great idea for a novel looking at racial (in)equality and race relations in America- have a black and a white protagonist whose long friendship is challenged by a tragedy, and have each woman’s story told by an author of that race. Jen and Riley become best friends after Jen’s careless and unmaternal single mother finds that Riley’s grandmother offers cheap childminding, and Jen becomes like one of Riley’s warm and accepting family, who are black. This friendship lasts even when Riley, a successful TV journalist hoping to become her channel’s first black anchorwoman, moved away from her hometown, and through Jen’s marriage and many miscarriages and courses of IVF. Now Riley is back and Jen’s latest pregnancy looks as though it will produce a longed-for baby. Everything suddenly changes though when an innocent and unarmed black teenager is mistakenly shot by white police and dies, because one of the officers involved is Jen’s husband and Riley’s job involves covering the story and speaking up for her community. Does this mean the end of their friendship, and can there ever be reconciliation between the black communities and the white? This is a very powerful book which raises a lot of questions and will stimulate lots of debate. Cleverly, the story opens with the shooting through the eyes of the young victim, who had been walking home from school listening to music through his headphones and so hadn’t been aware of the police shouts as he is mistaken for an armed robber the police were pursuing. His confusion and fear of dying highlight the real human tragedy of the incident, rather than it being a news headline, especially as his last thoughts are concern for his mother, who had already recently gone through the grief of losing his father. Unsurprisingly, his killing sets off a wave of protests, demands for justice and anti-police action. Jen’s husband Kevin is devastated and is haunted by what happened, although his younger and less experienced partner was the one who had fired first in panic and triggered Kevin’s own automatic response. He comes from a family of police officers and loves his job, but now he finds his loyalty to the force coming into conflict with his responsibility to his wife and unborn child. He is not a racist and wanted to do good, but has ended up making a fatal mistake with terrible consequences. Riley, meanwhile, is drawn to reflect more on the suffering and prejudice experienced by her race in the past as well as the present, and starts to wonder if she can ever have a real relationship, whether love or friendship, with someone who is white and will never understand what it means to be black. The issues are explored very well and with sensitivity- there are no real villains here. I sometimes felt that the difficult position the police are often in wasn’t portrayed as persuasively as the injustices experienced by the black community, but on the whole it was a very balanced account, and full of empathy. The end feeling I was left with was that we really need to keep talking to each other, to work on being understanding and to forge relationships that will help to break down barriers, but there is hope that one day we can live in a more equal, multiracial society.