One of the Good Ones - Maika Moulite, Maritza Moulite
One of the Good Ones is a timely and important story, and for the topic alone (and the way the authors treat it), this is a must read.
Kezi is killed under suspicious circumstances in police custody the day of her 18th birthday after she is arrested when she participates in a march against police brutality. She already had an established YouTube channel where she documented topics ranging from police brutality to racist teachers. Kezi had two sisters, Genny, and Happi, as well as loving, albeit somewhat overpowering, parents, and two very close friends, Ximena and Derek, amongst others. When Kezi dies the family tries to pick up the pieces of their lives, but as we can all imagine, this type of trauma is not one that can be hidden and forgotten.
The story is broken up by time and person, narrators alternating between Kezi, right before her death, Happi three months after Kezi’s death, as well as a few other narrators who are integral to the storyline. I always enjoy a multiple narrative, as I love delving into the personalities of the different characters, and this technique really works well here.
There is a huge twist in the novel that I really didn’t see coming, and while I get why the authors decided on it, and admit that it works perfectly fine within the storyline, it caused my enthusiasm to dip a little. I did not see the plot going that way at all, and I personally thought that it branched off into an area that would have been better expanded in a separate novel (and there is definitely enough material available to create a credible and devastating story in that topic too). But it does work, and I feel like readers will either love it, or not mind it so much (like me), and it definitely won’t stop you from reading on!
There are many topics evoked in One of the Good Ones: police brutality and systemic racism (in policing and in general), US history (the non whitewashed version), lynching, slavery, and so on, and the authors handle them so well. I loved discovering more about the Green Book, and how important it had been to Black people traveling through the South during the Jim Crow era. I also loved the flashbacks to the family’s ancestors, and the project that Kezi was working on before she was arrested. All in all One of the Good Ones is an excellent read and also necessary, as it evokes topics that we must talk about if we want to make real change in this country.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.