We Are Not Like Them - Christine Pride & Jo Piazza
We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza intrigued me for two reasons: the storyline, and also because it is written by two women, together. I can only imagine how hard that may be, creating a story that flows cohesively, and stands up well. I can attest to the fact that it works, and it works really well. The novel flows completely seamlessly from one voice to another, and never feels forced or strange. But the story itself had a few holes for me, and while I enjoyed reading it, I couldn’t help but think that there were areas where both authors could have pushed just a little bit further, a little bit deeper. Riley and Jen have been best friends since they were little kids with Riley’s family basically becoming Jen’s surrogate family. While the women are a little less close as adults, their lives have diverged quite a bit, they still have a special bond between them.
Jen, who is white, is married to a police officer who is involved in the shooting of a young Black teenager. Riley, who is Black, is the reporter assigned to cover the story. As both women grapple with the tragic incident and what it means for them both personally and for the community at large, their friendship also takes a beating, and many of the issues that neither of them ever discussed together threaten to unravel the seams of their relationship.
This is a good story and it brings up so many important talking points, and is extremely relevant to incidents that happen time and time again in this country. However, I do feel like there are so many talking points in the narrative that they aren’t all covered as deeply as they should be, and I would have been happy to read an additional 100-200 pages of story that cover areas such as Riley’s brother’s life compared to Jen’s brother in law’s life, and so on.
All in all this is a good read, and would do great in a book club setting I think, but there are some areas that require a little more meat on the bones.
I sent this book as a gift to my sister so that she could read it at the same time as me, and if she has anything else to add I will update this review with her comments!