Point of View

The novel is narrated in the third-person, always from the perspective of Amal, a young Black boy who lived with his family until one fateful night when he is arrested and charged with assault after a fight with white boys from the other side of town. Amal is then subsumed by the juvenile criminal justice system, consumed by loneliness as he attempts to navigate the combination of being separated from his family so young and subjected to the crush of incarceration and hopelessness.

Ibi Zoboi does not place any limitations on the access to Amal’s inner thoughts, allowing the reader to understand his true motivations, fears, and conflicts. Despite still being a child, Amal is often guarded with the people in his life, even those that he feels as though he can trust, because he has been treated so unfairly by the adults around...