The 57 Bus- A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
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Web ID: 10918368Interesting Book
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater. Dashka Slater is a well-known, best-selling author. She has won many awards for the 12 fiction and non-fiction children and adult books that she has written. She also writes for publications such as The New York Times Magazine and Mother Jones. Slater originally wrote this book so that people could start conversations about gender, race, and the justice system. This book is structured in a very unique way. It is split into four parts; the first two introduce the two main characters, Sasha, a nonbinary 16-year-old who lives in a good part of town, and Richard, an African American teenager who lives in the not-so-good part of town. The last two parts talk about the fire that started it all, Richard’s court case, and what happened to the two of them afterward. I think that the purpose of the book is to make teenagers aware of some of the problems in society right now. The justice system is a very unfair place depending on race, gender, or even religion. So by making teens aware of what is going on, then maybe they can help make a change. This book was published in 2017, so it is based on very recent events that still apply to teens nowadays. Slater was able to get the whole story down in 295 pages and then the last six or so pages gave us some statistics about the LGBTQ+ community and the Justice system. I would say the subgenre of this book is a true crime narrative. This book is about two 16-year-olds in Oakland, California a city that is described as racially and culturally diverse. Sasha is a nonbinary person who goes by they/them pronouns. Sasha was on their way home from school one day on a public bus and they fell asleep. When Sasha awoke, they saw that their skirt had been lit on fire. The fire was set by an African American boy named Richard who was egged on by his friends to flick a lighter by Sasha after they saw what they thought was a boy in a skirt. Little did they know how much damage one lighter can do. After screaming “fire”, some people on the bus tackled Sasha to the ground to put out the fire. Sasha ended up getting second and third-degree burns on their legs and had to have multiple surgeries to help their legs recover and get new skin. After Richard was caught for what he did, originally he was tried as an adult for two hate crimes, and he would face a life of imprisonment. Although all the trials took a year to determine his actual punishment, ultimately, he would be sentenced to five years in juvenile prison, and he would be released right before his 21st birthday. Sasha ended up healing just fine, and they forgave Richard. In this book, Slater doesn’t just focus on the crime committed but on identity, race, class, and the justice system. She investigates how this affected the whole Oakland community and not just the two of them. I think Slater was very effective when talking about the purpose and making sure the readers understood what she was trying to say. I think the facts and statistics that Slater put at the end of the book about the LGBTQ+ community and the justice system helped her establish her credibility and let her readers know that she did her research on all of the subjects in her book. For me, the statistics give a good perspective on how bad the Justice system can be. One of the facts states, “Percentage of African American youths who do their time in an adult prison: 58%”. This is crazy to me because I know that some crimes that kids commit don’t deserve to go to an adult prison. All of these facts just help me understand the severity of these things. This book is made of various interviews, documents, letters, videos, diaries, social media posts, and public records. Which leads me to my favorite part of the book, getting to learn about the background of each character. Because this is a true story I found both perspectives interesting since I can’t really relate to either side of them. I would recommend this book but only to a certain audience. Slater wrote this book to help people talk about the LGBTQ+ community and all the injustices within the world. So this book applies to some people more than others. I think a person who struggles with problems like race, gender, and identity should read this book. But people that this doesn’t apply to probably wouldn’t need to read this book. It is good to know about the justice system and how unfair it can be sometimes, though. Overall, this book was interesting and different from my normal reads, but I would probably not read it again.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Time Crime that Hits Hard
It's a hard read emotionally but powerful.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Not as advertised
In my opinion the novel “The 57 Bus” by Dashka Slater isn’t the greatest book.The reason I don’t find this book too interesting is because when I picked this book out I thought it was going to have a whole different plot than it did.When picking this book out I thought it was going to be more about violence ,but as I started to read the book I found out it was more about people that were transitioning into a different gender.Also it reading about the book it sounded more action packed.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Decent but informational
I recently read this book and I have many opinions on it. It's a true story about a nonbinary person whose name is Sasha and they got burned from what he calls a "joke". The boy whose name is Richard made a very dangerous, wrong mistake and is having to pay for what he has done which is only fair. It shows the struggles they both had to go through after the accident. It's a very informational book because it gives a good understanding of people who are going through a rough time figuring out their identity. It talks about sexuality and what pronouns to go by. I think it's an okay book, I like how it explains all the words for all the sexualities but I didn't enjoy reading about it. If you don't like information, nonfiction, or books about violence and crime this book is not for you. It has a little language so I wouldn't recommend it to all audiences. I do recommend this book to you if you are having trouble finding who you are and what you want to go by. I just thought it got boring at times because I prefer fiction and this book just dragged on about the same thing. I choose to read this because it looked interesting from what I had read on the back. I liked how it explained things I just hated how it was so boring and dragged at times.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com