The Boy in the Black Suit

If you've seen any of my Jason Reynold's reviews you know I love this guy. He thinks this is the best book he's written to date. Says he keeps hoping to best this, but it still stands at the top of the pile. I'll take his word for it.

There is so much to say about this book – the writing, the setting, the characters – but first and foremost, I must say that from beginning to end, Jason Reynolds and The Boy in the Black Suit kept me, held me, wouldn’t let me go, had me living in THE FEELS.I bought this book for my son’s library and underlined and left my notes everywhere because I couldn’t help myself – I want him to see where I was touched, stilled, literally brought to tears, where I laughed and fell in love with a character, where I simply smiled because the writing is just that. freaking. good.For me, THE BOY IN THE BLACK SUIT is a love letter to Brooklyn – whose streets and characters and bodegas are so vivid and real and perfectly captured by Mr. Reynolds that I often felt like I was back on my old block in Bed Stuy – told through the eyes of Matt Miller, a high school kid coming to grips with the death of his mom and the downslide of his dad, just trying to hang on and make sense of life and death and loss and love. Helping him along the way are Chris, Mr. Ray, and Lovey, well-crafted, poignant characters, each playing their own, very unique roles in moving Matt forward one step at a time. The interactions between these folks are touching and funny and so damn life-affirming that you just know, someway, somehow, with this crew in his life, Matt will make it. There might be some tears and struggling, but he’s going to come out on the other end okay and that’s a great way to close the covers on a book. With a hopeful, possibly watery-eyed, smile on your face.Towards the end of the story, Matt is gifted with a Sempervivum, a plant whose name originates from the latin roots semper and vivus and means “live forever.” That’s exactly what Jason’s characters will do with me – live forever.If you haven’t yet read this book, if it’s not on your TBR, or already on your bookshelf, do yourself a favor and go to the bookstore or Amazon or the library and snag a copy. Now. This is a must-read, a classic, a story everyone should experience because it’s just that darn good.So thank you, Jason, for being fierce and amazing and for not writing boring books and for giving us Matt and Chris and Mr. Ray and Lovey.SEMPERVIVUS!!

I guess that I really connected with this book because of my grief. No one knows what it’s like to lose a parent, or in my case both, until it happens to them. It’s been 2 years and I still cry when I’m alone because I don’t like to do so in front of others. Until you feel that pain, you can’t possibly say that you understand it.Matt is a character that I truly love and respect. Despite his grief, he manages to take care of himself and his dad. He still has moments when he can’t shake the pain of his mother’s death but he deals the best way that he can. Meeting Lovey was the best thing that could happen to him. When you find that person who has been through worse hell than you have, and they seem to be doing just fine, you want to get to that point. Though, making yourself tough to hide the pain is just like a walking straight through the doors of depression. It’s a process, you can’t bottle that up and keep it inside. Lovey shows Matt that it’s all smoke and mirrors when dealing with hard stuff in life. You can grieve, but just don’t let it take over your life. She was so good for him and I found their connection beautiful.This is a wonderfully written book. I think that young adults everywhere should read this book, and just grasp the realness flowing through the pages. It shows you that, no matter what you go through in life, you can rise up and be a great person. Don’t take that dark path into nothingness when there’s more to life than you can possibly imagine. I highly recommend this book!

I absolutely love this book! I am a middle school reading teacher and used this book as a read aloud towards the end of the year. It not only captured me, it made such an impact on my reluctant readers. I have not found a book by Jason Reynolds that doesn’t do this to students in the middle grades. Excellent book!

This was our YA book club selection for May. We actually gave it a 4 1/2 star rating. We all liked how Matt and the others dealt with their losses in their own way and how the people around them let them do that, especially Mr. Ray with Matt. It also showed how not to deal with a loss (Matt's dad) but then he had to after he hurt himself. The characters were wonderful, good and bad, Matt's life in New York was described so we could see it ourselves (the neighborhood and the local bodega), and his relationship with Lovey unfolded in a nice way. We did feel there should have been recipes though :)

I don't discriminate when it is comes to a good story and/or writer. I was shocked that this is classified as children's literature even though I have read a few works by Sharon Draper who is also listed as children's writer. I like the odd unusual format. This is really a good story. We learn a lot about Matt and his "coming of age" as a young adult. He had to tackle many adult decisions but he is carefully guided and make smart decisions. I was a little shocked with the odd relationship of him and girlfriend, Love. This is a good read.

This book truly spoke to me as a teenage going through rough times, but it helped me to see the brighter side of things and to cherish the good things life has to offer.

A really engaging & heartfelt story about the impact of grief on a seventeen year old black young man, his family & friends & his journey to healing. I enjoyed sharing in the character’s narratives. They were very relatable & relevant to concerns of youth today.

Good book for grandson

Jason Reynolds has unbelievable skill. I was in a bit of a reading slump when I started this book but I knew within the first page or two how powerful this would be. If you’re in the headspace where you can read a book about grief and learning to find moments of joy again, I’d highly recommend this to you.

I'm trying to decide what I liked best about this novel. There are three contenders. First, the great, realistic voice. Second, the characters and descriptions. I liked not only the main character Matt, but also Mr Ray, Chris and Lovey, and the realness of the neighborhood Matt lives in. Matt's mom came wonderfully alive in Matt's memory and in the things she wrote down. Finally, like the main character, I've lost my mother too, and this book really touched me. It's a quiet book, and it managed to be about realistically coping with grief and loneliness, but still not be gut wrenchingly sad, but rather uplifting.

Matthew's mother dies. His father copes by drinking himself into oblivion and gets hit by a car resulting in an extended hospital and rehab stay. Matt's neighbour, Mr. Ray, takes him under his wing giving him a job at his funeral home.Matthew fins comfort in attending the funerals watching how the person closest to the deceased reacts at the funeral. Matthew meets Love at her grandmother's funeral and they discover they have many things in common as they explore a new relationship.The story is well-developed as we see how Matthew copes with his grief. Young people will relate to his feelings. Sometimes he feels way older because of what he has experienced and sometimes he feels like such a kid because he doesn't know what to do and doesn't have someone to ask for advice.Jason Reynolds does an excellent job of describing the relationships in this book. From Matt's relationship with his parents, and with Mr. Ray we are able to see the struggle Matt faces growing up. Matt's interactions with his buddy Chris reveal a pretty typical teenager and his relationship with Love, his girlfriend, shows a really great guy! The relationships are not cliché, as Reynolds interweaves events from several characters.Jason Reynolds is going to be around for a long time!

Perfeito como todo livro do autor. É meu segundo livro dele e agora preciso ler todos os livros do mesmo.