“At the end of the day, I’m afraid that Jen won’t get it. Can their friendship withstand such a test? They are both embroiled in the story and find themselves on opposing sides for the first time in their lives. But after unarmed Black teenager Justin Dwyer is shot by two white police officers they find their friendship tested in ways they never imagined. Lifelong friends Riley and Jen have never cared that one of them is Black and the other white. The topic feels too big, too important to reduce to a review. I also still have no idea how to review it. It’s been a few weeks since I read this phenomenal debut and I’m still thinking about it every day. Because of course as a Black boy growing up in this neighbourhood, he’d imagined it.” “When the bullets hit him, first his arm, then his stomach, it doesn’t feel like he’d always imagined it would. It’s about standing up for what you believe in, no matter the cost. We Are Not Like Them is about friendship and love. As their community takes sides, so must Jen and Riley, and for the first time in their lives the lifelong friends find themselves on opposing sides. This one act could destroy more than just Riley and Jen’s friendship. And then Jen’s husband, a Philadelphia police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed black teenager and everything changes in an instant. It never mattered to them that Riley is black and Jen is white. Riley and Jen have been best friends since they were children, and they thought their bond was unbreakable. THE MOST IMPORTANT NOVEL YOU’LL READ THIS YEAR Thank you to them for the invitation to take part and be a VIP host, and to HQ for the gifted ARC.

I read this book as part of a readalong organised by Tandem Collective UK.

Genre: Thriller, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction

Jo piazza and christine pride