Book review - The Long Ride

Title: The Long Ride
Author: Marina Budhos
Genre: historical fiction
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Rating:

a complex look at an oft ignored part of history

Summary (provided by publisher): Jamila Clarke. Josie Rivera. Francesca George. Three mixed-race girls, close friends whose immigrant parents worked hard to settle their families in a neighborhood with the best schools. The three girls are outsiders there, but they have each other.
Now, at the start seventh grade, they are told they will be part of an experiment, taking a long bus ride to a brand-new school built to "mix up the black and white kids." Their parents don't want them to be experiments. Francesca's send her to a private school, leaving Jamila and Josie to take the bus ride without her.
While Francesca is testing her limits, Josie and Jamila find themselves outsiders again at the new school. As the year goes on, the Spanish girls welcome Josie, while Jamila develops a tender friendship with a boy--but it's a relationship that can exist only at school.

My opinion: Our history classes have an unfortunate tendency to paint the Civil Rights Movement as a simple solution that "fixed" racism. They ignore the misguided attempts to equalize things that followed, efforts that lead to red-lining, disastrous busing, and increases in subtle racism and classism. And that's what Budhos is bringing into the light here. By centering her plot on a trio of upper middle class mixed race girls, we get an insight into racism, classism, and sexism, all of which are a regular part of the society they live in. These girls have no where to belong at the point in their lives where belonging feels most important. She takes us through the obvious clashes of race and class, leading us to more subtle messages about perception. The ultimate message of this book is how our self-perception affects how others see us. There's a lot of take away on a single read and the reader is likely to glean even more on a repeat.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.