The Good
+Has a lot of discussions that usually do not happen: incarceration, forgiveness, family, grief, addiction, and more.
+Showing the flaws with the system that we have now while also showing the flaws with The Trials (which seems like something someone has/will propose).
+Everyone from family, adults, teens, those incarcerated and etc is given humanity.
+Readers got this specific conversation about judicial system and incarceration that we usually are not able to have.
+Violetta is the one that is incarcerated because we rarely get to see Black girls or girls in general in the juvenile justice system in young adult lit.
+Vincent point of view chapters added to the story.
-it definitely added the viewpoint of family members of those incarcerated
– perspective on addiction
The Bad
The ending did not wrap everything up as well as it could have.
Thoughts
I. Forgive Me Not title inspiration.
A. Play on words Forgive Me Not = Forget Me Not
B. Is it inspired by the single Forget Me Nots by Patrice Rushen?
II. What happens when Black people make mistakes or do wrong? So much is about wrongful convictions.
III. Punishment
A. Obsession with punishment & jail as only form of punishment.
-Need for eye for an eye punishment & vindictive quality to incarceration and punishment.
-Should forgiveness necessarily be about punishment?
-Is punishment more for victims or perpetrators?
-Can punishment work for victim, person who did crime, and as a preventive measure for others?
-There is such an attachment to shame/shaming in terms of prevention and aftermath of crime.
-Does everything have to be jail or prison or need to involve the state?
-How do you make amends for murder?
IV. Black Young Adult Dystopia & Contemporary Trend
A. Is there a trend of Black people writing contemporary dystopia-esque stories to talk about systems that harm Black and brown people? This is my second book, Promise Boys being the first, that I got a dystopia vibe from.
B. Also, I felt that like Promise Boys adults would benefit from reading this book.
V. Teen Anguish
A. Is anyone hearing the teen anguish coming from many of these stories?
B. Romanticizing teen drug use & teens drug addiction pipeline. Introducing teens to drugs and alcohol is causing them not to learn how to cope with things.
VI. Miscellaneous
Violetta point of view allowed the story to focus on judicial system while I think Vincents would have been more about privilege and racism.
+Has a lot of discussions that usually do not happen: incarceration, forgiveness, family, grief, addiction, and more.
+Showing the flaws with the system that we have now while also showing the flaws with The Trials (which seems like something someone has/will propose).
+Everyone from family, adults, teens, those incarcerated and etc is given humanity.
+Readers got this specific conversation about judicial system and incarceration that we usually are not able to have.
+Violetta is the one that is incarcerated because we rarely get to see Black girls or girls in general in the juvenile justice system in young adult lit.
+Vincent point of view chapters added to the story.
-it definitely added the viewpoint of family members of those incarcerated
– perspective on addiction
The Bad
The ending did not wrap everything up as well as it could have.
Thoughts
I. Forgive Me Not title inspiration.
A. Play on words Forgive Me Not = Forget Me Not
B. Is it inspired by the single Forget Me Nots by Patrice Rushen?
II. What happens when Black people make mistakes or do wrong? So much is about wrongful convictions.
III. Punishment
A. Obsession with punishment & jail as only form of punishment.
-Need for eye for an eye punishment & vindictive quality to incarceration and punishment.
-Should forgiveness necessarily be about punishment?
-Is punishment more for victims or perpetrators?
-Can punishment work for victim, person who did crime, and as a preventive measure for others?
-There is such an attachment to shame/shaming in terms of prevention and aftermath of crime.
-Does everything have to be jail or prison or need to involve the state?
-How do you make amends for murder?
IV. Black Young Adult Dystopia & Contemporary Trend
A. Is there a trend of Black people writing contemporary dystopia-esque stories to talk about systems that harm Black and brown people? This is my second book, Promise Boys being the first, that I got a dystopia vibe from.
B. Also, I felt that like Promise Boys adults would benefit from reading this book.
V. Teen Anguish
A. Is anyone hearing the teen anguish coming from many of these stories?
B. Romanticizing teen drug use & teens drug addiction pipeline. Introducing teens to drugs and alcohol is causing them not to learn how to cope with things.
VI. Miscellaneous
Violetta point of view allowed the story to focus on judicial system while I think Vincents would have been more about privilege and racism.