On the evening of November 4, 2013, Sasha Fleishman woke up from a nap on a public bus to find that they had been set on fire. Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a remarkable work written for young adults that examines the factors which led to this horrifying moment and the effects it had on victim, perpetrator, and the families and friends of both.

First of all, it is incredibly impressive just how much this book manages to deal with. It addresses growing up both as a privileged, agender, white teenager and as an African American, male teenager from a rough area. It also looks at the problems associated with trying juveniles as adults, as well as the problems which can arise when categorizing a violent act as a "hate crime."

In her introduction to the book, Slater writes, "Surely it's not too late to stop things from going wrong. There must be some way to wake Sasha. Divert Richard. Get the driver to stop the bus. There must be something you can do." But the reader cannot stop time--cannot go back and fix things. All they can do is try to understand.

It would have been so easy to dismiss this incident as a hate crime and leave it at that. Instead, both Sasha (the victim) and Richard (the attacker) have backstories which are fully explored. The book does not condone Richard's actions, but these actions are now presented along with their necessary context. Slater does an outstanding job of showing that no moment can ever be black-and-white: there are always angles that are invisible at first glance.

very good book dealing with timely issues, and well written

I rarely if ever read non-fiction. When I do, it's usually memoirs. So I'll be honest: when I picked up the 57 bus I barely glanced at the back and I thought it was going to be a whodunnit thriller. But I'm kind of glad I thought that, because otherwise I would probably not have read this amazing piece of work.

I was only fourteen when the main incident described in this book occurred, and I had no idea that it had even happened until reading this book. I was horrified, but, at the same time felt pity for both Sasha and Richard. This book brings up a lot of important questions about privilege, racism, transphobia, hate crimes, and the issues revolving the juvenile justice system. I want to be a high school history teacher when I get out of college, and this book could definitely be used, with some supplemental resources, as a topic for an in-class discussion. It affected me profoundly.

One thing that made me grossed out was the vivid description of Sasha's burns. I thought it was sufficient to just describe them as second- and third-degree burns.

However, the main reason I took off a star was because I felt that Richard's story wasn't as fleshed out as Sasha's. I wish we could have seen more of Richard's school and home life through more eyes than just Cherie and Jasmine. I also think we could have gotten more of a feel for him if quotes from his social media accounts had been included, as they are in Sasha's, instead of just descriptions of his Facebook photos. This discrepancy really isn't by fault of the author, as I'm sure she really did try to make this account as unbiased as possible.

The 57 Bus was an excellent read for all ages but especially teens in these times of injustice. This book does an excellent job of describing both sides of the story, providing depth while getting the message out. It was a wonderful story of forgiveness and moving on.

Shocking story. Well-written and thought provoking. It will be an excellent conversation starter and aid for teaching tolerance in our schools and communities

This was an extremely well researched and written chronicle of a horrific crime, but for me, more immediate, was the authors way of clearly and compassionately exploring the lives and the perspectives of the two young people and their families. Through this text I was able to better understand the feelings an definitions of asexual, trans, non-binary sexual identities. The crime is almost secondary to all that this book is about and I would highly recommend this as a must read for all. Thank you to Dashka Slater for this very important work. Well done.

Warning! The words "transgender and queer" show up on the first page.

There are events in life that become gateways to the future in major ways. The fire that occurred on the 57 bus on November 4, 2013. Two young people's lives would never be the same as a result of the decision that was made. I appreciated the way that Slater gives a brief overview of the event before digging into the lives of Sasha and Richard (last names not shared in order to provide privacy). By the time the author circles back to the fire and the consequences I felt like I knew and cared about both Sasha and Richard. This depth gives the fire more meaning and makes it all the more tragic. Not only do we as readers follow the experiences of both Sasha, the one who got burned, but also Richard the one who committed the crime, but we see the event through the eyes of the media, the courts, and family and friends of both Sasha and Richard. The author gives a nice background into Sasha's agender identity as well as a brief introduction to different sexual and gender identities, which was helpful in understanding Sasha (who the world tends to see as a young man) and why the skirt Sasha wore became a target of Richard and his two friends.



I found the story of Sasha and Richard and what happened to them (and where they are up to the publication of the book) rather compelling. The short chapters make this a good book for YA reluctant readers. I think one of the most powerful aspects of the book is the author's ability to share both Sasha's experiences and Richard's. It makes it hard to completely condemn Richard for a moment of sheer stupidity as he gives in to peer pressure as well as the unfairness of his two friends never getting charged, even though Richard wouldn't have done what he did without them egging him on. The court system and its strengths and weaknesses play an important role in the story as does forgiveness, redemption, and second chances. The nature of the story means that rough language, and mature content relating to gender, sexuality, and bullying all come into play, making this book most appropriate for high school and up.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This story was wildly compelling and meticulously told. I had somehow missed the crime when it was in the news, and I'm not sure I even knew what it was about when I requested from NetGalley. I think I had seen that it was a BEA Buzz Book. From the very beginning of the book, it grabbed me and I devoured it. It's beautiful written in a smart, journalistic style, with compassion for everyone involved. I will be thinking about these people for a long time to come.

This was an interesting nonfiction book. There are many different things going on, many instances of social injustice.

It's the story of Sasha who doesn't identify as either a boy or girl. As a teenager, this has got to be incredibly difficult. However, Sasha is lucky to have the complete support of both parents and support systems at school. It's also the story of Richard, a black teen who lives a completely different life than Sasha. Their paths cross one afternoon on the 57 bus, and things will never be the same for either of them.

You'll feel so bad for what Sasha has to go through, but you'll also feel bad for Richard and his circumstances. Go into this one with an open mind, and be ready to honestly examine your preconceived ideas.

Great read- shows the same situation from different perspectives. Touches upon racial and economic divides.

Eye-opening and fascinating information here that I never would have known. Well written and researched and presented in an engaging format. Full review on Goodreads.

This books tells an incredibly important story. Most people will remember when this case broke out, feeling outrage at what had been done to Sasha. Outrage which of course is understandable, at learning how this child suffered. However, fewer people will remember giving a second thought to Richard. I think this book is incredibly important because it tells the story from both sides. Having worked with many youths like Richard as a social worker, and now continuing my career and a researcher focused on adolescent development, the break down in this book about adolescent brains and adolescent thinking is so important. People tend not to realize (or to forget) that adolescents really do think differently than adults because their brains are literally not fully developed! Additionally, this book offers a much needed critique on how teenagers are currently treated in the legal system, especially teenagers of color. (I recently wrote a chapter on adolescents in juvenile justice settings, which will be coming out in the next edition of The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. For more information on some of the subjects covered in this book, I recommend you take a look at that).
Unfortunately, although the message of this book was very important, I did not greatly enjoy the writing style. At times the book felt like it was being written as a novel, and at times I felt like I was reading a textbook. The narrative also alternated from 3rd person perspective to 2nd person perspective in a way that felt choppy. I understand this may have been a stylistic choice, but it did not seem to flow in my opinion. Rather, the book often felt as if a style had not been fully chosen and instead jumped arbitrarily from one style to another. This made it difficult, especially, to understand who the intended audience of the book was. As a novel, this book has the potential to be read by many teenagers, who are going to benefit the most from this story. However, when it feels like a textbook, this is more likely to be off-putting to many adolescents.
I would still recommend this book to many of the youth I work with, since they are the ones who are like Richard. Minority youth who have already been through the system, who are impulsive, and who don't realize the full potential consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the way this book is written would keep the attention of these same youths.

I did not finish this book. I was screening it to be a nonfiction selection for our 2017 Top 10 list, but I did not like how it was constructed.

With gender identity issues so prominent in the news these days, this is a very timely book.I work at a small liberal arts college at which we make a point of embracing this problem, and attempt to make our campus a safe place for students of all genders and sexual orientation. I would love to have this author visit our community.
That Slater approached the story from the sides of both the perpetrator and the victim without judgement made it especially humanizing. It was an amazing lesson of compassion and understanding.

Although not the root cause, the two teenagers involved in this situation were on different sides of a sharp class divide. Shasha, white, came from a middle-class background; at home, they had time to dream, read, and create other languages, worlds, and plans for their own future. Richard, Black, attended a school with larger classes, more working class students, and more crime in the surrounding neighborhoods -- little time or quiet for dreams and aspirations there. Judging from the information in this book, Richard seems to have had no contact with the Bay Area’s Black middle class, a social class which is not new (it existed before the technology industry boom). Sasha’s own parents would have modeled certain forms of class mobility, while Richard have had no such experience.

The author’s use of short chapters works very well for this particular sad, true story. In so many criminal incidents or disasters, the ‘real story’ is told in fragments: witnesses, first responders, victims, perpetrators, counselors, and that’s why the shart chapter lengths works.

Slater obviously devoted time and consideration to handling this story in an empathetic way. Because Richard remained incarcerated when this book was written, it’s understandable that his side of the story lacks a certain depth. Perhaps this may have been remedied somewhat by researching and discussing the larger context of his teenage world. African American communities have always had LGBTQIA people, out to one degree or another. Black queerness is hardly an innovation, as certain early Blues recordings (Ma Rainey’s Prove it on Me) make clear. Working-class Black queer dance, slang vocabulary, mannerism, fashion, performance styles, and more are repeatedly copied and reproduced in mainstream culture, usually without no acknowledgment of the original creators. This sort of historical and social context is absent, and it makes the book feel somewhat unbalanced. What might Richard have been likely to hear and observe when growing up? Who lives in the Oakland neighborhoods where he lived and attended school? It’s just as likely that Richard might have been goaded to set a Black nonbinary gender person’s skirt on fire, although there may not have been as much media attention. Statistical data about family income, school completion rates, and racialized institutional and social environments can’t answer all of “Why?” questions here. How could they?

The adults around Richard could only present one side of this story. Some mystery remains at the end of the book; who were the older women that came to Richard’s court hearings to observe? The author includes a brief reference to a short TV interview at the courtroom in which the women express concern over juvenile justice sentencing. Whether or not they took any action --- letters to officials or to Richard, for example -- remains unknown. Had the author been able to find and interview these women, it may added some depth to the story, and offered more possibilities for a motive.

An empathetic, dedicated member of the school staff made the time and effort to ask Richard about his inner life and home lives, the interviews with her show that the adults in his life were fully aware of the problems in the children’s environments, and that they wanted to help.

So is this book about race, sexuality, gender roles, or all three? Maybe it’s about the last. Without a more personal understanding of the environment Richard lived in, there is no real sense of his interior life. He remains nearly as distant and unknowable at the book’s end as its beginning, despite the author’s choice of interview subjects. In contrast, the in-depth interviews with Sasha’s parents and various forms of documentation provide a well-rounded portrait. Only Sasha seems truly alive at the end of the book, flourishing at MIT, able to put a lifelong interest in public transportation to use in preparation for a career. The frightening, bewildering incident isn’t forgettable, but they have something to look forward to.

Book clubs may want to choose some additional materials to read and discuss if they select The 57 Bus. I recommend this as a way to inform participants about nonbinary gender, LBGTQIA people in African American history and culture, and the changing Bay Area.

When Sasha fell asleep on the bus, Richard decided to set Sasha's skirt on fire. What he thought would be a funny joke, turned serious as the skirt erupted into a fireball, severely burning Sasha. The police and media called it a hate crime - a crime against the lgbtq community.

Alternating between Sasha and Richard's story, this book sets up a frank discussion of gender and sexuality. It shows the seriousness of one's actions and how a seemingly harmless prank could have turned deadly. I think this is an important read for those of all ages. Overall, highly recommended.