Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump offers a raw and introspective look at life on the South Side of Chicago. Through the eyes of its young protagonist, the novel explores themes of race, identity, and community with honesty and depth. Bump's writing is candid, shedding light on the challenges and contradictions of growing up in a turbulent environment. While I found the narrative insightful, I struggled with the fragmented storytelling and pacing that occasionally disrupted the flow. Nevertheless, the book offers a poignant reflection on social issues and the complexities of finding one's place in a world that often feels alienating.

I may have not been the target audience for this one as a white woman, however, I love to learn and understand the world outside of my own small one. Reading books like this is how we learn empathy and how to relate to those that may have not grown up like us. This author writes of the heartwarming, sad, sometimes funny yet hopeful journey of Claude. In this book family, ties are broken and then repaired as he adapts and learns to navigate the world. This story will stay with you.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Mixing humor with more serious scenes, Bump explores what it means to be a young Black boy in America. The book is narrated by Claude, who is a young boy on Chicago’s South Side. After witnessing a riot in the wake of a police killing of a young black boy in his neighborhood, Claude begins to strive for something outside of his world. He’s constantly faced with the reality of being Black, no matter how much he tries to escape being defined solely by race

I enjoyed Claude as a narrator, and his relationship with Janice. However, parts of their story together felt a bit over the top, particularly toward the end. I wanted a bit more of a resolution at the end as well.

That said, I enjoyed how fast-paced and easy (in tone not subject matter) to read this was. It provides great social commentary mixed with humor and insight. Definitely would recommend if you like contemporary fiction was a focus on social issues.

Thanks to the publisher for a finished paperback copy in exchange for my review!

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review the advance copy of Everywhere You Don't Belong. I’m excited to share with you all this thought provoking novel centering on a young man faced with the harsh reality of what it means to be a black in America while desperately searching for a place where he belongs.

At first I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my kind of read. I normal drift to the YA genre, but once I started reading, the more I wanted to know about Claude and his life. Nothing about this novel is predictable however there are several rough truths etched in that make you stop and think, “Why is it so difficult to move forward?”. For Claude, he wants nothing more than a normal life, to be free to live without the pressures of what lay beyond; riots, thinking about the parents who abandoned him, and the constant violence he is faced with everyday.

While I did want more descriptions of Claude’s surroundings, the author’s writing style presents a unique yet general tone of the characters who shift in and out of his life throughout the years: the girl he loved, the friends he's lost, and his parential guardians who do the best they can to mend the hole in his broken heart. I throughly enjoyed the novel, while heartbreaking and bluntly honest, Bump turns a coming of age story into a powerful message of the constant struggles the black community still faces today.

This book was tough for me to read. Several times I set it down to pick it up again later. I just had a difficult time with the way in which it was written because it just didn’t flow. It really could have been a great book. Instead it was just okay.

Thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the #gifted copy of the books.

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Read This if You:
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🌃 Want know what South Side Chicago is like
🌙 Want to support a BIPOC author
✨ Like coming of age reads
👌 Want to support a debut author
😜 Like comedic yet hard hitting reads
💥Want to read something relevant for 2021 racial injustices
😁 Want to read something witty
👩🏽‍🎓If you’ve ever been a college student looking to find yourself
♥️ If you need hope in spite of everything
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If you’ve read this or plan to there is one major parallel here the main character’s name is Claude McKay. There was an actual Claude McKay who was a Jamaican born poet who immigrated to America. He’s best known for his literary work protesting racial and economic inequalities. Perhaps, there is some reason for this exact name replication.

✨Blog Tour✨

Thank you @algonquinbooks and @bumperg for this fantastic book and for having me on the #everywhereyoudontbelong blog tour!

“The entire universe is ruined,” Grandma said. “And no one wants us anywhere.”

A coming of age story, Everywhere You Don’t Belong is told through the voice of Clyde Mckay Love, a young Black man raised by his Grandmother, and her gay best friend Paul, in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago.

At age 5, Clyde is abandoned by his parents and it seems to be an underlying theme in life. He makes friends, only for them to leave the neighborhood with their families. Clyde doesn’t have many people in his life and spends most of his time with his Grandmother, who is a FORCE, and Paul.

I loved the relationships and the quick and witty dialogue between Clyde and her and Paul.

After witnessing a riot in his neighborhood in his teens, Clyde vows to leave Chicago for good and sets his sights on college.

Once in college in Missouri, an old friend comes to him that’s in trouble and Clyde has to make a choice about the kind of person he wants to be and what he wants from his future.

This a story about childhood trauma, abandonment, racism, police brutality, gang violence, to name a few and the human experience of one young Black man in America.

I highly recommend this one in order to read about that perspective.

A coming of age story of Claude. A young Black man born on the South Side of Chicago who just wants a place where he can fit in while being raised by his civil rights-era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change after being abandoned by his parents. He leaves Chicago to go to school in Missouri, and also didn’t fit in right there.

THEMES/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Abandonment
Social Injustices
Racism
Violence/Riots
Police Brutality
Identity
Microaggression

UNPOPULAR OPINION
While I was sucked in from the beginning about Claude coping with abandonment and what life is like for a Black youth growing up and wanting a place to fit in, the writing style wasn't my favorite.

Some characters get introduced and disappear with little or no development for me. Some parts were confusing and disjointed. And the ending was an unfinished deal for me.

I didn't like Janice. I saw no
vulnerability from her when she got abandoned outright to her face by her mother, unlike Claude.

But I do love Claude's grandma and Paul. They got my attention at a 100%

Overall, the story was fierce with sheer originality.

⭐️ means I DNF

I had to stop at 11%. This was very hard to follow. I felt that I was getting multiple characters and began to become confused as to gender of character and who is who. I tried to continue to read it because this book was sent to me through NetGalley but nothing was keeping my interest and I was becoming more and more confused.

This will be something I would have to give another chance later on.

I'm not going to lie, I expected something completely different when I read this book, but I loved it. It deals with very real issues that young african americans are faced with today but it does so with a dark humor that it works and really hits home.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book was a deep and important book to read. As a chicago based educator in the west side, this story models the lives of so many of my students and I have no doubt that they will find comfort in this book. The writing was the most intriguing part. It felt like a life story put on double time except for the key moments that the main character felt the need to see events in full detail. This really helped highlight the incidents and life experiences that shaped the main character over his life. His family dynamics and school friendships were really interesting and I found myself caring about characters that were there for maybe two to three pages of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this story!!!

This book is remarkable. A sharp & witty bildungsroman! It's heartwarming while also being heartbreaking. I felt like I didn't want to disappoint Claude's grandmother, I wanted to befriend Paul, and I wanted to hug all of them. There's humor & tension in each realistic character. Chicago also plays a huge role in the book, which was an interesting way to dig deeper into the characters and understand them more. The author balances humor, tenderness, and heavy subject matter while creating an immersive story.

Everywhere You Don’t Belong has been on my radar since last year. So when Algonquin Books reached out asking if I wanted to read and review it to celebrate its paperback release, I jumped at the chance!

This novel is a coming-of-age story following Claude McKay Love, a young Black boy growing up on the South Side of Chicago. We learn about both his parents abandoning him at a young age and being raised by his grandma and her friend, Paul. Throughout the chapters, we see different friends and people go in and out of both Claude’s life and the South Side. After a days-long riot breaks out in Claude’s neighborhood following the murder of a Black teen, Claude grapples with wanting to leave Chicago while also wanting to stay in a place that still feels like home.

This is a powerful debut novel about what it is like to be Black in a world where Black people are always under threat of attack. Throughout the book, it is emphasized, even by Claude himself, that he is unexceptional or that no one sees him making a major difference in the world. However, does that mean if he were to be killed on the street, his life didn’t matter? Why do we need BIPOC’s lives to be exceptional in order for them to be deemed important? And how does this affect Black youth who are still trying to find their place in the world? We see Claude struggle with having to find his own identity as a Black man while managing the expectations of others who have different ideas of what it means to be Black.

Something I’ve read about this book was how the structure of the novel and the writing threw them off, making it hard for some to get through. But I promise if you stick with it, you’ll find so much more to unpack, along with a lot of heart and humor thrown in.

Coming of age story. Claude McKay Love is being raised by his grandmother and her gay male friend Paul, after his parents abandon him at the age of 5. We learn about the South Shore in Chicago, Claude’s friends, and how he copes with the abandonment of his parents, being raised by his grandmother and Paul, navigating the pressures in his life, going to college, and figuring out life in general.

Claude seems to be in a perpetual state of sadness as he deals with the adversities of life. He’s trying to find a place in life for him, but all he realizes is that no one wants him (Black male) and he’s trying to figure out what to do with all of that.

Gabriel Bump introduces so many issues that are really timely and necessary.
- Racism
- Abandonment
- Atypical childhood
- Black Neighborhoods
- Black Trauma
- Socioeconomic issues
- Coming-of-age
- Adulting
- Gang violence

Many parts of this book read like a collection of short stories, and not a cohesive novel, but eventually it all came together for me at the end. Although I really enjoyed the prose-like narrative, I kept trying to figure out what kind of novel this was developing into. The first half of the book read with such power and dark wit, that I loved it. The second half of the book where Claude grows up more seemed much more serious and showing how he was all about trying to be a good, righteous, successful, assimilated, cultured, and lovable person, and pursue his dreams as an adult.

In the end though, we see Claude realize what’s the same and what’s different. The way in which he should go, and what’s at stake, Claude has to make some tough and decisive decisions.

Overall, this book is spectacular and highly recommend to the YA community. I highly suggest that you keep an open mind and think outside of the box with this book. Don’t let the beginning get you snagged. The entire book is worth its weight in gold!

Thank you to Algonquin books and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book for a fair and honest review. Definitely excited to be apart of the blog tour celebrating the release of Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump.

A coming of age story about a Black man named Claude. The story mostly takes place on the South Side of Chicago where Claude is struggling to find his place in the world. The only thing he's sure of is he wants to leave Chicago behind.

Claude takes us on a journey where we get to experience what it's like being Black in America and the struggles Claude has to face as a Black man. The author brings up serious topics such as racism, social injustice, racial profiling, and at the same time manages to add some humor and wittiness to it all.

You really get to know all the characters and feel attached to all of them in such a short amount of time. Everyone felt so raw and authentic, and it translated beautifully through the author's writing!

At first, it took me a few pages to get used to the writing style, but I eventually became hooked and couldn't put this book down! It really worked with this book, and I loved the way the author put together all the passages/sentences, it really made the book feel poetic. The writing style ended up becoming one of my favorite things about the book!

I was honestly so impressed with this debut! I'll be anxiously awaiting the next book Gabriel Bump comes out with. This is overall a fast-paced read that you will devour in one sitting. I highly recommend reading this book especially for the writing!

Debut author Gabriel Bump’s novel Everywhere You Don’t Belong is a coming-of-age novel about Claude McKay Love who lives in Chicago’s South Side. The reader follows Claude through his first memories involving his parents, who leave him with his Grandmother, to his best adolescent friends and their lives until they leave, to a riot that changes him forever, to love and his own departure.

My very first impression of Everywhere You Don’t Belong came from Bump’s writing. The voice he weaves throughout is mesmerizing, hypnotic, drawing the reader, as least this reader, in. The way he has some characters recount memories or philosophy is like poetry with its building repetition and lists, a rhythmic ebb and flow of words. After reading so many recent novels in which well-executed, beautiful prose is an after-thought, if even considered, Everywhere You Don’t Belong is a gift.

Fully realized characters are the lifeblood of this novel. Claude’s grandmother and her friend, Paul, are unforgettable. Paul, a gay man, is constantly searching for love and constantly finding himself heart-broken. His pursuits are both heart-breaking and darkly humorous. His exploits reminded me of a romance-seeking Don Quixote. Claude’s grandmother is a true matriarch, defending her home and family and meting out just punishment as necessary. She is powerful and clear-sighted.

The settings play an almost equally large part. First, the South Side is called violent. It’s where the riot caused by the killing by police of an unarmed black boy occurs. It’s where an army of drug pushers own turf and take up arms during the riot. It’s the place where innocent families are caught between police and the army of drug pushers. It’s the place that Claude wants to escape because he doesn’t feel like he belongs there. University offers an escape and Claude ends up in Missouri, the same place where his parents are presumed to have ended up–separately. But this smaller city in Missouri has its own problems. Just a walk along a trail shows how nature is dying and that there are larger issues all around. And this smaller Missouri city also has white boys who wear “Don’t Tred on Me” T-shirts and tell people with differently colored skin that they are what’s wrong with this country and they want the country back the way it was. (This fiction suddenly doesn’t feel all that fictional.) This small city is just another place where Claude doesn’t belong.

Perhaps out of all of my expectations at the outset what I didn’t expect was to enjoy this novel as much as I did. I read it in a little over an evening and think I should read it again, because there is just so much to it that I’m certain I would appreciate even more on a second reading.

I look forward to reading more of Gabriel Bump’s writing.

I received a copy of the novel from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review.

A book is nothing without a strong protagonist. “Everywhere You Don’t Belong” has a great one in Claude McKay Love. The story follows him along while he navigates the complicated world of a young black child. He’s abandoned by his parents at age five, raised by his activist grandmother, and surrounded by violence on the Southside of Chicago. The whole book is Claude trying to run away (unsuccessfully) from racism, injustice, and violence.

There are many powerful sections of this book – especially when riots take over Claude’s neighborhood. The horrors he witnesses help shape him into a scared, mistrustful young adult. It’s hard for the reader to really understand the full depths of despair that Claude feels – partly because Gabriel Bump writes with a really wry, dark humor. But this blend of wit and sensitivity allows the reader to more fully immerse themselves in Claude’s world. My favorite aspect of the novel is the way that Bump writes with repetition. Phrases are frequently repeated on the page, which gives a nice rhythm to the writing and to the story itself.

As much as I loved and respected Claude, I can’t give this book more than 3.5 stars because I felt like a lot of it sort of went over my head. This probably has more to do with me rather than the book, but I didn’t feel like the book was 100 percent accessible. I felt my attention wander during some parts because I had to concentrate quite a bit to follow the plot and the dialogue.

I get that Bump was trying to give us a window into an incredibly difficult topic – it’s never easy to write about how systemic racism is infecting a neighborhood and the people who live there. And I loved Claude’s optimistic hope for a future without violence. However, I think some readers may be turned off by the unconventional writing style like I was. I’m definitely interested in seeing what Bump works on next – it’s just that as a debut novelist, he might still be navigating how to use his voice effectively.

<i>Thank you Algonquin Books for sending me an e-ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Claude McKay Love has grown up in the South Side of Chicago, where he was abandoned by his parents at a young age and instead raised by his tough-loving, activist grandmother. Although Claude craves something so simple and mundane--a place where he belongs--his neighborhood is Chicago is consumed by violence, drugs, gangs, suicide, riots, and police. Desperate to escape is hometown, Claude enrolls in a college in Missouri. However, even in a new town in a different state, Claude still faces severe injustices as he comes to terms with what it means to be a black man in America.

<i>Everywhere You Don't Belong</i> is a simply-written story with themes and characters that are anything but simple. The writing style was definitely a refreshing break from what I usually read--it's a bit choppy and repetitive, yet works well to convey the confusion, anger, and isolation that Claude is feeling. I appreciated the wholeness of the characters, where everyone had their likable and unlikable traits. Claude especially is an interesting main character. His pain, his heartbreak, his loneliness, are all evident throughout the book, yet with his frustration and mistreatment comes hope and determination. Although I did find the beginning of the novel to be a bit messy and confusing, I thought everything came together well at the end. This certainly isn't the type of book that finishes up neatly with a happy helping of hope and resolution, but it will leave you reflecting on Claude's experiences and the racist reality that is America.

I would recommend <i>Everywhere You Don't Belong </i> by Gabriel Bump to anyone who enjoys coming-of-age novels that explore love, race, identity, family, and friendship.

This book is SOoooo good!!! The author has such a unique voice and the style can be sort of stark or clipped. But at the same time urgent and full of energy and life force. If it feels a little bit off putting at first, just stay with it. It won’t take long at all for you to be completely hooked. And by the end you will love Claude so much it will break your heart to leave him along with his emotions on his sleeve and his full heart and his trauma and his loss and his bravery and his love.
I hope this does not turn people off, but the style reminded me a bit of James Frey with A Million Little Pieces. And also his novel Bright Shiny Morning. In the way that it feels so fresh and a bit jarring, but reels you right in as soon as you get used to it. Despite the eventual controversy over James Frey, there’s no doubt that his writing deserved the buzz & the best seller list. I feel the same way about this author’s talent. It leaves you with the feeling that the very best independent films do - that life is gritty and difficult and unfair but at the same time wonderful and beautiful. And that the best of it only comes with that dichotomy at play.
I knew absolutely nothing about the South Shore of Chicago before I picked up this book, but now I feel like I visited there and met Claude’s grandmother. The pictures he paints are of emotion more so than the physical, but the emotion is so rich that you picture the physical world.
I feel lucky that this author now calls my city Buffalo his home, and I was lucky to see him read from this fascinating book when it first came out. I get the sense that he is as delightfully rich in character as Claude is and I can’t wait for his next book.

Everywhere You Don't Belong is a little like a runaway train and I mean that in the best way. You think you know where you're headed and what's going to happen but then you hit a bump and things speed in a completely different direction and all you can do is hang on and hope that it all end well.

This debut novel centers on Claude McKay Love, a fairly ordinary black boy being raised by his grandmother and her eccentric gay friend, Paul, on the South Side of Chicago in what I think are the 2000s (it sounds like Obama is senator when he's mentioned although it's never confirmed). He's got a lot to deal with - abandoned by his parents, bullied by schoolmates, dealing with riots and violence outside his front door, losing friends, falling in love and having to live up to his grandmother's expectation that he'll grow into a social activist like she is - and he's not always able to cope. And even though it's set what I think is 20 years ago, unfortunately the issues the book covers are still timely - when an innocent black boy is killed by police, a riot erupts on the South Shore changing Claude's life and the lives of those around him forever.

Bump writes in what almost feels like a stream of consciousness. It took me a while to get into the rhythm but once I did, it really added to the story. There's a lot of humor especially in the characters' bluntness (I loved Grandma and want a prequel about her backstory with Paul!) but the book also has heart and tackles some difficult topics. Claude isn't a tough guy. He actually cries over everything and you kind of can't blame him.

The second half is when it went off the rails for me (again, not in a bad way) and we follow Claude to college in Missouri. I was less interested in his experience there but by then I'd become so attached to Claude that I was willing to hold on to see how the ride ended and I was glad I did.

The early chapters of this book are close to perfection for me. Bump's writing is sharp and clever, the plot is layered and I couldn't get enough of Claude's childhood friends Nugget, Bubbly and Jonah. I wish the rest of the book had lived up to the start but I still enjoyed it. It's a really worthwhile and quick read that I bet a lot of people will be talking about. I can't wait to see what's next from this author!

Thank you to Algonquin Books, NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy to review.