Everywhere You Don’t Belong
Book Review | 📚📚📚📚 4/5
Gabriel Bump | Algonquin Books

Place is everything. Or is it? Can your life change based on where you live?

Why I was interested in this book:
Honestly, my mom is from South Shore – the South Side of Chicago that is featured in this book, so I was intrigued. After reading the book’s blurb I realized that this would be a book about perseverance (or not) based on personality, nurture and environment.

My assessment:
What a great read. It was not as detrimental as I thought it might be. Granted, it was heavy. Chicago race riots, high school bullying, gangs, being profiled based on skin color, etc. But, those are situations. The question the book asked, for me, is how do situations like these, place and escape, and family affect a person’s life, help shape their future, affect any change for the better, or define someone’s identity. Yep, heavy. But touching….

Stories of the human condition:
From the lens of a high schooler who is socially, and personally, awkward the story is about discovery, overcoming what is thrown at you (even if you might be naïve to what is being thrown at you), trying to figure yourself out, and growing up. While the main character’s support network is as helpful as his adversaries are hurtful, Claude rolls with the situations presented to him. But he doesn’t roll over as might be suspected for such a lost soul. He has goals and wants to meet them, but the obstacles that get in his way push them back as much as his support network not necessarily agreeing with his aspirations.

I recommend this book for urbanites, suburbanites and ruralites alike. There’s so much discovery and, frankly, the story is dark, edgy, quirky and fast-paced.

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley(dot)com in exchange for an honest review. I would not have selected this book had I not been interested in it based on the description.

Read more of my reviews at https://tugglegrassblues.wordpress.com/.


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I'd be lying if I said this coming-of-age story about Claude didn't make me uncomfortable at times whatwith the violent upbringing in Chicago's South Shore by his grandma and her live-in partner of sorts, the inappropriate sexual relationship he shares with his little friend Janice, and basic lack of communication between all parties regarding all and sundry.

What I did really like was Claude's awareness of black history, white privilege and social justice; his list of six important dates in Black American History is impressive and should be replicated, and I would love to see him wax further on the philosophy of racist societal differences.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this unusually humane and honest novel. Readers watch Claude waddle and storm through adolescence, eventually landing in college, where he becomes more rooted after years of violence, racism, first loves, first heartbreaks, first everything, Nicely done.

This debut novel is filled with raw emotion and the gritty reality of inner city life. Alternating between heartbreak, hope, fear, first loves, and violence, Gabriel Bump highlights what it’s like to grow up in a world filled with people who want to punish you for nothing more than the color of your skin.

The first 20% or so of the book felt disjointed and was filled with short, choppy sentences. This almost caused me to stop reading, but I’m so glad that I kept going. As the main character, Claude, grows up, the prose gets stronger.

It’s a risky move for an author to allow the strength of their writing to grow alongside the age of their MC, but Bump pulled it off nicely. Instead of seeming like a cheap literary trick, it really brought home Claude’s evolution from a junior high student to a college student.

The choices Claude makes along the way are rooted in a mixture of innocence, fear, love, and the desire to get away from the South Shore’s violence. As he matures, he learns heartbreaking truths that rob him of his innocence but never manage to erase his tender heart.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.