Dynamic duo sister writing team here! Maika and Maritza Moulite have captured a family's worst nightmare on the page. Told in multiple points of view and across a few timelines, One of the Good Ones follows a family's devastating tragedy in the aftermath of an arrest and death. Distinct voices, real problems, and a twist you won't see coming will keep you turning pages. As the story unfolds, it grows more sinister, and you'll be shocked how it all connects.

One of the Good Ones asks the important question "Isn't being human enough?" and I hope more folks read this book and ask the same. A stellar YA read with tense plotting and purposeful language.

Wow! I loved this book! One of the Good Ones opens as Kezi, the middle sister in a trio of girls gets ready to attend a Black Lives Matter rally in honor of yet another victim of police brutality. Her parents are fearful of her attendance and won't allow her to go, but since the rally takes place on Kezi's 18th birthday, she goes and live streams some of the events for her social justice YouTube channel. As she is broadcasting, she is arrested. Within hours, she is dead. Her sisters, Genni and Happi, decide to honor her life by going ahead with a trip that Kezi had planned - driving from Chicago to California along Route 66, using the historic Negro Motorist Green Book to guide them. Along the way, they discover the truth about how deeply racism has affected their own family. The theme of what makes a person of color worthy is explored. What makes a person of color worthy of being treated fairly, worthy of being allowed to live their life in safety, and worthy of being remembered when their life ends? Why do they need to be "worthy" of these things in the first place? What makes someone "one of the good ones"? This book is well-written and has a fantastic plot twist. Fans of Tiffany D. Jackson may particularly enjoy it. This book is definitely "one of the good ones"! LGBTQ+ themes are present but are not the main theme of the book. I would say it's best suited for ages 13 and up due to some violence.

Keziah Smith, a young, up and coming YouTuber, who is a social justice crusader, dies in police custody after being arrested while attending a protest for an innocent Black man who was killed at the hands of the police. Her family speaks out about Kezi’s death, and her remaining sisters, Genny, Happi, and two closest friends, Ximena and Derek, embark on Kezi’s pre-planned road trip, using a gifted copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book, in her honor to commemorate her life and the work she was doing for social justice. Incorporating flash backs to the past, we learn about the Smith family, and how Black trauma has been passed down through generations in their family.

The title, “One of the Good Ones,” is a recurring theme in this book. The book discusses how Black people are deemed either “one of the good ones” or someone who doesn’t deserve anything. Damon Young called this phenomenon, “the magical negro.” What white people call and think of Black people who remain “neutral” on race, or those who don’t rock the boat about racism, pull the race card, or get in trouble with the law.

“I know that existing as a human being on this earth should be enough to deserve respect and justice. But it isn’t. Instead, we focus on those we deem worthy, for whom we allow ourselves to feel the weight of their loss.”

This book pulls on so many areas:
- Generational trauma in the Black community
- Missing Black people
- Police brutality
- Death in police custody
- Social justice
- Racism
- Familial ties/bonds
- Friendship
- LGBTQIA+
- Normalizing therapy for the Black family
- Birth Order & personality traits
- Humanizing Blackness

This book gave me all sorts of vibes. There are a host of acknowledgements to past atrocities done to members of the Black community in the recent past, and I felt the collective grief and palpable fear that Black people have when we see yet again senseless violence that impacts our community.

I really enjoyed reading this novel, as there is a crazy twist in the plot that keeps you moving throughout the book. Overall, the pace was good, the plot development was decent, the character development was good, but the ending felt a bit rushed, and I wished that some of the plot lines were flushed out completely prior to the end. However, this book is a book to watch for 2021. Definitely timely, and needed, as the BLM movement has gained momentum in recent events, with the passing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and a host of others who have not been forgotten, like Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Philando Castille, and Trayvon Martin.

This book is definitely a must read for young adults, and I would rate this book a solid 4.

Thank you to Net Galley, Maika Moulite, Maritza Moulite, and Inkyard Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4.5 stars

I really liked this book. It explores the phrase “one of the good ones” and whether it matters if a victim of racial brutality was indeed a “good one”. The writing was top-notch; I couldn’t put it down. The story sucked me in from the very beginning. It’s told from four different points of view and each view is written very well. The characters were fleshed out and relatable. I saw a little bit of myself in all of them, but more so in Happi. She is the complete opposite of her name. She has so much baggage that she holds onto. Grief, guilt, sadness, and anger weigh her down until she can’t bear it on her own anymore. But as the story progresses, she begins to unload some of her pain. I loved her growth throughout the story.

I was captivated by the realness of the story. It tackles many themes: police brutality, racism, generational trauma, sexuality, religion, mental health, the criminal justice system. One of the Good Ones is not an easy book to read. The inclusion of black history was necessary. You can tell the authors did their research because even though this is a work of fiction, sadly the racism that black people had to, and still, endure is very real. We see much of it through the road trip that Happi and Genny take with Kezi’s two friends.

I have two gripes with this story: the twist and the ending. I didn’t see the twist coming. Though I thought it was a clever one, I didn’t think it was well thought out on the character’s part. I’m not sure if that was done on purpose or not, but I had so many questions. What, why, and how? I just couldn’t wrap my head totally around it. The ending was abrupt; too abrupt for my liking. Because I was blessed to receive an ARC, I thought a chunk of the story was missing. But sadly it was not. I was left wanting SO MUCH MORE. This book left an openness in my heart that let’s me know that I’ll be thinking about it long after I read it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

This book is difficult for me to review. So much happened...so much. I was a little overwhelmed. The book switches points of view from Happi, to her sister Kezi, to past relatives, to current brief acquaintances. Usually I love this multiple view scenario but this time, I was hopping.

At a memorial ceremony for Kezi, the family is together in Chicago when Kezi's sisters decide to fulfill her planned graduation road trip down Route 66. There was a scene in Chicago where Happi leaves her family and ends up at a pool party. I wanted that scene to play into the story, but I didn't see it. There are twists and turns throughout, but toward the end of the book, I didn't care about anything except getting to the end, so I was frustrated when some fluff chapters were thrown in.

It took me about 50% of the book to become engrossed and then 80% through my mind was spun and I couldn't quite put everything together neatly. Each story was important - but it was a lot to combine into one.

I still think it is important enough to keep and promote in the middle school library and touches on a lot of current issues. 3.5 stars

I really wanted to love this book, but there was a lot going on and it was hard to keep up with. While the story is good, there were so many subplots and different perspectives that made it difficult to follow. And the twist really got me - I was not expecting it. While the message that the book is trying to convey is good, it seems like they were trying to take on too much at one time. I would still recommend to my students, though.

One of the Good Ones is a timely and important story, and for the topic alone (and the way the authors treat it), this is a must read.

Kezi is killed under suspicious circumstances in police custody the day of her 18th birthday after she is arrested when she participates in a march against police brutality. She already had an established YouTube channel where she documented topics ranging from police brutality to racist teachers. Kezi had two sisters, Genny, and Happi, as well as loving, albeit somewhat overpowering, parents, and two very close friends, Ximena and Derek, amongst others. When Kezi dies the family tries to pick up the pieces of their lives, but as we can all imagine, this type of trauma is not one that can be hidden and forgotten.

The story is broken up by time and person, narrators alternating between Kezi, right before her death, Happi three months after Kezi’s death, as well as a few other narrators who are integral to the storyline. I always enjoy a multiple narrative, as I love delving into the personalities of the different characters, and this technique really works well here.

There is a huge twist in the novel that I really didn’t see coming, and while I get why the authors decided on it, and admit that it works perfectly fine within the storyline, it caused my enthusiasm to dip a little. I did not see the plot going that way at all, and I personally thought that it branched off into an area that would have been better expanded in a separate novel (and there is definitely enough material available to create a credible and devastating story in that topic too). But it does work, and I feel like readers will either love it, or not mind it so much (like me), and it definitely won’t stop you from reading on!

There are many topics evoked in One of the Good Ones: police brutality and systemic racism (in policing and in general), US history (the non whitewashed version), lynching, slavery, and so on, and the authors handle them so well. I loved discovering more about the Green Book, and how important it had been to Black people traveling through the South during the Jim Crow era. I also loved the flashbacks to the family’s ancestors, and the project that Kezi was working on before she was arrested. All in all One of the Good Ones is an excellent read and also necessary, as it evokes topics that we must talk about if we want to make real change in this country.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was not expecting that end! Oh my God, this books is fantastic! Everyone who liked Get Out! should read this book. I think it's one of the best books I've read this year.

I thought that I knew what this book was about, based on the description and back of the book summary. I thought that I was prepared for what I was about to read. I thought that I knew what I would be reading about and that I understood the context of the novel I had begun. I did not.

Let me be abundantly clear - this novel was incredible and deeply necessary. Not only are the events in this story sadly real and terribly timely, but the voice of each narrator is so clear. Angry. Sad. Frustrated. Resigned. Desperate. Hopeful. As the story unfolds, the information that we get in each chapter paints a little more of the picture of the USA; the good and the (very) bad, and the difference in treatment to those with power and those without.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to reveal that I am white and in my 30s - in many ways, I am not the audience of this book. But I am also a teacher and a person who is working to better educate myself about the history of my country and the current state of my nation. As much as this novel is a suspenseful thriller/mystery (I did NOT see the twist coming AT ALL), I have also learned so, so much from googling what I did not understand. I learned about Sundown Towns, and about the actual Negro Motorist Green Book (not the really terrible movie). I was enraged (but unsurprised) by the attitudes of Kezi's history teacher in early chapters. And I was moved by the very real accounting of the facts of what happens after, and how we cannot seem to move past a certain stage of growth as a country.

In terms of the structure of the novel, I did have some issues with pacing/plotting, and with some of the interlocking chapters. This novel has multiple narrators that are linked together around a central event (the death of Kezi Smith) and I know that for me, that's always a challenging way to orient myself in time. Especially since early on, I was very unsure as to how one of the characters connected to all of the others. I was sure that they would, but I was not sure about how. However, these are minor issues and do not detract from the overall novel. I can't wait to read it again and to recommend it to all of my students. 4.5/5 stars.

Title: One of the Good Ones
Author: Maika Moulite; Maritza Moulite
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Perfect. Angelic.

One of the good ones.

Even as the phrase rings wrong in her mind—why are only certain people deemed worthy to be missed?
—Happi and her sister Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book as their guide. But there's a twist to Kezi's story that no one could've ever expected—one that will change everything all over again.

The writing here is stellar, and the authors tackle an important and emotional subject with grace and emotion. I was drawn into the story from the beginning. However, when the twist was revealed about ¾ of the way in, that changed the whole book for me, and almost completely erased the impact that reading it had had.

As an author, you don’t want your readers to find your story boring or predictable, but you also don’t want them to lose faith in you as a writer, either, and that is exactly how I felt: I can’t trust these authors to not flip the script over halfway through the book, so I probably won’t read more of them.

Maika and Maritza Moulite are sisters and authors. One of the Good Ones is their newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Inkyard Press in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 1/5.)

I received this eARC through NetGalley, so thank you to NetGalley & the publisher. One of the Good Ones starts as a novel of a teen girl grieving for her sister who died in police custody, but soon evolves into a griping mystery. The twist was wholly unexpected & caused the narrative to veer into territory that was intense, creepy, & ultimately resolved dynamically. It’s hard to write a thorough review of this novel without giving spoilers! The character development is honest & realistic. The plot is engaging & the well-paced. Overall, the novel is a standout & I highly recommend reading it. Even if you may be unsure about how coloring a book with a BLM theme, give One of the Good Ones a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Truly incredible storytelling from Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite. Weaving themes of history, realism, and family into a novel that couldn't be more timely, the Moulite sisters have built a book that should be read by teens, young adults, parents, educators, and anyone trying to better understand the journey of coming to terms with one's identity in 2020.

Hey, you. STOP. Stop what you are doing right now and preorder this book. Or if it’s after January 5th, go buy yourself a copy right now. I’ll wait. You will not have regrets and I could tell you why but that would be spoilers.

Kenzi is a social justice YouTuber ready to turn eighteen and spread her wings in a wider scope, when tragedy strikes. The first half of the book shows us what has happened to Kenzi’s family in the months after her suspicious death while in police custody. Whether in person or on television, we’ve all seen the mothers of those taken by police, crying out for their babies, but this book goes far beyond that and shows how the whole family unit suffers, and in fact grows, as they try to understand and heal together. In her wake, Kenzi has left two sisters who don’t understand each other, and two pastor parents who are trying to be a rock for their girls but are suffering through their own issues as well. Before she died, Kenzi had planned a road trip to celebrate her graduation, following Route 66 using The Green Book as a guide (if you don’t know look it up.) Now her sisters and two of her friends will take the trip together and chronicle it for her YouTube followers.

Then comes the second half of the book AND THE HUGE GIGANTIC TWIST I did not see coming and is why I’m pleading to you again, buy yourself this book and consume it ASAP.

But I digress. The road trip portion of the book was my favorite part, I really enjoyed following the group as they visited boarded up Green Book hotels, museums, monuments, and even the Grand Canyon (admittedly slightly off course.) Heading into this I knew the basic history of the Green Book but I find myself even more fascinated now and I’ll be looking up a digital copy for myself and exploring more.

Of course one of the main themes is the title itself, One of the Good Ones. The belief among whites that there are “good ones” and “bad ones” when it comes to black people in America. The “good ones” who study and work hard, are “articulate,” and fall within the whites narrow definition of what makes a good person. Then there are the “bad ones” who are seen as less ambitious, talk loudly in a vernacular white people feel threatened by, and presumably push drugs. These judgements rely on what we see at first glance and fail to take into account black people's literal humanity. This is something Kenzi's sister Happi thinks about frequently during the road trip; something we should all spend more time thinking about.

I loved One of The Good Ones, written by the same sister team who brought us Dear Haiti, From Alaine last year. I’m giving it 4.5 stars because even though I loved the book on so many different levels, I think it could have been better with one less POV, a shorter first half, and an even greater emphasis on the road trip. But seriously, go get it.

Happi and Genny are struggling to come to terms with their sister Kezi's death in a jail cell three months ago. Kezi, a YouTube social activist sensation, died after being arrested at her first in person protest. Happi and Genny, along with two of Kezi's friends, embark on a roadtrip designed by Kezi to trace Route 66 and discover some family history along the way.

One of the Good Ones is a unique story. It addresses the issue of social justice and how black people, and black women specifically, are judged by the media. When a person of color dies, there is often a justification for that death if the individual isn't considered "one of the good ones." This book explores that theme, but also incorporates a thrilling mystery that readers will enjoy. Some parts realistic, some parts thriller, some parts historical fiction, One of the Good Ones is a well-written piece of literature that defies current literary trends.

There was too much jumping around frim one subject to the next. The author talked about slavery, hangings, police brutality, and running away from an orphanage. I could not stay focus because of all the story lines

I received an e-galley of One of the Good Ones from HCC Frenzy/Inkyard Press in exchange for an honest review.

SO GOOD. And I’m not even afraid to start my review with that simple yet effective statement. I do feel wary of books that are overly recommended. Not because I don’t trust others’ recommendations but I find that I usually feel let down if it’s not quite as great or life-changing as I imagine it to be. But in this case, I will say that the team at HCC Frenzy were totally on point when they kept recommending it through their emails and influencer event. I will admit that it’s not perfect. While the multiple voices and perspectives serve a very important role in the story, I did find it a little confusing at first to follow the different storylines. But that’s the thing with human stories.They are complicated, confusing, and can be so interconnected that you don’t even realize it. All of which, I just mean that despite all of that, I am still completely blown away by the book and the story. I felt so many emotions as I read this story - grief, sadness, anger, shock, and relief as well. I don’t even know how to start with describing the plot line of this book. You’ll have to refer to the synopsis that accompanies the book. And then, take a chance on this book - you won’t regret it.

This was an interesting book about how two sisters grieve differently for their dead sister. During a road trip that they are taking in her memory, a whole new twist comes and poof blows you away.

A fantastic YA mystery mixed with an exploration of the ongoing legacy of slavery, the deep-rooted racism in society and police brutality. You simply must read this.

Full review to come on my blog and on The Nerd Daily.

How to describe this book? Its a lot and no way will I do it justice nor will you get the whole picture from my review but here goes...
Kezi is a high school YouTuber popular for speaking out on racial inequality. She comes from a very religious family (her and her sister's named after Job's daughters). She is set to be class valedictorian. She is "One of the Good Ones". This concept comes up throughout the book and is such a fitting title.

She decides to celebrate her 18th birthday just before graduation with her first in person protest and all goes haywire.

After graduation she was set to take a trip along Route 66 using The Green Book that helped African American's navigate for safe places to stop on the road in the Jim Crow era. She plans to vlog her journey.

After the "day of the arrest" arrives and she is arrested and killed her two very different sisters, girlfriend and best friend venture out on the journey to experience her plans and vlog about it, in her honor. Through the journey the four individuals learn about history, themselves and each other.

This book has a lot going on and I think one too many balls in the air and hard to truly categorize hence the 4 versus the 5 star rating.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Told in multiple timelines and points of view, this book looks at the effects of generational and systemic racism while also mining complicated family dynamics and even gives a window into the life of a YouTuber.. I didn't understand how the "The Hate U Give meets Get Out" blurb made any sense until the twist hit in the last quarter of the book. Though I appreciate what the Moulite sisters were trying to do here, I think the book would have been stronger and more emotionally impactful without the twist; however I know lots of YA readers will appreciate the twist, the impact of the justice(?)/revenge the twist brings, and an ending with a sense of completion. The twist felt too convenient as a device for a book that was otherwise really nuanced and emotionally thoughtful, especially around complicated familial dynamics, the tension between religion and progressive beliefs, the exploration of the theme of being labeled a "good one', and the generational effects of trauma and violence (this thread was my favorite plot of the book).