Review: Clean Getaway

Clean Getaway by Nic Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nic Stone's fourth book is, once again, a wildly different piece of fiction compared to the three she published first. Not only because it's MG as opposed to YA, but also because it's a bit less experimental and more straightforward in its storytelling style than her previous books, which each had their own unique stylistic twists. But Clean Getaway is no less important and timely than any of Stone's YA novels, dealing heavily in the impact of racism on not only today's generation, but generations past as well. Scoob, our main character, is such a good kid, and such a well-rounded personality too - struggling with doing what's right vs. doing what'll make him popular in school, and doing what'll keep his strict father off his back. So it's no surprise that he goes on a cross-country RV trip with his G'ma, an effervescent and vibrant lady who takes him across the South from Georgia through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Along the way, he learns some unexpected family history which even his father never knew, secrets about what happened to G'pop so many years ago, the great difficulties of an interracial relationship (G'ma being white while G'pop was Black - and, notably, even in the present day, Scoob and G'ma still get a lot of negative attention from random passersby), and of course all about the Green Book. The Green Book is just one of many topics this short but powerful book covers, and in far greater detail than any school history book I've yet seen. So while Nic Stone's books should be on every high schooler's reading list, now we can start them off in middle school as well with Clean Getaway.

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