Dear Justyce

Nic Stone

Part One of Dear Justyce is comprised of flashbacks that chart how Quan, the African American protagonist, ended up where he is in the novel’s present: incarcerated for shooting and killing a white cop, Officer Castillo—a crime, readers later find out, that Quan didn’t actually commit. Part One of the book also includes letters that Quan writes to his friend Justyce, a Black boy who grew up in the same impoverished neighborhood but now attends Yale as a prelaw student. Quan and Justyce meet when they are 9 and 10, after they both run away from home to the rocket ship structure at the new neighborhood playground. Quan ran away because he couldn’t stand to see Mama’s abusive boyfriend, Dwight, beat Mama again. Two years later, Quan’s life changes forever. Cops violently arrest Daddy for dealing drugs while Quan is staying with Daddy one weekend. At first, Quan vows to be strong...