Octavia Merrill

This is, and I do not say this lightly, the greatest book I have ever read. It just hit so hard, and it made me think and feel things I’ve never felt before, and, like the last line in the book, it changed my life forever. And more than that, it made me want to change things. Because this is a book that, at least the way I took it, protests the death penalty. And the prison system in general. Because innocent people get sentenced to death, and Black people too… and that’s definitely important. But what I liked about it was that it asked whether guilty people deserve the death penalty. In the 30 or so years that he’s there, he meets a lot of people. People who show they can change. Of course, that’s not possible for everyone, but instead of killing people or locking them away until they die, couldn’t we at least try? Try to give them a second chance, or a third chance, or as many chances as it takes. And that’s hard to do, but it’s worth it in the end. Well, would be. Will be, if I’m being optimistic. I remember reading this on the bus coming home from school on a rare, sunny Rochester afternoon, and the feeling it gave me was priceless. It’s a very hopeful book in the end, and that’s what we all needed from it.