Teens Sasha and Richard have nothing in common except for eight minutes spent on the 57 bus in Oakland, California each weekday. Sasha, a white agender teen, attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen living in a bad neighborhood, attended a large public one that never quite figured out how to help him thrive.
One afternoon a thoughtless joke leaves Sasha badly burned and Richard charged with two hate crimes. Journalist Slater expands her original reporting on this story, which first appeared in The New York Times, to explore both Sasha and Richard’s backgrounds and the events that changed both their lives forever in The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives (2017) by Dashka Slater.
The 57 Bus is a finalist for YALSA’s 2018 Nonfiction Award.
Slater’s substantial original reporting is expanded here to give readers background on every aspect of this story from what Sasha and Richard’s schools looked like, to a smart and thoughtful rundown of gender pronouns and the sexuality spectrum as Sasha works out how they want to define themselves.
There is no question that Richard committed a crime but Slater also looks at the circumstances that worked against Richard from before his arrest right up to the moment his sentence became a mandatory hate crime.
While the core of the story is solid, much of this book lacks cohesion. The style is all over the place as Slater experiments with form and delivery in her efforts to show more angles of the events both before and after Richard’s arrest. The timeline also shifts abruptly as Slater takes a holistic view the events on the bus and those surrounding it.
The 57 Bus is engaging nonfiction at its best. Short chapters, fast-paced events, and straightforward writing make for easily readable chapters and a surprisingly quick read. Sure to appeal particularly to fans of hard news and true crime.
Miss Print 