WHEN YOU LOOK LIKE US By Pamela N. Harris

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris
Published by Quill Tree Books on 1/5/21
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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When you look like us—brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades—everyone else thinks you’re trouble. No one even blinks twice over a missing black girl from public housing because she must’ve brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister Nicole just got caught up with her boyfriend—a drug dealer—and his friends. But she’s been gone too long. Nic, where are you?

If I hadn’t hung up on her that night, she would be at our house, spending time with Grandma.

If I was a better brother, she’d be finishing senior year instead of being another name on a missing persons list.

It’s time to step up, to do what the Newport News police department won’t.

Bring her home.

When Jay’s sister Nic goes to a party and calls him he thinks she’s high on drugs and ends up hanging up on her. But after being gone almost a week Jay realizes something is really wrong. Jay doesn’t think anyone will help someone who looks like “us” which means they have brown skin, black braids or fades, so Jay decides the only way Nic is coming home is if he finds her.

Jay and his sister Nic live with their grandma Mimi, they haven’t had an easy life, their father died of cancer and their mother is in jail, but through it all they’ve had each others backs. Over the years Nic ends up getting caught up with Javon, the local drug dealer in their neighborhood and that kind of puts a strain on Nic and Jay’s relationship. Because of this strain when Nic ends up calling Jay he decides to hangup because he thinks she made her choice by hanging out with a certain crowd. After a while Jay finally realizes that something is really wrong. Jay ends up getting help from Riley a girl from church and together they look for clues and follow leads to try and find out where Nic is. I really liked Riley and she meant well and was a good hearted person. A relationship does form between Jay and Riley the more time that they spend together.

This was a good book I liked the mystery and how dedicated Jay was to finding his sister. What I didn’t like was how Jay started treating and talking to people towards the end of the book. I felt like he was really rude and disrespectful and taking his anger out on people who didn’t deserve it. I get that he was upset but he didn’t even know if Nic was dead or not so to be lashing out at people was a bit much. Other than that this is a solid book and it had a good message that sometimes people of color are overlooked and are deemed as less important. I would recommend this book, the mystery will keep you invested and Jay’s never give-up attitude will keep you going until the very end!