The Color of a Lie by Kim Johnson (book review)

GENRE: YA Historical Fiction

LENGTH: 318 pages

PLOT

After a tragedy causes Calvin and his family to flee their home, they move into a new community where they pass as white. Calvin falls for another black girl, Lily, who integrates at his all white school.

CHARACTERS

In addition to Calvin and Lily, there are a good number of side characters. There's Calvin's brother Robert who runs a music school for underprivileged students and is LGBT+. Eugene and Harry are brothers who attend Robert's school and become Calvin's allies in the fight for integration in their community. Other characters are Calvin's white schoolmates, Ben, Mary, Alex (by far the most sympathetic white character), and Darren (the most aggressive and racist one).

Calvin's journey of working with his allies towards integration begins with his crush on Lily. It seems he's really doing it more for her than for the greater good, though he eventually becomes more of an activist for wider reasons. I found myself starting to judge Calvin for only initially caring because of his crush. Then I took a hard look at myself and reminded myself that he is a child character in an impossible situation that I cannot even begin, as a white person in 2024, to fathom. That being said, I found his journey throughout the book to be a strong one.

Lily, meanwhile, was immediately my favorite character. She's the bravest and most inspirational character in the book in my opinion. In terms of her romance with Calvin, I honestly don't have a lot of thoughts. Most books (especially YA) tend to include a romance in them. To me, their romance wasn't what I was invested in. I cared more about the group's fight for integration than a first love story.

WRITING

The novel is told from the first person perspective of Calvin. There are mentions of historical events and people (such as Emmett Till and Martin Luther King Jr.) that place us in time - 1955. That may seem like a long time ago to young people but my father was a toddler during this time so to me that puts it in perspective as being far too recent.

The experience of reading the novel is incredibly tense and stressful - at first because of the fear that Calvin will be discovered as passing and later because of their covert mission. It's the kind of book that ignites a great fury and sadness in my heart. I always say in these types of reviews that white readers need to pick up books like these. We can never fully empathize with the experience of being a black person in America - in the 50s or now. We should still educate ourselves, though, so that we can be better allies.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This will probably end up being one of my favorite books of the year. To me, a good book is one that invokes a lot of powerful emotions in its reader - and this book does that. Whether you're white or black or another race, whether you're young or older, I recommend picking up this book and others like it. I will for sure be checking out Johnson's other works soon!

FINAL RATING: 4.75⭐️