At one point, she wonders: “Are we fighting? Not exactly. They exchange tense texts and emails and spot each other from afar, locked in a “weird, unspoken rift.” Jen agonizes over Riley’s loyalties, and Riley avoids her, unable to make up her mind. The book alternates between Riley’s and Jen’s perspectives, and they manage to stay out of each other’s way for the bulk of the novel. As she works on the story, she uncovers devastating truths about her own family history and loses someone she loves. She can use her family connections to land an exclusive interview with Justin’s mother, Tamara, advancing her own career and seeking justice for the Dwyers all at once … if she’s willing to turn her back on her oldest friend.
For Riley, the shooting presents a chance at a big break. Her pregnancy compounds her vulnerability and terror at what may happen to her family. Jen, simultaneously protective of her husband and horrified at what he’s done, suffers harassment on- and offline. While the driving question of the novel is meant to be what will become of their friendship, the story is most affecting when the women are apart. Riley is summoned to the station to cover the story, and the crisis sets the women on separate courses.
Their dinner is disrupted when Jen gets word that her husband, Kevin, is one of two officers who shot Justin Dwyer. Jen is finally pregnant following a struggle with I.V.F. Riley is a broadcast journalist, back in her hometown after a heartbreaking separation from a white boyfriend she adored but couldn’t trust. His tragedy becomes the catalyst for an overdue reckoning between two lifelong friends, a Black woman named Riley and a white woman named Jen, who are divided by his murder.Īfter a brief, brutal prologue, the focus pivots to Riley and Jen at an upscale Philly restaurant. But the novel isn’t about Justin or his family. He wonders what the headlines will say and observes that being shot doesn’t feel the way he imagined it would. Justin has pictured his death at the hands of law enforcement.
In the first line of “We Are Not Like Them,” a novel by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza, a 14-year-old Black boy, Justin Dwyer, is struck by police bullets in Philadelphia. WE ARE NOT LIKE THEM By Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
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