【阅读推荐】消除仇恨——说说两本黑人身份题材的小说

Slaying the Hate: Finding the Difference Between Two Unique Black Identity Novels

In the bookstore when you want to find a book to read you look at the summary on the back of the books. This may seem like a good process for elimination, but this process could really eliminate the books that are the best. A few weeks ago I went to the bookstore after recently finishing The Hate U give to find another book to read, that was when I was first introduced to Slay. After reading the summary I felt these two books have too much in common and are not worth the time to read. It was only after another few weeks I have run out of books and that was when I read Slay and discovered that two books can both be Black Identity novels and still have little in common. 

InThe Hate U Give Starr, an African American 16-year-old moves between two worlds every day, her poor black neighborhood and her fancy white private school. Starr is able to balance and control these two worlds she lives in but this balance shatters when her best friend Kahlid, who is black, was shot unfairly by the police, Starr does not know if she should stand up and endanger her life or lie low and let her best friend be called a thug and a drug dealer. This book presents readers with a feeling of guilt and an inside look at the perspective of a victim of racism and police brutality. While touching and heartwarming, this book lacks grey areas with too much black and white. Starr never doubted if the police were the evil dragon and she was the knight to slay it, the whole story felt like a traditional fairy tale with a twist of racism and police brutality. All in all, The Hate U is an excellent read that would keep you wanting more but lack grey tones in the book.

At the same time, another black identity novel is taking the world by storm, Slay by Brittney Morris. This book tells the story of the main character Kiera. By day she is an honours student, a math tutor, but by night she becomes Queen Emerald, Queen of the video game “Slay” a black culture game that she created. All Keira wanted to do was to create a place for her people, but Keira’s world goes upside down when a young boy gets killed for a dispute in Slay. Queen Emerald ( Kiera) fears that her game does more harm than good and is being potentially sued for anti-white discrimination. This book digs deeper into the black culture than The Hate U Give, there are many moments when Keira doubts herself and feels that she should have kept Slay for herself. Instead of telling a story of pure right and evil between black society and white society,Slayexplores inclusiveness, understanding, and the real way to help her people.  The storyline is complex and keeps the reader engaged at all times. To sum up, two books on the same topics can be very different as can be seen in the case of The hate U Give and Slay.

当我们在书店选书的时候，看看书后的简介或者书评，貌似是个不错办法；但有时候，仅凭后面的这些信息，往往会让你错过一本真正的好书。

几周前，刚看完《你给的仇恨》（The hate you give）后我想再找点儿书看，正好碰到了这本《消除》（Slay）。看完书后的简介，我觉得《消除》和之前看的《你给的仇恨》有点儿雷同了，似乎应该换个别的看。但几周后，看完了《消除》，我发现他们还是很不相同，值得一看。

《你给的仇恨》中的女主人公Starr，一个16岁的美国黑人女孩，穿梭于两个世界之间:贫穷的黑人社区和高档的白人私立学校，还好，Starr还算能够在这两个世界应付得不错；但当她最好的黑人朋友Kahlid，无辜地被警察开枪打死时，她内心的平衡一下子被打破了——是应该不顾危险说出真相，还是保全自己让朋友背负毒品犯、小混混的骂名……？

《给你的仇恨》展示了主人公内心的挣扎与负罪感，也从受害者的角度对种族主义和警察暴力进行了抨击。内容感人且温暖，但是有时候有些非黑即白缺乏灰色的区域，Starr笃定自己是那个杀死恶龙的正义骑士，整个故事感觉就像一个传统的童话故事，种族主义和警察的暴行交织在一起。

另一本黑人身份的畅销小说《消除》（作者布里特尼·莫里斯）讲述了主人公Kiera的故事。白天，她是一名优等生、数学老师，但到了晚上，她成为了绿宝石女王——电脑游戏“正义”的女王，她创造了一个黑人文化游戏“正义”。所有Kiera想做的是为她的族裔创造一个正义的不被歧视的空间，但当一个小男孩因为想要在这个游戏中取胜而卷入了一场纷争却最终被害时，Kiera的世界被颠覆了, 她开始反思电脑游戏“正义”，会不会因歧视白人而被起诉？真的是为黑人营造了正义的空间吗？是不是伤害了更多的人？……

《消除》比《你给的仇恨》更深入地挖掘了黑人文化，不是简单地告诉人们黑人社会和白人社会之间的纯粹的权利和邪恶的故事，而是试图探索包容、理解和其它真正地帮助她的族裔的方式。《消除》的故事情节很复杂，让读者无时无刻不被吸引。

关于同一主题的两本书可能会有很大的不同，就像《你所给予的仇恨》和《消除》。

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