Entertainment review: “The 57 Bus”

  “The 57 Bus” by Dashka Slater is a book that is sold for around $10 and can be found in many locations such as Amazon Books, Walmart, Kindle, and Barnes & Noble. 

  “The 57 Bus” is a nonfiction novel that covers a tragic event that changed two teenage lifes, this event redefined the way the California courts describe a hate crime. 

  The author does a great job of getting both sides of the story. One hand you have the “bad guy” known as Richard, who after goofing off with his friends, accidentally lights our “good guy” Sasha’s skirt on fire, leaving them severely burnt and deformed. On the other hand the author covers Sasha’s horror and fear as they get burnt and later endures much more trauma from their burns to the media harassing them. 

  The news portrayed Richard as a LGBTQ+ hating racist when in fact he had no problem with LGBTQ+ members and was falsely portrayed as a racist and sexist bigot because the news companies benefit from slandering his reputation. Slater also wants to bring attention to the hate crimes that LGBTQ+ individuals experience.

  “The 57 Bus” is certainly a unique novel, however there are also many great LGBTQ+ books, so how is this novel any different? Well to start it covers both sides of the story and rarely paints either side in a bad light. Most books will choose a set theme of good person and bad person but this story requires a more complex character plot than just white and black and sticks to a consistent theme of depicting those involved in the best way possible. 

  I absolutely recommend this book to anyone LGBTQ+! Especially teens because it covers a LGBTQ+ teen who goes through trials and tribulations with finding their place in the world. 

  Dashka Slater has written many novels but it is undeniably “The 57 Bus” that really made her the author who she is today.

  $10 for a novel is already cheap, and for this amazing novel it is 100% worth the money. In 320 pages it has exciting twists and turns, unexpected plots, and a somewhat wholesome ending all for $10.