Grief and What We Have in Common: A Review of The Boy in the Black Suit

boy-in-the-black-suit-9781442459502_lgSeventeen-year-old Matt has just lost his mother to cancer. His father has slid into alcoholism, and Matt takes a job at family friend Willie Ray’s funeral home ostensibly for the money but really because he finds solace in the grief of others. Arriving to school for his senior year in his work clothes—a black suit—Matt stands out, but fittingly so because he feels he has nothing in common with his old friends and classmates with their goofy jokes and trivial concerns. To make matters worse, Matt’s father gets into an accident while under the influence and must spend months in rehabilitation to sober up and be able to walk again. Staying late for a funeral repast because he doesn’t want to cook and eat alone, Matt connects with teenager Lovey, whose grandmother has just died. Over the next weeks, he falls in love with her and comes to realize how much they truly have in common.

Reynolds’s second YA novel, following the acclaimed When I Was the Greatest, picks up where his debut left off in exploring family relationships, friendships, and second chances. Reynolds immerses the reader in a community with the affection of someone who knows how important community can be. Although Matt has been forced to grow up too soon—and is mature beyond his years—he remains a teenager in need of guidance and, above all, connection. The Boy in the Black Suit affirms the proverb “it takes a village to raise a child,” and readers will come to care about the economically diverse African-American neighborhood and its residents (even the difficult ones) as well as about Matt himself.

This is a powerful, authentic story written from the inside, serving as a mirror but also a “sliding glass door.” It invites readers into the author’s world and that of his characters by focusing on what we all truly have in common.

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