How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“They spin away, always away. Too fast to understand, sometimes. They rush on, but we remain. They will come back, and we will still be here, as they expect us to be. We are the guardians.”- How It Went Down, Kekla Magoon

When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white.

In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth.

Tariq's friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down.

Unlike in previous reviews, I didn't chose a quote that I thought encompassed the whole plot. Instead, I just really liked this one. 

This is one of those Very Important Books. I'm not crazy about a lot of those books because so many of them are so heavy-handed they don't actually have any staying power in my mind and just end up annoying me. I don't like to be preached at. 

But I liked this book. It didn't feel too much like morals were shoved down my throat. I have read one other novel by Magoon, X, which she cowrote with his (Malcolm X's) daughter. I also ended up really enjoying that book, though I think I preferred that one to this one. 

I'll actually start with the good first. The first thing I really liked was how each character had a very distinctive voice and that some of the chapters were written in vernacular. I love novels like that. It reminded me of books like The Boy in the Black Suit (which I really enjoyed- if you haven't read it and you're in the mood for some contemporary pick it up) or X. I also liked how you could tell a lot about each character based off how much of it is used.

I think Magoon, just based off this one book, has a real talent for character writing. Little is actually told us, most is shown. In my opinion, this is done the best in Kimberly, who ended up being one of my favorite characters. It's obvious from the way she acts how deeply insecure she is, and how her relationship with Sloan came from that insecurity. Their whole thing gave me icky (for lack of a better word) feelings and his obsession with her purity and innocence was almost Lolita-esque. 

Besides Kimberly, I also really liked Ms Rosalita and Redeema (Side note: I found Magoon's choice of names interesting, two in particular- Redeema and Alabaster. Alabaster is a common adjective used by romance novelists to describe the fair skin of their broody love interests and Redeema is fairly obvious). The quote I ended up choosing under the picture was actually from one of Rosalita's scenes, which was one of my favorites in the whole book. Magoon's writing in that was fantastic. I also really rooted for Tyrell. I wanted him to go far in life.

Of course, it ended up that I cared more about the lives of these characters than the actual shooting. I was fascinated by the relationship between Steve and Will, and ended up being disappointed by how it turned out. It seemed too neat, with Steve's heel-face turn being too, well, heel-face. Those two needed an entire book, not a few chapters, to explore all the potential that could come with a step-father, step-son relationship- something we rarely see in a positive light in fiction, which is probably why I ended up liking them.

As far as actual opinions go, I'm probably the closest to Fry's, especially the chapter when he talks about what good marching does and how nothing really changes, except some politician goes up in the polls. I think that's another reason why I didn't like Sloan (who I think is meant to be an Al Sharpton kinda guy). I can't stand politicians who act like they're doing something for the benefit of others when in reality, they're doing it because it mostly helps them. 

I also wanted more of Ms Rosalita's chapters, because I think that's when Magoon's writing really shines. There were some nice bits in other chapters, especially Kimberly's and Tyrell's, but that was where it was the best. It would have also been great to have a more developed look at Noodle and Jennica's relationship. The ending felt a little too neat for me, and didn't feel like it was the best way this book could have ended. Some parts were tied up a little too nicely, some were left dangling. Well, I guess that could be taken purposefully, too. The characters that moved away from the gang lifestyle and want to make it in the world are given the nice endings, whereas the characters that were involved in gangs and couldn't get out got no real resolution, because their own fates are uncertain as opposed to the first characters, who will turn out well. But I might be reading too much into it.

Unlike a lot of authors I've read recently, Magoon was definitely capable of the enormous task that this idea required. When I picked this book up, with its complex plot line, I was a little unsure if she would have the writing chops it would take to pull off a story like this (blame Beautiful Broken Girls for that one). I was wrong, and happy to be wrong.

I would be interested in Magoon wrote one of those giant multi-generational novels, something like Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, where she looks at one neighborhood since, say 1950 to today, looking at the segregation and racism and the rise of gang culture. Something like How It Went Down, but expanded dramatically and with some perspectives, like Ms Rosalita's, being more developed and expanded. I think that would be an absolutely fantastic read and one I'd be really interested in picking up. But as far as this book goes, I liked it, but the ending was what ended up bringing it down in ratings for me.

8-8.5 out of 10