Reviews for Stopping for green lights

The average rating for Stopping for green lights based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-08-23 00:00:00 Erom Fonz I chose this book because the author was one of my Creative Writing professors in college. I was also intrigued by the racial issues highlighted in the book. Stopping for Green Lights is about a high school girl, Tish, who is white. Her friends are almost all black, and she finds herself living in a "black" world in the 1970s, relating to "black" feelings and wishing that she was black. I thought it was a really interesting angle to write from and one (I'm assuming) not widely addressed, and racial issues in fiction are rarities from white authors. There were times when I found myself relating to Tish or seeing parts of my younger self in her. Several of the characters (specifically Tish and her friends) were well-developed. I believe the copy I read was a pre-sale copy and didn't have the final edits. That said, I did not love the book as a whole. By about half way through, I was ready for it to be over, but was too committed at that point to abandon it. The things that led to this were the awkwardness exuded by Tish's character in her inner thoughts and interactions (maybe this is the sign of a good author, but to me it was a bit uncomfortable to read) and the triteness of certain characters (Tish's mother, for example). The book seemed to repeat itself in several places (perhaps this was edited out later?) and the characters directly contradicted themselves at times. There were multiple points at the second half of the book when I was confused because a character was described in a way that directly contradicted something they had earlier felt, and there was no explanation for a change: it just didn't make sense. In the end of the book, I felt lacking in a conclusion. We don't see any resolution between Tish and her family or between her and her "boyfriend" who she discovers was cheating on her. She does seem to accept her whiteness more toward the end of the book. Overall, I thought this was a fascinating angle to write from, and in many ways, Miller does a good job of fleshing out characters and how they might feel in this situation. I wondered at times if this was in any way autobiographical, or started as a memoir. However, in my opinion, things began to spiral downward in the second half of the book.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-11-20 00:00:00 Staci Powell Teenage girl racism NPR I was not very impressed. -- I was not very impressed.