I had high expectations for this book and they were simply exceeded! 
 I've read some "issue" books that either take on too much and the story is bogged down trying to deal with so many things that the bigger message or issue is half lost. Or some "issue" books only stick to the Issue that they are exploring and nothing else, so that it almost comes across as clinical (and often kind of boring). This book is comfortably in the middle, not straying from it's main goal but also managing to touch on and poke at numerous other issues or side plots. The story is just well crafted and unfolds in such a readable manner that you just cannot stop reading. 
 As for the claims about "reverse racism"... frankly they're ridiculous. (This coming from a white person). How anyone could read this story about racial profiling by police that leads to a teenage boy being killed just because he's black, and come out of it complaining about some harmless jokes is beyond me. The supposed reverse-racism is all about comments like white people putting breadcrumbs on top of mac'n'cheese or putting clothes on dogs or wearing certain brands of shoes like vans. Harmless. Literally harmless pokes at 'white' stereotypes. 
 This book is not only a timely, important, and necessary read, it's also a really good story.