After reading The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater I had one thought: disappointment. The book seemed to have so much potential, with plot and writing, but when I finally finished it I felt sadly underwhelmed. In the end, even if the storyline was good, the book just wasn’t what I as a YA reader wanted. I need emotions, intricate characters, and vividly painted perspectives, not non-fiction retells. Dashka Slater disappointed her teen readers in The 57 Bus as she quickly abandoned the in-depth character development we were drawn in by, the very development that fuels many young readers' love for books. 

So many well known and beloved YA books focus on characters, including famous books such as The Hate You Give and The Hunger Games, these detailed characters have proved to be an effective style for teen readers. Emotional teens read books to escape, and having emotional characters who they can relate to is what makes young adults love certain books so much. Any YA book filled with powerful descriptions, relatable characters, and an interesting plot will most likely do well in the genre. The 57 Bus seemed like the perfect recipe for a popular teen tear-jerker. Its plot is as follows: two teens from different worlds of the same city’s lives collide when an agender teen named Sasha is lit on fire on a bus. The response seems simple, the perpetrator, a high schooler named Richard must pay a penalty. But justice is complicated, and a flawed system can’t differentiate between an impulsive mistake and a hate crime. But with such an interesting storyline, why was this book so disappointing? 

The book starts with an emotional description of the fire, asking the reader what they would do to stop the catastrophe, a very impactful chapter. Then it introduces its first character, Sasha, with a “Tumblr” bio. “Favorite vegetable: bok choy. Favorite animals: cat and cuttlefish. Favorite type of movie: dream sequences.” This quote is a good example, among chapters and chapters, of the author using an immense amount of seemingly irrelevant details to create a character young adults can relate to and empathize with. With this being the start of the book, I was drawn in by what seemed to be an emotional narrative. The author continued to write a beautiful “Sasha” section, detailing their past, present, friends and family, as well as their agender identity. However, my opinion towards the book quickly soured with the next section. The text states, “Always smiling, always joking, always goofing around, whether or not it was time for it.” This might seem like a fine description, but in the end, as the author only described Richard briefly, then moved on to people around him, which character do you really connect with? This contrast in writing was so sudden, so different than what I had wanted, what I had thought the book was. And as the author continued and the emotions of both characters were described in increasingly vague details, if any, the book disappointed me further. 

Because of this change from descriptive into an almost restating format, the author robbed the book of a consistent tone. By introducing the book with an emotional prequel and character centralized first section, then hastily transitioning to the ultimate non-fiction-like style, the book was a confusing jumble of ideas. Plus, because of the beginning, teens, including me, who love intricate characters were drawn to the book, instead of a nonfiction audience, it would have succeeded in. With a plot like this, character development was key, it could’ve made you empathize with the “villain” in the story, an always interesting conflict in readers’ thoughts.  But instead, Richard is vaguely described to somehow create a representation of all the boys like him. This ends up contrasting with certain parts in the book where the author makes a point of showing that specific stories can be impactful for readers. This book is written like the author knows what style will be successful in YA, and tries to comply with it, but eventually succumbs to her preferred non-fiction style. 

Even with its fascinating plot based on an inspiring true story, The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater disappoints its target teen audience with a style that contradicts the needs of Young Adult literature, the very needs that make books a viable escape for me and so many others.