50books_poc | 'Jupiter Williams' by S.I. Martin (Reply)

'Jupiter Williams' is a young adult novel, set in the 18th century, and based around the character of Jupiter Williams, a young African boy at a boarding school for young Africans in Clapham. His family are important people in Sierra Leone, and he and his brother have been sent over to England to be educated. However, whilst they are there, his younger brother goes missing and so Jupiter has to go and find him.

This book is a wonderful exploration of London in the 18th century, and specifically of Black London in this time period, which is a subject that is horribly under-explored. It's also, I thought, a really interesting look at the intersection of class and race. Jupiter runs into horrible numbers of problems because of his race - both Black and White folk alike assume he is a runaway slave, he is at constant risk of being kidnapped for the slave trade - but equally it's made clear that he starts off the novel as a pretty privileged and sheltered young man in some ways, because of the wealth and status of his family, and he does treat other people quite badly because of that in some ways.

I started off not really expecting to like this book - it's a boys school story, which I've not been that fond of in the past, and all the main characters are male which is also often a turn off for me. However, I actually found myself really getting drawn in, and wound up reading the whole book in a single sitting. I liked Jupiter as a character hugely. He is flawed, he can be stupid, he's cocky and blind to so much, but he's also so human and so teenage. I found myself wanting things to work out for him, and really hated the way the world kept throwing more and more crap at it, most of which was solely because he was an African boy alone in London.

The only objection I had to this book was the ending. I'm hoping there's a sequel out there, because the ending did leave so much hanging, but I've a horrible feeling that there isn't, and that's a shame.