VICIOUS IS MY MIDDLE NAME

Sydney Vicious Talcott—yes, that’s her real name—is pure punk, inside and out.

The ends of her hair are dyed bright red, her head is shaved on one side, and she’s named after bass player Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols, one of her late father’s favorite bands. Needless to say, when she moves to Beaver Dam, North Carolina, she stands out a lot more than she did in Rochester, New York. Ducking into the school library to avoid the mean clique, Sydney, who is assumed White, meets Guatemalan American Rita and Affrilachian Shawn, two other outcasts in the school hierarchy. They bond over a shared love of Harry Potter. When Sydney learns that an asphalt plant is going to be built near their school, she does some research and discovers what a health and environmental disaster that would be. Starting a punk-inspired movement to fight back against people with a vested interest in building the plant, Sydney learns that speaking up isn’t easy or safe for everyone. She unites and educates the community through the power of music; the history of protest rooted in various musical genres is explored in an interesting way. The author also attempts to engage with complex issues of race, but many subjects are overly simplified, Rita and Shawn take on the heavy lifting of educating Sydney about race in America, and this young, White outsider is ultimately framed as the community’s savior.

A book about social justice that falls short in representation.