Twenty Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds

Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2025--San Antonio

Twenty Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds was listed among the top books of 2024.  It's adolescent literature that can be enjoyed by anyone--a love story written from the perspective of a 17-year-old Black boy.  It's uniquely written, starting 24 seconds before he and his girlfriend of 2 years and he are about to have sex for the first time and going backwards by 24's (minutes, hours, weeks, months) sharing what has come before to build up to this moment.  Neon (named that because his grandfather was Deon and his father Leon and told by his girl friend that he's lucky they didn't choose Peon!) does not fit the stereotype for teenage Black boys.  He is kind, thoughtful, caring, sensitive, intelligent, very communicative, and hilarious at times.  He is from a middle class background with the family on his mother's side owning a metal shop making door knockers for several generations.  He and his group of friends are seniors in high school and are the committee for producing the school yearbook as an online publication for the first time instead of a physical book.  He watches films with his grandfather once a week, walks his grandmother to the cemetery once a week after his grandfather dies, takes his girl friend on weekly trips to see old films at the cinema, and assists at his father's bingo hall by handing out the prize money to each winner.  He is worried about not just the coming sexual experience, but about the coming end of the school year.  His girl friend is going away to college, and he is apprenticing at the family door knocker metal shop.  What will happen then?  It was easy to like the characters and the story which is a fast read making me laugh often.  I gave the book a rating of 4 1/2 stars out of 5.