This was a great book. 👍 It sheds necessary light on parts of our inadequate justice (or rather injustice) system. Told in memoir style, this follows a lawyer through some of his cases and personal experiences. I wanted to read it before watching the movie. 😉

A perfect choice for a One School, One Book read or a "community read." I'd prefer, "One country, one read." The adult version is a life-changer, and I read this one and the adult version at the same time, reading a chapter at a time from each book so that I essentially got the story twice in 2 days. Here's how they compare:--This version is much more concise; details were omitted, vocabulary sometimes changed (i.e. anomaly --> mystery), some sections rearranged, and longer sentences sometimes s...

Read for class. Very well put together and insightful. I just don’t rate memoirs/nonfiction, but it was great.

Should be mandatory reading. Pair with Dead Man Walking. And We’ll Fly Away for a fiction pairing. Author read the audio.Excellent, but still made me sick about how we treat people in this country.

This was chosen as our staff book club read for the spring of 2021 and had been on the shelves of my middle school building for at least a year prior to that. I had seen the movie adaptation of the story, so I had a pretty good sense of what would "happen" but I was very interested in seeing how the book unfolded. I had one teacher who came up to me to tell me she couldn't quit reading until she got to the end of the book and how much of an impact it had on her. The story is compelling and the w...

I finally finished another book! Lol. Just Mercy was honestly a really, really great book. I read it for English class and I'm not gonna lie to you- I picked it because there is a movie out and I figured why not read the book before the movie. I expected it to be like any other book I read for class-kinda boring but still good enough to gain my interest. I am almost 100% sure I wouldn't have picked this book up on my own as a free read book but I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy...

PLEASE read this book. It is essential. Our prison system (and also sometimes our judicial and legal systems) is a racist disaster. When I read this book I wanted to punch things and cry and I wonder HOW people can be so cruel. But also I felt hope. And that is a gift.

so all i have to say about this book is..eh. eh. it was alright. the main topic of the story was good, but i found myself skimming over the pages because it took so long just to get to the point. in my opinion, Stevenson explained way too much, about things that were irrelevant to the story. some of the chapters were interesting, when they actually contributed to the topic, but others that were completely irrelevant were just hard to get through. i would skip whole chapters because they really j...

A fantastic adaptation for young adults! The chapters about incarcerated youth are enlightening, shocking, and basically unbearable. This book is equal parts important and inspiring!

Using the power of personal narrative, Bryan Stevenson recounts his years working as a lawyer for Death Row inmates in the Deep South. He uses the case of Walter McMilllan, a black man wrongfully accused of murder, as a sort of case study by which to study the prejudices and injustices that lurk behind Death Row. Along with the following the harrowing six-year process to free McMillan, Stevenson also pulls from other experiences to discuss other atrocities within the prison system: individuals c...

Interesting (and true) accounts of falsely imprisoned (or imprisoned for longer than "necessary") people in Alabama, written by a lawyer serving near where To Kill a Mockingbird is set. Stevenson (very admirably) devotes his life to helping imprisoned people.Instead of complaining about "institutional racism" and teaching criminals that they're victims, I wish more emphasis was put on teaching boys who grow up in crime-ridden areas to obey the law, to be honest, and to realize that children dese...

"We have been quick to celebrate the achievements of the Civil Rights movement, and slow to recognize the lasting damage of marginalization and subordination done in the Jim Crow Era." Can we stop making high schoolers read things like Catcher in the Rye and start having them read things like this? This book will make you re-think your stance on capital punishment and mass incarceration. It brings to light the level of outrageous racial injustice still running rampant in our justice system. Than...

A very hard and emotional read. There's so much I could say, but I don't think I can put everything I'm feeling about this book into words. I'll just say, I'm very thankful for Bryan Stevenson and the work he has done.

I didn’t realize this was the youth version, so that was disappointing. However, this is a compelling look at stories where the justice system has failed. It is an important reminder that we must be careful when it comes to matters of justice and that there are things that can and should be reformed.

Wow, what an incredible book. The work this guy has done in challenging economic and racial inequalities in the legal system is just mind boggling...

Wow. If I had to pick a mandatory read, this would certainly be a contender.

This book shows how wrong the people in prison and death row are treated. It was really good but sad at the same time. It was also a bit boring to read. Pretty much on every page there was a name of either a person, a prison, a court, or something similar to that, which made it kind of hard to read. There's just way too many names, that it just made it boring to me and made me get lost a lot.

This should be required reading for high school students.I have had teens tell me they are required to read a nonfiction book over 150 pages and there isn’t much in YA.Here you go, teachers. Assign this

This book should be required reading for all high school students, if not all Americans.

Read it to my 13 and 15 year olds. They were angered and saddened but agreed that it was important that they know about inequities in our justice system.

When I read this book there were several times I had to remind myself that it was nonfiction. It was not because of the way it is written, it was because the events that happened and many of the things Stevenson discusses. For instance, the conditions of prisoners, the death penalty and experiences that death row prisoners have, and the people-specifically children-that were incarcerated. It was so hard to believe that people just a few years older than me could be treated so horribly by the law...

This book has been on my TBR for quite some time, and I am SO glad I read it, this month especially. I have long been dismayed by our criminal justice system, especially as it pertains to the rights of women and children, the death penalty, and wrongful incarcerations. Bryan Stevenson helps to highlight those many injustices and how he and his organization are helping to not only overturn wrongful convictions but also reduce sentences and change the laws regarding crimes involving minors and wom...

I listened to Bryan Stevenson narrate the audio of this and found it to be a very enlightening look at the justice system in America.He mainly details one case of Walter McMillan, but intersperses with quicker snippets of other cases where justice was not served correctly.It was obvious that this version was more for Young Adults, the language used was simplified, but this didn't detract from the powerful nature of the story.There are some tough sections to listen to so this book wouldn't be for...

I missed watching the movie because of the stress of the pandemic combined with teaching but I still wanted to learn more so I bought the book.Wow! It truly opened my eyes. I knew there were problems with the judicial system (I have many family members who are in the police or part of the prison system.) I knew that the prison system is not racially balanced but I hadn't realized how badly.There were so many things I wanted to highlight and so much I had to ponder. Now I'm not sure I want to see...

Absolutely heartbreaking. The stories told brought me to physical tears. I’m so grateful there are people like Bryan Stevenson out there, making these issues known and fighting for criminal justice reform. I’m glad we’re taking steps as a country and states, but there is still more to do. I think this is a very accessible book for teens-the language and sentence structure is straight-forward. There are some beautiful sentiments at the end on what it means to be human.

Adapted for young adults is a genius idea. I'm all kinds of shocked at learning of US prisons including numbers, employees of, wrongful sentencing, conspiring officials, active protesting for and against. Young people tried as adults, kids in jail, that packed a punch. Now on to Are Prisons Obsolete? though I think I know the answer.Amazing work Bryan Stevenson

Wow. Just Mercy is a hard but necessary read. Stevenson's words humanize those in prison. He fights for the wrongly imprisoned, the mentally disabled, the poor, and children in our justice system. He asks his readers to join him in being stonecatchers...those that would catch those stones thrown by others (even though they have sin too; an allusion to Jesus and the woman at the well). Stevenson doesn't attempt to do away with punishment altogether but fully fights for just consequences that fit

Despite all the hype and praise surrounding this thing since I was first introduced to it in 2018, Just Mercy STILL lived up to the hype. This was a powerful, moving read on the injustice of the American criminal justice system and the incredible work of one lawyer (Bryan Stevenson) and the EJI (Equal Justice Initiative) to rectify wrongs as best he/they could.

"Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving." But aren't we all, more than a little, undeserving? A sobering and important read. I definitely recommend it.

This story overwhelmingly, fundamentally changed the way that my ninth graders view our justice system. The YA version impacted them the way that the adult version impacted me-- that speaks to the power of this story and the effectiveness of its editing.