We Are Not Like Them: A Novel by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
by Christine Pride, Jo Piazza
At a glance
Pages336
First published2021
SettingContemporary Philadelphia
AudienceAdult
ISBN1982181044
About the Author
Christine Pride, Jo Piazza1 book reviewed
We Are Not Like Them
A Novel by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
by Christine Pride, Jo Piazza
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for: Book clubs and readers of issue-driven contemporary fiction who want a fast, dual-narrator story about how a police shooting fractures a lifelong cross-racial friendship — and a novel designed to be argued about afterward.
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We Are Not Like Them is Christine Pride and Jo Piazza's debut collaboration, a dual-narrated novel about a Philadelphia police shooting and the cross-racial friendship it fractures — Riley, a Black broadcast journalist, and Jen, whose white husband is involved in the killing of 14-year-old Justin Dwyer. It is propulsive, conversation-ready book-club fiction, ideal for readers who want headline subject matter processed through an intimate two-woman story. The key caveat: the victim and the legal case recede after the prologue, and much of the page time goes to the white friend's moral reckoning — a framing some readers will find fruitful and others frustrating.
- Is it worth reading?
- For the right reader, yes. Pride and Piazza's alternating-narration design gives both sides of the racial divide a full interior voice, the pacing is compulsive — early readers described finishing it in a single sitting — and the discussion-ready stakes made it a natural book-club success. The trade-offs are real, though: Justin and his family recede after the prologue, a substantial share of the page time belongs to Jen's moral education, and the register is earnest and message-forward, offering little ambiguity for readers who prefer subtler fiction.
- Similar books
- Readers who respond to We Are Not Like Them's mix of headline subject matter and intimate relationships should try Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give, the defining novel of a Black teen witnessing a police shooting, and Tayari Jones's An American Marriage, which tests a relationship against systemic injustice. Jodi Picoult's Small Great Things tackles race and moral reckoning in similarly discussion-driven book-club territory, while Marjan Kamali's The Lion Women of Tehran offers another story of a female friendship strained by the politics around it. For more from Jo Piazza herself, The Sicilian Inheritance shows her range beyond issue-driven fiction.
- Who should read this?
- This is issue-driven contemporary fiction engineered for conversation — the natural pick for book clubs ready to talk about race and friendship, and for readers who like novels that grab a current of real public life and run it through personal relationships. It will suit fans of socially engaged book-club fiction who want momentum and dual perspectives. It will frustrate readers seeking a legal procedural, a story centered on the shooting victim's family, or a subtler, less declarative treatment of its themes.
- Is it based on real events?
- Not literally — Justin Dwyer and the central shooting are fictional — but the novel deliberately builds on events readers already carry with them. The Washington Post's review noted that the prologue immediately brought to mind Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and Philando Castile, describing the opening as all too familiar: an unarmed Black teen shot dead by a white police officer. That strategy of laying fiction directly on top of real public trauma is the book's defining move.
- What are the main criticisms?
- Three criticisms surface consistently. First, Justin's tragedy functions as a catalyst — after the brief, brutal prologue, he and his family recede from the foreground, so readers expecting the victim or the legal case to carry the narrative will be surprised. Second, a substantial share of the page time belongs to Jen's reckoning, meaning a story set in motion by a Black boy's death spends much of its energy on a white woman's moral education. Third, the register is earnest and message-forward throughout, which readers who prefer oblique or ambiguity-friendly fiction may find more persuasive in a discussion group than on the page.
- How does it compare to The Sicilian Inheritance?
- The two books show very different sides of Piazza's work. We Are Not Like Them, co-written with veteran editor Christine Pride, is issue-driven contemporary fiction — a dual-narrated story about race and friendship built directly on the police-shooting headlines. The Sicilian Inheritance is Piazza solo, leaning into family saga and ancestral mystery on Sicily rather than ripped-from-the-news social drama. Readers who valued this novel's momentum and emotional directness will recognize Piazza's storytelling instincts in both, but the register and subject matter are distinct.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
Is it based on real events?
What are the main criticisms?
How does it compare to The Sicilian Inheritance?
Summarize this book
We Are Not Like Them opens with a prologue in which Justin Dwyer, a 14-year-old Black boy in Philadelphia, is struck by police bullets — then pivots to its true subject: lifelong best friends Riley, a Black broadcast journalist, and Jen, a white woman whose husband is one of the officers involved. Alternating between Riley's and Jen's points of view, the novel follows what the killing does to an intimate relationship rather than to a courtroom, staging a reckoning that exposes distance in the friendship that was always there. Published by Atria Books in 2021, it is earnest, accessible book-club fiction built for hard conversations about race, loyalty, marriage, and motherhood.
Follow up
Who are Riley and Jen?
Who is Justin Dwyer?
Does the legal case drive the plot?
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
3 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
police shooting of an unarmed Black teenager
racial injustice and racial trauma
sustained grief throughout
Best for: Adults — the narrative is built around a police killing, racial trauma, and sustained grief, suited to mature readers
Skip if you want a legal procedural or a story centered on the shooting victim and his family — the case is the backdrop, not the plot
Editorial Review
Christine Pride and Jo Piazza's debut novel follows lifelong best friends Riley, a Black broadcast journalist, and Jen, a white woman whose husband is involved in the police shooting of a Black teen in Philadelphia. Alternating between their voices, it is earnest, accessible book-club fiction built for hard conversations.
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