Title: I'm Not Dying With You Tonight
Author: Gilly Segal & Kimberly Jones
Narrator: Brittany Pressley & Channie Waites
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release Date: 2019
Genre: Fiction, Realistic Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Duration: 5 hrs, 20 mins
Reading Level/Interest Level: Grades 9-12, Lexile - 740
Awards or Honors:
NAACP Image Award Finalist (2020)
Plot Summary
When a fight breaks out at the Friday-night football game that quickly escalates into a violent riot, teens Lena and Campbell find themselves in a position they never thought they’d be in: working together to safely return home amidst the chaos. Lena, a Black fashionista and charismatic girl with a plan, just wants to meet up with her boyfriend, who she had planned to see at the end of the game. Campbell, the white, new girl at school, just wants to get home and keep her head down. Having recently moved to Atlanta, Campbell wants to make it through her senior year without attracting any attention.
The two girls are brought together but they certainly aren’t friends. With different views on what is happening in town and how they’re going to get home safely, both are stranded and have to rely on one another to escape the madness that broke out at the football game and avoid the ensuing riot that has spread throughout the town. Confronting their prejudices and engaging in difficult conversations about race, Lena and Campbell are an unlikely pair who must try to see things from the other’s point of view if they’re going to make it home.
Author Backgrounds
Kimberly L. Jones is most widely known for her 2020 video on racism and its effects on Black Americans, which was posted after the murder of George Floyd and subsequently went viral. Her production company, Push Films, signed a deal with Warner Bros after her video went viral. She has a long history in the literature world, having served on multiple committees and helped create Georgia State University’s “Creative and Innovative Education Master’s Degree program” (Jones, n.d.). Jones is an author, activist, filmmaker, and mother.
Gilly Segal, who is originally from Florida but spent her time in college living in Israel, is now a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to being the co-author of I’m Not Dying With You Tonight, she works at an advertising agency as the Chief Legal Officer. She spends the majority of her free time with her three kids and enjoys watching the Tampa Bay Lightning (Segal, n.d.).
Critical Evaluation
I’m not generally a fan of audiobooks. I am a visual learner who generally needs to see text on the page to follow a story and tend to tune out for extended periods of time when listening to anything. This was not the case when I listened to I’m Not Dying With You Tonight. Told through the two perspectives of Lena and Campbell, voiced by different voice actors, this story was absolutely riveting. The voice actors embodied their characters so well that I fully believed they were Lena and Campbell telling their stories. Even when voicing other characters, including the leads, each voice was unique and made it clear that someone new was speaking. The cadence, pacing, and inflection by these actors were excellent, making me speed through this book in less than two days.
In terms of storyline, there was quite a bit of exposition at the beginning that didn’t really seem to matter once the main plot was in motion. Campbell’s backstory seemed to play a bigger role in the book, leaving her taking center stage as they worked their way through downtown, past her dad’s hardware store, and eventually to her home. Lena’s main arc in this novel is trying to connect with her boyfriend, Black, who proceeds to ignore her desperate calls throughout the story until he shows up at the end, leaving her character a bit one-dimensional. Despite these critiques, this book tells a really important story about not making assumptions about others and understanding the social inequities faced by Black Americans. A fast-paced novel about race and working together with someone who is different from you, the audiobook version of I’m Not Dying With You Tonight is poised to spark important conversations among teens. Through masterful storytelling and superb voice-acting, this audiobook is a quick listen that will give teens the opportunities to talk to their friends and family about social justice issues and ask questions about racial inequalities in America.
Creative Use for a Library Program
Invite speakers from the local chapter of Black Lives Matter to the library to speak with teens about how they can get involved with the BLM movement and answer questions teens may have about racial injustice.
Speed-Round Book Talk
Two teens, from two different backgrounds, are thrown together on one fateful evening: Lena, who is Black, and Campbell, who is white, must escape the riot that erupts at their school and consumes the entire city. How will these girls from opposite worlds work together to make it home safely? What happens when they come face to face with assumptions they have made about each other and what that means for their journey?
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation
There are no recorded challenges to this book, but a few instances of profanity and depictions of violence occur, which may offend some readers. There is also a potential that some library patrons will object to the depiction of social justice issues in this novel. This novel depicts the reality of racial inequality in America, to this day, and it is important that teens have an outlet to experience situations from the perspectives of different characters.
Reason for Inclusion
I included this audiobook in my collection because it is firstly of excellent quality, with great voice acting and pace. I think as an audiobook, it offers something unique to readers in that you get to hear the voices of the characters, which I think made me feel a lot of empathy for them. I also included this book because of the important conversations it sparks and how it will really make you think about racial justice in America long after the book is over.
References
David Jones Media. (2020, June 1). How can we win [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9_qGOa9Go
Goodreads. (n.d.). Kimberly Jones [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19446539.Kimberly_Jones
Jones, K. L. (n.d.). About. Kimberly L. Jones. https://www.kimjoneswrites.com/
Segal, G. (n.d.). Home [Image]. Gilly Segal. https://gillysegal.com/
Segal, G., & Jones, K. (2019). I'm not dying with you tonight [Cover Image]. Recorded Books, Inc. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Im-Not-Dying-You-Tonight/dp/1492678899
Time. (2020, June 17). Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal on navigating conversations about race [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI-QCd7jW1Y&t=33s
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