How It Went Down

Sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson is walking home from a convenience store when he is shot twice by a white man on the street. After his death, the neighborhood is up in arms, and no one has the same story of what happened. What emerges, through multiple voices, is a portrait not just of a young man and his untimely death but of a society struggling with the clashing of personal versus group identity; ethnic group membership versus class status; activism for a cause versus activism for personal gain. From a celebrity pastor using the incident to enhance his ratings to a gang leader insisting that Tariq was one of his to Tariq’s little sister trying to make sense of the shooting, the story becomes fuller as more members of the community chime in with their memories or extrapolations. Audio is an excellent format for this novel, the experience akin to listening to an episode of NPR’s Radiolab or Serial. Heartbreakingly timely and relevant, How It Went Down is as diverse in its perspectives and opinions as real-life news stories, and it ends with similar unsettledness. sarah hannah gómez