Sonderbooks Book Review of

Kings of B'More

by R. Eric Thomas

read by Torian Brackett

Kings of B'More

by R. Eric Thomas
read by Torian Brackett

Review posted April 3, 2025.
Listening Library, 2022. 9 hours, 58 minutes.
Review written January 25, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
2023 Stonewall Honor Book

Kings of B'More is a story of two friends on an adventure. Harrison and Linus are two black gay boys, who've just spent every day together in the summer before their junior year of high school. And then Linus tells Harrison that he and his dad are moving from Baltimore to North Carolina on the very next weekend.

Harrison is devastated. It's not a friendship he wants to lose. When his father chooses "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" for Family Movie Night, Harrison gets an idea. He'll plan a Ferris Day for Linus! They'll take off from their jobs and go off and have an adventure, doing things that scare them and things they've always wanted to do. It will be a grand gesture that will make sure Linus doesn't forget him and cement their friendship forever.

Of course, there's a catch. Both Harrison's and Linus's parents use an app that tracks their movements. So they're going to need someone to take their phones as a decoy to the places where they'd normally spend the day. They find an app and an old ipad to use in place of phones.

Harrison makes elaborate plans and sets his heart on making Ferris Day a grand success. Of course, it turns out that his plans start going awry from the very beginning. But could it be that the adventure turns out even better than he'd planned?

This is a refreshingly lovely story of friendship. Oh, and it made me resurrect my intention of visiting the Museum of African American History in Washington, DC, which I'd put aside when the pandemic started. I did enjoy the way the book is grounded in real places, even if I only recognized the DC ones.