Review 82: Your House Will Pay

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book revisits one of the sparks that ignited the L.A. riots in 1992, a shooting of a black teenager (Latasha Harlins) in the back of the head by a Korean liquor store owner (Soon Ja Du). The shooter doesn’t serve jail time, claiming self defense. This race conflict between these two groups intensified during the riots. This is history. The book takes this history and brings us to today, with fictional characters, as Eva Matthews being the dead teen and Yvonne Park as the shooter.

The book takes place mostly in today, 2019, where Yvonne Park is now the victim. The novel is told in alternating points of view by the family members that were witnesses to the shootings, Shawn, the 1992 brother of Eva, and Grace Park the youngest daughter of Yvonne.

The book explores race relations, but more specifically the devastation of a shooting, in this case two shootings, and what it does to both families, both long term and immediately. There’s a lot packed into this book and the author did a good job in the form and writing. Perhaps there were a couple missteps, but they can be forgiven for the overall messiness of this subject. There are no easy answers, yet I feel there is some hope given here, in the end. And yes throughout as well, with Shawn Matthews wanting a simple life, with a regular job and family close to him. Something we can all identify and agree with, to get beyond the anger and have peace.


Thanks to Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.