3.5 stars. I am most certainly not the audience for this book, but I think this is a great one for fans of Jason Reynold's middle grade books. Maldonado realistically explores middle-school friendships. Becoming friends with kids who introduce you to breaking the rules, who put you down instead of lifting you up, but who can also have good qualities--is a universal experience. This is a good one for tweens who are starting to choose their own friends.

This is a good short MG-level read that touches upon ideas in some refreshingly nuanced ways even with its conciseness. There is the theme of poverty (one meaning of “tightness”) but it has gradations and levels within. Ideas about masculinity are also very present with softness being the ultimate insult and strength contrasted with intelligence and smarts. The father has anger issues and has been in and out of jail and yet he is also a good father in other ways. Friends are sometimes good and sometimes not so much and that is closer to reality than a one-sided bully. Having just read Shout, it makes me think about the role of trauma in relationships and how people can both love and hurt one another at the same time.

If Bryan could be any superhero, he’d be Batman. Or Black Panther. They’re smart, they think 10 steps ahead, and they’re tough. Bryan’s dad and his older sister, Ava, both say he should be tough: “don’t be soft” they tell him, but his mom keeps him cool and level-headed. She also introduces him to Mike, who is in 7th grade – one year older than him in school – and Bryan thinks he’s pretty tight. Mike loves comics and drawing superheroes just like Bryan, and he doesn’t let school get in the way of having fun.

Slowly, Mike starts asking Bryan to take more and more risks: climbing up to the rooftop of a neighborhood building, ducking the subway turnstiles to take the train for free, skipping school to get the newest Luke Cage comic. Bryan doesn’t feel so good about lying to his parents, especially his mom, but he loves the feeling of freedom that comes with hanging out with Mike.

Bryan’s internal struggle to make the right choices is grounded in Tight’s contemporary Brooklyn setting and in his genuine interactions with strong secondary characters. He genuinely wants to do the right thing, while also wanting to give his friend a chance to choose better as well. Maldonado’s dialogues present a variety of perspectives on peer pressure and the difficulties of navigating friendships as a young person, making it easy to empathize with Bryan.

Captured Bryan’s voice and thoughts and what it’s like to be a boy his age. I’m curious about what readers who are closer to his age will think. Will recommend at library

Tight admittedly is one of those books that really isn't for me. I listened to it because I liked the narration and the cover design and try to read as much diverse fiction as I can. That said, I'm a white woman in my 30s, and I wasn't as engrossed as I would have been were I younger. I did think this was excellent, though, and I would encourage librarians to get this into their collections.

First thing that really struck me about Tight is that Bryan's a mamas boy, and he's super not embarrassed of that. His mom is cool, and he loves her. His relationship with his dad is complicated at best, and money's a bit tight, but in general he's a really happy kid. He works hard and focuses on school like his parents always told him to do.

Then his parents invite this kid Mike over for dinner, and Bryan's freaking out and jealous because he doesn't want to share his parents' attention (which is so refreshingly different from most mg/ya). In the end, though, Mike and Bryan bond over comic books and become best friends. Mike's really Bryan's first friend his age, and they get close fast.

As time passes, their friendship stops being all comic books and drawing their own comics, and Mike begins pressuring Bryan to do bad/dangerous thing: stealing, riding the subway without paying, subway surfing (holding on to the back of the car). Bryan knows this stuff isn't good but he likes Mike and he hates being called soft, so he goes with it, especially because his parents had told him Mike was a good kid.

There are a number of books about toxic female friendships, but this may be the first I've read specifically about toxic male friendships. Toxic friendships happen everywhere, so this is very much needed for young male readers.

Also, there's so much love of comics in here, so if you look for that heads up!

Use your head. Make good choices. Have friends that lift you up instead of bring you down. I definitely recommend this book for middle school age children.