My second time reading this book. It is important topic to discuss with teenagers and telling the story from Starr's perspective is a great way for them to understand the reality of police brutality. 
However, this story is designed for young people so I think it shies away from some of the tougher realities of gang life and culture. The King Lords are kind of on the periphery, and we only meet two teenage boys who don't want to be in the life but have to out of necessity. The reality is often much more complex than that and there is much more violence and darkness than I think is appropriate for a YA novel. 
On the one hand I like that there was an optimistic ending because I do think that these issues will get better as long as we keep talking about them and focus our attention at the source. However, it was a little too rosy in that

King gets arrested and they act like that solves literally any problem. Someone else will take his place in a heartbeat. Also, snitching is only safe if you plan to never return to that area again. Mav is going to be a marked man.

One issue that I have with this book is the constant swearing. Like 3 swear words per page on average level of swearing. 
I don't take issue with there being cursing in a YA novel, teenagers swear, we all know this. But this was excessive. I'm teaching this book in my grade 11 class and I had to prep them ahead of time regarding how much cursing there is and how it is simply a part of the book.