Book Review: The Cost of Knowing

Written by Alexandria Sutherland, teen volunteer and student at Woodrow Wilson High School

Some people may think that “knowledge is power” but many people can sometimes forget there are different types and aspects of knowledge that can follow a person for a lifetime . An excerpt from the book: “The Curse of Knowledge : a cognitive bias that occurs when an expert in a particular subject,  communicating  with  a  novice,  is  unable  to  explain  a  concept  in  simple  terms  that the a novice can understand, due to the expert’s experience”. In The Cost of Knowing, you will find out how the characters deal with the amount of knowledge that they know, how it impacts them and more.

The Cost of Knowing is about the struggle of two African American boys that are trying to get over the loss of their mother and father at a young age, but they have gotten superpowers from the deadly car accident that took their parents away. With these superpowers they can re-live the past and see the future. It haunts them over the years and makes these characters fill trapped, helpless, weak, overwhelmed and oppressed.
This book is filled with a lot of good virtues, values, comedy and hard topic issues such as the maturity that comes with growing into manhood and becoming an adult and making wise choices that will impact your future. Also, standing up to your fears and learning that you can't take the time that you spend with your family for granted and knowing how to protect yourself against violence and adversity. I would personally recommend this book to kids that are 15 (like me) and older and adults too. In my opinion this will be the best book for teen book clubs, teaching ELA, and or getting into a book that can help teens with questions about coming of age.