It’s extremely unusual for a book to receive more than 30 reviews on Amazon ever, let alone one day after being published. There are two general exceptions: if the book is on a popular reading list, such as Oprah’s Book Club, or if the author is very famous.
Lezley McSpadden isn’t very famous, and Oprah isn’t adding her new memoir to the 2016 book club list. But the Amazon page for her book, titled Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown, is flooded with user reviews. Even more unusual, the reviews are almost evenly split one-star and five-star ratings.
It’s clear that almost none of the people posting reviews of the memoir, released Tuesday and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore, have actually read the book. Rather, the review section has become the latest forum for the debate over the death of McSpadden’s son, Michael Brown, whose shooting death in Ferguson in 2014 sparked nationwide unrest over police violence and helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement.
See also: Ferguson: One Year Later
Just as the turmoil following Brown’s death surfaced the societal divides affecting St. Louisans lives on a daily basis—black v. white, city v. county, police v. civilians—McSpadden’s book is surfacing the polarized emotional reactions her story continues to evoke.
The one-star reviews criticize McSpadden for the way she parented Brown and accuse her of lying about his death. One particularly chilling review says simply, “Loved the ending!”
“The ‘truth’ is that if you had been a better parent your son would probably be alive today,” says one review with 69 up-votes from other Amazon users.
From another with 20 up-votes: “Her ‘son’ has been nothing but a paycheck for her from day one...a criminal that should not be lied about and made into a martyr.”
The trolling reviews quickly drew attention from her supporters and Black Lives Matter activists, who began countering the one-star reviews with five-star reviews.
Tuesday, anonymous reviewers started posting five-star rating for the book along with encouraging messages to McSpadden. The reviews also criticize those who gave the book a low score.
“All of the fake reviews from white supremacists that haven’t read the book. Go have your Klan rally elsewhere, I’m sure there is a trump rally or fascist white nationalist protest you can all go to,” says one review.
From another: “The cops responsible for Tamirs death should be unable to find a moments peace. I would make sure they suffer the same pain and loss but you did not. God bless you. To those that have no compassion for you they should know their day is coming.”
McSpadden did not see her son shot to death by then-Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson. She was taking a break from her job at a grocery store when a friend called to say there was a body in the street near Canfield Green Apartments.
“I wasn’t there when Mike Mike was shot," McSpadden writes, using Brown's nickname. "I didn’t see him fall or take his last breath, but as his mother, I do know one thing better than anyone, and that’s how to tell my son’s story, and the journey we shared together as mother and son."
In the memoir, McSpadden remembers one police officer’s disturbing reaction as she searched for the person who killed her son:
I stormed up and down the sidewalk. "Where is he? Where's the one who did this to my child?" I got closer to one of them whose face had a permanent scowl carved into it. He stood over me. "Ya'll muthafuckas gonna have to answer to this," I challenged, looking up at him, square in the eye like I was every bit of the giant he was.
"Well, we some good motherfuckers," he growled, then threw up his middle finger.
The memoir concludes with a letter from McSpadden for Brown where she promises to tell his truth.
"This is real hard, Mike Mike, because you were supposed to be here with us,” she writes. “But I'm going to be strong. I have to be for you. The truth hasn't ever been told. Your truth. You're not here to tell the world what happened. So I'm gonna represent, baby, as best I can."
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
