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Hail Mary, Deandra A. Miller

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HAIL MARY is a young-adult novel narrated by autistic, sixteen-year-old Aiden Wright. At a post-football game celebration, he is drawn into a fight, leading his brother, team star Brandon, to intervene, only to be accused of assaulting the police officer who shoots and seriously injures him.

After ambiguous videos leak online, Aiden uses his technological skills and ability to focus, seeking more evidence. Asking tougher questions and demanding more from those around him, Aiden grows, gaining allies and making others see him as a human, rather than viewing him through his disability and race.

Here, as in Angie Thomas’s The …