The Boy in the Black Suit: Chapters 13–17

by Jason Reynolds
After the death of his mother, Matt takes a job at a funeral home, where he learns to deal with his own grief and loneliness. Learn these words from the award-winning novel by Jason Reynolds.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapters 10–12, Chapters 13–17

Here are links to our lists for other books by Jason Reynolds: When I Was the Greatest, All American Boys, Long Way Down, Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. typical
    exhibiting the qualities that identify a group or kind
    “No work today, anyway. People typically don’t bury folks the day after a holiday.”
  2. relieved
    made easier to bear
    “Oh, okay,” I said, sort of disappointed and sort of relieved.
  3. drama
    an episode that is turbulent or highly emotional
    I mean, first she got all mad at me and now she’s texting. What was up with that? And still, I wanted to see her. But after the whole Valentine’s Day drama, I didn’t know how to ask.
  4. yelp
    bark in a high-pitched tone
    “Wait. Let me get this straight. You mention Valentine’s Day, and she spazzes on you? What the hell kinda girl does that?” Chris yelped.
  5. armor
    tough, rigid, protective covering of an animal or plant
    And for the first time I saw hurt in her eyes. The pain, a chink in her armor. I finally saw a little bit of me.
  6. stutter
    speak haltingly
    She held the photo, ran her finger over her mother’s face as if trying to remember what her skin felt like. “It...um...,” she stuttered, “it...it was taken by the man who killed her.”
  7. toxic
    of or relating to or caused by a poison
    I glared at the photo as if it were toxic, because it was dragging me back, dragging me back to ten years ago.
  8. tremble
    move quickly and involuntarily up and down or sideways
    My hands trembled so violently that I had no choice but to set the glass of water on the table before I dropped it.
  9. coincidence
    the property of two things happening at the same time
    Either we could’ve decided to never speak again, both totally freaked out by what I guess was fate, or a hell of a coincidence, or whatever, or we could’ve decided to see it as a sign to at least go on a real date.
  10. situation
    a complex or critical or unusual difficulty
    I mean, we definitely had a moment, even if it was caused by the worst possible situation ever.
  11. consistent
    marked by an orderly and coherent relation of parts
    I never really been one for surprises, because every big surprise in my life has somehow been bad. I like things normal and consistent. Safe.
  12. flourish
    the act of waving
    “Well, this is what I wanted to show you,” she said, turning around with a hand flourish. “The Botanic Garden.”
  13. dimension
    one of three coordinates that determine a position in space
    Inside was like being somewhere far away from Brooklyn. And I have to admit, that part of it I liked. I mean, you couldn’t even hear cars, like as soon as we walked through the gates, we entered some new dimension—some secret land where drama didn’t exist. Only flowers.
  14. hype
    blatant or sensational promotion
    I just don’t get the hype. I mean, let’s say I buy you some flowers tomorrow. You’ll be all happy about it, and then two days later you’ll be throwing them away. It’s like they’re these things that everybody waits to grow into something beautiful, and as soon as they do, they die.
  15. anemone
    a plant grown for its beautiful, brightly colored flowers
    We kept walking and Lovey kept stopping to take flicks of other plants: Ivy, and something called Anemone.
  16. sarcastic
    expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds
    “Got it,” I said sarcastically, holding the camera down by my side. I wasn’t going to take pictures of plants. But I played along and pretended like I was looking for my “special” flower because, at the end of the day, I didn’t want to blow this date.
  17. paradise
    any place of complete bliss and delight and peace
    Then there were a bunch of kids just running around, happy to be in a place where there were no cars or noise except for their own laughter. For them this was paradise.
  18. dawn
    become clear or enter one's consciousness or emotions
    And it dawned on me, the reason why—because people our age go on dates at the movies.
  19. regret
    feel sorry for; be contrite about
    She looked at me and just shook her head, and for a second it seemed like she regretted bringing me to the garden.
  20. succulent
    plant adapted to arid conditions with water-storing tissues
    We walked along a rock path of what she called succulents, a word that for some reason I couldn’t stop laughing at.
  21. dainty
    delicately beautiful
    The plant wasn’t like those pretty, dainty little flowers that we were looking at before, thank God. It was way better than those. It looked like a mix between a brussel sprout and some kind of weird star plant.
  22. survivor
    one who outlives another
    “But it definitely survives longer than most plants. All through the winter and everything. You barely even have to water it. It’s like toughest of all the plants. The survivor.”
  23. fascinated
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    I looked back down at the Sempervivum, touching it, squeezing the layers of odd juicy finger-leaves. They felt sort of human, which was a little freaky, but I couldn’t front like I wasn’t fascinated by it. It was pretty cool for a plant.
  24. peculiar
    beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
    “What the? The homeless shelter, the garden, these are some, uh”—he searched for the right word— “peculiar dates y’all going on.”
  25. appreciate
    recognize with gratitude; be grateful for
    And I realized that it’s not that death is bad. It’s not. It’s just that life is so good. So damn good that you just wanna hold on to it, and everybody in it. But we can’t. But what we can do, is appreciate it more. Y’know, smell the flowers.
  26. ramble
    continue talking or writing in a purposeless manner
    When I got home I noticed that there was a message on the house phone’s answering machine. It was my father, just rambling on and on about how Dr. Fisher was trying to kill him, and that all she was doing was breaking his legs more every day because she didn’t want him to ever leave.
  27. deserve
    be worthy
    The one that she hit with the snapshot joke and embarrassed in front of everybody. He deserved that, but even though I didn’t know anything else about him, I’m sure he did not deserve to be killed.
  28. revenge
    action taken in return for an injury or offense
    “I have a few words, and they come on behalf of Janine, Andre’s mother. She wants me to tell you that she knows you all loved Dre, but you have to let him go without trying to get revenge on anyone.”
  29. groove
    a settled and monotonous routine that is hard to escape
    It had been a few days since my last funeral, and even though I was doing okay—I mean, I had a girl, and my dad was making it—I couldn’t help but slip back into my normal groove of being weirdly anxious to see the meltdown, to be comforted again by someone else’s pain.
  30. aftermath
    the consequences of an event, especially a catastrophic one
    I had missed the explosion. I wasn’t in the room when she shattered, sending me into some kind of warm trance that normally made me feel better about my life. This time I only got to see the aftermath of it all.
Created on Wed Jul 12 19:34:53 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Oct 31 11:02:56 EDT 2018)

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