I can see why Colson Whitehead is so highly regarded after reading The Nickel Boys. It’s very good.
Telling this story, bringing the truth of the NickI can see why Colson Whitehead is so highly regarded after reading The Nickel Boys. It’s very good.
Telling this story, bringing the truth of the Nickel Academy to light, feels like Colson Whitehead is handing us a piece of history that we can’t ignore and that we shouldn’t ignore-lest we continue to perpetuate the violence through silence. The trauma these young boys had to endure was devastating. My entire insides shifted at the end of Chapter 7 when Elwood is trying to be stoic in the face of his mother, but is internally screaming “look what they did to me..”. That hurt me to no end.
The book brings into sharp view how deeply these injustices have shaped the world we live in, and how deeply these types of injustices have shaped the broken sense of self, those who have sustained this violence might feel. It makes me think of blood trauma, and the pain of a collective and how that falls through the community over years and generations. What it does to families and the community. I feel like a good companion book to this is Carceral Capitalism by Jackie Wang, which also dives into the systemic roots of violence and oppression.
Whitehead doesn’t shy away from the brutality, but he also doesn’t sensationalize it, which I appreciate because this narrative is painful enough. He’s careful in his execution. It’s a short book, but it’s heavy like a brick. The writing simple but powerful. You feel the weight of it all—the historical violence, the systemic racism, the lost lives. I could list every injustice, every act of brutality that was inflicted upon the community by white folks, but my heart is so exhausted.
The fact that schools like this existed—and still exist in different forms—is haunting. Knowing that they are still uncovering places where the unmarked bodies of Black and Indigenous children lie, their lives taken by cruelty and unrepentant violence, is unfathomable. The fact that it was so easy for Elwood to get swept up and lost and discarded, reminds me of Kalief Browder and Riker’s Island and what they did to that young man’s life. It makes me want to fucking scream. The horrors of Nickel Academy in the novel reflect those real-life traumas that linger, and it’s exhausting to think about how much suffering has been swept under the rug for generations and continues.
This was an intense read. I feel raw to be honest. The way he connects the trauma of the past to the unresolved pain of the present is something else. The book is a concrete reminder that the fight for justice is long, and that even when we think we know our history, there’s always more to uncover....more
Honestly, the book is crazy - in the best way up until 75%. After reading Chapter 10 I was actually tripping out bec2.5 rounded up, and that pains me!
Honestly, the book is crazy - in the best way up until 75%. After reading Chapter 10 I was actually tripping out because of the mentally damaged people brutalized by the constant racism that were left behind to struggle and grasp at how much their lives had changed. That was heavy. That really stood out to me. Cebo Campbell touched upon so many topics, so many issues within the community surrounding identity, loss, despair, mental health that were just so necessary. The mental health conversation are actually the parts of this book that I thought were done well. It was painful, believable, sometimes absurd, but the ways that racial battle fatigue and race-aligned mental health issues can show up some times can be devastating and at times surreal.
I found the premise of this book infinitely intriguing. I was like: yo he could go anywhere with this. ANYWHERE... and he did. However, it couldn't stick the landing, and that kills me because it had so much potential! The ambition? Impeccable. Thought-provoking? Absolutely. But exactly at the 75% mark, it began to fall apart in spectacular fashion. And the funny thing is, that last 25% made me look back and realize the flaws I’d been letting slide all along.
(view spoiler)[The flaws—oh, where to begin! This book flirts with being a hotep masterpiece. It’s like the sauce dried out of the pan before it could simmer. I feel like there was a level of reduction here, that he let go crazy at the end. That shit burnt the fuck out. Some folks got abandoned, punctuated with the open-ended endings that I have a love-hate relationship with. I have a lot of thoughts. There’s a little bit of Jonathan Majoring going on here, and I feel like Dr. Umar might want a word. I also think there's multiple stories that didn't need to be connected because they stood so strong on their own. Cebo Campbell gave some plot points too much water! Pun intended. You can see the parallel stories and it just felt like - you're trying to say something but you're letting what you're trying to say about one very important topic, get in the way of another very important topic. For example: mass incarceration being tantamount to lynching, men stepping outside the community and its impact in both communities, relationship struggles that arise from poor father-daughter relationships, the struggle for Black men to just be, to live free, to have non-transactional relationships with their brothers, to engage in community, there's a lot here. We need all the stories, but the conjoining of those stories waters down each one. (hide spoiler)]
Anyway, I'm getting in the weeds. I think men, especially the brothers, will vibe with this novel much more than I did. It was written for them. I ain't mad at that at all! In fact, I love it. We need all of them. We need all the novels written by the Brothers - we need the new ones, the old ones, the future ones. I think the fact that my edition has a blurb from Mateo Askaripour is fitting. Especially considering the hoopla over Black Buck. Despite what I think about some of the missteps in Sky Full of Elephants; I will read whatever work Cebo Campbell puts out next. I think he's got a lot more to give and he's got a vision, even if it's tied up with some messy realities that need exorcising....more
Welp, you know.. there’s so much to say about this book. Percival Everett is brilliant, he is. He’s also something else, I“Egads, I’m on television.”
Welp, you know.. there’s so much to say about this book. Percival Everett is brilliant, he is. He’s also something else, I don’t want to say it.. but it seeps through this book.. he’s one of those people who it feels like is never pleased. I’m glad that he channels that energy through delivering such stellar work.
This book was incredible. It was so layered and it lets you witness so much. Monk fought himself, embraced tenderness, was vapid, spoiled, overextended, vain, hypocritical, loving, in deep despair, confused, condescending and every moment of it was great. It says so much about the brothers. Brothers are not a monolith. I can’t wait to see the film. I read this book because I wanted to prepare to engage fully with American Fiction. I really love what Percival Everett did with this main character and all of the family members, etc.
It had so much to say.. even with the sister, Lisa, there was so much to say about Black women with that character. This is my second Percival Everett book and I loved The Trees, I feel like I gotta work my way through his collection. I seen another reviewer say that the book was really “smart” — and it was, Erasure is something you could chew on indefinitely....more
Tender, thoughtful, and one of the best buddy novels I've read in a long time.
This book was pure joy to read even though there were themes of suicideTender, thoughtful, and one of the best buddy novels I've read in a long time.
This book was pure joy to read even though there were themes of suicide, depression, and the most astute description of young, Black, gay male anxiety that I've ever read.
Harley is an early 20s youte who goes back to his hometown after being at Uni to do the unthinkable. He's intercepted by Muddy, a new friend who is unlike anyone he's ever met.
The writing in this book is sooooooo good. For a debut novel, it's really something special. Reading it reminded me of reading Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. They have a writing style that breathes, it has pauses and space where you get to sit with the characters and experience their worlds of thought and feeling. Speaking of feeling, Elvin James Mensah knows how to capture feeling; he knows how to capture the atmosphere around a feeling really well. I could see this as a tv show - a là I May Destroy You. The characters align. Mensah explores cultural complexities for a wider audience but doesn't give everything away. He also explores how harmful, silencing, and damaging anti-LGBTQ rhetoric can feel from your family members and how important it is to find outside/chosen family. It's important to know what that looks like from a queer Black lens/perspective and what it's like to work/find your way as a young Black person trying to make shit shake, trying to make things happen.
The story hits from the first chapter and it builds and builds. Real talk, even the mundane parts are filled with music and camaraderie that transcends. This is a slice-of-life read that has so much more to offer. I love the character Muddy. I love the purity of friendship. I loved the honesty of it, the fear, worry, and consideration in how the author explores two young men being vulnerable with each other. I loved all the side characters: Noria, Chelsea, and Finlay. A gang of four always hits.
Much like The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, there are certain books that are perfect to read when you're lost in a certain headspace, this is one of them....more
I’ve been reading Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate and its incredible. Reading through the interviews with Toni Morrison and Toni Cade BambI’ve been reading Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate and its incredible. Reading through the interviews with Toni Morrison and Toni Cade Bambara… it’s so interesting how much they upheld their sister Ntozake Shange and For Colored Girls and the truths that she shared with her work.
I’ve read this choreopoem numerous times throughout the years, but decided to jump into again yesterday and dive deep and swim and swim.. I rewatched the Tyler Perry adaptation and it was a vibe. That film is a cultural touchstone of mess with its memes and all that but you know what.. It’s what my spirit wanted and I’m happy to oblige when Ntozake Shange calls out to me. There’s pain, power, purpose, community, strength and vulnerability in For Colored Girls, and in each of the women presented. All the colors speak to me, and every woman contains every color.
For Colored Girls is truly a masterpiece. It’s amazing to read Claudia Tate’s Black Women Writers at Work and get into what our legendary queens have to say about it!...more
A beautifully written novel with main characters that are alive. These characters are truly alive and living among us.
This novel read like a movie. IA beautifully written novel with main characters that are alive. These characters are truly alive and living among us.
This novel read like a movie. It is easily pictured as a television show. It brought up so many questions around striving and greed. What does it mean to give up everything to struggle for the American Dream when others, the ones folks work for, the 1%, are busy throwing it all away?
What does it mean to build community somewhere new and desolate while the community that you’re firmly apart of, struggles without your presence, crumbles from your divided commitments? What does it mean to be loyal, devoted and considerate to those around you? Can you ever really be friends with those in a different social standing than you? Do those in the upper social standings even really have friends? What does it mean to be African vs African American?
I really enjoyed what felt like a peak into a variety of lives and a multitude of different worlds. I can see why this book was an Oprah Book club pick. It has that thing that all Oprah Book Club picks have. It was good!...more
Recommended in the Goodreads A Reading Roadtrip Across the USA as the read for Pennsylvania (link).
An interesting read. It had a layered and intricatRecommended in the Goodreads A Reading Roadtrip Across the USA as the read for Pennsylvania (link).
An interesting read. It had a layered and intricate plot line with a lot of characters to keep track of. I loved the main characters Moshe/Chona. James McBride made tough, righteous, and warm-hearted Chona into a character you were waiting for justice for. I don't think I would have left the book without it. I think that's what kept me reading this book, real talks.
Heaven and Earth Grocery was suspenseful when it needed to be; but I personally wanted more from the ending. I felt like it was a bit unsatisfying, especially with how much was set down for us to get into. I don't know what I expected reading the book and I can't say whether or not we got to somewhere I did expect it to go. I enjoyed the concept. It was a bit of a slog to get through. I loved the"Lowgod" concept as a means of being a much more saturated version of Chicken Hill with way less scruples. That hit for me. Overall, an enjoyable read.
I could see this book as a movie, or a tv series. It's got a really gritty feel about it and I love the characters Nate and Addie. While reading this book, I cast about a million people in my mind playing them in the show or movie....more
Yo this was a perfect summer leisure read. It was such a great story, and just moved with the quickness. I read it every morning for a couple days andYo this was a perfect summer leisure read. It was such a great story, and just moved with the quickness. I read it every morning for a couple days and it always felt like I was starting my day off right. It was exciting, there was twists, history, lots of noir.. and I don't know why I haven't read it sooner, seeing how many times I've seen parts of the movie here and there.
Easy Rawlins is that dude!! Now that I've read the book, I can't wait to watch film this in its entirety soon. I have a date with young Denzel in the future.
I was led to this book by the Books Are Pop Culture podcast. Ironically, it was author A.J. Verdelle saying that she doesn't really read Walter Mosley that made me pick it up. I don't know why home girl said that - every book serves a purpose when you're in need of it, this served that I don't have to think too deeply but I'm entertained purpose and it served it well! I intend to read Ms. Verdelle's work on Toni Morrison, but this was a perfect stopover for my slow, bright, languid summer mornings....more
I really really enjoyed this read. The story was intense and fast-paced. More infuriating than complex. I found myself getting real crazy over the actI really really enjoyed this read. The story was intense and fast-paced. More infuriating than complex. I found myself getting real crazy over the actions of the parents. I kept wanting to rage at their every action, but I understand those actions as well as nuts as they made me.
Kristin Hannah is a dope storyteller. Nothing felt out of place, because sometimes with great risk comes great catastrophe, and if you're lucky, great reward, which our main character was not denied no matter how much pain she had to go through to get it. I'm glad that she illustrated that situations of domestic violence almost never get better.
This was infinitely readable. The descriptions of Alaska were simultaneously beautiful and brutal. It sounded beautiful and deadly, and Large Marge is a character that I loved and lived for. I would read some more Kristin Hannah, thanks to the great reviews of other readers for putting me on, I kept hearing about this book and decided to take the leap. Glad I did. Also, this would make an incredible movie or show, etc....more
Matrix was interesting at points, the vengeful, pining, reflective on the strength and resiliency of these destitute yet sometimes conniving nuns poinMatrix was interesting at points, the vengeful, pining, reflective on the strength and resiliency of these destitute yet sometimes conniving nuns points, but it was boring as hell at other points. The writing was intriguing, sometimes borderline poetic, however I just couldn’t really find the strength to care too much about these nuns. Connection to their miseries and successes eluded me. I found them all a bit… miserable is not the word, umm maybe cranky?… not cranky, crotchety..? I don’t know, but they were too something for me.
What I will say is that while reading this, my feelings about the characters, that not knowing how to feel about them, I know that feeling would translate magnificently to screen. There’s this angry, pious yet not so pious, sanctimoniousness that would work so well as a book turned to movie. It makes me think about how much I didn’t enjoy that Sally Rooney book, Normal People, but loved the show. There’s something ambiguous about this novel that is beyond me and it’s not the obvious elements of romance, but something else.
The best thing about this book is the story of how even in the darkest and most solitary of places some love, touch and care is required for sanity. That feeling needs to exist for everyone, and folks act out of pocket when that’s missing or stolen from them. This was also a great story of a woman’s/women’s resilience when they are thrown away and left to the hidden parts of the world to survive in the name of and with the grace of the lord.
As shared, I can see this book about these wild af nuns becoming a incredible HBO or Showtime show. I’d watch this translated into a dark, yet emotive period drama, a severe yet human sort of thing. The anti-Sister Act a million years in the past! I’d be here for it.
“Obedience, duty, subservience; all is manifestation of love, directed at the great creator.” — Part 1, Chapter 1, Matrix
“…“love is always growing or diminishing, easy attainment of love is contemptible but impossible attainment makes it precious.” — Part 1, Chapter 2, Matrix
“For, I saw, it was from Eve’s taste of the forbidden fruit that knowledge came, and with knowledge the ability to understand the perfection of the fruit of Mary’s womb and the gift given to the world.
And without the flaw of Eve there could be no purity of Mary.
And without the womb of Eve, which is the House of Death, there could be no womb of Mary, which is the House of Life.
Without the first matrix, there could be no salvatrix, the greatest matrix of all.” — Part 3, Chapter 2, Matrix
Excerpts From Matrix by Lauren Groff This material may be protected by copyright. (hide spoiler)]...more
It was goooood. Insightful. Inspiring. Thrilling. Confounding. Eye-opening. Forward-thinking. Expansive. Adventurous.
You can see the variDune Check —
It was goooood. Insightful. Inspiring. Thrilling. Confounding. Eye-opening. Forward-thinking. Expansive. Adventurous.
You can see the variety of texts and movies that were inspired by this book. Everything from Harry Potter to the Matrix to the Hunger Games and more have been touched by this series.
It really was everything I thought it would be, all that I thought it might be. It was definitely all the things that everyone has ever told me it would be and more, even where they were wrong about certain concepts.
There’s so many cross-cultural comparisons that Frank Herbert touched upon, his ability to wrap in his current political landscape into something this formidable is next level. The fact that the series extends beyond this book, I definitely feel this is a case of art imitating life, as far away from the planet as he took it. I loved the descriptions, the details got me caught up in the world of Arrakis. The descriptions of the eyes, the characteristics of the character’s faces were vivid and intriguing. The description of items that don’t exist in the real world but you can picture what they’d look like so clearly. It’s dope. The glossary at the back explaining these random things and the appendixes were so helpful. Frank Herbert is something else. I was really reading so many of these pages going: bro, whatttt are you talking about!?!? and then I’d flip to the back and be like ohhhhh.. snap.
(view spoiler)[For the “underclass” of people living amongst these dry scraps of a barren land, and being used and abused by their Harkonnen “government” of which they’ve created something from nothing under their noses… for them to build community, even tho they’re slaving and dying for something that’s theirs but not “theirs” the spice.. for them to even be referred to as the “Fremen”. It’s all connected to the current world and no one could tell me otherwise. Herbert wrote the hell out of those spice-drug fuelled hallucinatory scenes. It was really next level. That’s what I’m most excited about when it comes to seeing the movie. (hide spoiler)]
Frank Herbert went deep illustrating the power and importance of women in the novel. Giving them their rightful place as all-seeing, whip smart even when trying to hide it, high-priestess type life-bringers was on point. Contrasting that with many of the women in the book being seen as “witches” for alluding to the true nature of things makes me also curious about the feminist wave that Herbert was also visualizing during the time period that this book was written. Art imitating life. No matter what the woman’s station is in the book, he illustrated the importance of the way that women know things, can see things, birth the world changers and can kill/fight just as well as the men, or disarm you with only a few words.. it’s all levels! It’s magic to read. I cheered a couple times for the women here standing strong and ready to draw blood for their own. I was enamoured with their quiet inner thoughts and the things that they let hurt them but which they also rose above, even down to the last line of the book which was substantial!
The Lady Jessica is the baddest chick in this book. I love her. She’s my favourite character. Duke Leto, my heart goes out to a complicated man caught between legacies. There’s so much to be said about those who wish(ed) to work with others to change the status quo. The sacrifices that had to be made. They’re not all heroes, their complicated and can be self-serving but also brave. In Frank Herbert’s paraphrased words, certain political endeavours can force you do things you’d never wish you’d done/or ever hoped that you’d have to do, but the point is to try to be on the side of righteousness. Dune being published in 1965 brings a lot of the statements made in the book into sharp focus alongside the civil rights movement. Not saying that Herbert was anyone doing big things during the time, but it definitely reads like he wasn’t sleeping or burying his head. I need to know if it’s a reach or not, because this book is giving something to alternative documentation. Duke Leto kinda brings to mind JFK, tho I might be off. I can see it if Herbert was pulling from those contexts tho.
The book is amazing. I have nothing bad to say about it at all. It kept me thoroughly entertained, and the final pages were completely engrossing. It’s definitely something that will sit with you. The litany Fear is the Mind Killer has been present in so many pop culture things and I didn’t even really know it came from this book.. Herbert’s reach is strong.
Time to see the movie, out now in theatres, and read the graphic novel!...more
You know, Harlem Shuffle was a hard read for me. Not because it wasn’t good. The writing was excellent, and the story was a ride. However, I had to puYou know, Harlem Shuffle was a hard read for me. Not because it wasn’t good. The writing was excellent, and the story was a ride. However, I had to put it down halfway through reading it to let it breathe. I stopped caring about it all somewhere in the middle. Then I realized I wasn’t in the right headspace to read anymore of this. As weird as it sounds, this kind of felt like a beach read?
I read a segment of this story in the New Yorker sometime in the summer this year. I wished I had read entire book earlier in the summer.
I thought the concept of a pseudo straight-laced furniture salesman wrapped up in his cousin’s bad-mind shenanigans in 1950s-1960s Harlem was on point. I just couldn’t shake that at like 50-55% I just didn’t care anymore.. I kept thinking: Ray Carney, shit or get off the pot! — Carney is our main character.
After 84% tho something magical happened, the book started picking up steam and getting good. (view spoiler)[Something about the strange relationship developed between his cousin Freddie and his rich white best friend that changed the dynamic of the book and would make for really great television if picked up in the future. (hide spoiler)]
Anyway, I could definitely see this book as a television show. I’d watch it for sure. It’d be easier to watch than it was to read. ...more
Okayyyyy… the OG Vampire novel that no doubt has inspired many a Twilight and whathaveyou after it.
I came to this novel by way of a tarot reader on TOkayyyyy… the OG Vampire novel that no doubt has inspired many a Twilight and whathaveyou after it.
I came to this novel by way of a tarot reader on Twitter that did a bunch of pulls & book recommendations. She said if you had a Cancer Moon that you should read Interview with the Vampire, so here we are. Me, a cancer moon fresh off the Interview..
The book was interesting. I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters in particular outside of the cunning Claudia. An unfortunate child who evolved into a woman trapped in a child’s body — brought into this vampire underworld by the seemingly heartless Lestat.
I enjoyed the opening sequences of the book, our main character Louis’ and his affection and interactions with Babette, a family member of a boy ruthlessly killed by Lestat for breakfast and for sport.
The discussions between Louis and the very wise and seasoned character Armand was Illuminating and I felt like that exposed Anne Rice’s genius with this book.
Overall tho, some parts of the book were kinda boring to me. Not dull, but boring. There were viscerally complex layers, but it was boring to me because I just wasn’t empathizing with a bunch of soul sucking demons, LOL!
I found myself more intrigued as I progressed through the novel with the ways that it has influenced various of its offspring like Twilight and True Blood.
I kept thinking about how closely some concepts in this book (like the ability to love, and the despair over how being immortal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be) paired with concepts from the films and shows that came out in the last 10-12 years.
I also loved how like homoerotic this book was too. Anne Rice was really doing something with this work. I give her props for the outpouring of emotion from Louis towards Armand. Asexual and bisexual beings need love too, probably even more so if you’re gonna live for an eternity, so Anne Rice gets mad props for that!...more
Yo, on the real this whole book defies genre. First off it was darkly comical, which is a style of writing I didn’t realiz**spoiler alert** Mad ting.
Yo, on the real this whole book defies genre. First off it was darkly comical, which is a style of writing I didn’t realize that I liked this damn much! Serious. It just didn’t ever occur to me, that I would find something so remarkably violent so fascinating.
Gringo is the stuff of nightmares. That character, wow. I had to put the book down numerous times and read something lighter because there were too many levels to just how nuts he is. So many characters had such unique backstories and the incorporation of crime, murder, cannibalism all out of this one neighbourhood — it was A LOT. Yo, I honestly was like: ...Cuba is willlld - never been btw. Still want to go one day, but damn homie.
Second, Marcial Gala — phenomenal writing omg. Funny! Casually terrifying in an everyday, shouldn’t be a surprise sort of way! Which worked out to be completely unsettling with every page. Layered and grotesque, the inclusion of the fanatical people building this Cathedral under Arturo Stuart. A man so sinister that my hair stood straight! The involved psychoanalytical deliberations over the need to kill, the want to eat people, the craving for sex and the passion that exists under everything. Masterful writing. It was a wild ride. It was thrilling. Dramatically absurd at points. I felt like I was watching America’s Most Wanted reading Gringo continuously shape shift. I was scared, rightfully so, for every woman he came across. The ghosts coming back and speaking from the dead! I loved the inclusion of the ghosts.
Lastly, the final thing that got me was the way the men committed from beginning to end to be the people that they had set out to be. Killers. Cowards. Etc. Very few come to God moments, even when they were going out. Even at the last second — the fact that many characters were fine in who they were even within the evil. Many held judgments over others while pretending to be in love or caring for others. It was terrible and yet great writing. Scary. Very frightening. Sociopathic? Psychopathic? Whatever the term - great writing.
I had so many more thoughts about this very crazy read, like how I also loved how author Marcial Gala eviscerated racist rhetoric from around the globe, one of my favourite scenes being a character, Guts, from Cuba becoming a bouncer in Barcelona and these white kids think they can fuck with him and keep calling him an “Arab” - a nod to racist whites in Spain labelling all Black people as outsiders from the same place. Our boy Guts can ignore these stupid kids until one of these kids touches him and so Gut’s response is to beat the kid to a pulp and piss on his face, much to the horror of the once laughing friends standing by once taunting... it’s a crazy sequence of events. Gala touches on the treatment of and experience of Black Latin people in Spain and America and although he restructures the narratives through violence, it’s interesting to read.
Anyway, I loved this book as nuts as it was. I hope someone brings this to life in a tv show or movie, I’d watch it — as absolutely crazy as it was to read....more
This book picked me up out of a emotionally-complex place after a series of heavy reads where I just kept reading about my brothers and sisters struggThis book picked me up out of a emotionally-complex place after a series of heavy reads where I just kept reading about my brothers and sisters struggling towards better.
This is a story about the same thing, however - there were so many layers. Woman meets man. Woman literally saves man's life. Man has secrets. Woman has secrets. They genuinely want to help each other. They keep pushing onwards.
I loved that this wasn't a story about love, but it was! It was a story about loving yourself and finding some help and also being a shoulder. I am not going to give any of it away because it felt so good read and it resonates inside you like a swarm of bees and butterflies. Depending on what chapter you're on, you might get the bees or you might get the butterflies.
I loved this story. I found myself in my kitchen reading chapters screaming LEEESSAAAAAA, why are you doing this to my emotions!!! Which is when I knew I was in love with the book. There are some parts that are really kind of ummm saccharine, but not enough for it to throw the book off it's path. I would love to see this book as a movie. I would wait for it and watch it the moment that it came out.
These are the stories that I feel we need to see, not a remake of some movie that's been remade 15 times! This is what I want to watch on Netflix on the weekend. Someone's gotta do it! I'm wishing this into the universe for Leesa Cross-Smith!...more
Yooo this book was a scam at the end. However, it was perfect in setting it’s atmosphere. I felt the chill, the tingle, the madness ensuing, the quietYooo this book was a scam at the end. However, it was perfect in setting it’s atmosphere. I felt the chill, the tingle, the madness ensuing, the quiet and loud fears arising.
There were definitely Jordan Peele vibes in here. I could see this book as a movie. Some of the happenings were my biggest fears, and things that creep into my bad dreams from time to time.
The book kinda played out like a bad dream and that’s kind of what made it interesting because we knowingly and unknowingly could be heading towards these dark days as a society.
Leave the World Behind made me think a lot about the beginning and aftermath of war and what the realities are like for the kids, the survivors, the families in those real world circumstances. I kept thinking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Afghanistan. How folks obsessed with capitalism and technology alike would react to life after the experiencing a catastrophe of that magnitude and it’s aftermath. Circumstances where you’re just sitting and waiting for something more to happen or for something more to be revealed. It tripped me out....more
This book was crazy. Like, it was legitimately nuts!
Mateo Askaripour's Black Buck definitely reads like he's a student of Richard Wright and Ralph ElThis book was crazy. Like, it was legitimately nuts!
Mateo Askaripour's Black Buck definitely reads like he's a student of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.
The story put me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I felt happiness at the vision of black intelligence and excellence presented. I was bathed in the anticipation of newness and was thrust into immediate rage, frustration and confusion at the circumstances Buck let himself become embroiled in and for what?!?! I kept asking myself: WHY? WHY is HE, our main character D, accepting this? I was raging about the various pathologies that find black folks, especially black men, in these situations. I can appreciate that Mateo Askaripour took me there in this book, but I don't know how I feel about the lack of structure or answer he provides about the madness that ensues. I also appreciate that fact that he provides no clarity, because I anticipate any concrete assertions that Mateo could have made about why black men engage in certain behaviours would have been the cause of much controversy around this book and the story, and how well it was written, would have been lost in the noise.
I love how this story was written, it was incredibly stylish and moved at a breakneck pace. It has so many current cultural references, it is completely of the time, down to the music he references in the pages — music we know and love.
The twists were twisting! The racism on display, the alignment to current realities of the tech industry and start-up industry is painfully real-world, extremely contemporary and mindsplittingly rage-inducing.
I was left flabbergasted at moments and I laughed out loud at other moments at the casual madness of it all. I hated Rhett and didn't trust him from moment one. Clyde, oh fucking Clyde!!! Grrr.
Anyway, this book was infinitely readable, has many interesting viewpoints to share and leaves you with a lot of questions.
My intersections as a black female reader left me with so many questions about the pathology of black men, I don't think I'll be able to shake this book off for a long time. 3.5....more
I loved The Count. It was so much more insightful than I could have ever imagined. It was also super melodramaReview to come. -/update: March 25, 2021
I loved The Count. It was so much more insightful than I could have ever imagined. It was also super melodramatic, which made it a fun way to pass the time, whenever I needed something exciting to read.
I love the uprising nature of The Count. I loved that it said something about the primal/inherent will of people to seek justice for the ways that they’ve been robbed of their humanity, no matter how long it takes. It gave me biblical - eye for an eye vibes and I fuck with that. It actually made me question my own viewpoints on retribution. A couple of times, during this two month read, I got tipsy like bible times off a few sips of wine and waxed poetic about this book on my blog. An educational tale regarding the value of life and the importance of integrity, it made me think. How long could I go, before I wanted to directly snap a bitch’s neck for throwing me in jail for a crime I didn’t commit!?!? How long could I wait, if I had the opportunity to get out and get even!??? I love that we experienced all of our main character, The Count, Edmond Dantes’ dark nights of the soul and got to appreciate the textual seething as he tried to integrate with these people who did him so dirty. My bloodthirst increased the more pages I flipped through, and baby there was pagesssssss!
The lingo was sometimes so old timey that it was hilarious to read. The challenges that Dumas put forth to his society at the time, all of whom were reading this book in instalments, were great! I loved to see issues that I’m sure were incredibly salacious at the time — two women leaving their homes to engage in a life with each other sans dudes, attempted infanticide, men capping in all sorts of ways — pretending to have class, pretending to have allegiances to different political factions, pretending to be friends, pretending to be good husbands and fathers, upstanding citizens, pretending to be straight for crying out loud..I liked all the stories. Dumas undoubtedly had his grip on French society, with this release. I loved the valour of certain dudes, the Romeo and Juliet story of Maxamillien & Valentine, the evil lecherous, murderous stepmother, the gambling backbiting wives!
Yo, I loved this book. It was dope. I highly recommend it if you’re thinking about reading it and if you’ve got the time! You can’t get a more prismatic look into what life is worth and the real things that make a life worth living. It’s not riches, I’ll tell you that! It was long as fuck. Omg. So long. A wild ride nonetheless....more
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