Tori's Reviews > Sky Full of Elephants

I hated this for a lot of reasons so let’s discuss.

First of all it’s not especially well written.

Second of all it’s an inherently racist narrative. Another reviewer mentioned that this story isn’t written for black people and I absolutely agree. I’m not even convinced it’s written BY a black person but starting unsubstantiated rumors on goodreads isn’t really my bag so we’ll move on but let me just say that this is complete coonery.

Campbell paints the VAST majority of the black populace with a wide and dripping brush. Because of course if black people were in charge there would only be grits and chicken for sale and everyone would be playing dominos and spades. Of course the entire government and every single infrastructure would come to a complete halt. Because there are no black people in government or STEM fields. Obviously.

The idea that there’s only one enclave in the ENTIRE COUNTRY offering real aid to people is so wildly absurd when there are so many black run organizations working with people to educate each other on things like nutrition, agriculture and mental health. It’s just ignorant and honestly sort of offensive. Especially when you consider how difficult it is to even get into the Kingdom in the first place.

Sidney is irritating to the nth degree and felt like a mouthpiece for the author if I’m going to be honest. I’ve been an angry nineteenth year old biracial girl but holy fuck shut UP. If I was ever as uneducated and annoying as she was then I’m using this space as a public apology for anyone who had to deal with me. I GET not fully embracing your blackness. I GET not being able to fully fit in with your community. But what I don’t get and can’t excuse is her absolute unwillingness to say “huh, maybe I’M in the wrong, maybe I was raised in a biased household and need to reflect on why my beliefs are xyz when I have no proof to back them up and am actually being shown that they are blatantly false.” Except I guess she does, when she finds -noises of shock and surprise- a black man attractive. THEN she stops to consider that maybe they’re not all disgusting monsters and might be worthy of humanity.

I’m not saying a country without white people would be a utopia. I’m just saying it would be a hell of a lot closer to one than this author seems to think. Because whatever was going on here? Foolishness.

I also want to know more about the world in general? Like as glad as I am this is over I do have questions which I will Not be enumerating here because this is already too long and honestly they don’t matter.

TL;DR? This book is trash and not “brimming with heart and humor” like the synopsis says. I hope all the white people that will read this to tick off their diversity read of the year enjoy it cause I sure as shit did not