Tell's Reviews > Sky Full of Elephants

It's clear that Campbell is a poet when you read his writing: the language was evocative, silky, and haunting, with passages lingering long after you've read them.

A speculative take on the road trip novel in a world where white people have walked into the sea, this book explores how to define Blackness outside of whiteness. There are passages that go deep into ancestral and spiritual trauma that are both beautifully written and haunting. The Black identity is plunged for emotional and logistical truth: what does it mean to be mixed? What role does the police serve? Who is doing the policing? Who makes the rules?

The middle of the novel is the strongest, and there are some twists I won't spoil that both moved me and raised my eyebrows. Campbell has created a stunning vision of a world where people are free and thriving outside of their pasts, and I wish I could have spent more time there. Gorgeously written.