I bought this book earlier in the summer because I specifically wanted to broaden my horizons and read books by Black authors. Later, this book was nominated for several awards and it kept appearing on lists. It is a novella, so at the end of a busy and stressful couple of days I decided to sit down and read it yesterday. I read it in two bursts, and I’ll be honest, this is not my kind of fiction. I knew what I was getting into with this book, and I think it is an important book, and one that anyone who is concerned about the state of affairs in this country, especially violence against the Black community, should read. I’m rating it 3-stars as a work of fiction but 5-stars as an entry point or point of further movement if you are interested in learning more about racism/race relations in the US.
The book is set in approximately the present day. It starts in the early 1990s and follows the characters to the “present,” which is about 2010. It is written in present tense, but switches from first to third person. I feel like this is important but I definitely glossed over it while reading the first time. I’m not generally very good at picking up on subtleties in writing like that. It is very realistic, in that it uses real places and real events, but there is also a fantastical/mystical element. I don’t read a lot of fantasy; I definitely prefer science fiction with a focus on space, aliens, and that sort of thing.
For me, although clearly a work of fiction, it read much more like a historical novel. For that reason, I liked it. However, since I normally read fiction to escape, it is hard for me to “like” this book. It is a genre of what I consider “literary” science fiction, which I normally don’t like very much. For example: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. That book read to me like someone trying too hard to be literary but shoved the novel into the realm of SF. Riot Baby felt much more real, but it also seems to be coming from a much more literary direction than the escapism I normally read.
All that being said, I knew that I wanted to read this book, and I got out of it what I think I am going to be able to. I have been learning about, reading about, and following the racism in this country, especially over the last 4 years, so I don’t think there were many things in the book (in terms of actions in the book) that really surprised me in terms of the Black experience. I am not Black; I do not have this shared experience, but I can recognize it as truth. The main character of the book is born the day of the Rodney King riots in LA, and his big sister grows up in gangland. They leave to Harlem, but don’t escape the gang culture and violence within that community but also from the police. There is a lot of slang that I wasn’t familiar with but it was clear from context what was going on. The descriptions of the life he lives is very gritty and realistic. I felt like I was there. The book jacket clearly states that his sister has “a thing,” which is an ability to see the future and “to wreck cities with her hands,” and much of the book is her discovering and exploring her powers. The last third of the book takes place in the past (based on time) but it is clearly an alternate timeline given the technology present.
The last section of the book was a little confusing for me; the style of the book is somewhat like being in a dream. The POV switches often, and sometimes mid-chapter, which was a little hard for me to follow sometimes. And the ending did not make a lot of sense to me. I read some reviews online and then reread the last 10-15 pages a second time and knowing what I was “supposed” to see helped me understand it a bit better, but I think the disconnect is the “literary” perspective and style of writing. Large themes, an unclear ending that is simultaneously hopeful and terrifying and horrible and you don’t have a good sense of what is going to happen but you can imagine a few possibilities.
I think this is a book that will sit with me. The descriptions of growing up as a Black person are chilling. The depictions of brutality and indifference by people in power (police, doctors) feels very real. The book comes at an important time in our history and warns of an uprising (well deserved in my opinion). I may have to sit on this book for a while and let it settle and then perhaps reread it.