What do you think?
Rate this book
One of Our Kind
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon’s daring new work of dystopian horror is a propulsive satire set in an all-Black gated community. For fans of The Sellout and Erasure, with a shocking ending you’ll never see coming, One of Our Kind has been celebrated with rave reviews from The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Time, Seth Meyers, and more.
“One of Our Kind [has]...a freight-train feel. Yoon reminds us...of the richness and intimacy of Black culture, and underlines how much more we are than our trauma."
—Kashana Cauley, The New York Times
"Brilliant...Your book club will be discussing this one for DAYS.” —Jodi Picoult
“With haunting and powerful prose, Nicola Yoon brilliantly imagines a world with much to tell us about our own.”
—John Green, New York Times best-selling author of Turtles All the Way Down
"For readers who want to be taken to the edge of expectation, and solidly dropped into the middle of a new nightmare. I still have goosebumps.”
—Ashley C. Ford, New York Times best-selling author of Somebody’s Daughter
“Masterful. . . . Yoon maintains taut, nerve-shattering suspense throughout as she delves into societal fault lines and cultural anxieties" — Publishers Weekly, STARRED
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.
Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.
Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?
Thrilling with insightful social commentary, One of Our Kind explores the ways in which freedom is complicated by the presumptions we make about ourselves and each other.
“One of Our Kind [has]...a freight-train feel. Yoon reminds us...of the richness and intimacy of Black culture, and underlines how much more we are than our trauma."
—Kashana Cauley, The New York Times
"Brilliant...Your book club will be discussing this one for DAYS.” —Jodi Picoult
“With haunting and powerful prose, Nicola Yoon brilliantly imagines a world with much to tell us about our own.”
—John Green, New York Times best-selling author of Turtles All the Way Down
"For readers who want to be taken to the edge of expectation, and solidly dropped into the middle of a new nightmare. I still have goosebumps.”
—Ashley C. Ford, New York Times best-selling author of Somebody’s Daughter
“Masterful. . . . Yoon maintains taut, nerve-shattering suspense throughout as she delves into societal fault lines and cultural anxieties" — Publishers Weekly, STARRED
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.
Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.
Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?
Thrilling with insightful social commentary, One of Our Kind explores the ways in which freedom is complicated by the presumptions we make about ourselves and each other.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2024
About the author
Nicola Yoon
15 books18.5k followersNicola Yoon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. Both her novels have been made into major motion pictures. Nicola grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, novelist David Yoon, and their family.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 563 reviews
April 28, 2024
I received an advance copy of this book for an honest review.
This was probably the most anti-black book I have ever read but the fact that it was written by a Black woman made it heartbreakingly painful. Within the book, Blackness is defined and shaped around tragedies - as if Black people experience no joy or have lives beyond the nation’s racism, biases and social injustices. Every conversation centers around the pain and fears of being Black and raising Black children in a world that doesn’t love them. While yes Black people as a community experience unspeakable hardships against us, it is not our entire personality. The Black boys mentioned in the story are all troubled and in the constant loop of the criminal justice system. The Black women are either a step from hotep with conversations only about protests, police brutality and their natural hair or they are doing all they can to assimilate into the European standard of beauty. The Black men are either unsupportive or a step away from being a podcast bro wanting Black women to lean more into whiteness. Sending the message to readers that life is better being white disgusted me more than I could ever imagine. When the Black characters in this book are faced with how to live a world where they don’t face racism, the writer doesn’t hold racists accountable. She instead says the answer is to stop being Black. This author literally wrote a story that sends the message that Black people simply being Black is the problem NOT the racism of some white people and the systems they uphold.
WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. F*CK?
In the last eight years of giving ratings, this is only the third time I have given a one star review to a Black author. I now realize that comparatively, the other two books need another star added to them because this was not only the worst thing I have ever read, this is by far the most insulting to Black people.
To the readers that hate reading about Black people experiencing or discussing racism:
I initially thought you would hate the acknowledgement of Black pain in this book. I thought fans of this author, who has consistently shown in her writings that Black girls cannot experience or find happiness without the erasure of Blackness, would question and frown at her sudden desire to write about the atrocities that Black people face consistently at the hands of white America. I thought you would be the ones giving this book a one star review. However, stick to the end, this book takes her erasure of Blackness to another level. It’s clear the author believes the world is better without Black people in it. It is the textbook definition of anti-blackness.
This was probably the most anti-black book I have ever read but the fact that it was written by a Black woman made it heartbreakingly painful. Within the book, Blackness is defined and shaped around tragedies - as if Black people experience no joy or have lives beyond the nation’s racism, biases and social injustices. Every conversation centers around the pain and fears of being Black and raising Black children in a world that doesn’t love them. While yes Black people as a community experience unspeakable hardships against us, it is not our entire personality. The Black boys mentioned in the story are all troubled and in the constant loop of the criminal justice system. The Black women are either a step from hotep with conversations only about protests, police brutality and their natural hair or they are doing all they can to assimilate into the European standard of beauty. The Black men are either unsupportive or a step away from being a podcast bro wanting Black women to lean more into whiteness. Sending the message to readers that life is better being white disgusted me more than I could ever imagine. When the Black characters in this book are faced with how to live a world where they don’t face racism, the writer doesn’t hold racists accountable. She instead says the answer is to stop being Black. This author literally wrote a story that sends the message that Black people simply being Black is the problem NOT the racism of some white people and the systems they uphold.
WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. F*CK?
In the last eight years of giving ratings, this is only the third time I have given a one star review to a Black author. I now realize that comparatively, the other two books need another star added to them because this was not only the worst thing I have ever read, this is by far the most insulting to Black people.
To the readers that hate reading about Black people experiencing or discussing racism:
I initially thought you would hate the acknowledgement of Black pain in this book. I thought fans of this author, who has consistently shown in her writings that Black girls cannot experience or find happiness without the erasure of Blackness, would question and frown at her sudden desire to write about the atrocities that Black people face consistently at the hands of white America. I thought you would be the ones giving this book a one star review. However, stick to the end, this book takes her erasure of Blackness to another level. It’s clear the author believes the world is better without Black people in it. It is the textbook definition of anti-blackness.
March 27, 2024
I’m sorry, but this book was extremely unserious. I say this not to be mean, but because I feel it's accurate: this story seemed like an author processing a lot of grief around police brutality post-2020 in the form of Get Out fanfiction (respectfully), and think it really could've stayed between Yoon and...not a mainstream audience.
I found the discourse sometimes painfully heavy-handed (like directly pulled from Twitter), being in the main character's POV the entire time was tiresome, and the plot, which was initially SO intriguing to me, felt rushed and half-baked.
I thought I understood what Yoon was trying to do at the beginning, making Jasmyn's character so self-righteous yet anxious about her racial identity, but...the book outright defined Blackness by how much suffering we've endured, or how upset we get about police brutality, which...we all have different ways of relating to and coping with being so constantly exposed to our people getting killed by the police, and fearing for our own lives on a daily basis. The main character seemed more critical of Blackness than whiteness, which is very weird when the central events in the book revolve around state-sponsored violence.
I'm disappointed this didn't go a little deeper, because the premise of a gated Black "utopia" and the cult of wellness are so interesting to me! And the relationship between the Black elite and poor Black people, who ARE more heavily policed...this book had a lot of potential.
I do like Yoon’s writing because it flows easily--perks of being a YA author too--but this was just not it for me.
I found the discourse sometimes painfully heavy-handed (like directly pulled from Twitter), being in the main character's POV the entire time was tiresome, and the plot, which was initially SO intriguing to me, felt rushed and half-baked.
I thought I understood what Yoon was trying to do at the beginning, making Jasmyn's character so self-righteous yet anxious about her racial identity, but...the book outright defined Blackness by how much suffering we've endured, or how upset we get about police brutality, which...we all have different ways of relating to and coping with being so constantly exposed to our people getting killed by the police, and fearing for our own lives on a daily basis. The main character seemed more critical of Blackness than whiteness, which is very weird when the central events in the book revolve around state-sponsored violence.
I'm disappointed this didn't go a little deeper, because the premise of a gated Black "utopia" and the cult of wellness are so interesting to me! And the relationship between the Black elite and poor Black people, who ARE more heavily policed...this book had a lot of potential.
I do like Yoon’s writing because it flows easily--perks of being a YA author too--but this was just not it for me.
April 28, 2024
This may be the best example of all the ways social horror learned the wrong lessons from the success of GET OUT. The takeaway to so many seems to be "horror + racism" is a winning combination but despite the over-the-top third act of GET OUT, that full tilt absurdity is earned from two slow, subtle acts before it. Its strengths are in the subtleties. It holds you in a mild discomfort, makes you unsure whether there is a threat and what that threat is, escalating little by little, and then when it finally really goes for it it takes it to an almost nonsensical, even hilarious place to help cut the tension. On the other hand, what most of the works following it have done is just say here are the horrors of structural racism, now with monsters. They present racism without subtlety, it is an anvil, a piano falling from the sky and smashing on a sidewalk, it is just "what if racism but worse?"
That, sadly, is what is happening in this novel. Which is really just a Stepford Wives remake switching to a lens of race rather than gender. Our protagonist, Jasmyn, is a good person, a good member of her community, a public defender devoted to helping those who need her, who are often young Black men. Jasmyn is overwhelmed by racism, she watches every video, she bears witness to every act of cruelty, and while it makes her sad and scared, it also gives her a sense of duty. Jasmyn, somehow, is able to do all of this, to confront racism and to never let go of it, without burnout or fatigue. But when the opportunity comes to move to an all Black luxury neighborhood, she takes it almost without question.
This is where things start to get confusing. A lot of what happens here makes no sense, and I mean that in both the character way and the facts of the story. Like sure you could definitely just build a whole new luxury community in the greater Los Angeles area where all the homes are huge and the neighborhood is big enough for a whole school and services. (This is so hilariously impossible you just have to let it go.) Oh and did I mention that you can get a house here with 6 bedrooms and an olympic sized pool for low 7 figures? Jasmyn doesn't seem like the kind of person who would want this, she cares about her community. But she weirdly doesn't care about her husband's new wealth since he left teaching and went into finance, she isn't enthusiastic about the neighborhood but she worries about her son and the baby on the way so she agrees.
Jasmyn doesn't really exist as a person in this book. Her work, her community, all these things we are told she cares so much about are barely mentioned. Her child, who is supposed to be the focus of all this anxiety she has, also disappears for several chapters at a time. All that Jasmyn does is follow stories about racial violence on the news, talk to her husband, and hang out with her new friends in Liberty, the other outcasts who don't actually like it all that much. This is all she does. She worries about racism in the world and she worries about what is weird in her neighborhood. She does not seem to have hobbies just like the book is completely uninterested in a B plot of any kind. Jasmyn is a cardboard cutout, but at least she is described. Whereas her husband King and the other basically brainwashed residents of Liberty are never more than ciphers.
If you know the story of Stepford Wives (and everyone does) this is all quite dull. We know where the story is going, we know what's going to happen, there are no surprises here. It can be fine to have a story where it's not really about the destination but the journey, but there is not any fun on the journey either. There is no satire, no plot, just a series of regular escalating events to grow us closer to the inevitable ending. Well, we do get plenty of Jasmyn judging everyone else for not watching enough videos of police shootings and not attending enough vigils and not experiencing racial trauma in the way she has decided is correct.
When it's fully revealed it's quite boring, which is expected at this point but also disappointing. This is the one place where Yoon doesn't totally spoon feed us her themes. All these weirdly calm people at Liberty who no longer care about structural racism are also people who have suffered traumas well beyond anything Jasmyn ever has. There is something to this idea, that there is some kind of breaking point where your trauma can be so overwhelming that you no longer want to find any kind of progress, that you want only safety at any cost. But this idea is almost entirely unexamined, which is a shame because it's basically the only interesting thing in the book.
The novel is clunky. It reads more like YA than adult, the kind of book where the writing is secondary and just a vehicle of plot delivery. It is bad enough that it makes me wonder if my rave review of her previous novel The Sun Is Also a Star was wrong.
That, sadly, is what is happening in this novel. Which is really just a Stepford Wives remake switching to a lens of race rather than gender. Our protagonist, Jasmyn, is a good person, a good member of her community, a public defender devoted to helping those who need her, who are often young Black men. Jasmyn is overwhelmed by racism, she watches every video, she bears witness to every act of cruelty, and while it makes her sad and scared, it also gives her a sense of duty. Jasmyn, somehow, is able to do all of this, to confront racism and to never let go of it, without burnout or fatigue. But when the opportunity comes to move to an all Black luxury neighborhood, she takes it almost without question.
This is where things start to get confusing. A lot of what happens here makes no sense, and I mean that in both the character way and the facts of the story. Like sure you could definitely just build a whole new luxury community in the greater Los Angeles area where all the homes are huge and the neighborhood is big enough for a whole school and services. (This is so hilariously impossible you just have to let it go.) Oh and did I mention that you can get a house here with 6 bedrooms and an olympic sized pool for low 7 figures? Jasmyn doesn't seem like the kind of person who would want this, she cares about her community. But she weirdly doesn't care about her husband's new wealth since he left teaching and went into finance, she isn't enthusiastic about the neighborhood but she worries about her son and the baby on the way so she agrees.
Jasmyn doesn't really exist as a person in this book. Her work, her community, all these things we are told she cares so much about are barely mentioned. Her child, who is supposed to be the focus of all this anxiety she has, also disappears for several chapters at a time. All that Jasmyn does is follow stories about racial violence on the news, talk to her husband, and hang out with her new friends in Liberty, the other outcasts who don't actually like it all that much. This is all she does. She worries about racism in the world and she worries about what is weird in her neighborhood. She does not seem to have hobbies just like the book is completely uninterested in a B plot of any kind. Jasmyn is a cardboard cutout, but at least she is described. Whereas her husband King and the other basically brainwashed residents of Liberty are never more than ciphers.
If you know the story of Stepford Wives (and everyone does) this is all quite dull. We know where the story is going, we know what's going to happen, there are no surprises here. It can be fine to have a story where it's not really about the destination but the journey, but there is not any fun on the journey either. There is no satire, no plot, just a series of regular escalating events to grow us closer to the inevitable ending. Well, we do get plenty of Jasmyn judging everyone else for not watching enough videos of police shootings and not attending enough vigils and not experiencing racial trauma in the way she has decided is correct.
When it's fully revealed it's quite boring, which is expected at this point but also disappointing. This is the one place where Yoon doesn't totally spoon feed us her themes. All these weirdly calm people at Liberty who no longer care about structural racism are also people who have suffered traumas well beyond anything Jasmyn ever has. There is something to this idea, that there is some kind of breaking point where your trauma can be so overwhelming that you no longer want to find any kind of progress, that you want only safety at any cost. But this idea is almost entirely unexamined, which is a shame because it's basically the only interesting thing in the book.
The novel is clunky. It reads more like YA than adult, the kind of book where the writing is secondary and just a vehicle of plot delivery. It is bad enough that it makes me wonder if my rave review of her previous novel The Sun Is Also a Star was wrong.
April 30, 2024
I was so excited to read this book because I love Yoon’s young adult novels, but this story was a mess. The anti blackness was running wild and rampant in the story. The main character Jasmyn was so judgmental over the other Black women who wore their hair a certain way. Then she got upset when one of the characters didn’t want to watch a video of a Black man getting killed by a police officer. As a Black woman I can no longer watch those videos either. After watching Eric Garner being killed here on Staten Island where I live that was final straw for me. Surprise, surprise the cop was found not guilty. 🙃
Spoiler Alert:
Since the anti blackness in this book was upsetting me I skipped to the end and I was not a fan of this ending at all! The Black people in the book got tired of all the struggles that come with being Black so they started doing experiments to make themselves white……they also erased their prior experiences of being Black as well. Ain’t no way. Nope. I wouldn’t change being Black for anything and this book is such a slap in the face to Black people. I will not recommend this book to anyone. Period.
July 24, 2024
Trust the Black reviewers. This tried hard to be Get Out or Yellowface and failed spectacularly at both.
June 19, 2024
Nicola Yoon is one of my favorite YA authors of all time (Everything, Everything and the Sun is Also a Star are very much my shit). So I was over the freakin' moon when I won her latest offering via a goodreads giveaway. But this elation soon dissolved once I actually got into the text because...yikes.
I've been sitting with what was so bad about this book and it really comes down to a couple of things:
1) There's no one to root for. The MC is insufferable. She has a very rigid belief about what it means to be Black and how Black people should take up their personhood that it's really hard to live in her head for a long time. King at one point opines she sees Black people as a monolith and that if their actions towards liberation aren't exactly like hers she questions their Blackness-- and I don't think he's wrong! Jasmyn is one of those people who believes that to care for the self is selfish and stands in opposition to freedom, which I simply can't get down with (please see Tricia Hersey's Rest is Resistance for how wrong Jasmyn is). Self-care (in the sense of rest, play, pleasure, and joy) IS community care! They are not mutually exclusive but work in tandem. J's uncritical binary beliefs are truly exhausting. So I couldn't really root for her but I obviously couldn't root for the Liberty culties either. So where does that leave me? Honestly, just lost.
To go further (and these are probably spoiler-y bits, so I will label them as such):
2) And I alluded to this in my spoiler section above but the point of the narrative is completely unclear. What am I supposed to take from this story about what it means to be Black in America and how we move forward? In her acknowledgements she mentioned hope as one of the things she envisions readers taking away from the book. And as the youngins would say, "is hope in the room with us right now?" haha.
Some other things:
-some of the dialogue is really stilled. There were moments when I was like, does Yoon actually know Black people or simply watch them on TV. I know that's shade but....girl.
-I am a Black psychologist and I have to say not watching police murdering Black people doesn't make you less Black or less "down for the cause". Research indicates that watching these videos can cause PTSD like symptoms for Black folks. Jasmyn's rationale for watching them is to bare witness and I argue that there's so many other ways to bare witness to a life other than watching their death. I don't need to watch lynchings to know my people have/are suffering. If I want to understand someone's humanity, I'm curious about how they lived, not how they died.
While I will absolutely pick up another Yoon YA novel in the future, I think I'll steer clear of her adult work moving forward.
I've been sitting with what was so bad about this book and it really comes down to a couple of things:
1) There's no one to root for. The MC is insufferable. She has a very rigid belief about what it means to be Black and how Black people should take up their personhood that it's really hard to live in her head for a long time. King at one point opines she sees Black people as a monolith and that if their actions towards liberation aren't exactly like hers she questions their Blackness-- and I don't think he's wrong! Jasmyn is one of those people who believes that to care for the self is selfish and stands in opposition to freedom, which I simply can't get down with (please see Tricia Hersey's Rest is Resistance for how wrong Jasmyn is). Self-care (in the sense of rest, play, pleasure, and joy) IS community care! They are not mutually exclusive but work in tandem. J's uncritical binary beliefs are truly exhausting. So I couldn't really root for her but I obviously couldn't root for the Liberty culties either. So where does that leave me? Honestly, just lost.
To go further (and these are probably spoiler-y bits, so I will label them as such):
2) And I alluded to this in my spoiler section above but the point of the narrative is completely unclear. What am I supposed to take from this story about what it means to be Black in America and how we move forward? In her acknowledgements she mentioned hope as one of the things she envisions readers taking away from the book. And as the youngins would say, "is hope in the room with us right now?" haha.
Some other things:
-some of the dialogue is really stilled. There were moments when I was like, does Yoon actually know Black people or simply watch them on TV. I know that's shade but....girl.
-I am a Black psychologist and I have to say not watching police murdering Black people doesn't make you less Black or less "down for the cause". Research indicates that watching these videos can cause PTSD like symptoms for Black folks. Jasmyn's rationale for watching them is to bare witness and I argue that there's so many other ways to bare witness to a life other than watching their death. I don't need to watch lynchings to know my people have/are suffering. If I want to understand someone's humanity, I'm curious about how they lived, not how they died.
While I will absolutely pick up another Yoon YA novel in the future, I think I'll steer clear of her adult work moving forward.
November 16, 2023
Yoon is a talented writer but this one broke my heart. Idk why she felt this was the story to write… I’ll give any of her future YA a chance though.
March 18, 2024
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital copy of this book.
I think I understand what the author’s goal was here, but in my opinion, it completely missed the mark. It’s described as The Stepford Wives meets Get Out but the horror element seemed to be missing in the first 90% of the book. Although the black, female MC is a social justice activist who is portrayed as someone who loves and gives back to the black community, her views and opinions are rooted in anti-blackness, colorism, and sanctimony. The twist at the end of the book was so bizarre that I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh out loud. On one hand I do feel the author did a decent job of illustrating the ways in which constant exposure to racism and police brutality can negatively impact the human psyche, specifically in the black community; however, I wish she’d done more to highlight the pride, achievement, and strength that black people are known to embody. I would describe this book as misery literature – the whole story seemed to dwell on trauma.
I think I understand what the author’s goal was here, but in my opinion, it completely missed the mark. It’s described as The Stepford Wives meets Get Out but the horror element seemed to be missing in the first 90% of the book. Although the black, female MC is a social justice activist who is portrayed as someone who loves and gives back to the black community, her views and opinions are rooted in anti-blackness, colorism, and sanctimony. The twist at the end of the book was so bizarre that I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh out loud. On one hand I do feel the author did a decent job of illustrating the ways in which constant exposure to racism and police brutality can negatively impact the human psyche, specifically in the black community; however, I wish she’d done more to highlight the pride, achievement, and strength that black people are known to embody. I would describe this book as misery literature – the whole story seemed to dwell on trauma.
May 21, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
I had very high expectations for this after the blurb said that this is a "thrilling [story] with insightful social commentary", and compared this title to The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, and Get Out. These comparisons provide a lot to live up to, as they are classics of the speculative fiction genre. Speculative fiction books with social commentary are big right now and I was ready for this to be a standout, especially considering Nicola Yoon's successful YA books that deal with racial prejudice.
First off, I want to clarify that I am a white woman. This book is not written to reflect my experiences and I am not supposed to be able to relate to the Black main character, although I do make an effort to educate myself on racism/antiracism by reading POC authors. So take what you will from my opinion but read other reviews but Black readers, too.
I had yucky feelings about this main character right from the beginning. The MC Jasmyn immediately makes it clear that she has strong opinions on what it means to be an "enlightened" or "authentic" Black person. Yes, these words are literally used in this context in the book-
At this point I thought that this book was supposed to be satirical and/or Jasmyn is meant to be an unlikable MC. But reading on, it also seemed like the reader is meant to sympathize with Jasmyn, a feeling that didn't support my hypothesis. One minute we see her being a loving wife and mother, and caring about the Black community even more than her own health (another point I take issue with), and the next minute she's judging other Black people for their clothing, hair, and the way that they interact with the Black community; in other words, gatekeeping. Here's a passage that explains what Jasmyn thinks about a woman who feels that watching videos of police brutality are too much for her-
The police brutality case going on in the background of this book takes up much of the MC's thoughts and colors the tone of the entire book. If I was reading this book without any context of who Black people are and their culture, I wouldn't have any choice but to assume that Black culture doesn't include anything but trauma, victimhood (and some various types of food) because that is all that Yoon describes in this book. There are no instances of Black joy. Any interaction that Jasmyn has ends up with her talking about racism and police brutality. And to be clear, police brutality and racism are EXTREMELY problematic and relevant issues to Black people in real life, but there is more to Black culture than that, and Yoon doesn't make that clear in this book.
I also have to mention the hypocrisy of the MC and her strange sense of social justice, which eclipses her own sense of self. She's offended by an invitation to the Wellness Center because a spa visit would take away from her time serving the Black community. I reacted strongly to this because this is such a toxic mindset for an activist. Caring for yourself is part of caring for the community. This made Jasmyn was unlikable in a way that didn't make sense in context with the rest of the story.
After all this, I don't understand what we are supposed to feel about the MC, or what message the author is trying to send with this book. Is she saying that Black culture is being whitewashed? And possibly something about not giving up? It's not very clear.
The writing style also feels very surface level and Young Adult. This book makes me think that Yoon should stick to the YA genre.
I had very high expectations for this after the blurb said that this is a "thrilling [story] with insightful social commentary", and compared this title to The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, and Get Out. These comparisons provide a lot to live up to, as they are classics of the speculative fiction genre. Speculative fiction books with social commentary are big right now and I was ready for this to be a standout, especially considering Nicola Yoon's successful YA books that deal with racial prejudice.
First off, I want to clarify that I am a white woman. This book is not written to reflect my experiences and I am not supposed to be able to relate to the Black main character, although I do make an effort to educate myself on racism/antiracism by reading POC authors. So take what you will from my opinion but read other reviews but Black readers, too.
I had yucky feelings about this main character right from the beginning. The MC Jasmyn immediately makes it clear that she has strong opinions on what it means to be an "enlightened" or "authentic" Black person. Yes, these words are literally used in this context in the book-
"Jasmyn studies the woman's hairline. It's funny how much hair can tell you about the kind of person you're dealing with. To Jasmyn's mind, using creamy crack is a sure sign of being an unenlightened Black woman."
"Jasmyn studies Keisha. One of the necessary skills of her job is the ability to spot a liar. This woman doesn't seem like one. With her big Afro, her loud clothes, and her louder laugh, she seems a damn sight more authentic than Catherine Vail did."
At this point I thought that this book was supposed to be satirical and/or Jasmyn is meant to be an unlikable MC. But reading on, it also seemed like the reader is meant to sympathize with Jasmyn, a feeling that didn't support my hypothesis. One minute we see her being a loving wife and mother, and caring about the Black community even more than her own health (another point I take issue with), and the next minute she's judging other Black people for their clothing, hair, and the way that they interact with the Black community; in other words, gatekeeping. Here's a passage that explains what Jasmyn thinks about a woman who feels that watching videos of police brutality are too much for her-
"Of course Jasmyn has met her type before. She's one of *those* Black people, too delicate to face up to the world we live in. The kind that looks away and pretends that if she can't see the world's violence against Black people, it isn't happpening. Jasmyn has never understood, or agreed with, that way of being. She always clicks the headlines. She always watches the videos. Why should she feel safe and comfortable when yet another Black man is dead? No. It isn't OK to look away. She always watches. Bears witness."
The police brutality case going on in the background of this book takes up much of the MC's thoughts and colors the tone of the entire book. If I was reading this book without any context of who Black people are and their culture, I wouldn't have any choice but to assume that Black culture doesn't include anything but trauma, victimhood (and some various types of food) because that is all that Yoon describes in this book. There are no instances of Black joy. Any interaction that Jasmyn has ends up with her talking about racism and police brutality. And to be clear, police brutality and racism are EXTREMELY problematic and relevant issues to Black people in real life, but there is more to Black culture than that, and Yoon doesn't make that clear in this book.
I also have to mention the hypocrisy of the MC and her strange sense of social justice, which eclipses her own sense of self. She's offended by an invitation to the Wellness Center because a spa visit would take away from her time serving the Black community. I reacted strongly to this because this is such a toxic mindset for an activist. Caring for yourself is part of caring for the community. This made Jasmyn was unlikable in a way that didn't make sense in context with the rest of the story.
After all this, I don't understand what we are supposed to feel about the MC, or what message the author is trying to send with this book. Is she saying that Black culture is being whitewashed? And possibly something about not giving up? It's not very clear.
The writing style also feels very surface level and Young Adult. This book makes me think that Yoon should stick to the YA genre.
Read
June 26, 2024I don't want to pile on because Nicola has historically been my favorite author—so I won't rate this one. But after reading a few other reviews, here are a few descriptors that I (unfortunately) agree with: "unserious," "elementary," and "heavy-handed."
I feel like this came out ten years too late; and still, it felt underbaked. For such a sensitive topic, there needed to be more care and more development put into the idea. Im disappointed, but I'm still hopeful for Yoon's future work.
I feel like this came out ten years too late; and still, it felt underbaked. For such a sensitive topic, there needed to be more care and more development put into the idea. Im disappointed, but I'm still hopeful for Yoon's future work.
June 20, 2024
This is one of the worst books I have ever read in my life. HORRIBLE.
The fact that this novel was written by a Black woman made it much more terrible and upsetting than the most anti-black book I have ever read. The book defines and shapes Blackness around tragedies as if Black people's lives are devoid of joy or transcend the racism, prejudice, and social inequalities that permeate the country. The pain and anxieties of being Black and parenting Black children in an unloving world are the main topics of discussion. Unimaginable struggles are faced by Black people as a community, but that does not sum up who we are. The narrative mentions several disturbed Black adolescents who are entangled in the criminal justice system.
The Black women are extremely problematic, talk mainly about protests, natural hair, and police brutality, or they are making every effort to conform to the European ideal of beauty. The Black males who want Black women to embrace their whiteness more are either unsupported or a step away from being podcast bros. It disgusted me more than I could have ever imagined to tell readers that being white makes life better.
*slight spoilers ahead*
The author of this book doesn't hold racists responsible when the Black characters must figure out how to live in a society free from prejudice. Rather, she thinks that giving up being Black is the solution. It is stated that rather than challenging the oppressor you should physically and mentally become the oppressor if possible.
Overall, this book was extremely anti-black and I am extremely doubtful that Black eyes looked over this before it was published.
The fact that this novel was written by a Black woman made it much more terrible and upsetting than the most anti-black book I have ever read. The book defines and shapes Blackness around tragedies as if Black people's lives are devoid of joy or transcend the racism, prejudice, and social inequalities that permeate the country. The pain and anxieties of being Black and parenting Black children in an unloving world are the main topics of discussion. Unimaginable struggles are faced by Black people as a community, but that does not sum up who we are. The narrative mentions several disturbed Black adolescents who are entangled in the criminal justice system.
The Black women are extremely problematic, talk mainly about protests, natural hair, and police brutality, or they are making every effort to conform to the European ideal of beauty. The Black males who want Black women to embrace their whiteness more are either unsupported or a step away from being podcast bros. It disgusted me more than I could have ever imagined to tell readers that being white makes life better.
*slight spoilers ahead*
The author of this book doesn't hold racists responsible when the Black characters must figure out how to live in a society free from prejudice. Rather, she thinks that giving up being Black is the solution. It is stated that rather than challenging the oppressor you should physically and mentally become the oppressor if possible.
Overall, this book was extremely anti-black and I am extremely doubtful that Black eyes looked over this before it was published.
March 9, 2024
***Overall, this was a good story. *** This is Nicole Yoon's first adult novel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This book had potential, but I feel missed the mark. I can see the point Nicole Yoon was trying to make but, in my opinion, fell flat. I admire that she's bringing more awareness to racial injustices
Yes, this was a stepford wives' meets get out type thriller type of storyline. I was intrigued and pulled in, but the ending was predictable. It was enjoyable.
Jasmyn and King moved to a town that was built to a black that is a solely black- owned luxury community. After moving there, it seems as if everyone is disconnected from current events. Everyone seems rather focused on the towns wellness center.
(Potential spoiler below)
****************************************
However, the main character was rather unlikable at times. Nicole Yoon brings awareness to racial injustices, but I felt as if, in the end, turning black people white rather defeated the purpose of the story. I'm curious to see what others think.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This book had potential, but I feel missed the mark. I can see the point Nicole Yoon was trying to make but, in my opinion, fell flat. I admire that she's bringing more awareness to racial injustices
Yes, this was a stepford wives' meets get out type thriller type of storyline. I was intrigued and pulled in, but the ending was predictable. It was enjoyable.
Jasmyn and King moved to a town that was built to a black that is a solely black- owned luxury community. After moving there, it seems as if everyone is disconnected from current events. Everyone seems rather focused on the towns wellness center.
(Potential spoiler below)
****************************************
However, the main character was rather unlikable at times. Nicole Yoon brings awareness to racial injustices, but I felt as if, in the end, turning black people white rather defeated the purpose of the story. I'm curious to see what others think.
July 8, 2024
Okay, let’s try this again. Frankly, I found this book to be absolutely terrible. It’s meant to be a horror social commentary (think Get Out) but only in the barest sense, and it fails to pull it off. Jasmyn, the character we follow, is a lawyer with a strong drive for racial justice, of which I obviously had no problem, but she went into extremes that made her insufferable in a way I don’t believe she deserved. Like, on some hotep type nonsense.
SPOILERS
In her extremism, she subscribes to anti-Blackness herself, and some of those anti-Black beliefs are also used as indicators to the uncanny valley-ish plot points. Like clues!
That same malarkey she was spouting would then go on to be challenged by the actual villains, and since we followed her and she was meant to be a victim (which, she was), the people attacking her and committing the most vile anti-Black crimes against her were also the ones telling her to take a chill pill.
It was just the most nonsensical babbling narrative I’ve read in a while, and it ended up leaving a very bad taste in my mouth.
Also, the ending SUCKED. I predicted where a huge chunk of it was headed, which, whatever, but the way it all came together? The villains as a whole?? This was the only way it could have gone?????
Deeply unserious.
Overall, this was a huge miss.
The dedication states, “to all of us.” When y’all find out who that US is supposed to be, PLEASE let me know.
June 23, 2024
A totally new author for me, but since the blurb mentioned it was "highly anticipated" I felt it must be a worthwhile read.
Description:
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.
Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.
Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?
My Thoughts:
The setting of an all Black community seems rather sad to me. It seems more like a regression to segregation rather than the integration and diversification I think we all want to see. However, as a concept for a fictional book it's an intriguing idea. I could see how the allure of moving to this gated community where the police, shopkeepers, and residents were all Black provided an escape from racial tension. I found the wellness center early on to give me vibes of brain washing and cult mentality. It became more and more creepy as the book went on, and in the end for me it was offensive. Maybe this is what the author was aiming for, to achieve that uncomfortableness for the reader. A very interesting book that raises a lot of racial issues and questions.
Thanks to Knopf through Netgalley for an advance copy.
Description:
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.
Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.
Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?
My Thoughts:
The setting of an all Black community seems rather sad to me. It seems more like a regression to segregation rather than the integration and diversification I think we all want to see. However, as a concept for a fictional book it's an intriguing idea. I could see how the allure of moving to this gated community where the police, shopkeepers, and residents were all Black provided an escape from racial tension. I found the wellness center early on to give me vibes of brain washing and cult mentality. It became more and more creepy as the book went on, and in the end for me it was offensive. Maybe this is what the author was aiming for, to achieve that uncomfortableness for the reader. A very interesting book that raises a lot of racial issues and questions.
Thanks to Knopf through Netgalley for an advance copy.
July 17, 2024
Audiobook Rating: 5/5
I don't even know quite what to say about One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon, other than this was a heck of a lot different than Instructions for Dancing which is the only other book of hers I have read. Set in what I would call a dystopian world, Jasmyn and her husband move the family to a utopia in California to escape the crime and injustice of the world and thrive with other like-minded families. I was hooked immediately, and it gave me creepy Stepford Wives vibes throughout. I loved Jasmyn’s character and feared like crazy for her once she decided something suspicious was going on in Liberty and wanted to figure out what it is. Yoon tackles lots of social issues in this novel and puts race and class front and center.
The audiobook ended up being my favorite part of the book and I thought Nicole Lewis was fantastic. I have heard her narration before, and she never disappoints. I thought she really nailed the emotions Jasmyn undergoes in this story, and she made One of Our Kind an incredible listening experience. The end of the novel is where things really took a turn for me, and I was just not happy with the resolution. That last chapter killed me and didn’t sit the right way after all we went through to get to the end. It was definitely shocking though so the shock value was there for sure. While this won’t be for everyone and didn’t blow me away, I still found it to be a solid and suspenseful read that covered very important topics.
Thank you to the publisher and Libro.fm for my complimentary listening copy of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
I don't even know quite what to say about One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon, other than this was a heck of a lot different than Instructions for Dancing which is the only other book of hers I have read. Set in what I would call a dystopian world, Jasmyn and her husband move the family to a utopia in California to escape the crime and injustice of the world and thrive with other like-minded families. I was hooked immediately, and it gave me creepy Stepford Wives vibes throughout. I loved Jasmyn’s character and feared like crazy for her once she decided something suspicious was going on in Liberty and wanted to figure out what it is. Yoon tackles lots of social issues in this novel and puts race and class front and center.
The audiobook ended up being my favorite part of the book and I thought Nicole Lewis was fantastic. I have heard her narration before, and she never disappoints. I thought she really nailed the emotions Jasmyn undergoes in this story, and she made One of Our Kind an incredible listening experience. The end of the novel is where things really took a turn for me, and I was just not happy with the resolution. That last chapter killed me and didn’t sit the right way after all we went through to get to the end. It was definitely shocking though so the shock value was there for sure. While this won’t be for everyone and didn’t blow me away, I still found it to be a solid and suspenseful read that covered very important topics.
Thank you to the publisher and Libro.fm for my complimentary listening copy of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
February 13, 2024
This was a disappointment for me. 😞 Since Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star is one of my favorite YA books, and this is her first adult book, I was thrilled to receive an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and read it with great anticipation. In short, though, I think this was an interesting idea that didn’t deliver.
The book explores different experiences and definitions of Blackness and freedom, freedom from racism and how to get there. Complex and important themes, for sure. And sometimes the writing lands:
For most of the story, you can feel the book building to something ominous, which kept me turning pages to see what it is.
Along the way, though, the characters were flat and didn’t develop, and the dialogue was unnatural and heavy-handed, cringily unsubtle - like a primer on how systemic racism affects Black people, written for non-Black people for whom this is a new concept.
If the premise of the book intrigues you, by all means,give it a try. It just wasn't for me.
The book explores different experiences and definitions of Blackness and freedom, freedom from racism and how to get there. Complex and important themes, for sure. And sometimes the writing lands:
“This, Jasmyn thinks, is the thing about being Black in America. Any conversation with a non-Black person could take a turn at any time. You think you’re talking about one thing, but the other person is always somehow talking about your Blackness.”
“Inside her chest, her heart beats a familiar rhythm. Fear and anger. Anger and fear. She closes her eyes and wishes, just for a moment, she could teach her heart a different song and, too, some other history.”
“My Blackness is not a problem. Racism is the problem.”
For most of the story, you can feel the book building to something ominous, which kept me turning pages to see what it is.
“You ever think maybe you’re wrong?” he asks.
“About what?”
“All of it. Maybe the solution to racism isn’t to fight.”
“What other choice do we have? We can’t just give up.”
“Not give up,” he says. “Give in.” He turns then and walks away.
Along the way, though, the characters were flat and didn’t develop, and the dialogue was unnatural and heavy-handed, cringily unsubtle - like a primer on how systemic racism affects Black people, written for non-Black people for whom this is a new concept.
“I was in our pharmacy the other day and the security guard didn’t follow me around.” Tricia laughs and shakes her head. “I hate how they do that. Like, what? I’m going to shoplift some cough syrup or some crappy lipstick?” “Right? It’s ridiculous,” says Jasmyn. “Know what else? I haven’t been mistaken for an employee in any place there yet, either.” Tricia slaps the table. “Listen. That. Shit. Is. Not. Funny,” she says, punctuating each word with a clap. “I could be wearing a damn wedding dress and some somebody is going to come up to me and ask what aisle they can find the tampons in.”
“That right there is another reason to get a Black doctor. You know white doctors prescribe less pain medicine for Black patients than for white ones?” “I’d heard something like that,” Tricia says. “These people, I tell you.” Jasmyn shakes her head. “Remember the Tuskegee syphilis thing? They let those poor men suffer—” “Ease up, baby,” King says, finally. “We celebrating right now.” Jasmyn looks at Tricia and Dwight and realizes they’re frowning down into their drinks. “Shit, my bad,” she says. “I’m sorry. I got carried away. Sometimes the world gets to be a lot. There’s just so much injustice, you know?”
If the premise of the book intrigues you, by all means,give it a try. It just wasn't for me.
Want to read
May 13, 202212.05.2022 a psychological thriller that is The Stepford Wives meets Get Out!
Read
June 9, 2024i devoured this on audio and really enjoyed it until the very end. truly, the ending really was NOT it. bc of that, i have no idea what to rate this book or even how to fully review it.
i’m a huge fan of Yoon’s work (EVERYTHING EVERYTHING is an all time fave book of mine) and i was excited for her adult debut, but the ending rubbed me the wrong way. and there was so much potential too 😩
hard to say more without spoiling everything but open to having a convo with anyone upon finishing to discuss more! i really did enjoy the audio format—i’ve listened to this narrator before and enjoy her work. i think she brought the character complexities and personalities to life so well in this one.
thanks to Libro FM and Knopf for the gifted early copies in exchange for an honest review!
i’m a huge fan of Yoon’s work (EVERYTHING EVERYTHING is an all time fave book of mine) and i was excited for her adult debut, but the ending rubbed me the wrong way. and there was so much potential too 😩
hard to say more without spoiling everything but open to having a convo with anyone upon finishing to discuss more! i really did enjoy the audio format—i’ve listened to this narrator before and enjoy her work. i think she brought the character complexities and personalities to life so well in this one.
thanks to Libro FM and Knopf for the gifted early copies in exchange for an honest review!
April 22, 2024
First and foremost I would just like to say that I am a white woman and I haven't had the experiences of a POC. One of Our Kind is written by one of my favorite authors and centers around Black injustice, this book was not written for me/about my experiences. Please consider looking up reviews by Black readers.
I did not like this book. I'm feeling very uncomfortable after reading this, and not because of what you think. One of Our Kind is marketed to be like Get Out which I'm sure everyone has watched or heard of. I understand why it's being marketed like that, but it shouldn't be. I honestly don't know what the point of this book was. The main character, Jasmyn, was so unbearably unlikeable. She is constantly stating how to uplift the Black community, but then literally throughout the entire book is judging Black people based off of their hair, skin, how they interact with one another, whether or not they're in social justice groups. Which boggled my mind and made me constantly second guess what the point of this book was.
This is the author's first adult novel and it just wasn't it in the writing aspect. The characters felt very flat and honestly were written like they were from a YA novel. It felt very surface level for all the characters.
The ending is honestly what makes me feel so icky and unsettled. I truly have no idea what Yoon was trying to go for with the ending... but it just doesn't make sense. It felt very Anti-Black and felt very "Black people are wrong for everything".
I've never felt more uncomfortable reading a book and I just don't have anything positive to say. Again, please read other reviews.
I did not like this book. I'm feeling very uncomfortable after reading this, and not because of what you think. One of Our Kind is marketed to be like Get Out which I'm sure everyone has watched or heard of. I understand why it's being marketed like that, but it shouldn't be. I honestly don't know what the point of this book was. The main character, Jasmyn, was so unbearably unlikeable. She is constantly stating how to uplift the Black community, but then literally throughout the entire book is judging Black people based off of their hair, skin, how they interact with one another, whether or not they're in social justice groups. Which boggled my mind and made me constantly second guess what the point of this book was.
This is the author's first adult novel and it just wasn't it in the writing aspect. The characters felt very flat and honestly were written like they were from a YA novel. It felt very surface level for all the characters.
The ending is honestly what makes me feel so icky and unsettled. I truly have no idea what Yoon was trying to go for with the ending... but it just doesn't make sense. It felt very Anti-Black and felt very "Black people are wrong for everything".
I've never felt more uncomfortable reading a book and I just don't have anything positive to say. Again, please read other reviews.
June 24, 2024
My first time reading Nicola Yoon because the premise sounded so great! I ended up not loving the book, though, for a couple of reasons.
The main character, Jasmyn, was pretty much only identified by her day to day trauma of reading news feeds and generalized ideas about what “Real Black People” should feel, so I didn’t have a great sense of her an individual Black woman at all. She seemed more like a bundle of statements than an actual person. So while I understood intellectually the horror element in this Stepford Wives scenario, it felt removed and impersonal.
The key to horror you can feel is making it personal, and because of the way Jasmyn was portrayed that element was lacking. The unfortunate result was a story that was only slightly interesting instead of sharply revelatory as intended. In comparison to how the film Get Out and books like The Other Black Girl brought the intersection of race and horror together, One of Our Kind felt insubstantial.
I wouldn’t say don’t read it, only that it doesn’t totally deliver and you may end up feeling slightly unsatisfied by what is missing.
The main character, Jasmyn, was pretty much only identified by her day to day trauma of reading news feeds and generalized ideas about what “Real Black People” should feel, so I didn’t have a great sense of her an individual Black woman at all. She seemed more like a bundle of statements than an actual person. So while I understood intellectually the horror element in this Stepford Wives scenario, it felt removed and impersonal.
The key to horror you can feel is making it personal, and because of the way Jasmyn was portrayed that element was lacking. The unfortunate result was a story that was only slightly interesting instead of sharply revelatory as intended. In comparison to how the film Get Out and books like The Other Black Girl brought the intersection of race and horror together, One of Our Kind felt insubstantial.
I wouldn’t say don’t read it, only that it doesn’t totally deliver and you may end up feeling slightly unsatisfied by what is missing.
June 29, 2024
I wanna say that I love Nicola Yoon. And I will buy her other works. But this wasn’t it.
It was so heavy handed, it makes me wonder if Nicola is just chronically online constantly retweeting Twitter activists. Because this book is giving chronically online.
Two things:
-Capitalism and racism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are closely related. Why do you think slavery started in the first place???
-Rest is a form of resistance. As an activist, it is not nor will it ever be selfish to just practice self care. SELF CARE IS COMMUNITY CARE. And I, for one, feel it is ASTRONOMICALLY anti-black to even hint at the notion that Black people don’t deserve rest. Because yes the fuck we do given what we go through.
Sigh. This book made me tired. Like physically tired. Jasmyn was not likable nor relatable to me. Nobody in this novel was, I fear.
Get Out was amazing because Jordan Peele was making fun of the interactions he’s had with his wife’s family whilst they were dating. The Stepford Wives took a very close look at second wave feminism and how it makes men feel like they’re useless and how women are terrified of being reduced to strict domesticity.
What is Nicola saying here?? Who is this novel for? I bought this book thinking she was going to take a closer look at the Black Elites v poor black people. But no. She didn’t. And I was reduced to an odd theme of “black elites wanna be white.” Which isn’t true, believe it or not. Not for all of them.
Black Elites are black. They have traumas like the rest of us. And there are specific nuances to their elitist behavior. This book could’ve done a real good job of analyzing how black elites are so traumatized from scrounging to get where they are that they hide behind their wealth. Or how they are afraid of being overly policed again if they try to stay closely connected to their poor backgrounds. But again, that’s not what we got.
Tbh, idk what we got. Just 200+ pages of anti-black rhetoric. Assimilation isn’t the answer. Never was. Never will be. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING BLACK!!!!
And we are more than the trauma we face.
It was so heavy handed, it makes me wonder if Nicola is just chronically online constantly retweeting Twitter activists. Because this book is giving chronically online.
Two things:
-Capitalism and racism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are closely related. Why do you think slavery started in the first place???
-Rest is a form of resistance. As an activist, it is not nor will it ever be selfish to just practice self care. SELF CARE IS COMMUNITY CARE. And I, for one, feel it is ASTRONOMICALLY anti-black to even hint at the notion that Black people don’t deserve rest. Because yes the fuck we do given what we go through.
Sigh. This book made me tired. Like physically tired. Jasmyn was not likable nor relatable to me. Nobody in this novel was, I fear.
Get Out was amazing because Jordan Peele was making fun of the interactions he’s had with his wife’s family whilst they were dating. The Stepford Wives took a very close look at second wave feminism and how it makes men feel like they’re useless and how women are terrified of being reduced to strict domesticity.
What is Nicola saying here?? Who is this novel for? I bought this book thinking she was going to take a closer look at the Black Elites v poor black people. But no. She didn’t. And I was reduced to an odd theme of “black elites wanna be white.” Which isn’t true, believe it or not. Not for all of them.
Black Elites are black. They have traumas like the rest of us. And there are specific nuances to their elitist behavior. This book could’ve done a real good job of analyzing how black elites are so traumatized from scrounging to get where they are that they hide behind their wealth. Or how they are afraid of being overly policed again if they try to stay closely connected to their poor backgrounds. But again, that’s not what we got.
Tbh, idk what we got. Just 200+ pages of anti-black rhetoric. Assimilation isn’t the answer. Never was. Never will be. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING BLACK!!!!
And we are more than the trauma we face.
April 8, 2024
Jasmyn was easily likeable, but at times I felt she was very judgmental towards her own race. I did like how King at times pointed this out, because I was thinking it as well. I could see at times with the side characters how off putting Jasmyn could come off being a social justice warrior. Jasmyn made valid points, and at times I felt like I was watching a tennis match with the back and forth with her and some of the characters. I also identified and related to alot of the racial commentary in this one.
I could not put this one down until I knew exactly what was going on in Liberty. I knew something sinister was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what. I thought I knew the direction this book was taking me, but Nicola Yoon pleasantly surprised me with the reveal and the ending. This book had all the Get Out and Stepford Wives vibes and I was here for it.
I could not put this one down until I knew exactly what was going on in Liberty. I knew something sinister was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what. I thought I knew the direction this book was taking me, but Nicola Yoon pleasantly surprised me with the reveal and the ending. This book had all the Get Out and Stepford Wives vibes and I was here for it.
June 5, 2024
I put this book off for a long time, because I wasn’t sure it was for me. This has pretty low reviews, and most of the one and two star reviews seem to be by Black people. They feel the Black author got it wrong, but I felt like this was fantastically creepy while also being very thoughtful. I didn’t see the ending as the author’s wish - I saw it as a major part of the horror in this horror story.
Kingston, his pregnant wife Jasmyn and their six-year-old son Kamau have moved to the “Black utopia” of Liberty, California. Both from Compton, they are now very wealthy and can afford this type of community, but Jasmyn had doubts. She wants to keep her roots strong and not forget where she came from. As a Black woman and public defender, she sees inequality daily, and she’s a strong advocate for social change.
After an encounter with a white officer, she succumbs and agrees to move there, despite feeling guilt about her new lot in life. It doesn’t take long for her to realize the Black people in her new community are different (though she does meet a couple of like-minded activist friends). She can’t get anyone to join their new Black Lives Matter group, most of the people who live there pass the “paper bag test”, most of the women relax their hair, the neighborhood Wellness Center has armed guards and locking rooms, a plastic surgeon in Liberty seems to be thinning people’s noses and lips, and nobody seems to care about a recent incident in LA, where a traffic stop ended with a Black man dead, and his daughter gravely injured. Not only that, King has started to change. He’s no longer mentoring inner-city kids in his spare time, instead spending his time at the Wellness Center. He’s shaved down his Afro, doesn’t want to get into conversations about race, and he gets uncomfortable when they leave the neighborhood.
This story was social horror at its finest. The ending was completely shocking, but the book itself is also fantastic. The plot is unique, the characters are great, and are also news articles that give you insight into the other people in Liberty, and those were quite revealing. As a white woman, I know I read and felt this differently than Black women, but I also know I can’t change that. I encourage any Person Of Color who reads this to chime in. I’m giving it five stars for creativity, creepiness and the way it had me thinking.
(Thank you to Knopf, Nicola Yoon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on June 11, 2024.)
Kingston, his pregnant wife Jasmyn and their six-year-old son Kamau have moved to the “Black utopia” of Liberty, California. Both from Compton, they are now very wealthy and can afford this type of community, but Jasmyn had doubts. She wants to keep her roots strong and not forget where she came from. As a Black woman and public defender, she sees inequality daily, and she’s a strong advocate for social change.
After an encounter with a white officer, she succumbs and agrees to move there, despite feeling guilt about her new lot in life. It doesn’t take long for her to realize the Black people in her new community are different (though she does meet a couple of like-minded activist friends). She can’t get anyone to join their new Black Lives Matter group, most of the people who live there pass the “paper bag test”, most of the women relax their hair, the neighborhood Wellness Center has armed guards and locking rooms, a plastic surgeon in Liberty seems to be thinning people’s noses and lips, and nobody seems to care about a recent incident in LA, where a traffic stop ended with a Black man dead, and his daughter gravely injured. Not only that, King has started to change. He’s no longer mentoring inner-city kids in his spare time, instead spending his time at the Wellness Center. He’s shaved down his Afro, doesn’t want to get into conversations about race, and he gets uncomfortable when they leave the neighborhood.
This story was social horror at its finest. The ending was completely shocking, but the book itself is also fantastic. The plot is unique, the characters are great, and are also news articles that give you insight into the other people in Liberty, and those were quite revealing. As a white woman, I know I read and felt this differently than Black women, but I also know I can’t change that. I encourage any Person Of Color who reads this to chime in. I’m giving it five stars for creativity, creepiness and the way it had me thinking.
(Thank you to Knopf, Nicola Yoon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on June 11, 2024.)
June 7, 2024
Wow, my thoughts are reeling after finishing this book. Though it's not your typical fast-paced mystery thriller, I have to say I was extremely intrigued to get to the end and find out what was going on. It left me with a very unsettled feeling that I have to believe is intentional. At the same time, I was left with a lot of questions about the point of the book (and whether I was even equipped to understand the point). After reading other early reviews, I have to agree and support the many BIPOC readers who are uncomfortable with this book's message and how much unchallenged anti-Blackness was within the pages (especially at the very end). This is written by a Black author and I believe is intended to be satire.. but it's hard to get on-board with a book that so many own-voice readers and reviewers have such issue with. I think I'll have to look in to author interviews and additional reviews that come out to get a firmer grip on my opinions of the book.
Read
June 26, 2024Wow these Goodreads ratings are low. What to make of it?
First off, One of Our Kind is not a thriller but more of a slow burn suspense story. It's pitched as Stepford Wives meets Get Out and I could see the parallels to The Stepford Wives with racism replacing misogyny.
I am reading the book from my (white) perspective but I thought Stepford offered a more cohesive and chilling commentary. The Stepford Wives was published in the early 1970s, an era of second wave feminism, "Women's Lib" and women lobbying for the ERA (equal rights amendment). In The Stepford Wives, the male characters are angry/fearful/uneasy about this change. The story exaggerates this fear in a very creepy and disturbing way. These husbands don't want feminist wives, they want regressive/robotic wives, and are willing to go to ANY lengths to make that happen. The husbands are the clear villains of The Stepford Wives, making it lean toward domestic suspense, and it does make strong points about men and gender relations. So I wondered why One of Our Kind, which follows the premise closely, felt so different to me.
In her acknowledgments, the author says the goal of the book is that it "inspires you to have thoughtful conversations inside your circles and outside of them as well." I am hoping to find some thoughtful commentary as I was left extremely confused as to what overall point the book was trying to make.
What the book did convey well (to me) is 1) how painful it is to watch people in your community suffer unfairly and 2) how painful it is when you care deeply about that suffering and feel that other people around you don't seem to have that same concern or emotional investment and you think they are acting in ways that go against their best interest. I see a lot of that anguish in today's world, and it's a complex topic. But I see that other reviewers found that Jasmyn's pain also resulted in her turning that outward and becoming extremely judgmental of the way other Black characters acted, something that as a white reader didn't occur to me.
Subscribe to my amazing newsletter HERE at JenRyland.com Let's be friends on Bookstagram!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
First off, One of Our Kind is not a thriller but more of a slow burn suspense story. It's pitched as Stepford Wives meets Get Out and I could see the parallels to The Stepford Wives with racism replacing misogyny.
I am reading the book from my (white) perspective but I thought Stepford offered a more cohesive and chilling commentary. The Stepford Wives was published in the early 1970s, an era of second wave feminism, "Women's Lib" and women lobbying for the ERA (equal rights amendment). In The Stepford Wives, the male characters are angry/fearful/uneasy about this change. The story exaggerates this fear in a very creepy and disturbing way. These husbands don't want feminist wives, they want regressive/robotic wives, and are willing to go to ANY lengths to make that happen. The husbands are the clear villains of The Stepford Wives, making it lean toward domestic suspense, and it does make strong points about men and gender relations. So I wondered why One of Our Kind, which follows the premise closely, felt so different to me.
In her acknowledgments, the author says the goal of the book is that it "inspires you to have thoughtful conversations inside your circles and outside of them as well." I am hoping to find some thoughtful commentary as I was left extremely confused as to what overall point the book was trying to make.
What the book did convey well (to me) is 1) how painful it is to watch people in your community suffer unfairly and 2) how painful it is when you care deeply about that suffering and feel that other people around you don't seem to have that same concern or emotional investment and you think they are acting in ways that go against their best interest. I see a lot of that anguish in today's world, and it's a complex topic. But I see that other reviewers found that Jasmyn's pain also resulted in her turning that outward and becoming extremely judgmental of the way other Black characters acted, something that as a white reader didn't occur to me.
Subscribe to my amazing newsletter HERE at JenRyland.com Let's be friends on Bookstagram!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
July 15, 2024
Best-selling young-adult author Nicola Yoon has released her first novel for adult readers, and it’s a doozy — a creepy tale of suburban suspense set against a backdrop of racism and police brutality.
“One of Our Kind” tells the story of Jasmyn and King Williams, who move to a purposefully designed Black utopia known as Liberty, California. Jasmyn is expecting the couple’s second child, another son, and she appreciates living in a community where her boys don’t have to worry about being profiled or harassed for the color of their skin.
Jasmyn works as a public defender. And as the family settles into the new neighborhood, she feels torn between her life of privilege and her instinct to fight for social justice. When she tries to start a Black Lives Matter chapter in Liberty, she realizes that most of the residents would rather book spa treatments at the town’s wellness center than protest racial injustice. Little by little, she starts feeling like something’s not quite right.
This novel gives off serious “Get Out” vibes, along with “The Stepford Wives” and any number of other psychological thrillers that keep you guessing at what’s going on beneath the surface. Yoon’s characters talk honestly about race and the various strategies of speaking out or fitting in. When Jasmyn ponders why some women straighten their hair rather than embracing natural hairstyles, her husband deems her “Blacker than thou.”
Artful writing and pacing sustain the tension to the very end. And this is a story you’ll want to talk about afterward.
----------
I review books every Monday for KMUW, the NPR affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. Here's where to find them:
https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review
“One of Our Kind” tells the story of Jasmyn and King Williams, who move to a purposefully designed Black utopia known as Liberty, California. Jasmyn is expecting the couple’s second child, another son, and she appreciates living in a community where her boys don’t have to worry about being profiled or harassed for the color of their skin.
Jasmyn works as a public defender. And as the family settles into the new neighborhood, she feels torn between her life of privilege and her instinct to fight for social justice. When she tries to start a Black Lives Matter chapter in Liberty, she realizes that most of the residents would rather book spa treatments at the town’s wellness center than protest racial injustice. Little by little, she starts feeling like something’s not quite right.
This novel gives off serious “Get Out” vibes, along with “The Stepford Wives” and any number of other psychological thrillers that keep you guessing at what’s going on beneath the surface. Yoon’s characters talk honestly about race and the various strategies of speaking out or fitting in. When Jasmyn ponders why some women straighten their hair rather than embracing natural hairstyles, her husband deems her “Blacker than thou.”
Artful writing and pacing sustain the tension to the very end. And this is a story you’ll want to talk about afterward.
----------
I review books every Monday for KMUW, the NPR affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. Here's where to find them:
https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review
April 10, 2024
Props to an author who isn’t afraid to stir things up!
Looking at the current reviews, the author has already managed to get people feeling some kind of way – both positive and negative.
Now, I didn’t like Jasmyn. And Jasmyn? Well, I don’t think she would have liked me. But I sure did like reading her.
Our plot is fun, our bougie community is absolutely bizarre, and the truth behind everything was incredibly sad. Even if you haven’t lived Jasmyn’s life, you feel for her and wish the world were different.
I did think some things were a little too obvious – but it also may be that I went into this already knowing what this was being compared to. I kind of wish I’d gone in blind.
Entertaining and relevant!
• ARC via Publisher
Looking at the current reviews, the author has already managed to get people feeling some kind of way – both positive and negative.
Now, I didn’t like Jasmyn. And Jasmyn? Well, I don’t think she would have liked me. But I sure did like reading her.
Our plot is fun, our bougie community is absolutely bizarre, and the truth behind everything was incredibly sad. Even if you haven’t lived Jasmyn’s life, you feel for her and wish the world were different.
I did think some things were a little too obvious – but it also may be that I went into this already knowing what this was being compared to. I kind of wish I’d gone in blind.
Entertaining and relevant!
• ARC via Publisher
June 12, 2024
I loved the pitch for One of Our Kind, Nicola Yoon's adult debut: it was billed as The Stepford Wives meets Get Out. But while I think there are some potentially interesting ideas here, something went very wrong in the writing of it. One of Our Kind follows Jasmyn, a public defender who moves with her husband and son to an all-Black community in a suburb of Los Angeles. The Liberty community is wealthy, glossy, happy and obsessed with self-care, and Jasmyn doesn't fit in - nobody seems to share her concerns about institutional racism and police violence. Is something wrong in Liberty? So far, so Stepford Wives - and indeed, the majority of this novel sticks so closely to the way that Ira Levin's original plot plays out that it feels intensely lazy But One of Our Kind not only misunderstands what makes The Stepford Wives such a hauntingly tense and brilliant horror novel but goes even more badly wrong.
In short, as many Black women have already said better than I can (check out Casey's review and Bri's review), the problem with this novel is Jasmyn. She is entirely defined by her focus on Black trauma and racism. She writes off other Black women if they don't have natural hair, don't watch videos of police violence against Black people or dare to take any time for themselves rather than participating full-time in the struggle. In short, she feels like she was written by somebody who wanted to mock and belittle Black activism and Black fear rather than somebody who wants to take it seriously, as Yoon clearly does. The only thing I can think to compare it to is the way that some terrible thriller writers depict evil environmental activists who are selfishly obsessed with the environment and for some reason care about the future of humanity rather than just themselves. It's actually that bad.
I tried so hard to read Jasmyn as a satire but it's obviously not Yoon's intention. This becomes increasingly obvious as the book continues, because things get even worse. The twist is pretty obvious but, if we are primed to read Jasmyn as unreliable and problematic, it starts feeling like the book is promoting this as a reasonable choice, which again, is clearly not what Yoon wants to say. This is also where the thoughtless copying of the plot beats of The Stepford Wives comes back to bite her. The Stepford Wives works because it tapped into the primal fears of both men and women on the cusp of second-wave feminism. The men in the novel fear being made obsolete by their independent wives. The women in the novel fear following the paths of the women they see around them and collapsing suddenly into domesticity, becoming the trapped housewives that Betty Friedan wrote about in The Feminine Mystique, published eight years before The Stepford Wives. It's terrifying because, for the female characters, their fears come true in the most literal way.
Of course, there was potential for Yoon to do what she's said she wanted to do in One of Our Kind, and write a version of Stepford that is about race, but in order to do that, she needed to deviate further from her template. We know that her characters rightly fear the racist society they live in, and it makes sense that some of them are so traumatised that they seek the Libertyford solution, but because the power dynamics are obviously different between the Black couples in this novel, it just doesn't work if we keep the same plot.
In short, I wish this had been written by a much better writer, and I strongly recommend reading the reviews I linked above, which dig into the harmful anti-blackness of this novel.
I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.
In short, as many Black women have already said better than I can (check out Casey's review and Bri's review), the problem with this novel is Jasmyn. She is entirely defined by her focus on Black trauma and racism. She writes off other Black women if they don't have natural hair, don't watch videos of police violence against Black people or dare to take any time for themselves rather than participating full-time in the struggle. In short, she feels like she was written by somebody who wanted to mock and belittle Black activism and Black fear rather than somebody who wants to take it seriously, as Yoon clearly does. The only thing I can think to compare it to is the way that some terrible thriller writers depict evil environmental activists who are selfishly obsessed with the environment and for some reason care about the future of humanity rather than just themselves. It's actually that bad.
I tried so hard to read Jasmyn as a satire but it's obviously not Yoon's intention. This becomes increasingly obvious as the book continues, because things get even worse. The twist is pretty obvious but, if we are primed to read Jasmyn as unreliable and problematic, it starts feeling like the book is promoting this as a reasonable choice, which again, is clearly not what Yoon wants to say. This is also where the thoughtless copying of the plot beats of The Stepford Wives comes back to bite her. The Stepford Wives works because it tapped into the primal fears of both men and women on the cusp of second-wave feminism. The men in the novel fear being made obsolete by their independent wives. The women in the novel fear following the paths of the women they see around them and collapsing suddenly into domesticity, becoming the trapped housewives that Betty Friedan wrote about in The Feminine Mystique, published eight years before The Stepford Wives. It's terrifying because, for the female characters, their fears come true in the most literal way.
Of course, there was potential for Yoon to do what she's said she wanted to do in One of Our Kind, and write a version of Stepford that is about race, but in order to do that, she needed to deviate further from her template. We know that her characters rightly fear the racist society they live in, and it makes sense that some of them are so traumatised that they seek the Libertyford solution, but because the power dynamics are obviously different between the Black couples in this novel, it just doesn't work if we keep the same plot.
In short, I wish this had been written by a much better writer, and I strongly recommend reading the reviews I linked above, which dig into the harmful anti-blackness of this novel.
I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.
June 15, 2024
Thank you, Netgalley, for providing an eARC of this book.
I am very confused about who the audience is supposed to be for this book. I am also not sure what the author's goal was for this story.
I spent most of this book typing notes about my thoughts about what I was reading, and now that I've gotten to the end of the novel and writing my review, I feel stumped! Like, what exactly was this??
I'm going to try to give a general overview as there were two many nuances in this book to be addressed in this written post.
We have a FMC (who is quite abrasive, judgmental, and unlikeable), who spends her entire existence in a cycle of racial trauma. Whether it's direct or secondary exposure, she has physical visceral reactions to those traumatic events but refuses disconnect in any way for any period of time. Note, the FMC, Jasmine, is heavily pregnant throughout this book while she is being a social justice race warrior, inviting others to join her at protests and refusing the put the health and wellbeing of her unborn child first. She goes around judging every woman in this book based on their hair texture, shade of darkness, and determines their level of Blackness based on their level of community activism, and emotional reactions / lack thereof to viral racial injustice videos. The number of times I read the term 'paper bag test' in this novel was boarding on nauseating.
There is a message in this book that the only self-care for black people is community-care. If a black person is not actively dedicating all of their time outside of working hours to community activism, then their free time is being wasted. There is too much work to be done for black people to think they have free time. Spa days and anything of the like that takes away from the trauma of being black in America is wasteful, unnecessary, and ridiculous.
On the flip side of this experience, the other characters in this book have been so irreparably traumatized by racism and police brutality that they have chosen to ☆¤SPOILER ALERT¤☆ become white. yes, you read that correctly. So the few times we, as the reader, get to experience something outside of the FMC's thoughts, aka, a feriswheel of trauma, we are met with cardboard characters who are striving to be white as a solution to racism. These sideline characters have no depth or development. It was so hard to remember exactly who they were after not hearing / seeing them for a couple of chapters. It felt like their only purpose was to give Jasmine a reason to imbue us with history lessons and ie more reasons to be relentless in the 'fight', or to spew thoughts the readers was probably having and ie give Jasmine a chance to respond to critiques. Sadly, these character conversations never went deep enough to present any balanced discourse. Even her husband, King, has no real character. We don't see anything worthwhile or interesting from him until the very end it happens in one short scene.
At the end of the novel, Jasmyn makes the statement, "Blackness is not something you can erase. It's more than just skin color. It's who I am. It's in my blood. In my culture. In my memory." 😒🤔🙄Ma'am! You've spent this entire book judging every single woman's blackness on whether or not her hair was worn in an afro and her skin complexion, but NOW you want to take about blackness being more than an outward physical representation??? Like be for fucking real!!! And then!!! We get a conclusion that basically says white is right. Smh
So again, I ask, who exactly was this book written for? And what message is the author actually trying to send?
I am very confused about who the audience is supposed to be for this book. I am also not sure what the author's goal was for this story.
I spent most of this book typing notes about my thoughts about what I was reading, and now that I've gotten to the end of the novel and writing my review, I feel stumped! Like, what exactly was this??
I'm going to try to give a general overview as there were two many nuances in this book to be addressed in this written post.
We have a FMC (who is quite abrasive, judgmental, and unlikeable), who spends her entire existence in a cycle of racial trauma. Whether it's direct or secondary exposure, she has physical visceral reactions to those traumatic events but refuses disconnect in any way for any period of time. Note, the FMC, Jasmine, is heavily pregnant throughout this book while she is being a social justice race warrior, inviting others to join her at protests and refusing the put the health and wellbeing of her unborn child first. She goes around judging every woman in this book based on their hair texture, shade of darkness, and determines their level of Blackness based on their level of community activism, and emotional reactions / lack thereof to viral racial injustice videos. The number of times I read the term 'paper bag test' in this novel was boarding on nauseating.
There is a message in this book that the only self-care for black people is community-care. If a black person is not actively dedicating all of their time outside of working hours to community activism, then their free time is being wasted. There is too much work to be done for black people to think they have free time. Spa days and anything of the like that takes away from the trauma of being black in America is wasteful, unnecessary, and ridiculous.
On the flip side of this experience, the other characters in this book have been so irreparably traumatized by racism and police brutality that they have chosen to ☆¤SPOILER ALERT¤☆ become white. yes, you read that correctly. So the few times we, as the reader, get to experience something outside of the FMC's thoughts, aka, a feriswheel of trauma, we are met with cardboard characters who are striving to be white as a solution to racism. These sideline characters have no depth or development. It was so hard to remember exactly who they were after not hearing / seeing them for a couple of chapters. It felt like their only purpose was to give Jasmine a reason to imbue us with history lessons and ie more reasons to be relentless in the 'fight', or to spew thoughts the readers was probably having and ie give Jasmine a chance to respond to critiques. Sadly, these character conversations never went deep enough to present any balanced discourse. Even her husband, King, has no real character. We don't see anything worthwhile or interesting from him until the very end it happens in one short scene.
At the end of the novel, Jasmyn makes the statement, "Blackness is not something you can erase. It's more than just skin color. It's who I am. It's in my blood. In my culture. In my memory." 😒🤔🙄Ma'am! You've spent this entire book judging every single woman's blackness on whether or not her hair was worn in an afro and her skin complexion, but NOW you want to take about blackness being more than an outward physical representation??? Like be for fucking real!!! And then!!! We get a conclusion that basically says white is right. Smh
So again, I ask, who exactly was this book written for? And what message is the author actually trying to send?
June 16, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up
Plot: What is Blackness? what does it mean to be Black? Is there a such thing as a Black utopia, will that ever exist?
Pace: Fast — very easy to get to the first 50% and makes it so intriguing you can’t wait to see how it ends.
POV: 3rd Person
Review: I would recommend this book for everyone really — Black people and for those who aren’t. This novel was very thought provoking as a Black woman. I often flashed back to my own experiences when protesting or experiencing racism (both micro and macro aggressions) while reading. I think this would be perfect for all of us to reflect on and how we show up or don’t in those instances. There is a pull and tug of always doing the work vs having peace. Could we ever truly know what rest and peace is, if someone in our community, some one we know, or love — even us personally — is experiencing cruel injustice? How can both realities exist — how can we experience peace when we still struggle?
TLDR: Overall very well written, thought-provoking book that I recommend EVERYONE to read. Exploring what Blackness means, and can peace ever truly be obtained?
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers (Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor) for allowing me to read the ARC of this novel and leave an unbiased review.
Plot: What is Blackness? what does it mean to be Black? Is there a such thing as a Black utopia, will that ever exist?
Pace: Fast — very easy to get to the first 50% and makes it so intriguing you can’t wait to see how it ends.
POV: 3rd Person
Review: I would recommend this book for everyone really — Black people and for those who aren’t. This novel was very thought provoking as a Black woman. I often flashed back to my own experiences when protesting or experiencing racism (both micro and macro aggressions) while reading. I think this would be perfect for all of us to reflect on and how we show up or don’t in those instances. There is a pull and tug of always doing the work vs having peace. Could we ever truly know what rest and peace is, if someone in our community, some one we know, or love — even us personally — is experiencing cruel injustice? How can both realities exist — how can we experience peace when we still struggle?
TLDR: Overall very well written, thought-provoking book that I recommend EVERYONE to read. Exploring what Blackness means, and can peace ever truly be obtained?
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers (Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor) for allowing me to read the ARC of this novel and leave an unbiased review.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 563 reviews