Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - The Prophets

Brutally and beautifully told, The Prophets portrays how love and identity endure and transcend even the most desecrated of places. While Isaiah and Samuel are the worthy leading couple of The Prophets, the novel heavily focuses on the unwanted strength the Black women of the story have been shouldered with, and how they uplift themselves and their families for generations. Each of Jones' characters are fully realized, complex people. He does not shy away from exploring their deepest angers and darkest secrets, pushing us to understand their actions even if we do not, or should not, forgive them. He writes with a style is so lyrical it's almost poetic, and instills wisdom and truth on every page. Throughout the book, Jones unflinchingly depicts the horror of slavery without reveling in it. He tells traumatic scenarios from multiple perspectives and many understandings, shadowing survivors in hope and their perpetrators with terror. This book is sure to become a modern classic, and I'd highly recommend it to others. However, please note the content warnings below.

Content Warnings

charleshasalibrary's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

cait's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Men and toubab shared far more than either would ever admit. Just ask anyone who had ever been at their mercy. They both took what they wanted; asking was never a courtesy. Both smiled first, but pain always followed.

The Prophets is a novel that takes some time to get into. As with many books about slavery, it is a distressing and uncomfortable read. We follow the occupants of a cotton plantation known as Empty as desperation leads one man to Christ and the rest to destruction. Wanting nothing more than to have his sort-of wife be excused from the forced inseminations, Amos decides to appease the plantation owner by turning to Christianity and spreading it amongst the other slaves, grasping particularly onto the "sins" he perceives are being committed by Isaiah and Samuel in the privacy of their barn. Though the duo is known for their hard work and kind natures, being the only men in Empty who don't participate in the forced rape of slave women at their master's command, it isn't long before the members of the community turn on them, just so they can have someone to look down upon.

This is a difficult story to put into words. It is equal parts fascinating and horrifying, beautiful and hideous. The way it delves into generational trauma and blood memory is fascinating. Jones did such an incredible job of fleshing out these characters within their limited amount of designated pages and completing the story so that it circles back in on itself. This is the sort of novel that makes you really think. I've heard it's the kind of story that, if you explore it a second time, you discover was deeper and more detailed than you originally imagined.

But, while this is a story of race and racism, I think that it is also a story of power and misogyny. Like the steps of a ladder: White over black and men over women. As you go down the rungs of the ladder, though, who has the least amount of power: Black women ... or black men who do not obey the "rules" of manhood? And why and by who was it decided that the thing that made these two boys lesser was the fact that they alone never laid a single hand upon anyone unwilling to be touched?

Content Warnings