Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Friday Black

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

63 reviews

booksthatburn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

FRIDAY BLACK is a finely constructed collection of stories which range from simply invoking a certain kind of Black and American existence, to ones where the premise is inextricable from the intersection of these identities.

Some of them have not literally happened but feel like they could if reality got just a little bit worse (or, more awfully, like they’re already here). Others are more speculative, requiring some shift in reality in order to be plausible, or being altogether impossible. In all of them, the relevant social and existential rules are deftly conveyed to build tiny pockets of a different space, in which a story is told that believes its own premise unabashedly and wholeheartedly.

Three of the stories have a shared underlying reality, but I’m not certain whether the others are meant to be connected with them or not. None of the premises are mutually exclusive, but a few would definitely be oddly paired if they canonically coexist. My favorites are “Zimmer Land” (for the way it shows the precarious position of a marginalized employee in a job which objectifies his existence even as it exploits his identity), Friday Black” (for making shopping feel like a zombie story), and “Through the Flash” (for unflinchingly capturing the potential and inevitability of brutality in a certain kind of time loop).

Content Warnings

mateoj's review

Go to review page

challenging dark tense fast-paced

2.0

life tip: 'I should have stopped reading after the one about aborted fetuses' will always be a true statement.

Content Warnings

havelock's review

Go to review page

challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Content Warnings

kyarabereading's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I think Adjei-Brenyah does a good job of mixing in commentary of very real social issues with very absurd elements of fantasy. It's those crazy twists that each story has that really drew me in as a reader and helped me want to find the meaning behind each story. The book covers really dark topics that make you want to put the book down because they can be hard to stomach, but Adjei-Brenyah's writing style is so beautiful and haunting and interesting that I couldn't bring myself to do so. Also, some stories shine more than others, but I think that's expected of any short story collection. Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, and I will definitely be reading it again.

Content Warnings

inmegslibrary's review

Go to review page

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

Content Warnings

adamnoel's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. Some stories sincerely left me breathless. Obviously, they're horror stories, but this was horror not meant to scare the reader, but to leave them truly horrified. More than one story left me anxious, almost nauseated as I contemplated them. More than once, I finished the story and had to put the book down and recoup before starting the next. Adjei-Brenyah wonderfully executed what he set out to do, and I look forward to reading his next release. However, not all stories were as strong as others, sometimes by a wide margin. A few left me mystified as to what the point even was. I suppose they could've been grotesque for the sake of it (which is a valid form of horror, don't get me wrong) but in a book that was so clearly centered on social/political commentary and metaphors that beg you to ponder them later, I felt like some were out of place. But overall, I was really impressed, and what few stories I didn't like were outweighed tenfold by how much I enjoyed the others. Adjei-Brenyah has a really intriguing style and his creativity is intense. Definitely give this book a try if you're on the fence about it!

Content Warnings