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ahayes15's review
3.5
It was kind of a page turner but had some plot points that made it unredeemable imo. But definitely still an important part of history to study and learn about
missbaughn's review against another edition
5.0
First off.. this is a MUST read especially if you are from Tulsa like I am! The book had my all in every emotion possible I believe. What happened in 1921 is sickening and a disgrace. Hoping some day we can be Magic City again!!
hskrkelle's review against another edition
3.0
This book had a lot of moving parts as it developed a fictional account of the factual event of the Tulsa Race Massacre. A little “out there” at times with the magic and psychic themes, but it kept my interest all the way to the end.
lindseysparks's review
4.0
Despite living in Oklahoma all my life I know very little about Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Riots. I knew they existed, but beyond that not much. This brought history to life, with the poor white girl and the wealthy black boy who end up in an elevator together and cause a riot. The characters aren't based on the real people, but the outcome is the same in the novel as it was in real life. This wasn't even 100 years ago! This would be a great book to do for a statewide read in 2021.
notesonbookmarks's review
4.0
This book is being re-issued, which is how it landed on my radar. I wanted it to be the ownvoices replacement for Dreamland Burning, but it was much darker and had far more sex than that one, so it can't slide quite into that spot. But I did really like it, even though one white character has quite a bit of white saviorism on her shoulders.
uhhadrianna's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
openmypages's review against another edition
4.0
"There's misunderstandings at times. A woman might say no when she means yes. Now isn't that right? You might encourage a man without realizing it."
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Do you want to know more about the Tulsa massacre but have a hard time reading history or heavy historical fiction? Well, then I would suggest Magic City to you. In honor of the 100 year anniversary @harperperennial is re-releasing Magic City, a fictionalization of the events that happened to cause the race riot and subsequent horror. It's easily readable and tackles a really impactful moment in America's history that has not properly gotten recognition.
In this story we see two people who are marginalized in every way, they are both treated as second class citizens even in their own families. On May 31st, they both flee their homes and end up on a collision course that changes Tulsa forever. When a misunderstanding leads to Joe Samuel being accused of raping Mary Keane, there is nothing she can do to rectify the situation. Joe, is a young kid obsessed with Houdini and living in the shadow of his brother's death, we see is precociousness and how his father tried and failed to empart to him that while they were successful Black Americans, one generation away from slavery made life as a black man in Tulsa dangerous. Mary was raped by a white farm hand that morning using her as a chess piece to get ahold of her father's farm, learns that her word as a woman means nothing in the world. Not only would she not get justice for herself, but she would unknowingly condemn Joe and every black man in the city.
We see the witch hunt go out of control and the unbelievable brutality of "white justice" in the 1920s. You will empathize with both of these ill-fated individuals for the actions that led to the worst moments in their lives and you will be outraged at the blind injustice. It's important to remember these moments in history so we are not doomed to repeat them.
Thanks to Harper Perennial for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.
------------------------
Do you want to know more about the Tulsa massacre but have a hard time reading history or heavy historical fiction? Well, then I would suggest Magic City to you. In honor of the 100 year anniversary @harperperennial is re-releasing Magic City, a fictionalization of the events that happened to cause the race riot and subsequent horror. It's easily readable and tackles a really impactful moment in America's history that has not properly gotten recognition.
In this story we see two people who are marginalized in every way, they are both treated as second class citizens even in their own families. On May 31st, they both flee their homes and end up on a collision course that changes Tulsa forever. When a misunderstanding leads to Joe Samuel being accused of raping Mary Keane, there is nothing she can do to rectify the situation. Joe, is a young kid obsessed with Houdini and living in the shadow of his brother's death, we see is precociousness and how his father tried and failed to empart to him that while they were successful Black Americans, one generation away from slavery made life as a black man in Tulsa dangerous. Mary was raped by a white farm hand that morning using her as a chess piece to get ahold of her father's farm, learns that her word as a woman means nothing in the world. Not only would she not get justice for herself, but she would unknowingly condemn Joe and every black man in the city.
We see the witch hunt go out of control and the unbelievable brutality of "white justice" in the 1920s. You will empathize with both of these ill-fated individuals for the actions that led to the worst moments in their lives and you will be outraged at the blind injustice. It's important to remember these moments in history so we are not doomed to repeat them.
Thanks to Harper Perennial for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.
greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition
2.0
I haven’t disliked a book this much in a while. I’m at a loss here. I don’t understand why this has such a wildly high rating. The Tulsa riots are absolutely a neglected topic that deserve stories, but Greenwood didn’t deserve whatever this is. I’m glad it led me to read more about it - to essentially get the “real story” - but I … I mean, I hated this.
The writing was just bad. I don’t know how else to put it. Here is an example of the dialogue:
“Mary! Oh Mary. Can I get you some toast, Mary? Mary, would you like some milk? Mary, oh Mary. Mary, I’ll take care of you, Mary.”
Repeat ad nauseam with every character - it was bizarre; who talks like that? Who repeats the name of the people they’re retaking to over and over and over?
Every single character was a stick caricature with no depth at all. Allen relates to the plight of Black Americans because he’s albino? That’s insulting beyond belief.
A local white Sheriff is deeply concerned with justice in a department where everyone else is in the Klan, and WHY he is so enlightened is never explored, so it makes no sense.
There is an extremely graphic rape scene that is written with the same vibes as a Harlequin romance scene, and some forty pages after a brutal rape, Mary Keane is tossed into a potential love story with a character we/she just met.
There are side plots involving the War (WWI) that serve as massive crude trauma dumps with no reckoning or resolution following. There are actually FREQUENT long narratives of trauma that seem to exist just to be ghoulish with no intricate connection to the story.
Joe is obsessed with Houdini in a rambling way that doesn’t connect because it isn’t fleshed out. The magical realism suddenly sprinkled into this story is garish and clumsy and weird and detracts from the seriousness of what happened.
This whole thing is just a mess. It’s a three ring circus of shallow inserts, cringe dialogue, and characterization so poor that none of the motivations of any characters make sense - the acts of “heroism” from the white characters don’t make any contextual sense because the reasons behind why they’ve managed to break the mold of the horrific raciest structure they’ve been raised in are never discussed, and failing to address that they’d have had to overcome this is disingenuous and reinforces a myth that some people are just naturally pure and immune to the very prevalent ills of social conditioning.
The Black characters are done a disservice because most of them exist just to die in brutal and graphic ways after spouting off exposition. The choice to sort of give a “both sides” - Joe (Black) and Mary (white) sides of this is just alarming considering it allows white people to feel comfortable and any story revolving around this should make white people SQUIRM with discomfort.
There were a few good sentiments in this, but the overall impact of the book is so weak. I don’t understand what Jewell Parker Rhodes wanted to accomplish here - why not just write a nonfiction account of the Massacre? That’s the treatment this moment in history deserves.
Read literally anything else on race relations. Read Angie Thomas, read Britt Bennet, read Toni Morrison (she captures the violence of racism in America without making it cartoonish), read Alice Walker - don’t read this.
The writing was just bad. I don’t know how else to put it. Here is an example of the dialogue:
“Mary! Oh Mary. Can I get you some toast, Mary? Mary, would you like some milk? Mary, oh Mary. Mary, I’ll take care of you, Mary.”
Repeat ad nauseam with every character - it was bizarre; who talks like that? Who repeats the name of the people they’re retaking to over and over and over?
Every single character was a stick caricature with no depth at all. Allen relates to the plight of Black Americans because he’s albino? That’s insulting beyond belief.
A local white Sheriff is deeply concerned with justice in a department where everyone else is in the Klan, and WHY he is so enlightened is never explored, so it makes no sense.
There is an extremely graphic rape scene that is written with the same vibes as a Harlequin romance scene, and some forty pages after a brutal rape, Mary Keane is tossed into a potential love story with a character we/she just met.
There are side plots involving the War (WWI) that serve as massive crude trauma dumps with no reckoning or resolution following. There are actually FREQUENT long narratives of trauma that seem to exist just to be ghoulish with no intricate connection to the story.
Joe is obsessed with Houdini in a rambling way that doesn’t connect because it isn’t fleshed out. The magical realism suddenly sprinkled into this story is garish and clumsy and weird and detracts from the seriousness of what happened.
This whole thing is just a mess. It’s a three ring circus of shallow inserts, cringe dialogue, and characterization so poor that none of the motivations of any characters make sense - the acts of “heroism” from the white characters don’t make any contextual sense because the reasons behind why they’ve managed to break the mold of the horrific raciest structure they’ve been raised in are never discussed, and failing to address that they’d have had to overcome this is disingenuous and reinforces a myth that some people are just naturally pure and immune to the very prevalent ills of social conditioning.
The Black characters are done a disservice because most of them exist just to die in brutal and graphic ways after spouting off exposition. The choice to sort of give a “both sides” - Joe (Black) and Mary (white) sides of this is just alarming considering it allows white people to feel comfortable and any story revolving around this should make white people SQUIRM with discomfort.
There were a few good sentiments in this, but the overall impact of the book is so weak. I don’t understand what Jewell Parker Rhodes wanted to accomplish here - why not just write a nonfiction account of the Massacre? That’s the treatment this moment in history deserves.
Read literally anything else on race relations. Read Angie Thomas, read Britt Bennet, read Toni Morrison (she captures the violence of racism in America without making it cartoonish), read Alice Walker - don’t read this.
kmhofman's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Racism, and Murder
suvata's review against another edition
3.0
• Scribd audiobook
Based on true events, Magic City takes place in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma. A white woman and a black man get on an elevator. The woman screams and suddenly the man is on the streets—barely ahead of a lynch mob gathering behind him. Accused of rape, aspiring magician Joe is on the run for a crime he didn’t commit—and the woman who’s scream implicated Joe must search for the courage to exonerate him.
Originally published in 1998.
Based on true events, Magic City takes place in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma. A white woman and a black man get on an elevator. The woman screams and suddenly the man is on the streets—barely ahead of a lynch mob gathering behind him. Accused of rape, aspiring magician Joe is on the run for a crime he didn’t commit—and the woman who’s scream implicated Joe must search for the courage to exonerate him.
Originally published in 1998.