Reviews with content warning for Bullying - How Long 'til Black Future Month?

This is a wonderful collection of short stories by NK Jemisin. The content is thus varied and so are the triggers. There’s a good amount of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Magical Realism, even supernatural horror in this collection. It’s not perfect. Some of the stories are arguably too short, basically the germ of an introduction or an idea. Some others are perhaps slightly plodding, though I enjoyed quite a few of the stories regardless of length.

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mar's review against another edition

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medium-paced

5.0

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mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Short story collections are hard to review. What I can say is that each one in this collection was strong, and N.K. Jemisin adapted her style to each one, which was quite impressive. I was so mesmerized by the second story, "The City Born Great", that the next ones paled a little in comparison, but this collection has absolute gems in store. It spans most of the subgenres of speculative fiction, from fantasy to science-fiction to the fantastic with a touch of steampunk. I was especially delighted to read a couple of stories based on food, and was always baffled by the writer's craft. After reading The Fifth Season I knew I could trust Jemisin's longer fiction, but short stories imply quite a different approach and not every novel-writer is a good short-story-writer. Well, Jemisin's collection is a masterclass in itself.

Rep: most MCs are Black, many are queer.

CW: racism, hate crime, bullying, sexual violence, animal death... Not all apply to the same stories, and it can be difficult to keep track of them over such different narratives, so my list is far from exhaustive.

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queer_bookwyrm's review

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious medium-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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: violence, racism, slavery mention, police violence, bullying, suicide, rape mention, child sexual abuse mention, natural disasters

How Long Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin is a collection of her afrofuturist/speculative fiction short stories. Jemisin got the title for this book from one of Janelle Monáe's songs, so this was the perfect way to transition into reading The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe.

All of these stories center Black people and people of color, and Jemisin has so expertly shown us how to include BIPOC into scifi/speculative fiction. She showed us a world that included and adapted for people with disabilities (even though it was done peripherally). She shows us a Utopia while criticizing those who can not conceive of a world without hate and violence. We see stories that clearly reflect some of Jemisin's other work about stone eaters (The Broken Earth trilogy) and cities becoming sentient (The City We Became).

We get some wonderfully unique stories about cooking as a form of alchemy, digital worlds and digital people, alien worlds, winged lizards who bring hurricanes to New Orleans. Like all of Jemisin's work, she hones in on deep and layers themes. She has the kind of writing that I feel like I would only fully understand upon a reread. We get themes on bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, who is seen as valuable and who is disposable.

It was refreshing to read something to so complex after reading so much YA. Jemisin gives you a lot to chew on. If you're new to Jemisin, this might be a good place to start. There was only one story I didn't care for, but I blame that on me on being smart enough to comprehend the genius of N.K. Jemisin 😆.

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