Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

13 reviews

imlfox's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, and Gun violence

Moderate: Slavery

jesshindes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

5.0

Massive recommendation from me for My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: it's an absolute banger. It's set in a future America, but not all that future: the electricity's stopped working, food is hard to get hold of, and crews of white nationalists are cruising the streets of Charlottesville brandishing automatic weapons. College student Da'Naisha Love, her grandmother MaViolet, and her white boyfriend Knox take flight, along with a bunch of neighbours from their run-down block, and end up hiding out in the place where Da'Naisha spent last summer working: Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello. Nobody's sure what will happen next. For now, they wait.

My Monticello is a short novel and it drops you straight into the action. Johnson doesn't waste much time setting up the circumstances through which the situation has been reached. She doesn't need to. Instead, she gives you a complex, nuanced set of characters and relationships to get to grips with. You care about Da'Naisha and her neighbours immediately: you fear the instability of their situation, the unknown of what's happening in the city at the bottom of the hill, the certainty that help will not be forthcoming any time soon. There's not a ton of plot to this story - to the extent that I don't want to really say more about the actual events for fear of spoiling - but for me it was a very compelling lens through which to think about contemporary American society. Da'Naisha is descended from Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings so there is obvious significance there in terms of Black history and exploitation but just in general and anyway it's a scary, persuasive variant on post apocalyptic fiction where the apocalypse feels frighteningly imminent. Go and read it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Slavery, and Gun violence

mandkips's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Pregnancy, and Slavery

purplepenning's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Bullying, Gun violence, Racism, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Slavery, Kidnapping, Vomit, and Car accident

lipsmovetheysay's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

so, so good. the kind of speculative fiction i love to read. only complaint is that the titular story took up about half of the length of this short story collection, and i would’ve liked a couple more longer length stories to round this out. still, it’s an incredible debut.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Violence

mangofandango's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? N/A

3.75

I lost the ability to enjoy reading for a little while, sometimes I have anxiety cycles where it feels too hard? My brain is already too full and I spend my time unspooling things rather than attending to reading something. That happened right after I started this book, and it was the wrong book for the moment for me. But the fact that it took me a long time to finish is not a reflection on it, just on my brain! The stories are well done, moving, effective and clear eyed. The titular story could easily have been a novel of its own, but I liked where it left me, too

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Racism

Moderate: Death, Slavery, and Pregnancy

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Grief, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Racism, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Slavery

foreverinastory's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-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

5.0

What an amazing collection of stories.

CWs: Racism, violence, death, gun violence, hate crime, slavery, grief, car accident, pregnancy, ableism, chronic illness (asthma), cursing, infidelity, police brutality, murder, fire. Moderate: Fatphobia, rape, sexual content, war. Minor: adult/minor relationship, sexual assault, blood.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Ableism, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, Gun violence, Death, Hate crime, Slavery, Cursing, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: War, Rape, Sexual content, and Fatphobia

Minor: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

mmccombs's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

Johnson is an author I will be watching out for! Her language is deft and clear, I felt hope drip from each word. Even though every story was devastating in its own way, they also showed all the ways that things are worth fighting for. I kind of wish the main story, My Monticello, stood on its own, though I understand why it was included with proceeding, much shorter stories. I wasn’t as invested in the first handful of stories, it almost felt like it were just biding it’s time for the jewel of the collection, but I did enjoy how everything linked thematically. A truly fantastic debut! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Slavery

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Car accident, Gun violence, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual content and Fatphobia