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clemireads's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Racism
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!
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!
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Pregnancy, and Slavery
lindsayerin's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Violence and Death
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
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
meganelise's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Maybe not light reading, but still so so good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
amberlfaris's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Pregnancy
infinitezest's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
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? No
4.0
The book is worth a read for the titular story alone, which is novella-sized and is a richly imagined modern version of The Parable of the Sower minus the religion. The rest of the stories were hit or miss for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Racism, and Hate crime
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Violence
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
My Monticello is a powerful dystopian novella (no short stories in my edition - no idea what happened to them but I feel robbed, and I was seriously questioning my sanity and reading ability until I realised the problem was the book and not me) where race is front and centre. It’s set in Charlottesville, Virginia in a near future beset by climate change, social unrest and the rise of white supremicism. When the violence of white supremists gets too close to home Da’Naisha just manages to escape with her grandmother and a small group of friends and neighbours. They end up in Monticello, a complicated place for Da’Naisha who is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. She’s a wonderful protagonist, realistically flawed but someone who strives to do her best, and so you want the best for her. The story offers up plenty of uncomfortable parallels between then and now and a searing critique of the impact of race, past, present and future. Just wish I’d been able to read the short stories as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Violence