A review by britt_writerly
Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring
  • 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

5.0

“Finally.”
THE Caveat: First, all the Black books we have are wins. From Toni Morrison to Tracy Deonn. It’s always a win. The things I say in this review are specifically in reference to 1) ya fantasy 2) a very particular story being called worthy, so it’s truly no shade to any other Black author or book. This is MY truth based on MY life so leave me be. I’m saying this here because I’m not about to put a bunch of qualifiers throughout this review. They’re here. I love a variety of Black stories. We need diversity in the TYPES of stories told. I’ve been waiting for this kind and I’m gonna celebrate it without restraint below.
RATING: 6/5. Yeah, 6, because J.Elle is exceeding the bar and critiquing it all at the same time and you’re just gonna have to stay mad.
Review!!!
So there’s a scene in Wings where Rue rushes back home for reasons I won’t say here to avoid spoilers but it’s tense. She’s scared; you’re scared. She opens The Door and Etta James’s “At Last” drifts out of the crack. That’s how I felt opening this book (well, pressing play on the audiobook ;). I have never read an Urban Contemporary Fantasy that takes up the real conditions of Black life in this country so unflinchingly. I haven’t. I mean not using retellings or stepping away to magical kingdoms but gazing at the harshness of home and making YOUR conflict the STORY’s conflict. This storytelling is elaborate in its simplicity: it’s Black life. Because J. Elle honors that, storying her experiences fantastic, Wings has so many departures and I don’t want this review to be unreasonably long so-- actually I’ve been waiting for this book for 9 years. This review will be as long as I want. Tap out when you need to.
The fact that Rue is offered a magical island-- offered magic itself-- and its like “nah, bruh. I want home” is already a major departure from the norm of what fantasy does. She’s not trying to escape. Her stakes are the stakes of Black people in real life. That is not in any way the norm. This book empowers a Black teen to worldmake in THIS world-- in the AMERICAN SOUTH. That’s. Not. The. Norm.
The focus on community in this book gave me such life. Rue’s so uncompromising with it. She’s loyal to fam and fam is the block. She risks it all for them because they’re WORTHY. This story elevates people who are so often erased. Black Americans ain’t popping. Anywhere-- just our culture and accomplishments. But us? Those of us who don’t know where in Africa or the Caribbean we were stolen from and only have our region, our state, our neighborhood to say that’s where we’re “from.” They don’t call us beautiful. But Wings is gorgeous. The people in it are gorgeous. The sisterhood between Rue and Tasha is gorgeous. Julian’s “You know I got you” is stunning. JULIAN is stunning because let me drop this too: we need more Black boys in fantasy. MORE. Their absence is erasure of frightening proportions. They’re here. ALL the love tensions/interests were with Black boys. BLACK LOVE FOR THE CHILDREN. I love it so. Oh! I love it so.  
Pacing is wonderful. It’s very fast and I had to pace  the reading myself because whooooo J. Elle tried to kill me. My heart almost stopped a couple of times and I was literally curled up in bed like “I need an out or a safeword or something.” She hits you. You’re not about to get comfortable or feel too settled or safe-- and the danger is familiar. Drugs, guns, beatings. Not light sabers or even swords. Most of us have never seen a real life sword. Oh, you have? Just me then, fine. Gun violence, though, is a familiar cross we bear in this country even if it didn’t riddle the communities we grew up in specifically. It’s all we hear about. It’s rocked this country from church shootings to school shootings to gang shootings to police shootings. You get triggered right along with Rue and tremble along with her.
Which leads me to trauma. Rue probably has PTSD from witnessing her mom’s murder but we don’t get a diagnosis, we get the reality of how she lives with it. The paralyzing fear, the random memories, the sudden onset muteness. It’s not spectacular. It’s quiet and easily overlooked from the outside but it’s everything for Rue (and that’s whose perspective we’re made to experience from). Which is another thing: the reader, whoever they are, HAS to get right up and personal with racism. Yeah.
The last thing I’ll talk about is just naming the themes that show up in this book because this review couldn’t possibly get it all. That’s what dissertations are for. Family, community, police brutality, state disinvestment, gun violence, drugs, antiblackness, devaluation of Black life, Black Lives Matter, white fragility, racial allyship, forgiveness, teamwork, fortitude, colonialism, historical deletions, ancestry. I’m sure I’m missing many things that will come to me as I continue to reflect but these are just some that popped out to me immediately. If you’ve gotten nothing else from this review, go read this book. We all need it. 
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