A review by mschlat
The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard

3.0

Really, really liked the characters and some of the chapters, but the plotting left me confused at times and a bit frustrated at others. It's a wonderful concept: the Ribkins are a family of African Americans who each have some beyond human power (scaling walls, making maps of places you have not seen, appearing irresistible, etc...). We follow Johnny Ribkins, a man in his seventies, who is attempting to pay off a criminal debt by digging up caches of money and valuables he has hidden around Florida. Along the way, he picks up his niece Eloise (who he just discovered existed), helps her with her power, and visits other members of the Ribkins family. (There's a history of Ribkins and others working during the Civil Right Movement to keep everyone safe as the Justice Committee, with a nice line being that they weren't the freedom movement, but the "freedom of movement" movement.)

All that sounds great, but the plots with Johnny seemed a bit pat (i.e., a man with powers who has been using them for criminal exploits after doing good considers moving back to doing good). In addition, there's an appearance of the "politician appears on TV during one scene and ends up being major evil character" trope. At the end, Hubbard throws in a switch or two, and one of them fell completely flat for me. There's also a lot of flashbacks that left me a bit addled as to sequences of events in the past.

Still liked the book, and I may look out for more Hubbard novels, but I felt bereft at the end that the plotting didn't coalesce.