janson's reviews
280 reviews

How to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories by Tiphanie Yanique

inspiring mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.0

Some sunk, albeit leisurely, others swam with a stubborn defiance. I'll be thinking about "The International Shop of Coffins" for a long while...

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I suppose I come to this late, and likely influenced, as I was struck by how hetero the entire world was. 

A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley

funny informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Early(?), or just in the thick of it, race satire. Of a kind, but rooted in lived-then-ness, with Whitehead and Beatty.

Things Are Good Now by Djamila Ibrahim

informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Small pebbles from afar… the kind that nest close in the folds of your pocket, just hard and sharp enough to remind you of your privilege.

The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

adventurous dark hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Slips a bit in the back third, but that barely dims a well written and nesc. narrative.

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

sad slow-paced

3.0

I found this at the wrong time, hot on the heels of Erasure’s satire and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store’s sweep. 

Erasure by Percival Everett

funny informative fast-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? No

5.0

It’s giving “Percival Everett, Helen De Witt, and Paul Beaty walk into a bar. Everett says ‘I can write this.’” Everett’s oeuvre is as wide as it is deep. Yet while I’ve enjoyed all his novels that I’ve read, Erasure is pointedly, extremely for me.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

challenging funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

It's like if one took The Hunger Games, mixed in a full half of relentless The New Jim Crow, and amped up the writing so that one enjoys the act of reading even as one is smacked in the face with the particular Americana prison industrial complex. 

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I am not the target audience. But I am a little sad it doesn't hold as much as say, L'Engle or Le Guin's, YA holds. 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An ensemble novel, deep wells of richness embedded through every new character.