PositiveThe New York Times Book Review...Rion Amilcar Scott proves himself an impressive myth-slayer and fable-maker ... Scott casts most of his characters — mainly black and male — as misguided, paranoid and with a revolutionary flair. That is not to say these characters are wrong. The World Doesn’t Require You reminds us that having to fight racism has a strange way of distorting everything one touches ... Scott has said that \'in my fiction I’m attempting to write about blackness in the varied and multitudinous ways that I’ve experienced it.\' But simply sidelining white racist characters, as both of his collections do, doesn’t erase the lingering effects of slavery ... With two books under his belt, Scott seems to have barely skimmed the surface of the many more characters and conflicts he could explore in Cross River.
Sady Doyle
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewIn her treatment of Billie Holiday and Whitney Houston — two artists who, after years of struggling with drug addiction, broken hearts and rumors about their sexuality, died tragically — Doyle’s lineage is especially compelling. But Doyle enters some shaky ground when she tries to include Harriet Jacobs, the abolitionist and former slave ... Doyle is more persuasive on her book’s ultimate heroine, Britney Spears, the quintessential good girl gone bad ... Doyle reminds us that we shouldn’t be so quick to judge women in terms of degrading stereotypes or unrealistic expectations.
