RaveTIMEFox makes a case for herself as one of her generation’s most authentic storytellers, cutting through niche fame and viral moments with a clarion voice and a worldly-wise sensibility honed from the thrills and near-death experiences she’s witnessed during her 33 years of life ... Fox is strikingly straightforward, taking accountability for her own role in the havoc wreaked or damage done like a true antiheroine ... With this unfiltered authenticity, Fox’s true appeal as both a writer and a persona is apparent—the memoir is a practice in radical transparency. While other high-profile memoir writers might carefully construct their narratives in the service of maintaining a calculated public image, Fox takes an unflinching look back at both the exhilarating and painful moments of her life, one that she has chronicled as only she can.
Emma Cline
RaveTIMEMust read ... While the book is a page-turner literally set at the beach, it’s not a stereotypical beach read ... Alex’s movements create a deep sense of dread for the reader—as the pages turn, our anxiety rises ... So captivating.
Mohsin Hamid
PositiveTIMEThere’s no mistaking the profound influence of the past few years on the work ... The conceit of race transformation is hardly new ... Fantastical treatments of race have long served to underscore just how absurd it is that this social construct should wield so much power. Hamid’s novel follows in this legacy, challenging readers to consider the ways in which something as superficial as the color of one’s skin holds sway in their lives.
Bolu Babalola
RaveTIME... a dishy romp that gives a fresh update to the phony-relationship narrative with a charming and wholly contemporary romance between an ambitious college radio host and the campus playboy ... doesn’t skimp on steamy, swoon-worthy moments ... But that’s not to say that the novel deals in clichés. While the romance genre has long been critiqued for its lack of inclusivity when it comes to featuring books by and about people of color, Babalola’s writing refuses to acquiesce to the white gaze, firmly centering the details of the story in the experiences of Black and African students at a predominantly white institution. The author’s sharp sense of humor (which fans of her social media accounts will recognize), slick pop culture references, and keen sense of the zeitgeist ensure that though her story launches off from a tried-and-true trope, it ultimately offers a refreshing portrait of what modern love really looks and feels like.
Violet Kupersmith
PositiveTIME...haunting ... There is no shortage of nuanced story lines that delve into the strange or the spooky in this book. In fact, this might be the book’s biggest shortcoming: Kupersmith’s interconnected spheres are complex and intensely visceral at their best, but often confusing in their sheer number and vastness ... In spite of this, Kupersmith’s knack for drawing readers into the fantastical is readily apparent, as is her ability to deftly navigate the subtleties of a country’s complicated history ... Kupersmith’s dexterous, sensitive storytelling ensures that readers understand clearly that the real monsters of this tale are those who seek to take by force what does not belong to them.
Morgan Jerkins
RaveTIMEMorgan Jerkins delights in finding the fantastical within the familiar. In her new novel, Caul Baby, everyday life takes on a surreal glow ... No element of Caul Baby better illustrates Jerkins’ ability to spin magic out of the mundane than the titular caul, the amniotic membrane that surrounds a baby in the womb ... Jerkins began writing Caul Baby in 2015, shortly after moving to Harlem from New Jersey. That she worked on the novel almost the entirety of her time there is evident in the writing. Landmarks like Amy Ruth’s restaurant and St. Philip’s Church are name-checked, and the vibrancy of the city crowds every page.
Mariah Carey, with Michaela Angela Davis
RaveTime Magazine... the book is a page-turning guide to the public narratives and intimate moments that Carey has long hinted at in her song lyrics. It’s less a book of major reveals than one that provides depth and valuable context around the experiences of a star whose traumas make headlines and whose soundbites and facial expressions are internet gold ... Like one of her perfect pop tracks, The Meaning of Mariah Carey is a careful construction. While the book reflects on her triumphs and tragedies, we only see as much as she wants to reveal. But that’s not a bad thing. What Carey presents to us is the wholly entertaining tale of a woman who made a harmony out of the discordant elements of her life.
Jenny Zhang
RaveTIMETo read Jenny Zhang is to embrace primal states: pleasure, hunger, longing and rage. In her second book of poetry, My Baby First Birthday, Zhang glories in the messiness of living while probing how the instinct to nurture can sometimes be matched by the impulse to destroy ... The collection is fascinated with both motherhood and new life—the fierce giving and taking of unconditional love and the traumas that can result from this exchange ... Zhang’s observations, peppered cheekily with Internet shorthand, are flanked by graphic and often gross imagery—something readers of her past books, the short-story collection...and her poetry debut...will recognize ... Reading these poems, one gets the sense that Zhang wants to overwhelm readers— not to hold them in her thrall, although she could easily do so, but to fulfill an earnest wish for them to feel the richness of everything that they can, emotionally and physically, even if that complicates their reality.
Kiese Laymon
RaveTime\"In Heavy, [Laymon] writes with a fearless intimacy and bracing honesty, indicting the treatment of black people in the U.S. The book’s a high-water mark for both personal narrative and social criticism.\
