PositiveBooklistPast, present and future clash in this ambitious novella inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the continuing institutional violence toward young Black men ... The story flows through history, from slavery and the civil rights movement to the modern-day issues of discrimination and mass incarceration. There is a richness and depth to Onyebuchi’s prose that delivers an intricate and textured world at once rife with violence and teeming with familial love. Dystopian stories normally depict an untenable near or future society, but Onyebuchi demonstrates that dystopia for African Americans in the U.S. resides in the recent past and continues today.
