Sunday Soupçons #9

soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor

Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!

Two mini-reviews this week!

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Genres: Fantasy, Sci Fi
Representation: Black cast
ISBN: B07QDHR8SG
Goodreads

"Riot Baby bursts at the seams of story with so much fire, passion and power that in the end it turns what we call a narrative into something different altogether."—Marlon James

Rooted in foundational loss and the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is both a global dystopian narrative an intimate family story with quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world. When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in America, Ella—through visits both mundane and supernatural—tries to show him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-01T14:55:48+00:00", "description": "A novella and a novelette!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-9\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Riot Baby", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tochi Onyebuchi", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B07QDHR8SG" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4, "bestRating": "5" }}

Riot Baby is not escapism, but that feels fair when you’re writing about systemic violence a group of people can’t escape.

By which I mean, this is a hard book to read because of its subject matter – racism, violence, oppression – but it is an excellent book, one that pulls no punches, and paints a picture of a disturbingly plausible near-future. It’s powerfully and addictively written, and very much makes me want to read more from Onyebuchi.

I can see why some readers would be frustrated with the lack of explanation for Ella’s powers – where did they come from, and what are her limits? – but for some reason that didn’t bother me; I was able to just go with it.

What did bother me was that, like Emezi’s Bitter, Riot Baby wraps up with a magic-will-force/make-change ending, which is pretty depressing to me. I don’t want the solution to be magic because we don’t have that kind of magic in the real world, and the implication is that without it, things will stay as they are, or get worse. It’s the kind of ending that tries to paint itself as hopeful, but I can’t help seeing right through it.

The Long View by Susan Palwick
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Major character with ADHD PTSD & BPD
ISBN: 1250849772
Goodreads

A university student seeks special accommodations for her new support animal, causing havoc all around her.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-01T14:55:48+00:00", "description": "A novella and a novelette!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-9\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Long View", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Palwick", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1250849772" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 2, "bestRating": "5" }}

I was so excited for this story, but ended up feeling pretty hurt by it. It might be one of those times I’m not smart enough to recognise satire or something, but up until near the end the entire story felt like it was mocking people with mental and emotional disorders, and critiquing ‘wokeness’ in general. I’m not sure it’s redeemed by the MC’s last-minute realisation that ‘he’d been too blind to see’ the truth of things.

The dragon was beautiful, but the story left me feeling bruised.

What have you been reading this week?

The post Sunday Soupçons #9 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.