Black Out

by Bien-Aime Wenda

With racial tension dividing a small Mississippi town, what happens when one by one, white residents awaken to find themselves with skin pigmentation as dark as those they despise? In the small town of St. Molasses, Mississippi, the town was so small, there was only one library, one school, one pharmacy, and only one major grocery store. If one wished to visit a museum, shopping mall, night club or movie theater, they’d have to travel a couple miles over to the city of Marmalade to do so. Like most small rural towns, everybody knew everybody. Depending on what you were up to, that could either be a good thing or a bad thing. They knew whose little boy or little girl every child belonged to, whether he was white or colored. Which would explain why Freddie, a black visitor, had been receiving odd looks ever since his Plymouth Fury had overheated right in front of the city sign of St. Molasses. Little did the racially charged town know what was in store for them.

113 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 27, 2018

About the author

Bien-Aimé Wenda is a Florida native. She enjoys writing mainly short stories and novellas and is an advocate for mental health awareness.

Reviews

[K2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Short Read

[Sierra · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was good until the last 2%. Idk, I guess I was just hoping for a different ending.

[Tajuana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damnnnnnnn this was a good read! This author did an excellent and unique job pointing out racial tension. The creative way she describes scenes, automatically sends your mind to wrongful deaths and incarcerations that you hear about today. Mind blowin!
When murders and "assumed" kidnappings started turning up in a small town in Mississippi, the people are in an uproar trying to find the "alleged" killer who was described as a "nigger with blue eyes."
Mannnnn this book pointed out the true meaning of not knowing what someone else is going through until you walked a mile in their shoes.
Now tell me, what if you woke a different race? Not just any race of your choosing but let's say ummm... a race that was ten times worse off than your own and the only way to reverse it back or to fix it was to fix what was inside of you🤔
Without a doubt in my mind, this book definitely needs to make it to the big screen!
5*

[Daniel McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Interesting spin on the racial tension, it gave a good insight on past culture while also providing a hint of fantasy and imagination.

[Rell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible review:
Narrator review: wasn’t really a fan, all of her voices for the Mississippi community sounds the same but you can still follow the story

Story review: It’s a quick listen but Again… she can’t miss! I will be upfront and say this is a spin off of one of the short stories in Negus II Phenomena. If you listened to the short story Black out then this is a grossly unnecessary book. It adds a little more detail but the story and characters are mostly still the same and at least 1/3 of the book and story has already been told but it’s still a great story nonetheless.

Saint Molasses is a little sleepy racist town in the heart of Mississippi where most of the residents are overtly racist to the point where I a native Mississippian was very uncomfortable (what’s a book without forcing some type of emotion). The story touches on the lives of many of the residents of Saint Molasses and shows to what lengths some of them will go to in order to not be black and how most of the racist simply wake up one day and they are shocked to have a change in their skin tone. They look the same except for their skin color and because of this not many people recognize them (it’s even stated in th book that all black people look alike, that’s the myth that a lot of races apply to others across the board). This is a painfully hilarious and eye opening book and it attempts to teach a lesson in racism. This is truly a book of what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot. It teaches the resilience of black people and the level of forgiveness that I personally do not have yet. It shows how oftentimes one experience can change a persons point of view. I’m not into offering new experiences because everything is not our fight but it made me think what if this phenomenon really happened. What if you woke up and was the same person but had a completely different shade of skin, and it happened because of your hatered and disdain of someone because of their skin color.

[Mimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. I love a morality tale as much as the next person, and I wanted to like this one, but I just didn't. I needed more than just a "And now YOU'RE BLACK TOO! HA!" As a Black woman, making White people Black as revenge for their racism doesn't appeal to me. It just furthers the rhetoric that being Black is some kind of punishment. That's just not a message I can get behind. There has to be a better way to get the point across than to make being us a punishment.

[Viola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly Wonderful

Should be required reading for everyone. Such a telling scenario with astonishingly satisfying results. So much truth glaringly revealed. The most splendid tale that I have had opportunity to read. Absolutely love the truth expressed . A true masterpiece

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but good

Loved the book. I have always wished they could walk a mile in our shoes. This author gave me just that experience. Would definitely recommend.

[Meeca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

I really, really wish this was real, or atleast in a series. Just to see it with my own eyes would be healing to the soul.

[LISA HOWARD · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book!!!! A must read it's a quick read but definitely a must read