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Grievers #2
Maroons
The search for hope and community in death and desolation.
The pandemic of Syndrome H-8 continues to ravage the city of Detroit and everyone in Dune's life. In Maroons, she must learn what community and connection mean in the lonely wake of a fatal virus. Emerging from grief to follow the subtle path of small pleasures through an abandoned urban landscape, she begins finding other unlikely survivors with little in common but the will to live. This second installment of the Grievers trilogy is a tale of survival, of moving beyond seemingly insurmountable devastation toward, if not hope itself, then the road to hope.
265 pages, Paperback
First published January 17, 2023
55 people are currently reading
1055 people want to read
About the author
Adrienne Maree Brown
27 books2,767 followersadrienne maree brown is the author of Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables podcasts. adrienne is rooted in Detroit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
April 9, 2023
I gulped these two books down, gobbled them, slurped them in and am so satisfied. Honestly, I came to amb through her IG presence - only later to discover her non fiction, then sci-fi writing. Utopian, forward thinking story-telling centered on a Black future - this writing is prophetic and hope instilling hope. Asking myself - How can I be of service?
April 8, 2023
“Gentleness was an antidote to devastation” (150).
This book, this series, is really too poetic and magical for my words. An apocalyptic fairytale of anarchic community care and interdependence.
This book, this series, is really too poetic and magical for my words. An apocalyptic fairytale of anarchic community care and interdependence.
August 31, 2024
Uggh, how to make sense of my feelings on this one? I quite liked the first book, ‘Grievers’, though it didn’t get into the community or anarchism aspect I’d been expecting based on the other Black Dawn book I’d read (Margaret Killjoy’s A Country of Ghosts). I found myself a little frustrated at how Dune didn’t really try and reach out to anyone…but in the way that you get irritated at people who remind you of yourself! Because I, too, am naturally inclined to rely on a very few close connections – a strategy prone to catastrophic failure if anything happens to those relationships (which is why I have to make conscious effort to not ONLY do that). But she seemed to have processed her grief on her own enough by the end of that book to start reaching out, and so I figured maybe THIS book would get to that community building, with maybe a little Sapphic romance on the side if Dune found a new girlfriend. Well…[insert frustrated, ambivalent bisexual leftist noises].
The beginning of the book was promising, much less bleak than the first one. But it took a weird turn around the 40% mark. See, Dune hasn’t seen another live human on the streets of Detroit for quite some time, but she’s been hearing a radio broadcast by someone named Dawud B. However, while he keeps telling people to call in, he doesn’t give a number! In fact, NONE of the survivors seem to try to contact people in any kind of logical way! I get being cautious with strangers who might be a little unhinged, but…why not put up some posters of “respond if you’re alive and want to chat” with a blank space below? Anyway, that’s not the weird part. Dune just randomly wanders around but
Now, Dune is a lesbian, and Dawud is gay, so I’m like “Cool, we’re gonna get a fun queer friendship subplot!” Uh, no. What we get is And look: sexuality is fluid, blah blah, I know. It's not like this could not/has never happened. But And none of that had to happen for the broader plot that’s going on!
In fact, this whole thing is made worse by the way the changes to Dune’s body are described. She’s always been a thin, boyish butch girl, but as she gets happier she gets curvier, and wears dashikis and other dress-like clothes. And, sure, not necessarily bad in isolation, but with the above plotline and the one I’ll discuss below, it feels like a convergence on what a woman “should be”, and I hate it!
We do also get a non-binary love interest, but by that point I’d lost “benefit of the doubt” on all this, and was inclined to nitpick how that was handled to death. But I will spare you.
Second, this book is billed as Sci-Fi, but it feels a lot more Magical Realism. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, as I like both genres. But we get one element of each that I really didn’t care for!
On the Sci-Fi end, we get a suggestion and then outright confirmation that . On the one hand, I wish the cause of the plague had been left mysterious, because that would have worked great with the magical vibes and with the idea that living in Detroit, and the US, as a Black person is just traumatic on its own. On the other hand, this explanation would confirm a degree of biological difference between Black and White people that does not exist! There’s differences in allele frequencies between populations (that’s how those family ancestry kits work) but no one’s ever identified a marker that is specific to the not-at-all-biologically-objective racial categories we use, and they're not likely to.
On the magical end…there’s a kid called Jizo. It seems like he might be , but I really hope not because that'd be corny as hell. He’s been living with an old man called the Captain – but somehow as soon as they find other people, it’s Dune’s job to introduce him to the school because of course it is! (And to make internal comments to herself of the “enthusing over baby smell” variety)
We DO finally get to see an actual community, which does seem to run its meetings in a kinda-anarchist manner (one would assume that’s what its going for, given the publication series this is in, but it isn’t as clearly specified what the organizational philosophy/structure is). I don’t like that these people apparently were watching Dune and Dawud for ages without trying to communicate with them, though! It felt sinister. And I would have preferred to follow them for part of the story – there would have been a lot more actual plot as they figured out how to construct this society.
The ending is kind of nice and hopeful. And I can also see how if you are familiar with/part of Detroit and its Black community, this book might really resonate. I just wish it hadn’t done all the stuff that pissed me off in the middle and had leaned a bit more into imagining how to build a revolutionary new form of society.
The beginning of the book was promising, much less bleak than the first one. But it took a weird turn around the 40% mark. See, Dune hasn’t seen another live human on the streets of Detroit for quite some time, but she’s been hearing a radio broadcast by someone named Dawud B. However, while he keeps telling people to call in, he doesn’t give a number! In fact, NONE of the survivors seem to try to contact people in any kind of logical way! I get being cautious with strangers who might be a little unhinged, but…why not put up some posters of “respond if you’re alive and want to chat” with a blank space below? Anyway, that’s not the weird part. Dune just randomly wanders around but
Now, Dune is a lesbian, and Dawud is gay, so I’m like “Cool, we’re gonna get a fun queer friendship subplot!” Uh, no. What we get is And look: sexuality is fluid, blah blah, I know. It's not like this could not/has never happened. But And none of that had to happen for the broader plot that’s going on!
In fact, this whole thing is made worse by the way the changes to Dune’s body are described. She’s always been a thin, boyish butch girl, but as she gets happier she gets curvier, and wears dashikis and other dress-like clothes. And, sure, not necessarily bad in isolation, but with the above plotline and the one I’ll discuss below, it feels like a convergence on what a woman “should be”, and I hate it!
We do also get a non-binary love interest, but by that point I’d lost “benefit of the doubt” on all this, and was inclined to nitpick how that was handled to death. But I will spare you.
Second, this book is billed as Sci-Fi, but it feels a lot more Magical Realism. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, as I like both genres. But we get one element of each that I really didn’t care for!
On the Sci-Fi end, we get a suggestion and then outright confirmation that . On the one hand, I wish the cause of the plague had been left mysterious, because that would have worked great with the magical vibes and with the idea that living in Detroit, and the US, as a Black person is just traumatic on its own. On the other hand, this explanation would confirm a degree of biological difference between Black and White people that does not exist! There’s differences in allele frequencies between populations (that’s how those family ancestry kits work) but no one’s ever identified a marker that is specific to the not-at-all-biologically-objective racial categories we use, and they're not likely to.
On the magical end…there’s a kid called Jizo. It seems like he might be , but I really hope not because that'd be corny as hell. He’s been living with an old man called the Captain – but somehow as soon as they find other people, it’s Dune’s job to introduce him to the school because of course it is! (And to make internal comments to herself of the “enthusing over baby smell” variety)
We DO finally get to see an actual community, which does seem to run its meetings in a kinda-anarchist manner (one would assume that’s what its going for, given the publication series this is in, but it isn’t as clearly specified what the organizational philosophy/structure is). I don’t like that these people apparently were watching Dune and Dawud for ages without trying to communicate with them, though! It felt sinister. And I would have preferred to follow them for part of the story – there would have been a lot more actual plot as they figured out how to construct this society.
The ending is kind of nice and hopeful. And I can also see how if you are familiar with/part of Detroit and its Black community, this book might really resonate. I just wish it hadn’t done all the stuff that pissed me off in the middle and had leaned a bit more into imagining how to build a revolutionary new form of society.
January 6, 2025
They pulled the car around at the first U-turn and walked up to the green border. Dune squatted down close - there were little mushrooms, bright orange caps on cream stems, under the bushes in front of her. One vine had a white flower blossoming every foot or so. And she wasn't sure, but it looked like the vines in front of her were moving, possibly growing.
I can't say this was one of my biggest disappointments of 2024 because I honestly didn't like the first book enough to be like... crestfallen. But still I had faith that the second book will take the potential of the first book and run with it (since we finally got the groundwork done). But that didn't happen.
There was good stuff - the fricking weird magic involving bones and jungle sprouting when you are not expected. The occasional poetic passage describing the sky and the need to admire it. Some of the humour.
"Focus Dune," she interrupted her internal rant. And then, "If you're angry, you're in the past." Was that Lao Tzu? "If you're scared, you're in the future. If you are talking to yourself out loud in an empty city about to break into urgent care, you're in the present."
But sadly, the bad stuff overweighed the good stuff by great margin. And it all has to do with Dawud.
First, Dune gets obsessed with his podcast. I hated the podcast, I thought it was cringe and... ugh. I do understand her fixating on it since it proved there was another human being close, but she actually admired the contents. Which were shit...
Then (I guess some spoilers), we have to actually spend time with Dawud! Which... still not loving him.
And then they decide to get into a relationship together, a sexual one, even though Dune is a lesbian and Dawud is gay. And listen, this trope is fishy from the beginning and I can see that Brown was trying to do something different with it, but some of my buddies were triggered by this. I do enjoy reading about weird sex, so part of my brain was definitely intrigued, but I was also annoyed by how unnecessary it felt.
So yeah, this was very much a flop. I will see if I will read the next and I believe the last installment in the series. Part of me is curious but part of me is also saying that I should quit reading stuff that doesn't bring me joy.
BRed at WBtM: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
March 10, 2024
After really enjoying the first book in this series, I am sad to say the second installment simply did not land for me. The more I read, the more of a slog this book became. The book lacks any kind of conflict, either interpersonal or “the heart in conflict with itself.” Dune is a body that moves through space, and little more. Generally speaking, Maroons is simply a 260-page list of things that happened. It all feels rather aimless, until our main characters chance upon a community of survivors — which would be interesting if the community didn’t feel like an AI generated image of leftist ideology. None of it felt … real. I appreciate amb’s vision here, but the only reason this book was not DNF was because I skimmed the last 50 pages out of complete desperation. Two stars for good intention, but unbearably dull execution.
June 16, 2023
This story was everything I was wishing for at the end of book 1 (Grievers), and even more I didn’t realize I needed! Mysteries and magic revealed at a pace and prose that had me weeping, gasping, cheering, baited breath. The grief and the hope in such real balance, the snippets and elements of the complexities of community organizing, the continued testament to the atrocities faced and relentless resilience of Black Detroiters… for those of us in movement work, it is so palpable that adrienne wrote this for us. Thank you for this masterpiece! Please keep writing, I can’t wait for the next chapter! In the meantime I may just need to read these both over again.
August 26, 2024
After understanding how stuff was triggering for me in this book, I am afraid I can only give a very subjective and unbalanced opinion. I hated it. I am kind of surprised how many things sat so wrong with me.
The story and plot development felt very shaky and thin. The fascinating bit that was the city and new society was slightly brushed and instead we had detailed radio ramblings, tons of dick and hetero sex (with a Lesbian character, context is important).
I think it would be awesome if it focused in the revolutionary social part, instead of making Queer conservative disguised as transgressive.
Still, with my limitations as an outsider, I cant shake the feeling of some sort of nostalgia to the revolutionary ideas of the past. Ironic as it was one of the themes: looking for the future in the past didn't go well.
The story and plot development felt very shaky and thin. The fascinating bit that was the city and new society was slightly brushed and instead we had detailed radio ramblings, tons of dick and hetero sex (with a Lesbian character, context is important).
I think it would be awesome if it focused in the revolutionary social part, instead of making Queer conservative disguised as transgressive.
Still, with my limitations as an outsider, I cant shake the feeling of some sort of nostalgia to the revolutionary ideas of the past. Ironic as it was one of the themes: looking for the future in the past didn't go well.
January 17, 2024
3.5/5
July 16, 2023
This book is rich and plentiful with humanity. I love Dune as a protagonist and the new characters introduced. Hers and Duwad’s relationship is unexpectedly perfect. I found the emphasis on building intentional community and what it takes to survive violence thought provoking - it made me think of what kind of community member I am or who I want to be. The elements of magic and white supremacy were captivating and make me want the third book to be published already!
March 5, 2025
“Black utopias…eking out a life hidden within the realm of previous oppression.”
Hard to choose one beautiful sentiment out of this book. Who knew sci fi could be so poetic? Continuing this series, I am loving the growth, loving where this is going, loving the writing.
New characters are introduced and blossomed. New worlds are blooming.
adrienne maree brown just hits us with the perfect story of how grief and rage can transform into liberation and sovereignty.
I finished this in a day because I couldn’t put it down. Yes I even read it at work…
Some words that come to mind: sovereignty, reclamation, liberation, life, love in grief, ancestors.
This may join my favorite sci-fi series alongside the broken earth trilogy… now on to the final book.
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book to review.
Hard to choose one beautiful sentiment out of this book. Who knew sci fi could be so poetic? Continuing this series, I am loving the growth, loving where this is going, loving the writing.
New characters are introduced and blossomed. New worlds are blooming.
adrienne maree brown just hits us with the perfect story of how grief and rage can transform into liberation and sovereignty.
I finished this in a day because I couldn’t put it down. Yes I even read it at work…
Some words that come to mind: sovereignty, reclamation, liberation, life, love in grief, ancestors.
This may join my favorite sci-fi series alongside the broken earth trilogy… now on to the final book.
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book to review.
April 28, 2023
For the first half of the book nothing happens. Two gay people do meet and have a LOT of explicit straight sex. Not saying bi people do not exist but there is a lot more of ‘you sure know how to work that dick’ than I expected from a book with a lesbian protagonist.
The second half doesn’t have much happening either. A utopian commune comes on the scene but they don’t do much aside from sitting around and talking. Very inclusive and progressive but not much happening. There is a school with a curriculum that feels like it came from an anti CRT satire, because it is so cringe, so there’s that.
The big reveals, if anyone is interested in picking up this book since the previous did not answer anything, are not very big. Everyone acts like they are amazing truth shattering revelations, but they really should not be of any surprise to the protagonists in the book.
Overall a big disappointment. Grievers was such an emotional book, full of personal stories and Dune’s internal dealing with grief. This was just sex and wishful thinking and, oddly enough, add placement for magnum icecream, all delivered in a very clunky narrative.
The second half doesn’t have much happening either. A utopian commune comes on the scene but they don’t do much aside from sitting around and talking. Very inclusive and progressive but not much happening. There is a school with a curriculum that feels like it came from an anti CRT satire, because it is so cringe, so there’s that.
The big reveals, if anyone is interested in picking up this book since the previous did not answer anything, are not very big. Everyone acts like they are amazing truth shattering revelations, but they really should not be of any surprise to the protagonists in the book.
Overall a big disappointment. Grievers was such an emotional book, full of personal stories and Dune’s internal dealing with grief. This was just sex and wishful thinking and, oddly enough, add placement for magnum icecream, all delivered in a very clunky narrative.
April 8, 2024
wow! first thoughts... so much to think about. about losing everything you knew and starting over and about the fluidity and circumstance of human sexuality and adaption. thinking about grief and love and connection and and community and moving on....
August 29, 2024
I finally finished this book and I have thoughts. First, the bad. I have never read a book where they described bodies and specifically flesh more. Half of the book was, "she touched her hand, he held his thick belly " It wasn't always specifically romantic but just a lot of body talk.
Speaking of romance...the two main characters were both gay but in a straight relationship, they tried to justify it by saying they " queered the relationship." I don't think they needed to justify it at all of course. Why put labels on yourself? Or I guess why did the author deliberately write them as gay if they are bi? I am not about this bi-erasure. I guess I am also holding on to labels...it's giving me a lot to think about!
I really feel like the author had some flesh/body fetish. In one particularly gross sex scene, the couple leaves a puddle on the floor. 🤢 Please clean up after yourself people! Or like, get a towel.
For the good! The story line without giving too much away ,was very interesting but we only had maybe 5 pages of real plot. The rest was overly flowery prose and descriptions of people walking down the street smoothly, or whatever.
I always tell myself I won't read the next book in the series, but I probably will because I'm a sucker for post-apocalypse fiction.
Speaking of romance...the two main characters were both gay but in a straight relationship, they tried to justify it by saying they " queered the relationship." I don't think they needed to justify it at all of course. Why put labels on yourself? Or I guess why did the author deliberately write them as gay if they are bi? I am not about this bi-erasure. I guess I am also holding on to labels...it's giving me a lot to think about!
I really feel like the author had some flesh/body fetish. In one particularly gross sex scene, the couple leaves a puddle on the floor. 🤢 Please clean up after yourself people! Or like, get a towel.
For the good! The story line without giving too much away ,was very interesting but we only had maybe 5 pages of real plot. The rest was overly flowery prose and descriptions of people walking down the street smoothly, or whatever.
I always tell myself I won't read the next book in the series, but I probably will because I'm a sucker for post-apocalypse fiction.
March 21, 2023
Grievers was a good book, Maroons was even better. I can't wait for the third.
October 21, 2024
Somewhat mixed feelings after being fairly riveted by the first book. This one lagged a little bit in the middle, and I felt there was more very descriptive sex than there needed to be!
But then it picked up more and I actually really liked where it went and how it ended.
But then it picked up more and I actually really liked where it went and how it ended.
October 13, 2024
I will read this one again. It’s hopeful, lush, and spellbinding. This is a world-building story of the possibilities within Black, queer, and indigenous love and community. A delight and a deep breath on every page. I could feel things shift in this progression of the series to where amb imagines a future where people find their truest expression of themselves, the earth and land are attuned and honored, and the magic of that collaboration.
amb is realizing her creative genius and visionary future building in this series, in the footsteps of Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin. Brilliant. Love! Exciting!
amb is realizing her creative genius and visionary future building in this series, in the footsteps of Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin. Brilliant. Love! Exciting!
June 6, 2024
Although a continuation of Grievers, I felt that this book had a very different tone that was important for the development of the story itself.
February 26, 2023
Loved loved loved so much. It was such a pleasure to read. I am still so romantically in love with this trilogy so far. Grief and sensuality and play and chosen family and magic, it has everything!!!!!!!!!! I need everyone to read this and grievers asap. I will be studying this one and all the magic in it for a long time
November 26, 2023
3.5 rounded up. I didn't enjoy Maroons as much as Grievers, but I do tend to like the story/world-building first parts the best. There were some things I wish had been different (does EVERYTHING have to include a romance?) but overall I did not anticipate the direction Brown would take the story and I look forward to the third part.
April 16, 2025
Absolutely could not put down, so so good and moving and magical. An absolute must read of hope and grief and community and using the resources you have available
Want to read
May 27, 2025A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Edelweiss. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
May 27, 2025
It's taken me nearly three months to finish Maroons. Why so long?
Because I read the first 60 pages and wanted to DNF. I bought Grievers and Maroons in late December of 2024. I don't like to quit books I've purchased, so I set Maroons on the side and waited until I was ready to try again.
Why did I want to DNF Maroons?
I'll get to that in a moment. It's important to note that Grievers and Maroons are really one book. Maroons does not stand on its own.
The plot of the Grievers series is pretty simple: Black and non-white residents of Detroit begin to die of a mysterious virus called H-8. People afflicted with the virus freeze in place, repeating words or short phrases until they waste away. The main character, Dune, is immune to H-8. Her mother is patient zero of the epidemic. Dune stays behind after everyone flees Detroit, scavenging for food and caring for those affected by H-8. In Maroons Dune meets another survivor Dawud and enters into a relationship with him. Towards the middle of the novel, Dune and Dawud find a community of survivors in the heart of Detroit and learn the source of H-8.
Grievers is mostly plotless. Dune drifts all over Detroit and spends a lot of time thinking about her family.
Maroons is equal parts magical realism- (ex: Neverwhere or Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman) and utopian narrative (ex: Walden Two by Skinner or The Terraformers by Newitz). I like utopian fiction, but I don't like magical realism. The end result is that I just don't like Maroons.
As for why I wanted to DNF- there's the part just above about magical realism mixed with utopian fiction- but there's also the fact that I'm not the intended audience for this book. If I hadn't bought Maroons, I would have said "this just isn't my book" and moved on.
Because I read the first 60 pages and wanted to DNF. I bought Grievers and Maroons in late December of 2024. I don't like to quit books I've purchased, so I set Maroons on the side and waited until I was ready to try again.
Why did I want to DNF Maroons?
I'll get to that in a moment. It's important to note that Grievers and Maroons are really one book. Maroons does not stand on its own.
The plot of the Grievers series is pretty simple: Black and non-white residents of Detroit begin to die of a mysterious virus called H-8. People afflicted with the virus freeze in place, repeating words or short phrases until they waste away. The main character, Dune, is immune to H-8. Her mother is patient zero of the epidemic. Dune stays behind after everyone flees Detroit, scavenging for food and caring for those affected by H-8. In Maroons Dune meets another survivor Dawud and enters into a relationship with him. Towards the middle of the novel, Dune and Dawud find a community of survivors in the heart of Detroit and learn the source of H-8.
Grievers is mostly plotless. Dune drifts all over Detroit and spends a lot of time thinking about her family.
Maroons is equal parts magical realism- (ex: Neverwhere or Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman) and utopian narrative (ex: Walden Two by Skinner or The Terraformers by Newitz). I like utopian fiction, but I don't like magical realism. The end result is that I just don't like Maroons.
As for why I wanted to DNF- there's the part just above about magical realism mixed with utopian fiction- but there's also the fact that I'm not the intended audience for this book. If I hadn't bought Maroons, I would have said "this just isn't my book" and moved on.
March 18, 2023
When I finished Grievers I wasn’t aware of a sequel. It stood on its own and stories don't need to tie up neatly. I felt a strong presence from Dune and I was so glad there is more to hear from her and her story. In Maroons Dune becomes friends with another “survivor”. This story shows Dune and Dawud navigating their life in this changed Detroit. As with most of adrienne maree brown’s fiction it is a love letter to Black occupied Detroit. The line between the supernatural is fine as Dune’s model of Detroit starts growing more and more organic material. There’s a deadly realism to the apocalypse presented here. An apocalypse that at the moment is restricted to Detroit.
Dune and Dawud meet up with two other survivors a bit over half way through the story and I felt comfortable with them coming together. Then they meet with a larger group of survivors and I was torn. I don’t think I wanted to share the space occupied by Dune and her three friends, plus Dog with anyone else. At least it comes later on. brown details her worlds, Detroit worlds mostly, with depth and empathy and the people fill your life. By coming in contact with the larger group more becomes known about H-8. The story takes on many more complexities and it’s probably not fair of me to want the small group I love to stay on their own. The more people there are around the more there are people who jar you. That’s true in life. I don’t know if a third book is on its way but there is certainly a lot more to be told and Dune's story is nowhere near finished.
Dune and Dawud meet up with two other survivors a bit over half way through the story and I felt comfortable with them coming together. Then they meet with a larger group of survivors and I was torn. I don’t think I wanted to share the space occupied by Dune and her three friends, plus Dog with anyone else. At least it comes later on. brown details her worlds, Detroit worlds mostly, with depth and empathy and the people fill your life. By coming in contact with the larger group more becomes known about H-8. The story takes on many more complexities and it’s probably not fair of me to want the small group I love to stay on their own. The more people there are around the more there are people who jar you. That’s true in life. I don’t know if a third book is on its way but there is certainly a lot more to be told and Dune's story is nowhere near finished.
February 18, 2023
(4.25 ⭐) A quiet journey through grief & loneliness, reclamation of land & community, and slowly-growing hope.
We’re following Dune, a survivor of Detroit’s fatal Syndrome H-8 pandemic. She’s navigating her new isolated world while grieving her mother (who was patient zero). Dune’s journey through the sharp pain of losing her loved ones leads to unexpected connections with other wandering survivors and a curious magic and power that threads them all together. Throughout the novella, Dune is also attempting to learn more about the origins of the plague.
Though the grief of the survivors was agonizing, I was touched by the cautious optimism that emerged as the survivors began to form new versions of family. The writing and characterization was beautiful & I really felt as though I understood Dune.
I wished we spent a little more time from the perspectives of Captain and Jizo – we were teased with a sprinkling of POV chapters and segments from them, but I was curious about their backgrounds. Perhaps more of that in book 3!
CW: death, racism, confinement, colonization, medical trauma, eugenics, genocide, grief, terminal illness, explicit sexual content
Follow me on TikTok for book recommendations!
(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)
We’re following Dune, a survivor of Detroit’s fatal Syndrome H-8 pandemic. She’s navigating her new isolated world while grieving her mother (who was patient zero). Dune’s journey through the sharp pain of losing her loved ones leads to unexpected connections with other wandering survivors and a curious magic and power that threads them all together. Throughout the novella, Dune is also attempting to learn more about the origins of the plague.
Though the grief of the survivors was agonizing, I was touched by the cautious optimism that emerged as the survivors began to form new versions of family. The writing and characterization was beautiful & I really felt as though I understood Dune.
I wished we spent a little more time from the perspectives of Captain and Jizo – we were teased with a sprinkling of POV chapters and segments from them, but I was curious about their backgrounds. Perhaps more of that in book 3!
CW: death, racism, confinement, colonization, medical trauma, eugenics, genocide, grief, terminal illness, explicit sexual content
Follow me on TikTok for book recommendations!
(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)
July 12, 2025
I found this more compelling than the first book in this series. I'm looking forward to the third!
P121. […] what if she had been left behind because she couldn’t choose her joy over her suffering? [Is this implicitly in dialogue w/Salteaters?]
P133. Dawud laughed. “Sometimes you yell out the loudest when you most need to believe, not when you have the most faith.”
P145. We love to uplife James, Malcom, Audre, yes. But we don’t always want to contend with how they outgrew the limited idea of Blackness available in their time. Each of them came to the precipice of the idea of Blackness as it was envisioned by white people and realized it was not a true container; that race as a marker of anything beyond melanin is not real. The rest is cultural and everyone makes culture. Making culture together is a path towards belonging. Those writers still belong to us, because we share a Black lineage within the vast realm of all lived experience, within the specific arc of human experience. What opened up here is a path towards belonging to ourselves. For however long.
P150. He reached over and graced her cheek with his thumb. Gentleness was an antidote to devastation. Gentleness, magic, and joy.
P121. […] what if she had been left behind because she couldn’t choose her joy over her suffering? [Is this implicitly in dialogue w/Salteaters?]
P133. Dawud laughed. “Sometimes you yell out the loudest when you most need to believe, not when you have the most faith.”
P145. We love to uplife James, Malcom, Audre, yes. But we don’t always want to contend with how they outgrew the limited idea of Blackness available in their time. Each of them came to the precipice of the idea of Blackness as it was envisioned by white people and realized it was not a true container; that race as a marker of anything beyond melanin is not real. The rest is cultural and everyone makes culture. Making culture together is a path towards belonging. Those writers still belong to us, because we share a Black lineage within the vast realm of all lived experience, within the specific arc of human experience. What opened up here is a path towards belonging to ourselves. For however long.
P150. He reached over and graced her cheek with his thumb. Gentleness was an antidote to devastation. Gentleness, magic, and joy.
July 1, 2023
They stepped into a classroom with students who looked to be middle school age. A brown boy had instructed everyone to sit on their left hand. Eventually there were groans of discomfort and laughter as people's hands fell asleep. Rio checked to make sure Dune was paying attention.
The kid said, "Ok, so you see how your hand can fall asleep so fast? Or your legs if you sit a certain way too long, like when we meditate?" The kid shook his own hand. "And now you can't feel what it's doing? And it feels so weird and uncomfortable as it wakes up that you wonder if you can even take it?"
The kids laughed and screamed affirmations.
"Well that can happen to people's morals and values too. For white people, coming to this country made their morals fall asleep. And they did a bunch of things–like imagine if your hand was asleep, but stealing everything in sight and hitting everyone. around you! And now they are waking up to what they did. And it is very uncomfortable." (222-223)
The kid said, "Ok, so you see how your hand can fall asleep so fast? Or your legs if you sit a certain way too long, like when we meditate?" The kid shook his own hand. "And now you can't feel what it's doing? And it feels so weird and uncomfortable as it wakes up that you wonder if you can even take it?"
The kids laughed and screamed affirmations.
"Well that can happen to people's morals and values too. For white people, coming to this country made their morals fall asleep. And they did a bunch of things–like imagine if your hand was asleep, but stealing everything in sight and hitting everyone. around you! And now they are waking up to what they did. And it is very uncomfortable." (222-223)
January 12, 2024
Throughly enjoyed this and highly recommend.
It’s a continuation of a story about Detroit during an epidemic outbreak… it took me a little while to remember where i left off and it would been helpful for a bit more background for those starting here… but essentially most of the population either died from the H-8 outbreak or were evacuated. Dune however remained and documented all those she encountered and the words they said. She kept the records and worked a model of the city her activist parents had. Little did Dune realize, she was contingent parents work and would eventually find sone of their tribe.
Dune does find what she thinks is the only other remaining survivor Dawud B who has been doing radio broadcasts that inspire and connect those still out there in the abandoned city. They join forces and find connection and share their magic.
So much to say about this eco-topic world building of social Justin and survival!
It’s a continuation of a story about Detroit during an epidemic outbreak… it took me a little while to remember where i left off and it would been helpful for a bit more background for those starting here… but essentially most of the population either died from the H-8 outbreak or were evacuated. Dune however remained and documented all those she encountered and the words they said. She kept the records and worked a model of the city her activist parents had. Little did Dune realize, she was contingent parents work and would eventually find sone of their tribe.
Dune does find what she thinks is the only other remaining survivor Dawud B who has been doing radio broadcasts that inspire and connect those still out there in the abandoned city. They join forces and find connection and share their magic.
So much to say about this eco-topic world building of social Justin and survival!
February 9, 2025
Holy. Shit. Honestly? Books are amazing. And fiction is so important, especially when times feel dark. There were a few parts of this book that felt like four stars but there were parts that felt like ten stars and like there were written for me, so I am happy to give this an enthusiastic five stars.
I picked this up thinking book three was not yet scheduled and I slightly regretted that choice because I need book three! And, at the same time, I needed this book today, this week, right now. But! Good news: I've just dug around a bit more and see that book three is scheduled for June - phew!
How do I explain why this was so right for me? First of all, the truly collectivist vision of liberation was so cool and rare to read. And the unexpected examination of queerness really spoke to me.
I need more anarchist dystopian sci-fi in my life and I think it's time I become a Friend of AK Press to help me prioritize books from this worker-managed, indie publisher.
I picked this up thinking book three was not yet scheduled and I slightly regretted that choice because I need book three! And, at the same time, I needed this book today, this week, right now. But! Good news: I've just dug around a bit more and see that book three is scheduled for June - phew!
How do I explain why this was so right for me? First of all, the truly collectivist vision of liberation was so cool and rare to read. And the unexpected examination of queerness really spoke to me.
I need more anarchist dystopian sci-fi in my life and I think it's time I become a Friend of AK Press to help me prioritize books from this worker-managed, indie publisher.
April 4, 2025
I went in to this book very excited to see where brown would take Dune next, after really enjoying Grievers. But about 50 pages in I was putting the book down and not picking it up as often, as Maroons was not a very good follow-up in the series. This book felt like it was struggling to decide who it wanted to focus on and what plot it wanted to follow, and at the same time none of the plots introduced were particularly interesting to follow. Honestly I just.. don't know what to make of this book. There were some interesting ideas but overall I didn't really care about this book. I'm not sure if I'll continue the series.
February 25, 2023
where Grievers was a slow... not burn, but ache, Maroons grows. When it turns, it turns riotous.
Although I confess I was a tinge disappointed at some of the more genre -familiar elements of this book, the build toward them is beautifully handled and deeply grounded in what the first book laid out. The exploration of community and gender/sexuality is deeply moving, the characters grounded and touching. I want to know what adrienne maree brown thinks of Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves.
looking forward to the next of the trilogy.
Although I confess I was a tinge disappointed at some of the more genre -familiar elements of this book, the build toward them is beautifully handled and deeply grounded in what the first book laid out. The exploration of community and gender/sexuality is deeply moving, the characters grounded and touching. I want to know what adrienne maree brown thinks of Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves.
looking forward to the next of the trilogy.
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