Riot Baby - Hardcover

Onyebuchi, Tochi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250214750 ISBN 13: 9781250214751

Publisher: Tordotcom, 2020

Synopsis

Winner of the 2021 World Fantasy Award
Winner of an 2021 ALA Alex Award
Winner of the 2020 New England Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the 2021 Ignyte Award
Winner of the 2021 AABMC Literary Award

A 2021 Finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Best Outstanding Work of Literary Fiction
A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist
A 2021 Nebula Award Finalist
A 2021 Locus Award Finalist
A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist

Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Wired | Book Riot | Publishers Weekly | NYPL | The Austen Chronicle | Kobo | Google Play | Good Housekeeping | Powell's Books | Den of Geek

"Riot Baby, Onyebuchi's first novel for adults, is as much the story of Ella and her brother, Kevin, as it is the story of black pain in America, of the extent and lineage of police brutality, racism and injustice in this country, written in prose as searing and precise as hot diamonds."―The New York Times

"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

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands.

Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.

About this title

About the Author

Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Goliath, a Locus Award and Dragon Award finalist, the young adult novel Beasts Made of Night, which won the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African, its sequel, Crown of Thunder, and War Girls. His novella Riot Baby, a finalist for the Hugo, the Nebula, the Locus, the Ignyte, and the NAACP Image Awards, won the New England Book Award for Fiction and an ALA Alex Award. He holds a B.A. from Yale, a M.F.A. in screenwriting from the Tisch School for the Arts, a Master's degree in droit économique from Sciences Po, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Reviews

Gr 9 Up—Ella's Thing allows her to conjure orbs of light, whip up a stiff breeze, and even blow up rats crawling in the apartment she shares with her younger brother Kev—the book's narrator—and their mother. But before it's fully developed, the Thing is provoked by anger and leaves Ella frail and exhausted. She's a loving and protective older sister to the very smart Kev, and is often angered by injustices in her neighborhood. After Ella is particularly affected by the murder of a young Black man on the news, she vanishes to the desert where she hones her powers. Much of the book's setting alternates between the desert and Rikers Island jail, where Kev ends up for his questionable involvement in an attempted armed robbery. Ella is a powerful, omniscient protagonist who embodies Black Girl Magic and superhero strength. Yet she is weighed down by her experience of being a Black woman in America. She relives family members' traumas, including her mother's stillborn delivery by a disinterested doctor and her brother's time in Rikers. Elements of science fiction are blended with discomforting near-reality (for example, Kev is microchipped when he's released, through which he is monitored and medicated). Similarly, actual events propel the narrative: The LA Riots, the Charleston AME Church shooting, and confederate flag disputes are just a few examples. Strong language and drug use is present, but should not dissuade one from adding this short novel to their collection. VERDICT That Kev is a young adult through the bulk of the novel helps make this a compelling choice for those serving older teens.—Lindsay Jensen, Nashville P.L.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tordotcom
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250214750
• ISBN 13: 9781250214751
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176