Riot Baby

Starred review from November 11, 2019
Onyebuchi (War Girls) paints a grim, dystopian portrait of contemporary America shot through with elements of the supernatural in this urgent, brutal work. Ella Jackson and her baby brother, Kev, are both preternaturally gifted. The “Riot Baby,” Kev, is born in 1992 Los Angeles, just hours after the courts acquitted the cops that beat Rodney King and the city erupted in violence. As a teenager in New York, Kev is brutally assaulted by police and arrested for no crime but being black; he spends the next eight years incarcerated at Rikers. During this time, Ella visits him both in person and psychically, constantly using her powers to offer him glimpses of freedom and life outside the prison walls and lead him on a path toward a revolutionary future as, in the outside world, incidents of police brutality rise and their mother’s health fails. Onyebuchi’s unexpectedly hopeful ending is just as powerful as his unflinching, heartbreaking depictions of racism and cruelty. This staggering story is political speculative fiction at its finest.

Starred review from December 1, 2019

Ella hates Compton's gang members, brutal acts, and systemic racism--especially as she has visions of the youth around her losing their lives. When Compton burns during the Rodney King riots of 1992, her brother Kev is born during a night of fire, rage, and violence. Moving to Harlem does not change things: Ella's powers take her away from family and the familiar, and Kev is raised in a world that ultimately incarcerates him for being young and black. Visiting him in prison, Ella shows Kev that his own powers can be a path to revelation and fiery revolution. VERDICT Onyebuchi (War Girls) sheds light on a world of harsh familiarity and fantastical originality with his incredible worldbuilding and devastating prose. Stark, sharp, and brutal, this story will burn in readers' minds long after the last page.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2019
Past, present and future clash in this ambitious novella inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the continuing institutional violence toward young Black men. Kev was born during the riots in the aftermath of the Rodney King trial, and it's shortly after his birth that his older sister Ella begins to develop powers beyond her control. When they move to Harlem to escape South Central, her powers, which she calls the Thing, intensify, and she grapples with anger at the injustices happening around her. When Kev is incarcerated at Riker's Island, Ella is determined to create a different path for their futures. 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2020

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.

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.