Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi
Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi
3 Rating(s)
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Riot Baby

Author: Tochi Onyebuchi

Narrator: Tochi Onyebuchi

Unabridged: 3 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/21/2020

Synopsis

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 Tochi Onyebuchi

Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of 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. He holds a BA from Yale, an MFA in screenwriting from the Tisch School of the Arts, a master’s degree in economic law from Sciences Po, and a JD from Columbia Law School. His fiction has appeared in Panverse Three, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Obsidian, Omenana magazine, Lightspeed, and Uncanny. His nonfiction has appeared in Nowhere magazine, the Oxford University Press blog, Tor.com, and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, among other places. Riot Baby is his adult fiction debut.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Roxane on August 28, 2020

I love the ideas here, the genre blurring, how the narrative grapples with what it means to be black in this country. There are some issues. The transitions are odd. I get the purpose but it became more frustrating than interesting. And I think the book needs another 40 or so pages so that parts of......more

Goodreads review by Lala on May 18, 2020

Book 4 of 30 for my 30 day reading challenge! I don't think I've ever read a book this short, that succeeded at everything it could have accomplished even if given 400 more pages. The broadness of this idea and setting, paired with the intimacy of this family narrative could not have been a more perf......more

Goodreads review by emma on June 10, 2024

in the acknowledgments of this book, the author says he wrote "the type of angry that still leaves room for love." this book is exquisitely, desperately angry, justifiably so, but we end well before it seems like we've found the love. this is a book with a lot of great ideas and a lot of great feelin......more

Goodreads review by Jesse (JesseTheReader) on December 22, 2022

This was an excellent short story! I felt like it executed the topics it brought forth in a solid way in terms of the short amount of time it had to cover them. I also LOVED the writing style like.. *chefs kiss*......more

Goodreads review by James on September 30, 2019

I received an uncorrected proof copy of Riot Baby in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Tochi Onyebuchi and Tor. Riot Baby begins in Compton, USA depicting topics that could have been straight out of an N.W.A song. Racism, police brutality, gang banging etc... This chapter is prese......more

Quotes

“Blazes with rage and glory.” Cory Doctorow, New York Times bestselling author

“An epic ode to the future and past, tiny acts of resistance, love, and the wild, unstoppable sweep of revolution.” Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author

“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.” New York Times

“A stunningly, vitally harrowing story and genre at its very best.” Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author

“Author/narrator Tochi Onyebuchi portrays characters who personify the violent world they live in…Onyebuchi delivers the intensity of his plot in an unflinching style. His characters are animated and in-your-face, while at the same time caring in a tough-love sort of way…His steady pace allows listeners to follow the details that bring this story to an unexpected, powerful close.” AudioFile

“A thrilling, intense, nail-biting read that transcends genre and has an ending of biblical proportions.” Grimdark magazine

“This staggering story is political speculative fiction at its finest.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Onyebuchi 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.” Library Journal (starred review)

“For readers who love propulsive, creepy, emotionally dynamic novels with a dash of the supernatural, Tochi Onyebuchi’s powerful work of speculative fiction finds hope and magic within a black family as they stand against violence and racism.” BookPage

“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.” Booklist

Awards

  • Tor.com Reviewers' Choice
  • USA Today Pick
  • BookPage Top Pick
  • Electric Literature
  • Vogue Pick
  • New England Book Award
  • Audible.com Best of the Year
  • Nebula Award
  • Hugo Award
  • World Fantasy Award
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