Skye Papers, Jamika Ajalon
Skye Papers, Jamika Ajalon
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Skye Papers

Author: Jamika Ajalon

Narrator: Karen Chilton

Unabridged: 8 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/21/2021

Synopsis

Twentysomething and restless, Skye flits between cities and stagnant relationships until she meets Scottie, a disarming and disheveled British traveler, and Pieces, an enigmatic artist living in New York. The three recognize each other as kindred spirits—Black, punk, whimsical, revolutionary—and fall in together, leading Skye on an unlikely adventure across the Atlantic. They live a glorious, subterranean existence in 1990s London: making multimedia art, throwing drug-fueled parties, and eking out a living by busking in Tube stations, until their existence is jeopardized by the rise of CCTV and policing.In fluid and unrelenting prose, Jamika Ajalon’s debut novel explores youth, poetry, and what it means to come to terms with queerness. Skye Papers is an imaginative, episodic group portrait of a transatlantic art scene spearheaded by people of color—and of the fraught, dystopian reality of increasing state surveillance.

About Jamika Ajalon

Jamika Ajalon is an author and interdisciplinary artist who incorporates written and spoken text, sound/music, and visuals. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in various publications internationally. Ajalon received an MA in communication in culture and society from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is based in London and Paris.

About Karen Chilton

Karen Chilton is a New York–based actor and writer and an accomplished voice-over artist and narrator. She has narrated dozens of audiobooks, won three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2020 won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Nonfiction Narration. Her voice can be heard on numerous national network television, radio, and Internet advertising campaigns.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sage

This is the most underrated 2021 release. Think Kazuo Ishiguro but Black and queer and set in the 90’s. I’m gonna think about this one for a long time.......more

Goodreads review by Kathie

At the heart of this queer, punk, semi-dystopic transatlantic drug-fueled tale is a psychological mystery about memory and surveillance. Someone is watching Skye, but who and why? And why are parts of her memory blocked off? What does TAMT (The All Mighty They) have to do with it? Skye is a 20-someth......more

Goodreads review by afrobookricua

“I would just stare at the sky. For a long time, it seemed nothing happened, except in the worlds created on pages. Outside of that, I was lost” Skye, (105). ☁️👁‍🗨☁️ After closing SKYE PAPERS, I’m coming down from sort of cerebral high, an elevated out-of-body experience that has me stammering at the......more

Goodreads review by Tabitha

"To be free of this is perhaps costlier than most of us could fathom or believe we could handle. To see things as they are, and live your truth in spite of it; to have the courage to embrace where your own pulse might lead, even and especially when everything around you presses to acquiesce to the s......more

Quotes

“[A] spectacular performance...Chilton's voice is chameleon-like…[and] Chilton's ability to fully embody each character makes listeners feel as though they are right there in the moment with Skye and her crew—as surprised by each new revelation as they are.” AudioFile

“[In] the rhythmic, riffing, incantatory prose…we get lost in a world that Ajalon renders with precision and lyricism that elude her main character.” New York Times

“Though the novel is deftly plotted and full of well-rounded, interesting characters, the desperate anger of Skye and Pieces’ relationship is meant to be abrasive, giving the book a jagged edge.” Kirkus Reviews

“A visceral narrative of artists of color, Jamika Ajalon’s debut novel bursts forth with visionary aim.” Fork Burke, author of Licking Glass

“Too real to be sci-fi, with a gritty imagination, Skye Papers merges race and class, queerness and anarchy, all while keeping a Philip K. Dick–ensian eye on the entities with the power to monitor and control our freedoms.” Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir

“Skye Papers is a story of becoming—part love story, part artistic path, part surveillance-state dystopia—from a wholly unique and necessary new voice.” Pamela Sneed, author of Funeral Diva

“Skye Papers is not only one of the most addictive reads of this year, it’s a must reread to unlock the living labyrinths of loving madly, performing badly, and surviving oneself while daring to risk everything to experience a creative life beyond the fringes of expectation and limitation.” Malik Ameer Crumpler, poet, editor, and rapper

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