Audiobook Review – Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, Narrated by Author (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 3 hours and 46 minutes
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release Date: January 21, 2020
ASIN: B081BBPQ56
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 2/5 stars
“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.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed a copy of this on audiobook from the library.
Thoughts: I wasn’t a fan of this at all and almost stopped reading it at numerous points. It is a very passionate, very long discussion about the injustices of a future (and the implied current) justice system on the black population in America. The same point is made over and over and over again and very passionately driven in. While I have no issue with this topic in general, every other aspect of the book suffered because of it. The story is disjointed, the characters are held at a distance and things just don’t make sense.
This seems to be set in an almost cyber-punky-near-future. It follows two twins, Ella and Kev. Ella has a strange power that lets her do increasing amounts of crazy things. Her powers grow exponentially throughout the book without an explanation as to why and we never really get to understand what drives her. Kev is an ultra intelligent young man who gets forced into the penal system and suffers many indignities and much violence. Again, he is held at a distance from the reader.
There is loads of explicit violence in here and an absolute ton of swearing. Because of how disjointed the story is, the violence seems almost frivolous at times. It is hard to tell at times if you are hearing from Ella or Kev. I listened to this on audiobook and the author narrated the book; he used the same voice throughout so it is very hard to tell when you switch characters. Additionally, the characters’ mental “voices” are very similar so it is hard to tell who is who.
Lastly, the main premise of this book seems to be that you can solve violence with more violence and that is something I absolutely do not believe. The whole thing just left a very bad taste in my mouth. The best thing about this story was the political commentary on how unfairly certain races are dealt with in the justice system; but even this was talked about soooo much it started to drag the story down.
My Summary (2/5): Overall I didn’t enjoy this at all. It is a good political commentary on the justice system and how it treats different races unequally; however this point is hashed over and over again ad-nauseum. It is not a good story; it lacks any cohesive plot, the characters are held at a distance and it is hard to follow and engage with the story. I wouldn’t recommend and won’t be reading more by this author.
