Reads 365: No.18
February- Black Excellence
Black authors & Black experiences
Some of the books features heavy subject matter, so please be mindful of the content warnings and research them fully.
Your mental wellbeing matters.
The Sellout
by Paul Beatty
The narrator (named "Me") tries to reinstate slavery and segregate his Los Angeles neighbourhood. It's satire. It's savage. It won the Man Booker Prize.
Paul Beatty's novel is angry, hilarious, and uncomfortable, exactly the point. In a post-racial America that still murders Black people, what does it mean to be Black? Beatty's answer: bring back slavery ironically and force America to confront its hypocrisy.
Not for the faint of heart. Absolutely brilliant.
💫 Perfect for:
• Satire lovers
• Readers who love uncomfortable comedy
• Anyone exploring race in America
• Fans of sharp social commentary
🏆Brilliant & controversial
⭐ Savage satire
🖤 Post-racial America skewered
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction/Satire
#MarginsXReads #BHM #TheSellout #PaulBeatty #ManBookerPrize #Satire #RacialSatire #LosAngeles #Uncomfortable #Brilliant #SocialCommentary #DiverseBooks
Erasure
by Percival Everett
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is tired of the publishing industry wanting stereotypical Black trauma. So he writes the most stereotypical "ghetto" novel as a joke. It becomes a bestseller.
Percival Everett's meta-fiction satire skewers publishing, white audiences, and what "authentic" Blackness means. It's funny, smart, and furious and now adapted into "American Fiction" with Jeffrey Wright.
If you work in publishing, this will hurt. If you love books, read it anyway.
💫 Perfect for:
• Publishing industry peeps
• Meta-fiction lovers
• Fans of "American Fiction" film
• Anyone exploring authentic representation
⭐ Meta-fiction brilliance
🖤 What is "authentic" Blackness?
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction/Satire
#MarginsXReads #BHM #Erasure #PercivalEverett #AmericanFiction #JeffreyWright #PublishingSatire #MetaFiction #Authenticity #Representation #Satire #DiverseBooks
Riot Baby
by Tochi Onyebuchi
Ella can see the future. Her brother Kev is incarcerated. From the LA riots to present day, this novella explores police violence, mass incarceration, and rage.
Tochi Onyebuchi's Afrofuturist novella packs novel-level punch in 176 pages. Ella's powers let her witness every police murder, every injustice. Kev survives prison. Together they navigate a world that criminalizes Black existence. Angry, timely, devastating.
💫 Perfect for:
• Afrofuturism readers
• Anyone exploring mass incarceration
• Novella enthusiasts
• Fans of urgent, political SFF
⭐ Timely & powerful
✨ 176 pages of fury
📚 Genre: Science Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #RiotBaby #TochiOnyebuchi #Afrofuturism #SciFi #Novella #MassIncarceration #PoliceViolence #LARiots #Timely #DiverseBooks
Boy, Snow, Bird
by Helen Oyeyemi
Snow White retelling about racial passing in 1950s America. When Boy marries Arturo, his daughter Snow is born pale. Then Bird is born dark, revealing the family's secret.
Helen Oyeyemi reimagines fairy tales through race, mirrors, and what we hide. When Snow's Blackness is revealed through Bird's birth, Boy must decide: hide the truth or face it. Oyeyemi's prose is gorgeous, her themes devastating.
Fairy tale horror that's actually about American racial terror.
💫 Perfect for:
• Fairy tale retelling fans
• Literary fiction readers
• Anyone exploring racial passing
• Oyeyemi enthusiasts
⭐ Fairy tale horror
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #BoySnowBird #HelenOyeyemi #FairyTale #SnowWhite #RacialPassing #Retelling #NigerianBritish #Literary #DiverseBooks
Master of Poisons
by Andrea Hairston
Epic fantasy inspired by Yoruba and Dogon cultures, where poison masters, tricksters, and wanderers must save their world.
Andrea Hairston's fantasy spans generations in an African-inspired world where poison and story are power. When empires clash and the veil between worlds tears, unlikely heroes must navigate politics, magic, and survival. Ambitious worldbuilding, multiple perspectives, and fantasy that breaks the European mold.
💫 Perfect for:
• Epic fantasy readers
• African-inspired worldbuilding seekers
• Fans of N.K. Jemisin
• Readers wanting non-European fantasy
⭐ African-inspired epic fantasy
📖Multi-generational saga
🖤 Non-European fantasy
📚 Genre: Fantasy
#MarginsXReads #BHM #MasterOfPoisons #AndreaHairston #EpicFantasy #AfricanFantasy #Yoruba #Worldbuilding #BlackFantasy #Mythology #DiverseBooks
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
by Marlon James
"The child is dead. There is nothing left to know."
Marlon James writes African fantasy like Game of Thrones meets African mythology; violent, epic, and explicitly queer. Tracker hunts a mysterious boy across a landscape filled with shape-shifters, witches, and monsters. Told non-linearly, with an unreliable narrator, in prose that demands your attention.
💫 Perfect for:
• Epic fantasy readers
• African mythology enthusiasts
• Fans of grimdark fantasy
• LGBTQ+ fantasy seekers
⭐ African Game of Thrones
🏳️🌈 Queer African Fantasy
📚 Genre: Fantasy
#MarginsXReads #BHM #BlackLeopardRedWolf #MarlonJames #AfricanFantasy #EpicFantasy #QueerFantasy #LGBTQ #Mythology #DarkFantasy #Ambitious #DiverseBooks
The Space Between Worlds
by Micaiah Johnson
Multiverse travel exists but you can only visit worlds where your alternate self is dead. Cara has died on 372 of 380 worlds, making her the perfect employee.
Micaiah Johnson's debut is a multiverse thriller about class, identity, and survival. Cara was poor, disposable. Now she's valuable because her counterparts keep dying. But when she discovers a secret, everything changes. Sharp sci-fi with social commentary.
💫 Perfect for:
• Multiverse/parallel universe fans
• Sci-fi readers wanting social commentary
• Thriller enthusiasts
• Fans of Dark Matter & The Midnight Library
⭐ Class & identity
🌌 Multiverse Thriller
📚 Genre: Science Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #TheSpaceBetweenWorlds #MicaiahJohnson #SciFi #Multiverse #ParallelWorlds #Thriller #BlackSciFi #DebutNovel #DiverseBooks
Kingdom of Souls
by Rena Barron
Arrah comes from a family of powerful witches but she has no magic. To save her kingdom, she'll trade years of her life for power. The cost might be everything.
Rena Barron's YA fantasy is West African-inspired worldbuilding with blood magic, demons, and a protagonist willing to sacrifice herself. Kingdom of Souls launches a trilogy full of gods, magic, and the price of power.
💫 Perfect for:
• YA fantasy readers
• Fans of West African-inspired fantasy
• Blood magic enthusiasts
• Readers who love high stakes
⭐ Fresh fantasy worldbuilding
📚 Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
#MarginsXReads #BHM #KingdomOfSouls #RenaBarron #YAFantasy #WestAfrican #BloodMagic #BlackFantasy #TrilogyStart #DiverseBooks
February’s Black Excellence list