AN EXTRAVAGANT, SPRAWLING PICARESQUE set in Zaire in the last years of the Mobutu regime is a symphony of voices from every walk of life, from tough street kids to the secret police to high society. Vivid and fascinating. B PLUS
HIGH TECH AND HOODOO and the powers of love, art, and community are mighty weapons in this unique adventure set in a near-future dystopian Massachusetts. Rich with the Afrofuturist spirit of funk and beautiful evocations of nature. B PLUS
A VIRTUOSO RIFF ON AN AMERICAN classic: the inimitable Percival Everett retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, transforming it from a familiar picaresque to a more complex adventure and a meditation on code-switching. A MINUS
A BLACK PHYSICIAN’S UNSPARING examination of the profound impact racism has on healthcare and health outcomes intertwines with stories of her own, her sister’s, and her mother’s lives as doctors. Thoughtful, deep, engaging. A MINUS
BLEAK, STUNNING ALTERNATE HISTORY, set in a US where white male supremacy is de jure as well as de facto the norm, intertwines the stories of a brilliant young Black woman seeking freedom and her 19th century ancestor. A MINUS
INVESTIGATING A SHADY CONGRESSWOMAN leads two journalists into an investigation with life-or-death stakes. Romantic thriller captures both suspense and love within Houston’s Black elite. B PLUS
SISTERS, CLINGING TOGETHER after a family tragedy leaves one with profound brain injuries and the other with responsibilities she can barely handle, find separate ways through crises. Lovely mix of Trinidadian legends and European fairy tales.
LINKED BY FAMILY AND FRIENDSHIP, generations of Black women hold tightly to the things that bind them against forces that threaten to overwhelm them—heartbreak, mortality, racism, misogyny, literal and figurative ghosts. Lovely, stirring writing. B PLUS
SMART, SIZZLING VAMPIRE novel is a sexy, erudite, witty retelling of the Dracula story with a young Black woman at its center. Contemporary and queer and funny as hell. A MINUS
BRILLIANT, MOTIVATED, AND FIERCELY fabulous, activist Eddie Ndopu tells the story of his journeys: South Africa to Canada to Oxford to his role on the world’s most glittering stages speaking out for the rights of people with disabilities. B PLUS
BRIGHT, VIVID TALE of two Nigerian girls touched by the spirit world, driven toward each other by different destinies. Gorgeously written, with a brilliant kaleidoscope of detail. B PLUS
THREE WOMEN’S LIVES COLLIDE in unexpected ways in a Southern university town. Hilariously satirical, meticulously observed, and full of compassion, this novel has a lot to say about modern life, love, family, sex, race, class, and money. A MINUS
A HIGH-POWERED BLACK EXECUTIVE quits her Fortune 500 corporate job and takes on the challenge of turning a struggling hair salon back into the neighborhood icon it once was. Entertaining urban fiction with a positive spin. SOLID B
DISTINCTIVE, COMPULSIVELY READABLE novel combines its glossy setting among the Hollywood elite with a story of hidden resistance to anti-Black oppression. Unforgettable, larger than life characters mix with a fast-paced plot. B PLUS