Reconstruction

August 10, 2020
Johnson (Trouble the Saints) showcases her vision and craft in this powerful collection of speculative shorts. 2014’s Nebula-winning “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” a lush, melancholy tale of a human woman navigating an alternate present in which vampires have conquered the Earth, opens the volume and sets the tone. Most of the nine subsequent stories feature capable women of color struggling against grim, unjust, and often violent sociopolitical structures. The major exception is 2011’s “Their Changing Bodies,” another vampire story, but this one a lighthearted yarn set at a summer camp. Two stories are original to this collection: “The Mirages,” set in a beautifully rendered postapocalyptic Mexico City, and the exceptional title novella, a heartbreaking story of a formerly enslaved woman working for the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Throughout, Johnson breaks down genre boundaries, combining elements of fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and horror, in settings ranging from the historical and familiar to the wildly imaginative. Unified by Johnson’s sensuous prose, these stories will delight existing fans and serve as an excellent introduction for those new to Johnson’s work. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary.

January 1, 2021
Johnson (Trouble the Saints, 2020) has written a twisting collection of speculative fiction about the people at the margins of alien-occupied worlds and magic-imbued islands. In "They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass," two sisters take a boat down the coast to seek an abortion, praying that the glass robot drones who have occupied earth won't spot them. "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i" paints a story of a woman finding a way to survive in a world in which vampires have taken over and imprisoned humans for consumption; "Far and Deep" is a rich, vivid tale of a diver daughter who finds her mother dead on the beach just hours after her mother gifted her an impossibly giant pineapple. Johnson pulls from folklore, myth, and scientific discovery to create rich stories of complicated relationships and love amidst strange, uncanny circumstances. While the worlds are themselves fascinating, the true success of Johnson's stories lies in the careful crafting of their vibrant emotional cores.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.