Book Review: Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novella is intense and 100% a story for the now. Told from the perspective of Kev, a young black man born during the Rodney King riots, over a series of years spanning from his childhood through his incarceration and beyond to his (potential) liberation, the story is a raw, real, and unflinching look at the violence done to Black bodies. While Kev's mystical, powerful sister Ella is a key figure in the novella, this is fully Kev's story and Onyebuchi tells it in a way that keeps the listener rapt. The story hops through time in a way that is disorienting but no more so for the reader than for Kev, and the not-too-far-off dystopian future depicted is one that feels a little to "at home" with current events related to police violence against Black people, the excessive policing of Black bodies in general, the use of technology to track citizens and predict activities through algorithms, and the continued failure to recognize White Supremacist culture as an act of terror. And yet... I could help but feel that this book - with all its scary trappings - is wrapped around a kernel of hope.

I enjoyed this book as an audiobook, and, as always, it was incredible to hear the author interpret his own words for the recording. I do plan to revisit it in print because I am curious to see how the text is laid out on the page and how space is used to tell the story.

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