Rion is a masterful storyteller. Each story in the book was well written, delving at times in fantasy or the fanatical. Great job.

Scott is a brilliant writer, his stories pushing reality to its edges, and making you question your assumptions.

Quirky, in an Ishmael Reed kind of way. A heavy helping of satire with a steady stream of wisdom. This short story collection is unlike any I’ve read in recent memory, mainly because it is so left field in a positive way. That magical realism pops up here (more and more becoming a thing in fiction) and really informs the entire collection. I’m still on the fence as a fan of that device, though it works well here. Although the stories are separate they are all connected to the fictional Cross River.

And never has a fictional community been built to such a feeling of real as in this work. Rion Scott kicks off the fun with David Sherman, the Last Son of God, he writes “God is from Cross River, everyone knows that. He was tall, lanky; wore dirty brown clothes and walked with a limp he tried to disguise as a bop.” Once the hilarity of it starts, it rarely lets up, with laugh out loud outrageousness such as the The Ni**er Knockers, a story that subtly pokes fun at serious scholarship, exhibiting that damn near anything can be a dissertation, “I looked at the title and fell into an amusement, a raw laughter so deep and pure that I was cleansed when it began to subside. ‘Ni**er Knocks: A Brief Cultural History.’”

By the time you get to the story on Loneliness Studies, you will be wondering what the fcuk is Rion Scott trying to tell us.
Everything from religion to scholarship gets skewered here and all of it will have you shaking your damn head.

A bit of a warning, this is not for the easily offended, there is no doubt some content may be considered offensive, so come into this book with an open mind and discerning heart and enjoy the crazy community of Cross River, a place rich in mythology, history, a community college and it’s own sound! Rion Scott is now on the “Writers to watch” radar. Thanks to Netgalley and Liveright Publishing for an advanced DRC. Book will hit the market on Aug. 20, 2019!

I was hooked from the very first story. This book grabbed me and spoke to me in a way that no book has done in a truly long time.

This collection of essays covers coming of age and fables stories all wrapped into a beautiful collection that explores slavery, love, and connection mixed in with African American history and experience.

The themes are unique and powerful, often leaving me with deep thoughts and analysis.

A thought-provoking and strong collection.