Fantastic debut. This book has several short stories, and the titular novella, My Monticello. All the stories convey such depth of emotion that you really FEEL the stories, it's an experience more than just a reading. Each story touches on home, and both the feeling of home and the feeling of displacement. This book is a reckoning of the racial politics in America today. And it is powerful.

"A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America.

Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, “My Monticello,” tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da’Naisha, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, they seek refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unravelling within the nation.

In “Control Negro,” hailed by Roxane Gay as “one hell of story,” a university professor devotes himself to the study of racism and the development of ACMs (average American Caucasian males) by clinically observing his own son from birth in order to “painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one whom I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” Johnson’s characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state, whether in the form of a Nigerian widower who immigrates to a meager existence in the city of Alexandria, finding himself adrift; a young mixed-race woman who adopts a new tongue and name to escape the landscapes of rural Virginia and her family; or a single mother who seeks salvation through “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse.”

United by these characters’ relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable book that bears witness to this country’s legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My Monticello is Johnson's debut fiction collection, but the writing here feels like this is something she's been doing for a long, long time. Partially, that's true. Of the five pieces included in this book (four short stories and one novella), three of them have been published previously. But this is her first book that is all her own, and the collection is a tight one.

Drawing the five pieces together is the eery sense of foreboding that they all invoke as Johnson addresses varying experiences of the struggle being Black in America. The range of both the subject matter and the narrative style accomplished in such a slim book is incredible. From a college professor confessing to his own son that he has been the subject of his years-long secret research project on racial discrimination, to a first person plural narration of a group of elementary school students becoming the bully's henchmen, to a bulleted list of a single mother struggling to buy a home. The longest work, for which the collection is named, follows a diverse group of neighborhood refugees who have escaped from their homes after a violent mob has spread through the streets of Charlottesville in the not-so-distant future. Da'Naisha, a young Black woman among them, leads them to Monticello for shelter outside the city, a place she's familiar with because of an internship the previous summer, and because she is one of the descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and it's there that the group holes up and waits for the city to calm down -- a time that may never come. This novella was haunting, particularly scary after the events of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. I used to find near-future books super intriguing, but either as I get older or the world gets crazier, I find them less and less entertaining and more and more frightening. I found the ending of this one especially compelling, satisfying in its inconclusive resolution.

My Monticello is a collection of stories, a stunning debut is comprised of six stories of astonishing range, and written in prose.

Well…the start of this novel Control Negro, was a shocker, telling, and unexpected ending. “Control Negro,” follows Cornelius, a Black history professor whose peers mistake him for a janitor and whom white students mock with racist jokes, prompting him to plot with a married Black graduate student to have a son together and give him opportunities equal to those of “Average Caucasian Males.” In the experiment, the “Control Negro” doesn’t learn the identity of his father, and Cornelius observes from a distance, hopeful his son will turn out better.

Virginia is Not Your Home, written in prose form, was a very interesting read. A sad, but hopeful ending.

Something Sweet on Our Tongues, reckons with institutionalized racism in schools. Funny, child’s play, hunger, diabetic, bullying, poverty. WOW!

Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse, was a wonder to me. I was lost on the premise of its storytelling.

The King of Xandria, features Mr. Attah. A Nigerian transformed to the United States with his two children, addressing the collateral damage wrought by the trauma endured by immigrants prior to leaving their homelands. It’s a sad story that probably rings true for immigrants who are struggling for a better life.

My Monticello is the main story of the six. A collective of Black and Brown residents decamp to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, seeking refuge where the Unite the Right rally has cast a long shadow and white supremacists pillage the downtown area.

It took me awhile to get into the cadence of Johnson’s writing style. The stories are chilling, thought-provoking and artistically crafted, showing Johnson's amazing writing ability. The cultural makeup of the characters was appreciated. The suspense of how the main story would end, was the highlight. This is an outstanding collection to literary fiction. Detailed with individual courage and systemic racism, and peppered with resistance, hope and love.

A mixed bag of short stories and a novella. I am generally a short story fan but this collection felt unfinished- almost as though the five stores were pulled together to flesh out a volume in which the star is the novella. The writing style and form varies among them but readers will see a common theme. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A worthy and thought provoking read.

The project of this debut story collection is very interesting. I think Roxane Gay probably put it best when she said in her GR review that the stories capture the feeling of a place that is home and not home all at once. It's a perfect encapsulation of the reading experience for me. I will say the first and final stories were the most standout to me, especially the eponymous novella at the end, which was a really riveting exploration of legacy and connection and history through the lens of a January 6-style insurrection that results in a group of neighbors escaping and living in Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. I was always compelled by Johnson's writing, and look forward to seeing more from her.

A great collection of short stories. I will be thinking about these stories for a long time. My favorite was the novella My Monticello.

In Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s My Monticello, a bold collection of fiction, the author explores the vulnerability of Black Americans and the tenacity required to live in a country that seems devoted to making them feel like unwelcome strangers in their own homes. In “Control Negro,” a university professor conducts an experiment on his son, to determine if a black child with the same advantages as the “American Caucasian males” or “ACMs”, as he calls them, would equally enjoy the benefits heaped on the white men. “What I aimed to do was to painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one who I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” The narrator painfully revisits his own experience growing up in racist country, where even as a professor he’s mistaken for the janitor, and harassed by the police in his neighborhood, echoing the real-world story of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. who was arrested for breaking into his own Cambridge house. In “Virginia is Not Your Home”, a story that pounds into the heart all the harder for being told in the second person, a young woman named Virginia (you!) tries to outrun her namesake and her heritage, and, like the professor, try to outwit fate by escaping her state and her name. She seeks to sever her ties to a state she equates with lack of prospects, possibility, adventure and freedom while Virginia (family, obligations, familiarity) winds around her like a vine. Not to be outdone, Johnson follows that with a story told in third person plural (“we”, if you’re not a grammar nerd) as if winking at the reader that she’s just getting warmed up, but more than that, giving readers a feeling of belonging in these stories, regardless of their race. Particularly, she gives white readers the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of these characters. The crowning glory is the eponymous novela, “My Monticello”, which takes place after white supremacists take over Charlottesville, Virginia. Johnson interrogates the horrifying idea laid out by Jefferson in “Notes on the State of Virginia” where he wrote, “Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained ... will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.” Da’Naisha flees from her college campus along with her boyfriend, her grandmother, MaViolet, and a group of people seeking refuge. They stay near the perceived safety of the guard station and entry area for sometime before moving to the main house, Thomas Jefferson’s beautiful mansion built by the labor of enslaved people. Perhaps they’re optimistically hoping the siege of the town will end, but they all seem to hold an ingrained desire to preserve the home. Da’Naisha and her grandmother are actually direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, a fact they largely keep to themselves, until one day they are outed by a photo showing known Black descendants of Jefferson. “What am I supposed to do with these ancestors, I wondered, and what would these neighbors make of me and MaViolet now that they knew? Would they see us as more worthy, or less worthy, as the descendants of a founding father and a slave? And what did it even matter now?” The group of people come to look upon the former plantation as their home, a sort of property of the people, or “our” Monticello, but the generosity of the people who are truly entitled to ownership of the house is most astounding. (Kelly Roark)

My Monticello
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Henry Holt and Co.
On Sale: 10/05/2021
ISBN: 9781250807168
240 Pages

This is a handful of short stories and one longer story that I would consider more of a novella. Each deals with both unique and universal issues encountered by Black people.
The author’s strength comes in her ability to write people. For how short the stories are, the characters come across as fully fleshed out, complicated individuals.
Not as strong is the story development which is most evident in the novella, My Monticello. It felt too long for a short novel and dragged quite a bit in the middle.
All in all, worth the read; closer to three and a half stars.
Thanks to #netgalley and #henryholtandco for this ARC of #mymonticello in exchange for an honest review.

A powerful, beautifully written, heartbreaking short story collection which looks unflinchingly at the lives of Black people in modern America.

“Control Negro”

A professor’s experiment on an unwitting subject shows how a young Black man can do everything in his life the same as an “average Caucasian male” and still end up a victim of racism. The twist at the end is a sucker-punch.

“Virginia Is Not Your Home”

Gorgeously written. A woman who is never quite satisfied with her life, always wanting something unnamable and out of reach, who longs to break free and yet finds herself back where she began. In spite of this, she still has hope and determination that she can break free.

“Something Sweet on Our Tongues”

Reminiscence of school days, told in first-person plural. At turns sweet and incredibly cruel, much like childhood.

“Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse”

A Black single mom, on the verge of turning forty, looking to buy a home and live her best life in the face of all the forces that are aligned against her.

“The King of Xandria”

An immigrant widower raising his children in America as his wife had always dreamed of, struggling to keep them in this new life and still maintain his pride. The emotion in this one is palpable, frustration and desperation and grief at a constant simmer until it erupts.

“My Monticello”

The titular novella is set in an apocalyptic near future marked by climate disaster and catastrophic societal collapse. The story follows Da’Naisha, a black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, with her grandmother, neighbors, and white boyfriend as they take refuge from a violent racist mob at Monticello, Jefferson’s former plantation. "My Monticello” explores Da’Naisha’s complex feelings about her heritage, and the uncomfortable truths about Jefferson that some try to shy away from (but which for Da’Naisha are, obviously, completely unavoidable.) The pace swings between slow contemplation and heart-pounding suspense, and the tone varies from bleak to hopeful, but the writing is beautifully done throughout.

Most of these stories have clearly taken inspiration from current events and the modern landscape of racism and race relations. Every piece in this collection is carefully crafted and stays with the reader long after it’s finished. Some of them might be difficult for some readers (white readers) to stomach, but that stark look at someone else’s reality makes these stories all the more important to read and reflect.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's debut "My Monticello" is a collection of five short stories and a novella. Her writing is exquisite and the characters come alive from the pages. It is a powerful and stunning collection of stories! Each story, though they are all completely different, showcases the issues that people of color face in the United States. These stories are very "in your face" and do not hold anything back. The title novella absolutely blew me away! I can't wait to read more from this author and hope that she expands some of these short stories into longer novels.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this collection from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliant writing. I confess to being uncomfortable in a good way. It is important to check oneself and one's privilege.

Control Negro
I am mad that I cannot locate the reading of this by LeVar Burton. Please read this quick, sharp short story and be as angry as I am.

Virginia Is Not Your Home
Gorgeous literary voice about name, place, and the need to travel.

Something Sweet On Our Tongues
Name and place. Please read this.

Buying A House Ahead Of The Apocalypse
Very reminiscent of "The Things They Carried". One of my favorite quotes:
Vote, but don't expect it to save you.
March, but don't expect it to save you.
Pray, but don't expect it to save you.

The King of Xandria
This is the only story in this collection that I didn't outright love (or hate, see Control Negro). However, it's still amazing writing.

My Monticello
THIS. This novella is amazeballs. Octavia Butler called (from the great beyond) and said she sees Jocelyn Nicole Johnson and is proud of her.

P.S. To those who said they could not finish because this book was “racially stirring the pot and did not waste my time completing” or “Not really sure what the message is” or “I could not stomach the content of stories” and “racially inflammatory”, you definitely need to check your privilege and maybe you should finish a book even if it makes you UnCoMfY. Especially if any of these stories “seemed like scolding” and you “could never tell where they were leading”.

My Monticello is a different read from what I usually venture. It's dystopian in narrative, but realistic. I liked the last part the best with all the descriptions of Monticello. That's what drew me to this story, the descendants of Jefferson and Hemings. It's a very short read, a novella ,which is appealing. The ending is left up in the air.

This is a fabulous collection of stories. Several of the stories are unforgettable - 'Control Negro", 'King of Xandia', and the title story - but all of them are worth reading. The subject matter is not easy: the tangle of race and class and gender in present-day America - but her viewpoint is unique, never predictable, incisive, and insightful. She is very much a writer of the "show, don't tell" school; her stories are about specific people in difficult situations, and we are left to draw our own conclusions as to more universal applicability. She never preaches or lectures.

The title novella is remarkable. In telling a great story about a group of people we come to care about deeply, she also makes the mind-blowing point that the true heirs of Thomas Jefferson are his Black family (through Sally Hemings) and Blacks in general.

Johnson is a great new writer and I will read anything she cares to publish.

"My Monticello" by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is a thought provoking collection of short stories and novella that hits on so many important themes that it is difficult to capture all- wishes for the future, systemic racism, and idealism running up against reality.

An idealistic young woman changes her name and leaves her hometown for a new life, and runs up against wanderlust and feeling stuck in "Virginia is not Your Home". A single mom envisions buying a home against her reality in "Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse". A widower leaves Nigeria for America with his son and daughter and encounters a reality that he does not expect in "The King of Xandria". The standout short story for me was "Control Negro" in which a Black professor uses his son as a control in an experiment on how Americans would treat a Black man in a controlled environment. He observes his students and documents qualities of what he calls ACMs (American caucasian males). This experiment goes awry, as one cannot control everything, especially against systemic biases in the world. It was powerful.

Taking up the bulk of the book is the novella "My Monticello", a fascinating story set in the not so distant future in Charlottesville. Da’Naisha is a young descendent of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. In the aftermath of some catastrophic events in the world, the power grid fails, and militias of white supremacists begin to prowl the streets, aiming to rid them of the Black inhabitants. It all feels so real, considering Charlottesville's recent history. She flees her home with several others and they congregate at Monticello where they attempt to protect themselves from the rioters, and hope that this will pass. It is deeply resonant as, while it projects a life in the future, it is one that appears not all that fantastical considering the continued systemic racism, increasing polarization, climate change, and ignoring/disbelieving science and facts. It is incredibly unsettling and a needed read. Johnson is a powerful storyteller and I cannot wait to read what she writes next.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

Very beautifully written. I grew up in Palmyra VA which is very close to Charlottesville and Monticello. These stories made me feel like I was home

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson has written a collection of short stories that kept me reading to the novella. My Monticello was masterful. I could not stop reading, it all felt too possible.

The best story in this collection kicks things off, and it's, unfortunately, downhill from there.

That's not to say the other stories are not good, because they are. The shorter ones are especially effective. But the main portion of this collection, the title novella, is also the least interesting to me. It's a great idea (a new civil war breaks out, with the mostly-Black protagonists seeking shelter in Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation), but the execution left much to be desired and, for me, never fully realized the idea's potential.

"Control Negro," however, is an absolute stunner of a short story, and I look forward to incorporating it into my syllabi in the future.

My Monticello is a collection of short stories and a novella that combine to be an exploration of the circumstances that Black people constantly face in their lives. While the novella My Monticello explores a near future where power is lost and white people blame the BIPOC, the short stories explore the everyday frustrations and barriers. Control Negro is particularly powerful, as a Black man uses how own son as a control in his own experiment, comparing him and his ability to succeed against young white men afforded the same or similar opportunities. But in doing so, he's willing to throw up obstacles that prevent his own child from succeeded beyond average expectations. The other short stories, four of them, also explore how societal or self-imposed constraints create a glass ceiling impossible to break through. My Monticello is more apocalyptic in nature, and explores a group of people, mostly BIPOC, that take refuge at Monticello - including a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. This story feels like it has the gravity and urgency that last year's Leave the World Behind did not. It explores a certain circumstance dividing people, an urgency to survive, and the dynamics of a group brought together trying to find harmony amongst themselves while knowing they are outcasts from other parts of society. The only thing that would drag down my rating on this is the sense of imbalance in the lengths of the short stories versus the novella, collected together into the same book.

I gave this one a decent try but simply could not finish. This was all just racially stirring the pot and did not waste my time completing.