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Riot Baby Kindle Edition

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 747 ratings

Winner of the 2021 World Fantasy Award
Winner of an 2021 ALA Alex Award
Winner of the 2020 New England Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the 2021 Ignyte Award
Winner of the 2021 AABMC Literary Award

A 2021 Finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Best Outstanding Work of Literary Fiction
A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist
A 2021 Nebula Award Finalist
A 2021 Locus Award Finalist
A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist


Named a Best of 2020 Pick for
NPR | Wired | Book Riot | Publishers Weekly | NYPL | The Austen Chronicle | Kobo | GooglePlay | Good Housekeeping | Powell's Books | Den of Geek

"Riot Baby, Onyebuchi's first novel for adults, is as much the story of Ella and her brother, Kevin, as it is the story of black pain in America, of the extent and lineage of police brutality, racism and injustice in this country, written in prose as searing and precise as hot diamonds."—The New York Times

"
Riot Baby bursts at the seams of story with so much fire, passion and power that in the end it turns what we call a narrative into something different altogether."—Marlon James

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands.

Rooted in the hope that can live in anger,
Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—Ella's Thing allows her to conjure orbs of light, whip up a stiff breeze, and even blow up rats crawling in the apartment she shares with her younger brother Kev—the book's narrator—and their mother. But before it's fully developed, the Thing is provoked by anger and leaves Ella frail and exhausted. She's a loving and protective older sister to the very smart Kev, and is often angered by injustices in her neighborhood. After Ella is particularly affected by the murder of a young Black man on the news, she vanishes to the desert where she hones her powers. Much of the book's setting alternates between the desert and Rikers Island jail, where Kev ends up for his questionable involvement in an attempted armed robbery. Ella is a powerful, omniscient protagonist who embodies Black Girl Magic and superhero strength. Yet she is weighed down by her experience of being a Black woman in America. She relives family members' traumas, including her mother's stillborn delivery by a disinterested doctor and her brother's time in Rikers. Elements of science fiction are blended with discomforting near-reality (for example, Kev is microchipped when he's released, through which he is monitored and medicated). Similarly, actual events propel the narrative: The LA Riots, the Charleston AME Church shooting, and confederate flag disputes are just a few examples. Strong language and drug use is present, but should not dissuade one from adding this short novel to their collection. VERDICT That Kev is a young adult through the bulk of the novel helps make this a compelling choice for those serving older teens.—Lindsay Jensen, Nashville P.L.

Review

“Onyebuchi’s voice work is magnificent, sharp and whipping. . . . This book recognizes that intimate knowledge of suffering can be a source of strength, can be sustaining as well as depressing — that we can grieve the inheritance of generations of ancestors’ pain while marveling at their endurance, and recognize that resilience as part of their legacy."—The New York Times

"Urgent, brutal. . . . Onyebuchi’s unexpectedly hopeful ending is just as powerful as his unflinching, heartbreaking depictions of racism and cruelty. This staggering story is political speculative fiction at its finest."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Onyebuchi sheds light on a world of harsh familiarity and fantastical originality with his incredible worldbuilding and devastating prose. Stark, sharp, and brutal, this story will burn in readers' minds long after the last page."—Library Journal, starred review

"Tochi Onyebuchi uses the hallmarks of sci-fi and dystopia to convey the experience of being a Black person in the world.”—Oprah Magazine

“At its core, Riot Baby’s about sibling love, broken communities, loss, sacrifice and harnessing one’s power to break free. . . . An experience and an absolute must-read.”—FIYAH

"Transformational, devastating and truthful. . . . The most extraordinary novel I have read in years, if ever, and I can’t imagine another book this year coming anywhere near its greatness."—The Oklahoman

"Riot Baby is Tochi Onyebuchi’s incandescent adult debut. . . . 'Anger is an energy,' declared ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon, and Onyebuchi harnesses this energy to warming and clarifying effect.”—Seattle Review of Books

"There is a richness and depth to Onyebuchi's prose that delivers an intricate and textured world at once rife with violence and teeming with familial love. . . . Onyebuchi demonstrates that dystopia for African-Americans in the U.S. resides in the recent past and continues today."—Booklist

"Equal parts provocative and riveting, Riot Baby is what all speculative fiction should strive to be: wholly captivating.”—Salon

“[A] phe­nomenal, explosive little novel. . . . It uses compression and craft to render the reader breathless."—Locus

"Expertly weaves supernatural elements through an all-too-realistic, thrilling story."—BookPage

"Impossible to put down."Buzzfeed

"A thrilling, intense, nail-biting read that transcends genre and has an ending of biblical proportions."—Grimdark Magazine

"Riot Baby bursts at the seams of story with so much fire, passion and power that in the end it turns what we call a narrative into something different altogether."—Marlon James

“Onyebuchi has woven a story as uplifting as it is heartbreaking, an epic ode to the future and past, tiny acts of resistance, love, and the wild unstoppable sweep of revolution.”—Daniel José Older

"Tochi Onyebuchi is, primarily, a generous world-builder. His journey into this is honed and sharpened with Riot Baby, which asks a reader to care deeply for the interior of its characters, and the fights they have taken on."—Hanif Abdurraqib

"Onyebuchi's adult debut is a stunningly, vitally harrowing story and genre at its very best."—Kiersten White

"Riot Baby is the burning embers of a revolution. . . the quiet rage of generations of people who have been told they are lesser than others. It’s the flash of accelerant in a genre that needs the burn."—Mark Oshiro

"Stunningly original, brutal, and electric. Onyebuchi’s prose scorches. It’s hard to put this book down, and when you do, it stays with you."—R. F. Kuang

"Onyebuchi welds a graphic novel sensibility to a searing look at structural inequity in America today. This isn't Jack Womack or J.G. Ballard's broken near future: it's our own photorealistic broken present.Riot Baby is an important book."—Elizabeth Bear

"Onyebuchi's Riot Baby is thrilling and harrowing in the tradition of Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing."—Fran Wilde

"Powerful. Furious. Riot Baby carries the full weight of black American fury and grief, woven together with a masterful story of two siblings and a magic so powerful it will change the face of everything they know."—K. B. Wagers

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07QDHR8SG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom; Reprint edition (January 21, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 21, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1770 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 167 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 747 ratings

About the author

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Tochi Onyebuchi
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Tochi Onyebuchi is the award-winning author of Goliath; Riot Baby, winner of the World Fantasy Award and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Awards; the Beasts Made of Night series; the War Girls series; Marvel’s Black Panther: Legends limited series; and the nonfiction book (S)kinfolk.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
747 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2024
5 out of 5

The story opens with the birth of the MC during the LA riots in 1992. Kevin's sister, Ella, has extraordinary powers, and anger, unless it is channeled, could hurt the very people she loves.

What I liked:
The author's mastery of language is beautiful, and powerful, and paints a visceral picture of life as a Black person. While I'm not necessarily the intended audience, I was drawn into the struggle that Kev faced first as a child and then as a young man incarcerated in a corrupt system. I have yet to unpack all the symbolism and imagery packed into this slim tome. I will be thinking about this book long after reading it.

What I didn't like:
It's too short! I want more! I am so glad there are two sequels.

Overall:
You need to put this book on your TBR. I am putting the sequel Crown of Thunder on my TBR list.
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2020
“Riot Baby” isn’t really about Ella and her magical “Thing”, nor is it about, as the synopsis suggests, the revolution for racial equality in this barely alternate and vaguely more futuristic version of America. I say that because the events that define Kev—the actual Riot Baby—like the LA riot of 1992, and the police brutality aimed primarily at Black communities is all very real, and in Ella and Kev’s world, only taken to a slightly bigger level by the futuristic technology and weaponry the police use to terrorize these communities. This book is really about the anger felt with structural racism and brutality shown through the lens of an intimate family view of those who suffer under such conditions. Ella, her mom, and brother Kev are all just trying to live, but that becomes almost impossible with how America treats its Black citizens. This book is written in such a beautiful, raw, and angry tone which demands readers to confront systematic racial injustice head on. This novella evokes so many emotions and is crafted in really a magnificent way—Onyebuchi is a masterful writer! But story wise? I had a really hard time connecting.

Ella’s Thing, her super powers, are incredible and seem pretty limitless, and because of that, they aren’t really defined. Ella can kind of do anything—she can burn cities to the ground if she wants to. But she’s trapped in her own kind of mental prison fueled by the anger she feels and injustice she sees and experiences, that she can’t/doesn’t really DO anything beyond seeing other’s past and future. But with that kind of power I’d expect her Thing to impact the plot of the book in some way, but it doesn’t, not really, outside of being used to zoom out of this otherwise very personal view to show the reader it’s not just this family that is treated unfairly. Plus the timeline jumps around a lot and the POV shifts pretty rapidly sometimes between Ella and Kev. So I spent a lot of this book trying to interpret Ella’s Thing, and figure out if what was happening was a vision of the past, present, future, or something that was actually happening to Ella or Kev.

The portrayal of this slightly alternate and futuristic world is brutal and unyielding. The language is raw and full of emotion. So many scenes are incredibly detailed and extremely uncomfortable, that it really encapsulates Ella’s rage and passes it on to the reader. And while painful, it’s incredible. The way the author structures these long, run on sentences to capture the raw emotions of the characters, even of those that Ella sees the future for, is an important gut-punch to be sure. But this novella is more a collection of experiences loosely tied together by Ella and Kev. The story is their survival in a system meant to tear them down, lock them away, and kill them. Ella’s Thing is a bit unnecessary to the plot and while really cool, detracted, I felt, from the authentic experiential aspects of the book.

The messages in this book are important, and the care and craft that the author uses to bring them about are great, but I think I was expecting more of a “traditional” story when I first started reading this, something more science-fiction and fantasy like some of the authors other books, then the literary fiction this turned out to be. Which probably means I wasn’t in the correct headspace to maybe enjoy or grasp everything this novella packs within its pages. So don’t let my 3.5 star rating fool you, I would absolutely recommend this to literary fiction fans, the subject matter is as timely as it is poignant and powerful. But I personally had a hard time connecting and I was always left wanting more from Ella’s Thing, and was struggling at times with how often the story jumped and moved around from POV’s and timelines. However, I’ll be keeping this novella in my mind and on my shelves as it may be one of those books that I read again later, however, and can then enjoy a great deal more.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023
Tochi Onyebuchi takes us down a dystopian near-future alternate path that feels all too possible. One cannot help but cheer on the protagonists amidst all of their pain and complexity. His prose is lyrical and impactful and beautiful.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2020
3.5 stars.

Interesting read. I was still left with questions. How did the mother die? Why wasn’t Ella able to get her brother out of prison, or him use his own powers to get himself out of prison.

I liked that it tied into social injustice and how changes need to take place.

At times, I was tuning in and out.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2020
I have to confess: I liked it better when the story centered around Ella as in the very beginning. Still, if your title is Riot Baby, it is good to base your story on the person who was born during the riots following the Rodney King verdict.

This book can be unsettling at times. Besides the raw emotion it contains (I was not raised to be comfortable with the F-word and it still takes me out of the story when I encounter it), I also felt somewhat displaced in time. It starts in the past in what is definitely our past but when the characters are adults, it feels too futuristic and technologically advanced to be our world. I also found the shifts in writing somewhat off-putting. I don't mind change of POV between characters, but when chapters are suddenly in present tense instead of a more typical narrative-style past tense, it clashes for me.

So Ella is the big sister of Kev (Kevin), the riot baby. Ella is special. She has powers - powers which seem pretty endless in parts of the book. They're mostly mind-based. We see her as a young girl whose secret must be hidden, then suddenly we see both her and her brother as adults.

We don't get much of the story of Kevin's childhood, but we can piece together pieces. Their mother worked herself ragged trying to provide for them. Ella seemed able to take care of herself, but Kev evidently fell in with young men who got him involved with illegal activities and he wound up in prison.

The prison section is hard to read as Onyebuchi writes of the treatment of the prisoners. This isn't quite our earth, but it's still a place where black lives don't seem to matter. It's probably Ella which keeps Kev sane through all of this - although Ella by now is almost a hallucination. I wasn't always clear when she was visiting him in the flesh and when she was visiting astrally projecting.

I'm rambling. This is a book to ponder. Onyebuchi's writing is compelling - he draws you in. His characters feel very real as do the emotions he portrays. It won't ever be my favorite book, but I think it's one I'm going to need to come back to and revisit from time to time.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Jillian Pardy
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing story
Reviewed in Canada on December 27, 2023
Onyebuchi uses such an interesting method of presenting social issues in the story. Definitely a great read, I would highly recommend this book!
Nicoz
3.0 out of 5 stars Un po' troppo lontano dalla realtà italiana
Reviewed in Italy on September 5, 2022
Il libro di per sè è scorrevole, anche se con una trama abbastanza aggrovigliata, dato che segue i protagonisti avanti ed indietro nel tempo. Purtroppo è molto ancorato alla realtà dei quartieri afroamericani, con molti elementi tipici dello slang e della lotta di classe, quindi per un pubblico italiano tali elementi sono abbastanza difficili da apprezzare appieno.
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