What a literacy masterpiece and a debut novel too. I had to read this in small doses because there was just so much to be savored. The writing was absolutely beautiful. I’m still a little confused about the ending but I think this is a novel that needs to be read more than once. 

This was such a sad and beautiful read packed with nuance on the traumas inflicted by slavery in the southern US (circa 1830s), particularly in regards to Black LGBTQ+ experiences. The structure of the novel is modeled on that of the bible, which fits the theme; it is Christianity that is essentially weaponized against our main characters. I thought the setup was clever and enjoyed getting a new perspective with almost every chapter, but I also found it episodic in a way that made it easy to put the book down at any point and harder to pick it up and get back into the flow of the overall story. Nevertheless, a brilliant and heartbreaking book.

(I’m writing this review a month after reading this book 🙈 so apologies if it’s not very coherent! 😂)

This book is historical fiction, but it definitely leans more toward literary fiction. It’s very well-written, but some might find the writing too abstract and overdone for the story. I’ll admit, some parts were hard to focus on in the audiobook and I think it would’ve helped me to have the print book to follow along with while listening. Some audiobooks I can listen to while doing a million other things and still follow along easily; this one required and commanded more attention. (I’m not saying this is a bad thing either—just trying to explain what kind of book this is and the best way to read it.)

That being said, I found the plot to be compelling and the characters satisfyingly complex. We get into the heads of several different characters, not just Samuel and Isaiah, and we find rich and real people in all of them. I also liked seeing the story from varying points of view.

There is a lot in this book that’s unsettling, but I thought the author handled these things well. He drew necessary attention to certain horrors and injustices without glorifying them or glossing over them. But please do be aware of the content warnings.

Thank you to Libro.fm, the publisher, and the author for my ALC.

Read if you like: Civil War–era fiction, forbidden love, gray areas.

Review to come!

This is a beautifully written book. Jones Jr.'s language is astounding and majestic. It is clear that so much thought and love went into crafting this story and bringing each character to life. This is definitely a book where you'll have to pause at times just to sit and languish in the beauty of a line. It's amazing.

The beauty of the writing carries over into the depiction of queer love. Isaiah and Samuel, both strong characters in their own right, come together to form such a quiet, strong, and loving relationship. It was really interesting how Isaiah fully embraces his queerness, yet throughout the book, Samuel struggles with his attraction to Isaiah, even while fully loving Isaiah and supporting him as a partner and friend.

Jones Jr. writes the interior of a character very well, and allows us to understand the multitude of perspectives on view on the plantation, Empty. There are those who accept Samuel and Isaiah's relationship and those who see it as a force that can only bring harm to the plantation and the way of life that has been established there. There are those who hold up traditional African beliefs that have been passed down for generations, and those who wish to move on. It was especially interesting to view this contrast while also getting a glimpse into the life of the Kosongo tribe and its members when they are first infiltrated and captured by white slave traders. Their belief system was really refreshing and so outside of Western, European/American conception. I loved how Jones Jr. gives this set of beliefs the important and authority that the racist chroniclers of the slave trade failed to provide then (and I'm sure even now, too).

While there were many parts of this book that I appreciated and valued, I did feel a bit afloat at times. Much of the story uses biblical references and themes, which I just did not understand as I've no familiarity with the Bible. I feel like a lot of important moments that would have been made more significant through the religious references were lost on me, which was unfortunate. I do also think that the pace really slowed down in the middle, almost to the point where I didn't want to pick the book up and keep reading. To this end, I think some of the chapters that follow secondary characters could have been shortened or even removed. Some chapters that followed the white slaveholders I found no real purpose in, other than to emphasize how racist and horrible these people were.

The ending of this book isn't anything radical or unexpected, but Jones Jr.'s writing breathes new life and vigor into an expected conclusion. This book is worth trying just to experience Jones Jr.'s masterful prose, and I am very curious to see what more he will write in the future.

This synopsis falls so short. I was privileged to listen to the author, Robert Jones, Jr., speak about this novel with fellow author Deesha Philyaw last week. Originally intended to be a narrative from Isaiah's perspective, Mr. Jones shared "What their love needed was witnesses." He created and wrote more than 10 witnesses to their relationship, both Black slaves and White slaveholders and overseer. The result was a profound exploration of deeply personal Antebellum South experiences including voices and stories from ancestors and the horrors of the Middle Passage journey. The scope of voices just left me in awe. It was immersive. Ms. Philyaw said, "each page is a gift". Reading this novel was a full-body, mind-blowing experience in both its beauty and its tragedy. 

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The normalizing of Isaiah and Samuel's love was refreshing and affirming. The treatment of gender identity and roles was thought-provoking. The strength, wisdom, tenacity, and beauty of the Black women was artful and real. The White people were written with care and, Mr. Jones shared, great consideration for their motivations. One must confront their humanity. From the book, "there was no such thing as monsters. Every travesty that had ever been committed had been committed by plain people and every person had it in them."

A bold and dazzling debut about forbidden love between two gay Black slaves on a plantation in the Deep South. 

Robert Jones, Jnr has described the journey of writing The Prophets, feelings of isolation from his lineage as a Black gay person, questioning whether Black gay people even existed in such times, and concluding that of course they did, but the traumatic past would have been buried and erased.  Despite his reservations in exploring such uncharted territory, the author has dug deep in his research of pre-colonial African history on the topic.  Telling this story has clearly been a heavy, personal burden to carry, but the book is an absolute triumph.  Constructed in chapters named after books in the Bible, and told from the perspectives of fully developed characters, the heartfelt writing soars.  It’s one of the most brutal and harrowing depictions of slavery I’ve ever read, yet it is also lyrical, otherworldly and epic in scale.  The quiet moments between the two young men are very delicately and tenderly wrought; love and fragments of joy can light up the darkest of times.

The accumulating praise for this book is absolutely justified, and its publication this week was all the more poignant for the horrific events unfolding in Washington.  This is a remarkable book, which is bound to receive nominations for literary awards this year. For anyone seeking to educate themselves on race and diversity, I wholeheartedly recommend it; it’s a call to understand, and a lesson on the meaning of compassion and real love.

Finally, the following passage sadly is very relevant to what we are still seeing today:

“They pushed people into the mud and then called them filthy.  They forbade people from accessing any knowledge of the world and then called them simple...They stepped on people’s throats with all their might and asked why the people couldn’t breathe.  And then, when people made an attempt to break the foot, or cut it off, they screamed “CHAOS!” and claimed that mass murder was the only way to restore order.”

Thank you Riverrun Books for the review copy in exchange for an honest opinion