Happy Friday, bibliophiles!
February has just rolled around, and in the U.S., the month of February is Black History Month! Ever since I’ve started interacting more with the book blogging community, I’ve been working on reading more diversely, and making posts like these to encourage others to do the same—reading from a single, homogenous perspective is effectively reading in a bubble, when part of what makes reading so special is its ability to give you an easily accessible insight into the perspectives of others.
But this year, the theme of Black History Month is Black Resistance. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how that relates to YA; a good portion YA literature is inherently tied to resistance and anti-authority sentiments. And yes, part of that may be teenagers rebelling against their parents, but it also instills so much power into its impressionable teen audience: even though you’re young, you have the power to change the world. Now that YA has become more diverse in recent years, it has shown that resistance is even more tangible. That tyrannical, dystopian government that the protagonist must defeat can be translated into real-word terms: systemic racism, police brutality, and so much more. Teaching teenagers (and everybody else, for that matter) that they have that power to change the world is such an important thing, because they will grow up knowing that they can enact the same changes as the characters they read about.
That being said, I have been shifting to read more adult books in the past few years, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about some of the amazing books by adult Black authors as well. I’m too lazy to change the graphic, but I’m also going to include some adult-oriented books in here as well.
So with that, here are some of the YA and adult books by Black authors I’ve read in the past year. If you’d like to see my posts from previous years, click below:
Let’s begin, shall we?
YA & ADULT BOOKS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH (2023 EDITION)
White Smoke, Tiffany D. Jackson
GENRES: YA, horror, thriller, fiction
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Tiffany D. Jackson has a talent for building suspense, but this is the first time I’ve seen her do a full-blown horror novel—and it was exceptionally chilling!
GENRES: Adult, science fiction, Afrofuturism
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A wildly imaginative piece of Afrofuturism with a disabled protagonist!
Skin of the Sea, Natasha Bowen
GENRES: YA, fantasy, retellings
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
YA mermaid novels have historically been disappointing for me, but Skin of the Sea gave me hope that a good one is possible—and there can be so many creative twists and perspectives put on it!
Blackout, Dhonielle Clayton et. al. (anthology)
GENRES: YA, fiction, romance, short stories (anthology)
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A collection of short stories about different romances during a blackout in New York City!
The Final Strife (Ending Fire, #1), Saara El-Arifi
GENRES: Adult, fantasy, romance, LGBTQ+
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A fantasy with exceptional worldbuilding, an unlikely chosen one, and a sapphic romance!
Vinyl Moon, Mahogany L. Browne
GENRES: YA, realistic fiction, novels in verse
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Half prose and half novel-in-verse, Vinyl Moon is a beautiful story of healing and friendship.
Binti (Binti, #1), Nnedi Okorafor
GENRES: Adult, science fiction, space opera
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Normally, I wouldn’t double up on authors, but Nnedi Okorafor really deserves it here—I still need to finish this series, but it’s so charming and inventive!
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! What are some of your favorite books by Black authors that you’ve read recently? Tell me in the comments!
Today’s song:
That’s it for this year’s list of Black History Month recommendations! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
The Bookish Mutant 