Riot Baby

I liked it, it was very atmospheric. It starts out in a world that seems normal and ordinary, recognizable as the one we all shared in the early to mid 1990s (for those of us that old). Then, as the LA riots loom and the little girl is revealed to have strange, frightening, unexplainable telekinetic abilities, things get weirder and weirder. The main focus, though, is on the relationship between the girl and her younger brother, the one born during the height of the violence. They journey through pain and injustice to find a place where they can forgive each other, and their mother, and maybe even the world, for what they've been through. Sad but not hopeless.

This book confused me, but I'm still giving it 4-stars because it had such an original voice. This book is disorienting because it's speculative fiction that is rooted in both the reality of the LA Riots following the Rodney King verdict (and more contemporary injustices against and murder of black Americans) and a futuristic/supernatural version of our current day, where we are policed by algorithms and where a few people with special gifts/powers might be able to bring the whole system down.