A review by jayisreading
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

There are no words to express how incredibly written this book is. There also isn’t a book quite like The Prophets either, making it a unique piece of literature.

The Prophets will leave you feeling so much grief and heartache, considering that it’s set on a slave plantation (and Jones certainly sheds light on the atrocities in such places). However, this book isn’t trauma porn by any means. There are traumatic moments, yes, but there are these “tiny resistances” (to quote Jones) exhibited through Black joy, Black tenderness, and so much Black love, particularly centering queer love. Jones does an incredible job exploring these beautiful moments while still addressing the pain and trauma of enslaved Black people and their lasting effects. I specifically think of the following quote:

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 worked people until their empty hands were twisted, bleeding, and could do no more, then called them lazy. They forced people to eat innards from troughs and then called them uncivilized. They kidnapped babies and shattered families and then called them incapable of love. They raped and lynched and cut up people into parts, and then called the pieces savages. 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 one, they screamed, “CHAOS!” and claimed that mass murder was the only way to restore order.

(Bolded is my emphasis.)

You can tell a lot of care went into every page of this book. The story is so rich with incredible character development, all of which will pull you in and have you swimming in emotions. 
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