Nalo Hopkinson

Brown Girl in the Ring — (1998) Publisher: The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to revive old ways — farming, barter, herb lore. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, bargain with the gods and give birth to new legends.

Brown Girl in the Ring

Brown Girl in the Ring is a novel that may have been a little ahead of its time. When it was first published in 1998, it had “Science Fiction” stamped on the spine. Cue angry Amazon reviewers complaining that it was full of “mumbo jumbo.” If I were to wager a guess, I’d say that Brown Girl in the Ring was marketed as science fiction because of its near-future setting and heavy violence level, which were not nearly as common in late-nineties urban fantasy as they are today (see Ilona Andrews, for example). Yet this is unmistakably urban fantasy, with a strong horror streak. I could see it picking up many new fans if it were rereleased today.

The world of Brown Girl in the Ring is frighteningly plausible; it’s the logical conclusion of suburban sprawl and consequent urban decay. Here, even the city government has fled to the suburbs and no one is left in the inner city but the poor. Those who remain are living a third-world life with no electricity or sewer system. You can't get into the hospital unless you are wealthy. Rudy, the diabolical crime boss of Toronto, is selling organs to these hospitals, and let's just say the donors are less than willing.

And in this city lives Ti-Jeanne, a new mother, with her wise grandmother, Gros-Jeanne. Gros-Jeanne wants to pass on her knowledge, but Ti-Jeanne only grudgingly learns herbal skills and wants nothing to do with Gros-Jeanne's other talent: the practice of Afro-Caribbean magic. Then one night they hold a ritual to help Ti-Jeanne's deadbeat ex-boyfriend, and the spirits tell Ti-Jeanne that it is her destiny to stop Rudy's evil.

We are sucked in as Ti-Jeanne's course becomes more irrevocable, as she comes to accept the orishas, and as her ex-boyfriend's fear and drug addiction drive him into worse and worse trouble. Ti-Jeanne's only hope lies in her wits and in half-remembered bits of magical lore. An awesome touch is the climactic scene in which Ti-Jeanne figures out a way to make Rudy’s lair, the CN tower, work for her. I won’t say any more, but it’s so clever it makes me grin every time I think about it.

I recommend Brown Girl in the Ring to anyone who enjoys near-future urban fantasy, and who doesn’t mind violence; this is a very gory novel, as befits a story that is gritty in every aspect.
—Kelly Lasiter

Midnight Robber — (2000) Publisher: The Caribbean-colonised planet of Toussaint is in the middle of a carnival. Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is enjoying the festival until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime.

Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction — (2000) Publisher: The lushness of language and the landscape, wild contrasts, and pure storytelling magic abound in this anthology of Caribbean writing. Steeped in the tradition of fabulism, where the irrational and inexplicable coexist with the realities of daily life, the stories in this collection are infused with a vitality and freshness that most writing traditions have long ago lost. From spectral slaving ships to women who shed their skin at night to become owls, stories from writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, Marcia Douglas, Ian MacDonald, and Kamau Brathwaite pulse with rhythms, visions, and the tortured history of this spiritually rich region of the world.

Skin Folk — (2001) Publisher: A new collection of short stories from Hopkinson, including "Greedy Choke Puppy," which Africana.com called "a cleverly crafted West Indian story featuring the appearance of both the soucouyant (vampire) & lagahoo (werewolf),""Ganger (Ball Lightning)," praised by the Washington Post Book World as written in "prose [that] is vivid & immediate," this collection reveals Hopkinson's breadth & accomplishments as a storyteller.

The Salt Roads — (2003) Publisher: Multiple award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson delivers a triumphant novel in the bestselling tradition of such literary greats as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.When three Caribbean slave women gather one night to bury a stillborn baby, their collected mournings braid into a powerful calling, and a deity is born. So begins the epic journey of a spirit who, in a desperate bid to discover her own nature and identity, defies the limitations of time and place to inhabit the minds of living women throughout history. From Jeanne Duval, the seductive black mistress of 19th-century bohemian poet Charles Baudelaire, to a Nubian prostitute on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 300 A.D., the spirit gathers the power and the wisdom of the ages, only to come full circle on the island of St. Domingue. There, she is reunited with the very women who gave her life, and who still struggle to survive under the tyranny of brutal masters.

Mojo: Conjure Stories — (2003) Publisher: When enslaved people were brought from the western part of Africa to the Americas, they were forbidden to speak their native languages or practice their religions in the New World. But their folkways survived as underground beliefs, and, in the crucible of slavery, created systems of magic and herbal lore with a particularly West African flavor. MOJO draws on the talents of writers who have a reputation for the sensitive, imaginative use of folklore and folkways in their work.

The New Moon's Arms — (2007) Publisher: What's in a name? A lot, according to 50-something-year-old Caribbean born Chastity, who has adopted the more fitting moniker Calamity. Now, true to her name, Calamity is confronting two big life transitions: Her beloved father has just died, and she is starting menopause, a physical shift that has rekindled her special gift for finding lost things. Suddenly she is getting hot flashes that seem to forge objects out of thin air. Only this time, the lost item that has washed up on the shore is not her old toy truck or her hairbrush, but a 4-year-old boy. As Calamity takes the child into her care, she discovers that all is not as it seems: the boy's family is most unusual. Then Calamity must reawaken to the mysteries surrounding her own childhood and the early disappearance of her mother.

The Chaos — (2012) Publisher: An acclaimed fantasy author navigates the world between myth and chaos in this compelling exploration of identity, told with a Caribbean lilt. Sixteen-year-old Scotch struggles to fit in — at home she’s the perfect daughter, at school she’s provocatively sassy, and thanks to her mixed heritage, she doesn’t feel she belongs with the Caribbeans, whites, or blacks. And even more troubling, lately her skin is becoming covered in a sticky black substance that can’t be removed. While trying to cope with this creepiness, she goes out with her brother — and he disappears. A mysterious bubble of light just swallows him up, and Scotch has no idea how to find him. Soon, the Chaos that has claimed her brother affects the city at large, until it seems like everyone is turning into crazy creatures. Scotch needs to get to the bottom of this supernatural situation ASAP before the Chaos consumes everything she’s ever known — and she knows that the black shadowy entity that’s begun trailing her every move is probably not going to help. A blend of fantasy and Caribbean folklore, at its heart this tale is about identity and self acceptance — because only by acknowledging her imperfections can Scotch hope to save her brother.