05/01/2024
YA author (Instructions for Dancing) Yoon's first adult novel examines themes of identity, privilege, and social justice. Attorney and social justice activist Jasmyn Williams and her husband Kingston have finally bought a house in Liberty, a wealthy Black community outside of Los Angeles. Jasmyn knows her husband and young son will be safer walking the streets in Liberty, where all the police officers are Black, than in their old working-class neighborhood. But almost immediately she feels that something is not quite right there. Jasmyn becomes aware of the differences between herself and her neighbors. While she embraces her natural hair and Black Power ideas, her neighbors seem set upon a conformity that makes Jasmyn increasingly uneasy. When Kingston begins spending time at the community's secretive and heavily guarded wellness center, Jasmyn notices his growing apathy for the social justice causes the couple once championed. Feeling ever more troubled, Jasmyn turns to new friends Keisha and Charles, whose own spouses have also changed dramatically since moving to Liberty. As she works to uncover the truth, Jasmyn confronts the grim secrets beneath Liberty's impeccable facade. VERDICT At times unsettling, Yoon's narrative is a thought-provoking exploration of race and identity in modern society.—Lucinda Ward
One of Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Most Anticipated Mystery/Thriller of the Spring
A Crime Reads’ Best Psychological Thriller of the Month
One of Parade's Best New Books of the Week
Named an "It Book" of June by Book Riot
“One of Our Kind [has]...a freight-train feel. It fits in with a recent wave of Black social horror that includes novels like The Other Black Girl and movies like Get Out....The warmth in Yoon’s writing, though, sets this book apart. The affection and care she has for all her characters and the reasons that have taken them to Liberty deepen the novel’s stakes and heighten its terror. Yoon also reminds us, through Jasmyn’s friendships and her relationship with her husband, King, of the richness and intimacy of Black culture, and underlines how much more we are than our trauma."
—Kashana Cauley, The New York Times
"[An] intense, politically charged thriller set at a gated Black community in Los Angeles, where Jasmyn Williams and her husband, King, learn that the wounds of police brutality and racism affect different people in very different ways. Some just want to wrap themselves in luxury and spa treatments—if that’s what’s really going on at the community's cultish wellness palace. Truly chilling."
—Marion Winik, Oprah Daily
"An unsettling social thriller that is Get Out meets Rosemary’s Baby. One of Our Kind...is set in Liberty, Calif., a fictional idyllic all-Black gated community outside of Los Angeles. Jasmyn, a public defender expecting her second child, moves there with her venture capitalist husband and their young son looking for a place where they can feel safe and supported. What she finds isn’t the Black utopia she dreamed of, but a town more interested in self-care than social justice issues. When Jasmyn starts digging into the community’s history, she uncovers a shocking secret about Liberty’s founders that threatens to tear her family apart."
—Shannon Carlin, Time
"A slow-burn thriller that crosses the cinematic vectors of Get Out and Stepford Wives in a story about a young family that moves to a prosperous Black community, only to find that all is not as utopian as it seems."
—The New York Times
"Yoon’s characters talk honestly about race and the various strategies of speaking out or fitting in....Artful writing and pacing sustain the tension to the very end. And this is a story you’ll want to talk about afterward."
—Suzanne Perez, KMUW
"File best-selling author Nicola Yoon’s latest under thriller or literary fiction or dystopian fiction, but make sure you read One Of Our Kind, a story of the “perfect” gated community for people of color where all–inevitably–is not as it seems."
—Michael Giltz, Parade
"Many have ventured into the 'neighborhood that is not what it seems' category of suspense, but no one has done it better than Nicola Yoon....Absolutely jaw-dropping."
—Molly Odintz, Crime Reads
“With haunting and powerful prose, Nicola Yoon brilliantly imagines a world with much to tell us about our own.”
—John Green, New York Times best-selling author of Turtles All the Way Down
“Brilliant, provocative, seminal — there aren’t enough adjectives to describe how much food for thought Yoon’s novel provided. When cultural identity is shaped by trauma, can you even imagine who you are when that trauma is excised? What is the difference between equality and equity? And how deep into the magma of racism does implicit bias go? Your book club will be discussing this one for DAYS.”
—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Wish You Were Here
“Nicola Yoon can write about any subject beautifully, but what she's done in One of Our Kind is as thrilling as it is lusciously written. I can't remember the last time a book kept me turning the pages so quickly, or kept me up so late. One of Our Kind is for readers who want to be taken to the edge of expectation, and solidly dropped into the middle of a new nightmare. I still have goosebumps.”
—Ashley C. Ford, New York Times best-selling author of Somebody’s Daughter
"Provocative...Sure to spark book club conversations for years to come. Who says you can’t tackle big, important contemporary ideas in a page-turning thriller?"
—The Seattle Times
"[One of Our Kind] is set in a newly planned utopian community for Black Americans in California....As with all utopias, usually, things aren't exactly as they seem....For fans of dystopian fiction, this is a great fast-paced read."
—Jordan Lauf, WNYC
“Masterful. . . . Yoon maintains taut, nerve-shattering suspense throughout as she delves into societal fault lines and cultural anxieties, crafting a brutally effective examination of how generational trauma roots itself in the body. The dialogue in particular shines as the characters argue, sympathize, and search for connection with one another, even in the face of the terror that surrounds them. Yoon’s latest will linger in readers’ minds long after its horrifying conclusion.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED
“Yoon is skilled at sustaining the tension throughout Jasmyn’s investigations, exposing the ways that Black communities are undermined both internally and externally. It’s an artful page-turning thriller, but constantly mindful that decisions about community and identity can put lives at stake. A bracing tale of the perils of groupthink and willful ignorance.”
—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED
“Yoon steadily builds suspense and provocation in this chilling, subtly speculative tale via perfectly selected details and unnerving conversations...In the mode of Percival Everett, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and Rion Amilcar Scott, Yoon presents a riveting tale spiked with surprises, laced with compassion, and designed for discussion as it raises unsettling questions about class, Blackness, parenthood, social responsibility, justice, and the hidden repercussions of deep, centuries-spanning trauma.”
—Booklist, STARRED
“The paradoxes and discontents of the upwardly mobile Black bourgeoisie are territory the Jamaican-born, wildly successful Yoon knows intimately and draws with precision. Like Kiley Reid (Such a Fun Age and Come and Get It), Yoon vividly captures the racial and political zeitgeist… [A] potent illustration of the effects of racial trauma…Bold and razor sharp.”
—BookPage
"Chilling....Yoon's novel plants serious, relevant questions about what true safety and true freedom look like, about what it means when Black pride and Black joy are subsumed by racism, fear, and repeated trauma....A topical novel ripe for discussion and debate."
—Norah Piehl, BookBrowse
"I’m a huge fan of Nicola Yoon. The Sun is Also A Star left me in tears. Yes, that is a good thing. But now the author is moving into new territory: adult fiction. And adult fiction that sounds SUPER SCARY. I’m in."
—Emily Martin, BookRiot
In an engrossing, well-characterized performance, Nicole Lewis captures the anguish and suspense in acclaimed YA author Nicola Yoon's first adult novel. Moving to the fictional gated community of Liberty, California, hailed as a Black utopia, Jasmyn Williams assumes she and her husband, King, will find like-minded friends and neighbors with whom to carry on the fight for racial equality and justice. But something is strangely off in Liberty. No one is interested in Black Lives Matter, and those, including King, who spend time at the Wellness Center, are changing in disturbing ways. Lewis is masterful at subtly distinguishing the voices of Liberty, using cadence, intonation, and vocal amplification to heighten the tension of this absorbing psychological suspense. S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
