Weird Black Girls

January 8, 2024
Cotman (Dance on Saturday) utilizes magical conceits and pop culture references to probe America’s legacy of racism in this striking collection. In “The Switchin’ Tree,” set in the 1950s, a young Black boy named Jesse walks along the highway, eliciting racial slurs from white motorists. After the boy returns home, his drunken father says he’s going to beat Jesse for wandering off, then hears a voice from a tree, and tells the tree he’s trying to protect his son from the white lynch mobs he remembers from his own childhood. “Owen,” set in the late 1990s, also deals with corporal punishment but affects a quirky vibe. In it, a Black father drives to his ex-wife’s home to punish his “weird” 11-year-old son, Teddy, after learning from his ex that Teddy shoved his younger sister for teasing him about his adoration for a white pro wrestler who’d recently died in the ring. In the title story, the narrator chafes at his girlfriend’s confession that she decided to date him because he reminds her of Malik, a Black cast member of the Real World (“I know I have an afro, but I’m not some hippie”). The distinctive and troubled characters make these stories stand out. Cotman’s versatile talents are on full display.

September 13, 2024

Philip K. Dick Award finalist Cotman's (Dance on Saturday) genre-bending latest, a collection of seven short stories, defies easy categorization, as it spans speculative fiction, science fiction, and horror. An ensemble of narrators, including Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Jade Wheeler, James Fouhey, Emily Lawrence, Andr� Santana, and Landon Woodson, offer engaging performances, taking listeners through stories set in the 1950s ("The Switchin' Tree") to the late 1990s ("Owen"). The narrators imbue each tale with its own distinct tone, giving voice to Cotman's unique and nuanced characters as they contend with real-world and supernatural horrors. While the narrators' multifaceted performances bring each story to life, some listeners may need time to adjust to their different approaches, particularly in regard to pacing. Even so, the audio experience provides a captivating entry into Cotman's fantastic worlds. VERDICT An excellent addition to any collection featuring literary short stories with a twist. Share with patrons seeking socially conscious fiction laced with horror and magical realism in the vein of Courtney Sender's In Other Lifetimes All I've Lost Comes Back to Me.--Victoria Kiszka

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