Overall a really intriguing and haunting book that takes on the social issues of anti-Blackness, exploitation, and visibility in an intelligent and subtle way, through the horror genre.

I was originally taken aback by the chosen protagonists, but I understood they were made to be despised. I decided to stick with it, sensing some intentionality and eventual comeuppance, and their initial unlikeableness eventually paid off as I was made to pity the characters at face value but also sat with this underlying tension, knowing their social privilege.

It hit me about 50 pages in that I felt really gripped by the turn of events and then the progression continued to surprise me. The way Kunzru evolves the point of view towards the end gave me the sort of chills that I’ve previously had from reading Beloved. I felt that I was made to feel dissociated by it, and there were multiple times where I felt Kunzru successfully played with the immersion in a particular time, narrator, or belief system. Really delightfully surprised by the way the story and writing style progressed.

My overall takeaway, which the book’s title hints at, came through in a way that did not feel disrespectful to what I know of the Black experience in America. However, this is still an open question for me since I’m not Black, and I’d be curious to know what Black readers’ stance is on this piece of writing especially since the author is not themselves Black, nor American as far as I know. I’m also curious what the process of deciding to write this story was like since I’m not used to seeing non-Black, non-American authors write about this subject matter.

About a week out from finishing this and I still don’t know what to think. It was a book club selection for this month, and I absolutely needed to discuss it at the end. I needed to talk out what we thought actually happened in the story.

There were parts I really enjoyed and thought the book did really well. The details about record collecting, and making music from old tracks was described really well, and successfully made me care about something I didn’t before reading the book. The overall themes of race and cultural appropriation in music, were also done well.

What didn’t work for me was the sudden change of pace and tone of the book. The last third of the book felt like an entirely different book than the first two thirds. While I can see why the change happened, and how it was a part of the narrative, it left me quite confused about what happened.

An interesting exploration of authenticity and cultural appropriation. 

Carter is a wealthy record collector who becomes obsessed with pre-war blues music and a specifically a track the narrator Seth, his best friend and business partner, recorded by accident. 

From there begins a descent into darkness and death, precipitated by the spectral Charlie Shaw and an internet blues fanatic called jumpjim. 

It’s a weird book, but a really interesting one. I listen to the audio version so I’d be interested in reading the hard copy to see how the effect changes.