Try as I might, I couldn't get into this book. I picked it up several times and even tried the audiobook. I just couldn't get past the first few chapters. THE BLUEPRINT had an amazing premise, which is why I wanted to read the book. However, for me, the style of writing didn't make me want to read further or learn more about the characters.

This debut is stunning. Rae Giana Rashad has crafted a novel that's horrifying and captivating, at once beautifully written and a tense tech dystopia that's at least three times darker than any Black Mirror episode. It's rare to see this level of ambition in a first novel, or at least one which sticks the landing. I'm such a structure hater—I have very strong notes on the plotting of most novels, but I admire the structure of Rashad's worldbuilding so much because she pulls off something difficult: she avoids lengthy exposition and drops us into this five-seconds-into-the-future nightmare, slowly letting us discover the implications and extents of this world. It gives the feeling of being as alone in the world as the protagonist. The Blueprint is a smart, well-researched novel that is able to drive home very clear messages without losing itself in sentimentality. I fear I will never stop thinking about this.

With perfect pacing and beautifully complex characters, it seems impossible that The Blueprint is Rae Giana Rashad’s debut. The Blueprint is a searing yet sensitive look at a devastating world that could have been, or more hauntingly, could still be – a world built on the heels of Civil War II, “when the United States government turned its guns on Black people and their allies,” and the military installed a dictatorship called the Order. Negotiating with the uprising leaders, the Order allowed Louisiana to remain “nonrestricted.” Everywhere else was bound by the new Constitution, which gives women fewer rights and Black women almost none.

In this alternate future, the DoS, or Descendants of Slavery, are slotted into the system as they come of age, temporarily assigned to a white man before marrying the Black man chosen for her. Those deemed most attractive would be assigned to the Officers, with all the associated rank and status.

Readers are introduced to this world through the eyes and words of Solenne, a striking DoS who recognizes her advantages even as she questions the system: “If you had to have a cage, it was better to have a beautiful one. Wasn’t it?” Solenne is a writer care-taking the story of her enslaved ancestor Henriette, writing and unwriting her past as the present threatens Solenne’s understanding of herself and her place in this world. “There was no patience for my softness, my wounds, my unraveling. There was no protection for me, a Black girl, no tender touch, no considerations for a delicate exterior. No space to scream.” Rashad has created a stunning, glittering, heartbreaking world, one that inhabits injustice while insisting on the rich and complicated and interwoven humanity of Black women.

This was excellent - a fascinating take on racial hierarchies in a dystopian age. In the same vein as Handmaid's Tale, The Blueprint studies how quickly societies can fall into misogynistic tendencies when faced with war, shortages, and diminishing populations. Rashad takes it a step further to layer racism into this country's new framework, deepening the nuance and complication of the protagonist's plot line.

Thoroughly enjoyable, great writing, intriguing story.

This was a pretty amazing book for a first novel. In the not too distant future, Texas is it’s own country and black women have no agency over themselves. Present parallels not withstanding, it was an interesting exploration into what might be and what was.

An incredible feat. This was a powerful, gorgeous, sobering, heartbreaking, and timely exploration between the echoes of slavery in our embracing of technology, surveillance, and power. So well done.

One of the best books I’ve read. An absolute knock-out on every level: beautiful prose, a devastating and propulsive plot, and a brilliant structure. Will be recommending this to everyone I know & hoping to see it have the success it deserves.

This will inevitably be compared to Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale but it is far more -- a gripping look at the complications involved in a system which assigns young black girls to older white men for a period of servitude, to be their companions, in every sense of that word. Honest and horrifying in equal parts.

5 stars for truly affecting literature, though I had to DNF. I believe this novel has a great story to tell, and has all the marks of a winning commercial bestseller (the social commentary, the historical touch points, the flashy comparative titles). However, perhaps this is the reason I was engrossed to the point of distress. As a Black woman, I kept asking: who is this book written for? It felt like it was not for me, as some of the ideas expressed throughout come right from our real, modern world (though the world of the book is near-future speculative). So in the end, it just wasn’t my cup of tea, but the writing was engrossing nonetheless.