As raw, powerful, and brilliantly written as expected. Coates covers so much important ground, from mass incarceration to housing discrimination to reparations, to moving portraits of both Obamas that also address head-on the before/during/after problems of Barack’s presidency. The extent to which he discussed 45's alignment with white supremacy is stunning (obviously it's always been there, but to read about it in this moment is pretty mind-blowing).

With the current political climate this book begs to be read. Coates always manages to stir up emotions

I was a bit disappointed with this book. I understand that most essay collections include previously written works, but it seems different when there as oft-shared as Coates's work is. And then for the introductory essays for each to include Coates's disclaimers about how the work might not have held up in the time since, or that he might not agree with all of the writing, seems counterintuitive and takes some of the impact away from the original essays. The writing and opinions are good and worth reading anyway, but it feels a bit disjointed and feels more like a collector's item than an exciting new read.

This book made me angry, sad, happy, ashamed, reminiscent, worried, optimistic, and anguished at different junctures. At times, I wanted to quit reading this book in disgust, at other times I could not read this book quick enough to absorb the knowledge being disseminated. Regardless of you race, gender, political affiliation, belief structure, or history, you should be able to at least glean some tangible amount of knowledge or perspective from this book.

A great collection of essays. Always happy to read more from Coates.