This has been much buzzed about and I was surprised to learn it’s actually a collection of short stories and a novella. At just over 200 pages it’s a quick read but one with tight, visceral writing. Set in Virginia, the stories tell of a dystopian-like world in the not too distant future. The title novella was especially harrowing and felt all too possible given the events that took place in Charlottesville in 2017. (Content warnings for racism, hate crime, death, violence.) For fans of The Historical Corrections and Friday Black.

A debut from an amazing author. My Monticello is a collection of stories--the first five are short stories that leave the reader breathless and challenged. The final story My Monticello is a longer novella that takes place in the future when the climate has changed and the infrastructure of the nation has collapsed. Da'Naisha Hemings and a small group from her neighborhood flee for their lives in an old bus from marauders intent on burning down the homes. Their journey leads them to Monticello, where this diverse group of neighbors needs to work together to survive amidst the grand mansion that was once the home of Da'Naisha's ancestor, Sally Hemings.
Johnson's short story award winning Control Negro has been previously published. The other stories are new to this book. Each is poignant and chilling. The writing is precise and beautiful even as the subject matter is at times violent and brutal. The relationships between the characters, especially in My Monticello, is realistic as each character is so unique and each contributes to the welfare of the group. Monticello is also a character as Da'Naisha's relationship with the house and its history is ever present in her thoughts.
One of the best books of the year! Highly recommended!

"My Monticello'' is an stunning collection of stories showing good people struggling to survive in a country where the rules are not the same for everyone. These tales are heartbreaking with characters futilely fighting for happiness in a world stacked against them. Discrimination is not just a buzzword here, it is a riptide to be reckoned with every day.

All six stories are universally powerful but the showpiece of this collection is the title novella "My Monticello ''. Society has broken down and white supremacists are burning and looting, forcing a mixed race group to take refuge nearby in Thomas Jefferson's old Monticello plantation. Included in this group is a black college student, Da’Naisha, who happens to be a descendant of Jefferson and his slave mistress Sally Hemings. Woven into the plot are brutal historical facts that just had me shaking my head... not everything was included in school textbooks.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's book is an important work and easily the best thing I have read this year.. Each story is completely different in style, yet all solidly land their message. This is her first published book and it certainly holds a great promise for the future. Five stars.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company, NetGalley, and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.   #MyMonticello #NetGalley

This collection of short stories and novella was an interesting read. While a few of the short stories stood out, the novella (for which the book is named) was excellent and I think I would have liked it to be just a bit longer. Being from Charlottesville and familiar with the setting details, the entire premise was captivating and I look forward to the Netflix series that is in the works.

The only thing I struggled with was at times the writing felt choppy but maybe that's a case of it's not the book, it's me. In any event, I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this one. It gave me a lot to think about and I look forward to more from this author.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Monticello is composed of five short stories. Set in Virginia, each story speaks about justice and survival; and the way history finds itself in the present. Among the five stories, my favorite is the first one, Control Negro. The first few pages got me hooked and love the writing style. My Monticello is lyrical, the stories brave, timely, and relevant. This is a must-read!

I had heard a lot of anticipation for this book and I was really excited for it, but I actually didn’t realize it was a collection of short stories and a novella until I started reading. That said, I did enjoy the short stories and the eponymous novella. Each of these stories brought incisive and thought-provoking writing and having visited Charlottesville several times myself I enjoyed how it was weaved in throughout. For me, I think I may have enjoyed more short stories or the novella story being further developed into a full blown novel though. However, this was still a solid read.

A forceful new voice in Fiction; Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's MY MONTICELLO is such a fresh take on race issues and the marginalization of the black community. Control Negro-The first short story in this collection- was so nice and unlike anything I had read before that I could've well kept reading this in a stand alone book. The writing was quick and hard-like the stories that lay within it; the prose feeling almost heavy conveying the weight of its stories.

For lovers of literary fiction and attuned to the state of racial tension in the US.

You’re going to want to get your hands on this book. This is comprised of a few short stories and 1 story that is more of a novella in length, but those details don’t really matter. What matters here is the content. The writing and storytelling are superb. Issues of race, identity, belonging, community are jam packed into this little book. I can say absolutely nothing better than Colson Whitehead so I’ll use his words to describe this book: “A badass debut by any measure―nimble, knowing, and electrifying.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead praises Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s My Monticello as “a badass debut by any measure—nimble, knowing, and electrifying.” Without question, Johnson deftly paints contemporary portraits of black characters struggling to find a place in the U. S. where they are no longer “other,” people seeking a home where they can feel at home.

Johnson precedes her titular novella, "My Monticello,” with five short stories: “Control Negro,” “Virginia Is Not Your Home,” “Something Sweet on Our Tongue,” “Buying a House Before the Apocalypse,” and “The King of Xandria.” Whether writing of a researcher studying his son raised by other parents like a white male so that no one can possibly find any fault in him, a group of school kids persecuting those who are somehow different, an African immigrant trying to make a home in a new country, or a mixed-race descendant of Thomas Jefferson taking refuge with others at Monticello as a militia group threatens, Johnson portrays the struggles to get ahead in life, to fit in, when all that may make you different is your color or even your accent and love of books.

Experimenting with narrative styles, including a story as letter, a story in second person, and another as a to-do list, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson has written an original and revealing look at race in America today. As a teacher based in Charlottesville, Virginia, she sets many of the stories within the surrounding area.

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an Advance Reader Copy of this highly recommended book.

The writing is good and the characters are vivid in this collection of rather depressing stories. It's an impressive debut by the author.

This debut collection of short stories set in Virginia are thought-provoking statements on race.

I read this in a disjointed manor, but still found myself wanting to pick it up to see what was happening, especially in the titled novella My Monticello. In that story, a group of neighbors flee their community due to rioters and homegrown terrorists.

Worth picking up if you also enjoyed The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans. There were also vibes of Parable of a Sower by Octavia Butler.

Several short stories and one big novella, this collection is a tour de force debut. All the stories revolve around Virginia in some way, shape, or form, and all address issues of race. It's timely and gripping.

While all the stories engage with clever storylines and intricately observed comments on race and racism in America, the novella, My Monticello is the star of this collection. In a not-to-distant future, a young Black woman named Da'Naisha and her mostly BIPOC neighbors living in Charlottesville, VA, escape white militia violence and end up finding refuge in Monticello. Da'Naisha and her grandmother, MaViolet, are descendents of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemmings.

Through Da'Naisha and her companions' experiences at Monticello, readers learn about Thomas Jefferson's muddled relationship to slavery. This story also is eerily prescient based on real-life experiences of today. The white militia has formed a group that's hell-bent on destroying POC and their homes, the members marked by blue bands on their arms. The country has "lost" the electric grid, phones don't work, devastating storms have decimated many parts of the land, and there are mentions of the government doing nothing to help with any of it. Many of the things Americans are decrying and warning about today--white supremacist violence, racism, climate change, the breakdown of public services like an electrical grid and cell phone capabilities--have come true in this story, and it's pretty bleak. This story is part warning, part character study, and part dystopian thriller. It was riveting.

Johnson's collection is a must-read. Highly recommend.

I’ve had a couple of instances this year where I read literary fiction despite knowing I don’t like the genre, probably because I thought this could be the one. This collection was as usual not something I had heard of at all. I had just finished reading the book How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith which me rethink a lot about plantations in general and the history of Monticello in particular. So when I saw this title while browsing netgalley, it immediately drew my attention and I wanted to give it a try.

The writing in this collection is wonderful and very effective at tugging our heartstrings or shocking us with the ideas explored. I can’t say I understood them all but they were all definitely unique. It was not at all surprising that race and racism forms a major thread through all the stories but what leaves a deeper impression is the strength of family - blood or found. I also listened to the audiobook in parts and I loved the idea of each story having its own narrator, with each bringing their own style to the storytelling. It definitely enhanced the experience.

So if you are a fan of literary fiction or short story collections, you should check this out. And if you only wanna read one story, it has to be the titular one because it’s quite unforgettable.

Below are my individual reviews…

Control Negro

CW: racist micro aggressions, assault, police brutality

I am frankly surprised at the premise of this story. It’s both horrifying in its idea but also a bit sad because it ultimately tries to answer the ONE question - what is it exactly that Black people have to do to be respected for their humanity and their achievements without devolving into racist diatribe or in the extreme, getting killed by cops for no fault of theirs.

Virginia is Not Your Home

Not my kind of story. It’s too realistic and hard hitting to read stories of women stuck in their lives as housewives and feeling like they haven’t achieved anything and don’t belong anywhere, and I just don’t have the appetite for them anymore.

Something Sweet on our Tongues

CW: assault

I had a hard time understanding where this story was going and especially that ending was kinda horrible.

Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse

This felt very prescient with all the preparations the narrator makes seeming very realistic. I especially was hurt by the despair that she was feeling having been unable to do enough for her daughter to be able to own a home.

The King of Xandria

CW: mention of child soldiers

This was heartbreaking. An immigrant father trying to piece his life together after his wife’s brutal death and ensuring his children are able to make a better life for themselves in the new country. But he also feels helpless because he can’t be the same sole breadwinner of his home in America and even more unmoored when he realizes that his children are growing up, able to make their own decisions and don’t always need him. It’s a tough situation for a father already dealing with grief and the author captures his anguish very well.

My Monticello

CW: racial violence

This eponymous story is basically a novella which covers almost 80% of this collection in page count, and I have to agree that it’s the most impactful. Tracing the story of a young Black woman descendant of Sally Hemmings during a near future America ravaged by effects of climate change, we see how the lack of resources has led to more racial violence, with white people terrorizing and killing Black people. In this backdrop, Naisha is a brave young lady who manages to drive away from her town with a group of neighbors, escaping the violence, taking refuge in the Monticello plantation. It brings up lot of questions in her about her identity and history and her relationship to the place, particularly at a time when her people are being hunted again. But ultimately this is a story of her and the rest of the group coming together despite their differences to struggle and survive and help each other during the direst circumstances. They never lose heart and are ready to fight back for the little home they have been able to carve on the hill in Monticello. Very well written and evocative story which leaves us thinking, and maybe even a bit scared.

My Monticello is a debut collection of short stories and a novella. The main themes of Johnson’s stories are violence, home, race, and gender. It’s a very quick and satisfying read, although I did feel that some stories were stronger than others. My favorites were the novella and the first short story - a letter from a father to his son in which he confesses to have conducted a social experiment on the boy.

The titular My Monticello tells a story of a group of neighbors who are forced to flee by white militias. They escape to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. Da’Naisha, the narrator of the story, is a descendant of Jefferson and the woman he enslaved, Sally Hemmings. My Monticello is a moving story, and it will definitely resonate with everyone who watched the events of the January 6th Capitol attack with terror. The ending especially will stay with me for a long time.

This debut is a strong, if slightly uneven collection, and I will definitely be on the lookout for Johnson’s next publications.

This was a beautiful collection of short stories and a novella. I was enraptured from the first page, and my favorite part was probably the first short story in the collection, Control Negro. The language of the entire collection is beautiful, the descriptions are vivid, the characters are heart rending and everything in the collection feels alive and unique. I really recommend this!

My Monticello comes out next week on October 5, 2021, and you can purchase HERE! I definitely recommend this one!

Everyone has an origin story and this is yours: You began as a thought fully formed and sprung from my head. No, you were more like a determined line of questions marching altogether toward a momentous thrashing. It was 1985, years before you were born, and I'd just come to work here on this campus. Mother died at the start of fall semester, her body inundated with cancer, undiagnosed until she had passed. Numb, I traveled south to bury her, missing the initiation of my own first classes, returning as promptly as I could. I was only away for a week and a day, but a cold snap had scattered leaves onto the great lawn. My first afternoon back, I walked over to my office and was straightening the objects on my desk, my shirtsleeves rolled up, my back to the door. A man walked in and he startled when I turned to face him, so I startled too. He was-- I learned a few minutes later-- a senior colleague from my own department: history.

This collection didn't stand out for me the way it seems to have for others. It's well-written, but failed to draw me in.

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is a poetically-written, fascinating, and affecting collection of stories and a novella. Johnson writes in such a vulnerable and subtle way while ruminating on race, gender, and culture in America.

I especially enjoyed the haunting novella, My Monticello, which is set in a near-future apocalypse in Virginia, where white militias mob and terrorize. The narrator flees with a group of people from her neighborhood to Monticello. What made this especially interesting was that the narrator is a descendant of Sally Hemmings, the now famous enslaved woman that Thomas Jefferson had six children with. I found it especially thought-provoking that actual descendants of property would be considered illegitimate simply because they’re not white. But whose hands built the mansion? The story is told in a way that fully evokes the eeriness and fear of living in a now seemingly lawless world without a power grid. People must band together or perish and determine new ways to fill basic needs like shelter and food. I had goosebumps when I read the last lines of My Monticello.

The audiobook narration was phenomenal and featured a different reader for each story: Aja Naomi King; January LaVoy; Landon Woodson; LeVar Burton; Ngozi Anyanwu; Tomiwa Edun.

Thank you Henry Holt & Company / Macmillan Audio for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC.

This is a lyrical and powerful collection of stories, set in locations I am very familiar with. I am in awe of this writer and can't believe this is a debut. Every story is different--the range is amazing here. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is a name to remember.

These stories explore home, belonging, acceptance. What it means to physically live in a place that does not accept you. Ancestry, inheritance, ownership of people and property. These themes emerge in all six stories in various ways. The inherent contradictions in sense of self and others' perceptions. I want to buy a copy of this for everyone who attended UVA with me. Absolutely stunning.

The title story follows a band of neighbors evicted from their Charlottesville homes by an angry white supremacist mob carrying weapons and torches. The mob is chanting "Ours" and seeks to "take back" the city. The narrator tells how she is descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, and leads her neighbors to shelter at Monticello. What follows is a beautiful and tense tale of survival and community. Certainly our narrator, Da'Naisha, has more claim to Charlottesville and Monticello than the insurgents who have taken over the city.

I was heartbroken and enthralled by "Control Negro," where a professor painstakingly tracks the ascent of ACM (Average Caucasian Males) and compares to his own son, the "control" in the experiment.

"Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse" reminded me of Daniel M. Lavery's story "Inventory." (See The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror).

And "Virginia Is Not Your Home," which follows a young woman dreaming of getting away from her home state and finding a place that actually feels like home. This story is basically the thesis statement of the collection.

I DNF'd at page 60. I was expecting more of a cohesive story, not a bunch of short stories. It is well written, but I really do not like a collection of short stories, I like to be able to get invested in a story and really grab hold of the characters and the setting.

Fantastic debut. This book has several short stories, and the titular novella, My Monticello. All the stories convey such depth of emotion that you really FEEL the stories, it's an experience more than just a reading. Each story touches on home, and both the feeling of home and the feeling of displacement. This book is a reckoning of the racial politics in America today. And it is powerful.

"A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America.

Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, “My Monticello,” tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da’Naisha, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, they seek refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unravelling within the nation.

In “Control Negro,” hailed by Roxane Gay as “one hell of story,” a university professor devotes himself to the study of racism and the development of ACMs (average American Caucasian males) by clinically observing his own son from birth in order to “painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one whom I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” Johnson’s characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state, whether in the form of a Nigerian widower who immigrates to a meager existence in the city of Alexandria, finding himself adrift; a young mixed-race woman who adopts a new tongue and name to escape the landscapes of rural Virginia and her family; or a single mother who seeks salvation through “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse.”

United by these characters’ relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable book that bears witness to this country’s legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.