An intense and disturbing set of short stories set in the near future exploring the complete societal breakdown of the United States with lines drawn between persons of color and their sympathizers and Caucasians. My Monticello is also the name of the last short story but perhaps the first story, Control Negro, is the most upsetting.
Control Negro is based on the idea of a black professor purposely having a child with a well-educated, married student that is subsequently raised by that student and her husband. The birth father contributes economically throughout the childhood and has input on all major aspects of the boy-child's upbringing. The child will be the Control Negro, he is the test model of the professor's thesis. The idea is if raised equivalent to his American Caucasian Male (ACM)peers, then this child would be accepted as such and there would be no more excuses not to flourish and be accepted. If his blackness is repressed throughout his upbringing, if the upbringing of an upper middle class white child is the goal, the control negro would be the proof of the way forward. In the end things don't go as planned and certainly the Professor is insane for creating such a life for his test subject/son. But ultimately there is hope within that child, now a grown adult.
I thoroughly recommend this short book.
Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for my e-ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

What wonderful use of language. What brave writing--for its willingness to seek the perfect form and the perfect word with which to tell these stories, even if it means telling the story in a non-standard way. Each story is so differently told! Wow. Johnson at all times follows the lead of the story, bending to its need to be told in the right way for the story.

Roxane Gay has already championed the amazing first story in the collection, "Control Negro," but personally I loved "Virginia is Not Your Home" best in the collection. It's a short story that spans a lifetime, and makes so many exquisite observations along the way, and it persuaded me to care fiercely about what happens to a fictional character. That's something that rarely happens to me, in that I'm often caught up in an appreciation of craft, where I'm reading at a "how does this work" level.

The titular novella blew me away as well, for its too-true observations about the shock, and the after-shock, of racial violence on a place and its people. Johnson sets the story in historic Monticello, with all of its tangled implications and historicity, and in this way it reminded me of Hardy's masterful use of Stonehenge in the part-mythic/part-vividly-real ending of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Wow. This was such an incredible story collection. It starts off with a short story titled "Control Negro" where the main character has attempted to control the life of his son from a far to see what happens if he's given the same opportunities as an "Average Caucasian Male" or ACM. The story is truly fascinating and I can see why it's been included in other short story collections. The other stories in the collection are just as good, but it's the titular novella that steals the show. "My Monticello" follows a group of people as they flee their homes in a dystopian Charlottesville after the grid has collapsed and what seems to be a mob of MAGA type supporters has taken over. The characters steal a bus and end up at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's stately home in the outskirts of Charlottesville. What makes the story even more interesting is that the main character and her grandmother are direct/verified descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. The group sets up in Monticello and proceeds to defend and protect it as they decide whether to return to their homes. When a smaller group tries to go back and get medicine they're run off the road, and then given 48 hours to turn Monticello over to the MAGA type supporters. The story is truly fascinating, maddening and scary all at once. It gives a glimpse into an almost certain future if the world continues on it's current trajectory. I highly recommend this story collection, especially to those that enjoyed The Office of Historical Corrections. I can't wait to read more of Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's work.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's powerful six short stories in this collection are packed with vivid characters, heart wrenching plots, and leave you thinking about the stories long after you finish reading them. When I first started reading, I wondered why the characters from the first chapter disappeared and kept wondering how and why they'd reappear. Then it finally dawned on me that these are separate stories. Each story reveals a complexity, a truth, a loss, and is raw.

A fabulous collection of short stories plus a dystopian novella set in the near future that is way too plausible. After their neighborhood is invaded and set on fire by a mob of angry white men, a group of citizens in a Virginia town flee to Monticello for refuge.

Special thanks to. NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

Oh I loved this book of novellas. The stories were great and all connected in the way that you feel all the characters were leaving or heading to what they call "home". I especially liked the story of the professor who did a test on his son and the affects of racism as he grows up and how the stories told are not about a literal home, but an " internal" home for the characters. I really loved this book!

I rarely read the blurb for a book, so at first was confused. I thought it was a historical fiction novel. WRONG. It is 5 short stories and a novella and the time period is NOW. NOW with all the racial problems we are beginning to recognize as endemic in the US.

Let me emphasize that I am painfully aware of the cultural problems in the US. However, I cannot rate this book and its stories highly. I just did not appreciate the writing style which in the first two stories were written in a kind of letter format. Especially in the second story, it seemed like scolding.

There are 5 short stories in this book take up 28% of the content.

SS1: Control Negro (15 pages) A Father uses his illegitimate son in a racial experiment. 3 stars because it is thought provoking

SS2: Virginia Is Not Your Home (11 pages) Someone seems to be chiding a woman as she grows through childhood to old age. Not really sure what the message is. 1 star

SS4: Buying a House Ahead of the Apocolypse (6 pages) Just a bunch of bullet points. 1 star

SS5: The King of Xandria (16 pages) A proud man from Nigeria cannot understand why the Virginia teachers think his son less than perfect. 4 stars

Novella: My Monticello (179 pages) Their neighborhood is on fire. They take refuge in Monticello, the historical home of Da' Naisha's ancestors, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. 3.5 Stars

Having given you my opinion, I DO want you to know that the likes of Roxanne Gay, Colson Whitehead and Charles Yu have praised this book to the skies. So don't listen to me; see for yourself.

3 stars

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is actually composed 5 stories and a novella. The formidable writer Colson Whitehead calls the book "electrifying" and I could not agree more. The stories remind me, honestly of Shirley Jackson - strong, creepy, beautifully written - you know that a horrifying twist is coming but you don't know when or how. The tension is so thicks, the dread starts with the first beautiful sentence.

The stories all depict the worse of humans in a futuristic time (near future). The tile story pulls in the historical significance of Jefferson's famous home. The story that stayed with me most, however, was the first one entitled "Control Negro." I think I really didn't know what to expect and this shocking conclusion will be one I will not forget.

If you like twisty short stories, commentary on the culture of the United States today and are interested in exploring new cutting edge writers, than this is a book for you! Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is one to watch and I look forward to hearing more from her.

My Monticello is nothing short of amazing. It is profound, heartbreaking, moving, revelatory, and riveting. Unique in their own right, these stories and a novella also reminded me of fiction by Danielle Evans and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. If you are a fan of those writers, Johnson's debut is a must-read!

DNF at 10%. I just didn't love this - I couldn't get into either of the first two stories and didn't care for the writing style in either story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This is a debut novel with a personal slant that is both heartbreaking and revelatory. The story transcends race and prejudice and brings the historical facts right out into the spotlight. The telling is unusual and filled with drama and soul-searching. This very personal account is important in its simplicity.

A stunning collection of six stories that together weave a portrait of what it takes to live in a world where everyone is not the same, acceptance is not a given and hope is the thread to survival.
Jocelyn’s writing will resonate with the reader. The thoughts, the emotions, the complexities of the characters can make the reader take pause. These stories are not meant to keep one in a comfort zone but to face often hard and uncomfortable truths. The beauty is the strength of each haunting voice and the fragility and determination of the human spirit.
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is a writer to be watched, read and listened to. Her debut offering is remarkable and highly recommended.
My thanks to NetGalley, the author and Henry Holt & Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

A truly remarkable debut collection. All of the stories are captivating yet heartbreaking, sharing the experiences of characters trying to survive in a state that is both home and not home. The title story and novella is the highlight of the collection. After the world falls apart, a woman and a small band of survivors take refuge from violent white supremacists in Thomas Jefferson’s Charlottesville, Virginia plantation house. The piece has so much to say about identity, belonging, and the concept of home. It reminded me a bit of The Handmaid’s Tale, insomuch as it’s a speculative look at current events taken to a violent and not-that-hard-to-imagine future. It’s an unforgettable collection, and the prose is beautiful and moving. Highly recommended.

Such a poignant and moving novel. Each of the stories really captures the readers attention and wraps you up in the characters. All of the stories take place with Virginia and really manage to capture both historic wrongs as well as the present day lives of Black Americans.

I grew up west of Charlottesville and attending UVA. When I say this title, I decided I had to read it. What amazing stories told raw, unique perspectives. The novella, My Monticello, is fabulous and eye opening.

Wow
This book is a collection of stories from the days of slay. It was hard to read some parts, really eye opening to the history of slavery.
I would recommend this book!
Thank you for giving me the chance to read it

a series of short stories-all good and well done, culminating with the novella of the title.All deal with a sense of longing, displacement, s desire to belong, and with an underlying racial theme. The novella of the title-MY MONTICELLO-imagines a future time when a group of white supremicists in Charlottesville Va. raid and burn black homes and attempt to kill all Blacks, a mixed group of whom flee to Jefferson’s Monticello. One of them , essentially the central character of the novella, is a descendant of the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings, and through her and the “ capture” of Monticello the reader receives a little known “ history lesson”. Quite a good read with my choices MY MONTICELLO and CONTROL NEGRO.

My Monticello is a truly harrowing and bleak look at the lives of Black Americans today, and in a dystopian time when a small group of people take refuge in Monticello, where they are surrounded by the reminders of their own ancestors' enslaved pasts. The stories in this collection are very hard-hitting, often leaving me with a sense of despair. But they are important stories that I think white people need to be reading in order to better understand what white supremacy has done, is doing, and will do.

The stories that begin My Monticello are sharply observant, beautifully written, and universally surprising despite their orbit around the shared themes of race, family, and home. Johnson plays with a variety of forms, including a story written in second person and another written as a list, but attention to the interplay between ambition and parental love operates as an animating thread throughout most of the collection. There is the academic in "Control Negro" who pits his son against the unequal promise of the American Dream, the reluctant mother in "Virginia Is Not Your Home" whose efforts to escape the destiny of her name ultimately go nowhere, the mother in "Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse" who "beg[s] forgiveness that [she] failed to pray or march or vote or work soon enough or hard enough to afford her [daughter] a chance to own something of her own someday." As a teacher, I was especially moved by "The King of Xandria," in which an immigrant father's experience in an IEP meeting clarifies just how much he's given up in his move to the U.S. Johnson's characters are believable and illuminating; I loved each and every short story in this collection.

I was somewhat less drawn to "My Monticello," the novella that gives Johnson's collection its name, despite its objectively excellent premise. A group of mostly black folks, escaping the devastation wrought by white people in the aftermath of a climate crisis, seek shelter at Monticello. Yes, that Monticello. The narrator is a young woman named Da'Naisha, a descendant of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson who nevertheless wrestles with her right to occupy this historical space, which has been carefully protected from harm even as her neighborhood burns. The novella explores valuable questions—Who feels ownership over history, and to what end? How does our glorification of the past prevent present justice?—and imagines a dystopian future uncomfortably close to our present, but its layers of description and slow pacing occasionally felt distracting. Even so, I highly recommend My Monticello, which enters existing conversations about race and identity bearing new ideas and nuanced perspectives. Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the ARC!

3 Stars
DNF
The quality of the writing is worthy of 5 stars, absolutely.
I could not stomach the content of the stories, and therefore chose not to finish.
These stories are very racially inflammatory.
I am a graduate of The University of Virginia and I do not believe that the true character and inclusiveness of the University community was accurately portrayed in the story “Control Negro.”