This novel follows Daniel and Jacob, two gay Black men coming into their adulthood in the early 90s in Atlanta. Both men are working for a real estate developer under the leadership of a white woman named Beth, and their jobs directly oversee the removal of Black families from their homes in preparation for the 1996 Olympics. Their individual stories also approach their own personal struggles: Jacob is trying to reconcile the future his parents want for him with his reality as a gay man, while also trying to figure out what kind of relationship he can envision with another Black man; meanwhile, Daniel, who has never known his biological father, is trying to manage the death of his mother with his two siblings, both of whom are white. The two men's stories overlap through their work, as they try to figure out the way forward.

Overall, I gave this 3.25 stars. I found this novel to be very beautifully written. Jones is clearly a master of prose and atmosphere, and this novel especially takes you deep into the characters' psyche. However, I felt that the description of this book was a little misleading with regard to Jacob and Daniel's relationship, and the plot itself is often stagnant. While there is some romance here, there really is no relationship between Jacob and Daniel. The novel is primarily a character study of these two men and what brought them to this place/time, and while there are a lot of ethical and moral discussions about displacement, gentrification, and wealth/poverty, the overall displacement project takes a bit of a backseat to the study of these men. I did learn a lot about 90s Atlanta and the specific experience of gay Black men during that time, which I enjoyed, but my expectations didn't quite align with what the book delivered.

This book has been a very pleasant surprise. I will be participating in a discussion of this one soon. So far it is very intriguing and I am invested in this story and am questioning how a few things will turn out. Review will post to Instagram by the 20th.

Two Black gay men grapple with how to live authentic lives in a setting that may never have been explored in gay literature before: the world of real estate development in 1990s Atlanta. Both men are recently out of college and working for a white-owned development company tasked with “revitalizing” a poor Black neighborhood near the stadium that will be the nexus for the 1996 Olympics, which may be best remembered for its domestic terrorist bombing. It’s an excellent backdrop for a story that is fraught with high psychological stakes for its two protagonists, each one on the verge of imploding, if not exploding, from the moral dilemmas pressing in on them.

We meet the two men at a press conference in front of a future construction site in the inner city neighborhood of Summerhill. Jacob is a transplant from Brooklyn and a Morehouse College graduate. He was drawn to Atlanta for its vibrant Black community and spaces where Black gay men particularly can gather openly. Daniel is an Atlanta native, and the product of working class parents who struggled to find jobs and keep up with the cost of living. His mother, who held the family together both financially and emotionally, recently passed, and Daniel is in the midst of clearing out her modest apartment where he lived with his older brother and sister in a neighborhood not too different from Summerhill.

The press conference was to be an opportunity to assure the community that the intentions of the developer are good and pure. By clearing out a block of decaying, vacant homes, they will make space for modern apartment buildings for mixed-income residents, benefiting everyone. But protesters led by a neighborhood advocacy group have shown up. The city councilman who was supposed to announce his endorsement of the project goes off script. The crowd’s anger swells and turns violent, and Jacob and Daniel are blandished with curses of selling out their community. Jacob takes a punch from one of the protesters.

While the two men journey through the Summerhill revitalization debacle, we’re brought into their personal, and sometimes very private worlds. Jacob has found a fellowship of Black gay friends and fleeting sexual encounters at cruising grounds, but success at dating has been elusive for him. He wonders if a long-term relationship is possible with another Black man, due both to his own ingrained defensiveness and that of his kind generally. Those issues are put to the test when friends set him up on a date with Sherman, a community-based social worker who cares deeply about the residents of Summerhill and is entirely comfortable in his own skin. Jacob also wants his parents to know him fully as a person, but he’s scared of their reaction to his coming out.

Daniel is absorbed by longstanding questions following his mother’s death, including who his biological father was. When his wayward older brother Reggie finally comes home to grieve with Daniel and his sister, he fills in many answers. That side story is one of the most absorbing facets of the novel. It illuminates quite impactfully the complexity of Black families with regard to gender roles, racism, colorism, and generational trauma.

Jones’ writing style is uncomplicated and fairly brisk, with action and dialogue interspersed with introspective passages that delve into Jacob and Daniel’s psyches and their personal and political realizations. For a reader like myself who was searching for his place in the gay community in the early 90s, Jones’ story brought back memories, from pop culture references to the excitement of political awakening.

A unique, well-written story that will appeal to fans of E. Lynn Harris and readers of gay historical fiction.

The Fantasies of Future Things by Doug Jones is literary fiction set in Atlanta on the cusp of the 1996 Olympics. It’s a snapshot of intersection of the lives of two queer black men working in property development and touches on themes of gentrification, displacement, community and outsiders. It prompts a lot of reflection on how you can decide what course you want your life to follow when you don’t have visible role models and feel like you need to forge your own path. Daniel is trying to find out more about who his father was in the wake of his mother's death. Jacob is coming to terms with what his sexuality means for his relationship with his family. Because the book is a relatively short snapshot covering a period of around 6 months, it doesn't really follow a traditional plot arc. Expect to be left with unanswered questions. Overall a solid debut, even if at times I wished for a more dynastic book going from the Olympic development through to the present day (where many of the same issues still live on in Atlanta). I look forward to seeing more from this author.

This was great for a debut novel. The story was very layered with the topics of gentrification, self-discovery, LGBT issues and love. It took me a little to get into and but as the story unfolded, I was drawn to the stories of Daniel and Jacob. The ending was also open ended which I could appreciate, leaving the reader hope for the best possible outcomes for the characters. It’s a book I would purchase and reread because I’m certain there are some nuances I may have missed.

I was halfway through this book and still had no idea where exactly the story was going. I love reading novels where the setting actually becomes a character in the story. The only problem with that in this instance, was that the city of Atlanta, and all of the streets and neighborhoods that make it, overshadowed the two main characters.

The 1990s are very recent, right? What do you mean, thirty years ago?! Thirty years ago it was 1966!

I need a lie-down.

So that trauma being delivered to my undeserving psyche, I set about reading this book in an existential crisis mode, which turned out to suit the read down to the ground. Jacob and Daniel are pursuing dreams that they've bought into but did not create, do not trust, and can not break free of. The price of the men getting what they were ambivalently pursuing is the meat of this story.

I'm rootin' for this book to succeed from the off, is my point. I think the exploration of what a man will do to survive versus what does that man need, want, and desire to make his survival into a life is what makes a story one that stands out from the crowd. Jacob's Morehouse degree and the weight of his Brooklyn-originated family's desire for him to continue the bougie life and style they love is at variance with his lived experience working to "gentrify" a living community away from its residents. Daniel's more local experience as a fatherless boy coming to manhood in Atlanta is rooted in a life more like that of the people the two men are displacing. While both men are striving to make lives defining themselves as materially successful, the cost in honesty about themselves, and in the acceptance of the shady tactics of the developers, is bitterly poignant.

Daniel and Jacob are well-rounded characters. They felt to my reading eyes like people I could pick out on a street. I was fully convinced when Daniel got a lead on his father's identity at the choice he made sprang from a real person's heart and mind. Jacob's entanglement with social-worker Sherman and its soul-awakening consequences also felt as though it was something I heard from Jacob's actual lips. I was that enmeshed in this story's reality, and was disappointed when I had to come out of it.

I don't imagine a lot of readers will like the slightly pat resolution. I don't think it was necessarily the best possible way to end this story. I did feel it had the honesty to bring closure to the plot. Would a slightly more open-ended resolution have gained it a full fifth star? Yes. But this is a complete story, one that does a lot of honest and unflinching soul-searching among its characters, and that matters a lot.

Four and a half stars for its lovely sentences, and its loving soul searching truth-telling ways.

When I started reading this novel, I honestly had no idea what to expect. However, it was beautifully written. The story addresses issues such as internalized homophobia, and Doug does an excellent job of weaving together the intersectionality of Blackness and queerness. This is an outstanding work of historical fiction that highlights the need for more Black LGBTQ literature in this subgenre.

As I reached the end of the last chapter, I found myself wanting more. I wanted to know if Daniel ever accepted himself and if Jacob got his happy ending. In my opinion, this novel is simply beautiful, and I hope to read more works by Doug in the future. If you haven't yet, add this book to your TBR today!

Intentionally and methodically paced, there isn’t a single moment in The Fantasies of Future Things where Doug Jones loses his fine control over narrative or characterization. Told through dual perspectives, each is unique—distinct in tone, language, and circumstance.

Even with the ever-present threat of displacement threatening an Atlanta community, so much of the tension resides in how the characters here grapple with their place or complicity in this cruelty, and how they consistently question where their moral compass lies—information on their pasts, and why they make the decisions they do, is carefully laid out at length throughout the story, building an investment and intimacy. The questions regarding the relationships and struggles in each individual character’s life is given as much weight as the dilemma of whether or not the direction of this real-estate project/development can be salvaged.

The only possible downside to how meticulously handled each story beat and line of dialogue comes across is that, at times, it feels like the reader can be at somewhat of a remove—being held at arms length, in a way. But it’s such a small criticism with how grand in scale and beautiful this novel is.

(Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster for the arc, allowing me to preview this title before its release.)

Daniel and Jacob's story was so well-crafted that I flew through this book. Loved the dual POVs, and the time period this is set on, I was very familiar with everything that was being discussed in the story, including the music!

Set in Atlanta in the 90's, Daniel and Jacob are employed by a developer who is trying to get government approval for new housing developments in the city in anticipation of the upcoming Olympics. These projects would mean displacement for the families in the area, who are mostly Black. In the story, we follow our protagonists as they navigate their values, ambitions and accepting who they are when it comes to their sexuality.

Wonderful debut!

The Fantasies of Future Things was a powerful read..

I learned so much about the city of Atlanta, and found myself stopping to research to learn more about gentrification during those times.

This is truly a story of discovery and truths. It is more of a love story to self and community than it was a love story between the two main characters.

It was layered beautifully, and the flow was true to the times of the book.

I will say the timeline was hard to follow, sometimes I had to reread a chapter because I could not decipher if I was in the past or the present. I also was left wanting more of them, especially Daniel. So much of his story was about secrets being reveled and we did not get the opportunity to see the outcome of a major truth being shared with someone important to his story and future.

Overall this story is beautiful, and a must read if you enjoy historical fiction, and love stories involving hard truths.

About 15% of the way into it, I put The Fantasies of Future Things aside. I wasn't sure where it was headed and didn't know if I wanted to go along for the ride. I am SO glad I picked it back up again.

I'd requested a review copy of The Fantasies of Future Things because the context in which it takes place seemed so ripe with possibilities. The novel is set in Atlanta after the city was chosen to as host for the 1996 Olympics. The central characters are two young, gay, Black men working for a real estate development company that sees an opportunity to make some quick money by "revitalizing" a neighborhood—in the sense that seizing property by eminent domain, razing the homes on that property, and throwing together new homes that can be rented or sold at much higher profits counts as "revitalization."

Jacob is a recent graduate of Morehouse College, originally from Brooklyn, interested in a career in real estate, but not interested in spending his initial time out of college cold-calling people to see if they're interested in selling their homes. Daniel is a local boy who was never destined for college. To the white developer trying to put this project together, they seem like exactly the kinds of faces that should be facing toward the community to lead to—$$$—success. Maybe if the company looks Black enough it won't actually have to provide real support: job training, small business incubators, job training—for the community that's being displaced.

Originally, the book felt too didactic, a "tale of good and evil" with a predictable narrative arc and ending. But when I picked the novel back up after my hiatus, it quickly grew richer and less predictable. Both Jacob and Daniel are wrestling with conflicts emerging within their own families. They're attracted to each other in alternating pulses of hot-hot-hot and hoping-for-something-more. They're also so preoccupied by issues in their own lives that they have trouble seeing one another as anything other than means to an end.

Doug Jones, the author of this debut novel, doesn't tie things up neatly at the end—for which I am deeply grateful. The novel ends with possibilities, not certainties, and those possibilities have a shakiness at their hearts that makes these characters' futures difficult for readers to imagine with any confidence.

If you enjoy problem novels that wrestle with larger issues while exploring the specifics of individual lives, you're in for a treat here. You'll feel both affection for and exasperation with the central characters—and the cliff you're left at the edge of will feel like the most genuine resolution that's possible in that moment.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

Jacob a young man from Brooklyn, New York to ATL to attend college. He is living in Atlanta, desiring and living him true self.As a young black gay male. Daniel is from the area an a ATl./ the area in which was to be under development for the 1996 olympics. He had family issues he had yet to deal with. Jacob and Daniel, met while worked for the development firm of under an opportunist--Beth.
I liked how Daniel & Jacob were faced with coming to terms with the socioeconomic factors, and how it affected the community of Summerhill.
I wish that there was more of how both Jacob and Daniel developed: Jacob being accepted and loved by his parents as a gay black man; Daniel having building a relationship with his biological father. The latter a factor in how his "father" that he knew treated him.
The Fantasies of Future Things started really slow for me; more like dragged. I was afraid I would DNF.

I absolutely loved the characters in this, and it's definitely more character-heavy than focused on plot. These people actually felt real, and their struggles were fascinating to learn more about (and also heartbreaking most of the time). There were two elements that kept this from being a five-star read in my mind. First, the chapters are divided into Jacob's perspective and Daniel's perspective, but then the POV would switch to a side character, and this took me out of the story. Second, the ending was way too abrupt. I felt like it lacked closure; I would have loved at least one more chapter or an epilogue that helped me feel like I was actually ready to say goodbye to these characters. Overall, I think Jones is a supremely talented writer, and this is an impressive debut. I'll still be interested in what he writes next.

A promising debut about two young gay black men in 1996 Atlanta. Know that this is as much a portrait of the city in the lead up to the Olympics- the destruction of neighborhoods to be specific- as it is about Jacob and Daniel, both of whom are struggling not only with themselves but also with externals. In Daniel's case, he's never known why he is black when his parents and siblings are white. In Jacob's, it's coming out to his parents. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Jones has taken on multiple issues and while this does go a bit sideways near the end, it's a good and quite atmospheric read.

This was a great book! It ended a bit abruptly, I would have liked more resolution. All in all, it was wonderful writing and the characters were so complicated and nuanced. It helped me see the perspective of a Black gay man in the South. Amazing read!

Jacob and Daniel are real estate developers working on a redevelopment project set to help prepare Atlanta to host the 1996 Olympics. While preparing for ground breaking they start to reflect on the role they have on the project as Black men and how they're contributing to the displacement of members of the Summerhill community. Outside of work, Daniel is grieving the passing of his mother and the father he never knew, and Jacob is grieving the life he has, and the life he could have if he shares his sexuality with his parents. Both must answer some hard questions in order to make decisions that could change their lives.

When I saw the description comparing this book to Moonlight (film) I knew I needed to read it and it did not disappoint. Jacob and Daniel’s stories were so vastly different but I found parallels in them navigating what their current reality is and what it could be.

I really appreciated how different relationships were highlighted throughout the book. There was a glimpse into loving relationships with friends, and challenging relationships with family, jobs, and self. The characters were real… imperfect people doing the best they can with what they have, working on doing better. It’s beautiful, and a little heavy. Ok… its heartbreaking but its also thought-provoking. It shows a portrayal of the various ways your internal struggles and thoughts impact how you show up in the world. The ending left me hopeful that Jacob and Daniel will create the lives they desire.

I don't think I've ever read a more heartbreaking yet beautiful novel before. Doug Jones will go down on my list of very favorites. The Fantasies of Future Things is a masterpiece that I cannot wait to see the world devour.

Thank you NetGalley, Summit Books, and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a touching story about two men navigating major cultural changes during preparations for the 1996 Olympics. It explores gentrification, family, and intimacy through Jacob and Daniel. The author’s writing style made me miss Atlanta deeply. During my 6 years living there I unfortunately was not able to explore Summerhill. This book gives the reader a very realistic picture of life as a normal human who makes mistakes but keeps going.

The ending felt a bit rushed, but overall worked. I’ve found myself thinking about this book since I finished.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc. If you've ever read Moonlight, I think you would enjoy this book as well. Follows these two men, Jacob and Daniel and how they meet and all they go through separately and together. It was a very emotional read.