Great. Black Hope is a brilliant and searing debut. I loved Rob Franklin's voice as a writer, both tender and eviscerating, and I absolutely loved this social commentary on the cultural juxtapositions present in the social circles of New York City and the Hamptons. I also felt this was a really close to the chest discussion of drug use and addiction from a young voice and perspective, one I really quite appreciated. Definitely one of my top reads of 2025. Congrats to Rob Franklin and thanks to Summit for the gifted copy.

Great Black Hope is ideal for readers drawn to introspective narratives exploring the intersection of race, privilege, and societal structures through the lens of complex characters navigating personal and systemic turmoil.

I featured Great Black Hope in my June 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q31xhbo1tE, and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced reader copy.

Maybe I read this at the wrong time or something, but I couldn't get into this book (I tried both ebook and audiobook). I struggled to keep track of what was happening and at the same time felt like nothing was happening. This is getting good buzz, though, so it's just not for me.

Sadly I just couldn’t relate to this style of writing. The author tries to embellish his writing craft and had sentences that rambled on with colorful narrative and I found I completely lost the point and had to reread many sentences.

The story was superficial. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters, and most characters so privileged and entitled they were not even likable. This is definitely not a crime thriller but a boring story with creative colorful sentences.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I may have liked this more if it hadn’t been expecting something thriller-y. I appreciated the take(s) on substance use/addiction, but overall the book didn’t do anything for me. That said, I really appreciate the ARC and would still consider reading whatever the author does next.

Great Black Hope feels like a hard one for me to review because based on how the publisher was making the book seem, I expected something completely different. I was expecting a literary mystery due to the synopsis, but that is not what Great Black Hope is. I would say that Great Black Hope is a character study of Smith, a gay Black man living in NYC who's in need of a change. After he is caught with drugs and charged on vacation, he starts to question the life he's currently living. He doesn't get fulfillment in his career and his friendships feel very superficial. Smith starts to wonder what's next for him. In the periphery there is also questions on who killed an acquaintance of his, who had a substance abuse problem. This is the mystery that seemed to be question in the synopsis. It is such a secondary storyline that it isn't a central point of the story.

While I did enjoy Franklin's writing style, I don't think this will be a story that will stick with me long term. I'd be interested in reading more from Franklin in the future.

Thank you to Simon Books and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

It is Labor Day weekend in the Hamptons in 2019 and David Smith, a 25 year old, tall, “bark brown and quietly handsome” young man is arrested for possession of cocaine. Smith, a Stanford graduate and an analyst at a tech company, informs his parents of his arrest. His mother, a Harvard-trained physician, collapses, whereas his father, a retired university professor, asks just a single question, “What now?” We learn later in the novel why the Smiths believe that their privilege is so precarious that their son’s arrest could topple their elite status. Smith’s maternal ancestors had been sharecroppers and his grandmother, Gale, migrated to Houston at fifteen, “fleeing terror in the snarling South.” Gale’s singular focus took her through law school, and her four children left home for the Ivy-league, becoming doctors and lawyers. To the Smiths, Smith’s “incident” dramatized that they could not grow complacent because to do so “was to threaten slipping.”

Smith and his father hire the attorney with “local color” who claimed to know the courts and the parties involved. Smith obtains a drug and alcohol evaluation from Dr. Mancini who, according to his attorney, is well-liked by the local judges, and attends mid-numbing weekly meetings led by Dr. Mancini as well as AA meetings. When Dr. Mancini misunderstands a comment made by Smith, Smith leans into the trope of the gay Black boy with the absentee father and the contemptible single mother. “He’d seen the trailer for ‘Moonlight.’”

While waiting for his delayed hearing, Smith also contends with the death of his roommate, Elle England, who was found dead after leaving a club with an unidentified man. Smith had lived with Elle in NYC after they both graduated from Stanford which, for Smith “unearthed an elaborate, unknown world of coastal prepsters and the spawn of oligarchs trailed relentlessly by rumors of wealth so vast, it necessitated security detail. . . .” Smith is being pursued by a Vanity Fair reporter who wishes to speak to Elle’s closest friends to report a longer piece that “would recenter her humanity.”

Smith’s best friend from Stanford, Carolyn Ashley is, like Elle was, beautiful, glamorous, and from an elegant coastal family entrenched in the arts. Carolyn works as a studio assistant for an interior designer named Dimitri Petrovna, known for “re-outfitting the homes of Manhattan’s rich in post-Soviet austerity.” She was unapologetic about what she desired, even when it teetered on narcissism, and she forfeited her latest bid for sobriety by pursuing a married restauranteur. Smith recognized that Elle and Carolyn could not seem worldly if their world only consisted of the boarding-school set, so they looked to Smith “and the other brown, queer interlopers who passed through their parties — as a guide to an exotic landscape.”

With a chorus of high profile blurbs in place prior to publication, Franklin’s highly anticipated debut novel is set to be the summer’s literary sensation. It does not disappoint. Smith is such a fabulous character who is privileged and protected by virtue of his elite status, but vulnerable because of his race and sexuality. It is a whip smart novel with lacerating observations about race, class, and identity. The book is replete with caustically funny set pieces and sly commentary on the glamorous set and the Black American elite who Franklin observes, either “adopt the twice-as-good ethos of their parents’ generation or rebel and in that rebellion sacrifice themselves.” Thank you Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for an advance copy of this thoroughly engaging novel.

"Of course, he thought, Black pain was always spectacle, was always entertainment. In viral videos and abstract paintings, in policy, medicine, and history, their humanity was so incidental as to be revoked at will—their bodies inseparable from their capacity to suffer, and bear it smiling."

"Addict—that word meant something different when applied to him...for those who looked like (him), that word was a moral failure, a confirmation of society’s worst fears. A forfeit of all the tenuous advantages given."

Phenomenal author Rob Franklin left me stunned with his exceptionally brilliantly written debut novel, Great Black Hope. I'm speechless that his first book reads like the final masterpiece of a renowned writer.

Smith's world changes as the, "...night splits open along its tight-stitched seam." Arrested for cocaine possession while partying in the Hamptons, and already a disappointment to his privileged family as a queer black man living in NYC, not sure of his future plans, his arrest will only assure them they are right about him.

But the arrest might be a necessary evil for Smith to come to terms that while "his class privilege may protect him, his race will not." His roommate Elle is murdered and he didn't even know she wasn't home. When he learns some disturbing facts about Elle and is asked, “How well did you know your friend...," he is dumbfounded realizing he didn't know her because he never tried to... never asked her...about her.

Versatile voice actor Justice Smith is a masterful storyteller with his emotional tones making this third person character driven contemporary literary fiction feel like a poignant significant memoir.

This writer is the future, the great hope of the literary world and deserves your attention.

i received free copies of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it fell somewhat flat thanks to inflated expectations. This is definitely a promising debut and I will read more from this author, but the plot and character development fell somewhat flat for me. I expected the book to proceed as a mystery like it started, but it morphed much into a character study with a character I didn't feel super connected to. The plot and characters felt disconnected and made it hard to buy in emotionally to either. There was some beautiful writing in this though which gives it a solid 3 stars!! I would love to read more of this writers' work when it's a bit more mature. 3/5 stars!

I appreciated the inclusion of culturally resonant themes and moments that explored the weight of identity. However, the story lacked forward motion, and I found myself consistently disengaged.

The character of Smith, while clearly meant to be a complex and internalized lead, didn’t resonate with me. I wanted to connect with him, but the narrative would pull away before any depth could fully land.

This may appeal more to readers who prefer introspective literary fiction with minimal plot, but I found it difficult to stay invested. The tone and pacing ultimately left me feeling unsatisfied.

This is perfect summer reading. It's tense, gripping, and laugh out loud funny at times and moves you deeply the next. Franklin is doing so much here, but it never reads that way. It does read as truly singular.

Real Rating: 4.5* of five
How do you cope with stress? What kind of stress do you need to cope with? What happens when you can no longer cope, and your coping mechanism is what slides you the next step down your ladder? Are you made of the stuff that helps you hang on? Or is this the moment your life changes trajectory? Will it be up...or down?

Don't choose dull, ordinary challenges for your debut novel, kids. Take a lesson from Author Rob Franklin. Get in there and scrape the bones, break 'em open, pry out the marrow. Don't tell me another Hamptons-rich-druggie story, Fitzgerald owns "West Egg" already, and that snowy white "Less than Zero" guy wiped up the corners. Making your bottoming-out addict Black in this milieu feels revolutionary!

Unless you know what PG means, and who starred in which season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Young Mr. Smith isn't a unicorn, but he understands from the inside the burden and the unfairness of being a race man. He's got the money, the education, and the training to function in the top tier of the New York business world. Yet it costs him much more to claim his place there because he's Black...and gay.

It all comes to a head and begins to fry his brain as the novel opens with his arrest for cocaine possession in the Hamptons. A thing that wouldn't register for a white person, but despite his gigantic privilege among Black people, he's just another Black man among the really privileged. Awaiting his court appearance leaves young Mr. Smith a lot of time to process his stressors and figure out how to deal with New York life. We're along with him as the death...murder...of his bestie Elle absorbs a lot of his energy. If I had a complaint to air about the story, it's that the murder eats a lot of attention, and results in a lot of self-reflection, growth, and healing...but the resolution is so rushed it feels perfunctory.

I didn't get mad about it, though, because I felt it was all part of the voyage of discovery young Davey Smith was taking in front of me. I'm here for a young gay man discovering how much the world expects from you simply to have the things others just...get. I'm totally immersed in a story where someone privileged suddenly confronts the reality that privilege can be yanked away like any other "gift" from society. It's happened to me so I know how genuine his feeling of being forcibly unmoored really is.

I was never a party-party boy, so found Davey's interest in the nightlife uninteresting. It is just dull to me. I was ultimately able to enjoy the reflections on his loud, annoying, "fun" times because I don't and didn't like them at his age. I found myself thinking "no wonder I never liked that stuff!" a lot of the time. It made the read much more rewarding to me after I got past my own impatience with such an unserious, uninteresting "lifestyle" as clubbing.

In the end I was drawn into learning from the life Davey Snith led after I read this: “Identity was neither destiny nor salvation but a kind of animal trap, useful only if one was deft enough to claim the bait without tripping the door to the cage.” It's a pithy dose of home truth so it gave me a full and complete way into the club I'd pay money to stay out of in the flesh.

That half-star gone is my pound of flesh for being made to work so hard.
NB Links to definitions are in the blogged VERSION of the review.

This book is about Smith, a well-off, well-educated queer young Black man living in NYC. He parties too much, gets arrested for cocaine possession and has to deal with the fallout from that, all while reeling from the death of his beloved roommate Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer. I can not relate to the wealth or the partying lifestyle, so I had a hard time enjoying this one. It was very well written though.

An intriguing character driven novel about a young man's descent into and return from the other side of privilege after the death of his friend. Smith is black, gay and part of the New York social scene but it all falls apart when he's arrest with cocaine. He goes in search of. answers not only about his friend but also himself. It will remind some of Bret Easton Ellis (mostly because of the party scene) but it stands on its own. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A writer to watch.

This was such a beautifully written debut that I will have to revisit it again and again. *The Great Black Hope* was nothing like I expected, but it was everything I needed. The plot and character development were excellent. What I particularly enjoyed about this novel is that, while it certainly had a plot, the story was driven by the characters. It offered a glimpse into Davey Smith's life and how he navigates the loss he is experiencing and the troubles he finds himself in.

I do agree with other reviews that the murder of Elle should have been a more central part of the plot. When the final reveal occurs regarding who the murderer is, it feels anti-climactic. But it didn't take away from the overall story. If you are looking for a book that explores themes of redemption, familial expectations, loss, and self-discovery/healing, this debut is for you.

First thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC and the opportunity to review this book. This book was not what I thought it would be, based on the premise, which I thought was very intriguing and eye-catching, I thought this would be more of a mystery/thriller book. It is not. I would say this is more of a contemporary, which isn't necessarily bad, but still not what I expected. Also, I did not find Smith interesting nor could I get into the writing style. Maybe this was a case of great book, wrong person, but overall I don't think I would or could recommend this book.

Rob Franklin’s writing is stunning—at times it feels like reading song lyrics set to prose.
In Great Black Hope, we follow David Smith Jr., a young, Black, gay man entrenched in the elite social circles of New York City. When his best friend and roommate dies suddenly and he’s arrested for cocaine possession, the glamorous, fast-paced life he’s been coasting through takes a nosedive.

What follows is not a whodunnit, but a sharp, emotionally layered character study. Forced into sobriety at the urging of his lawyer, Smith begins the slow, painful work of unraveling who he is beneath the privilege, the parties, and the persona. Franklin offers a vivid window into the NYC social scene—one glittering with wealth and excess but hollow at its core.

This isn’t a murder mystery (though I half-expected it to be), but rather an intimate look at identity, grief, and self-reckoning. Franklin excels at putting us inside Smith’s conflicted mind, making his struggle feel raw and real.

A captivating debut—and one that makes me eager to read whatever Franklin writes next.

A very character based story where I am usually more into plot but it was a great debut. I loved the ambiance of the city and the mystery behind the story.

Read this for the NYC party scene atmosphere and mid 20s angst , didn’t connect with the characters but it was a well written debut that kept me going. Thanks to NetGalley and Summit Books for an advanced copy for an honest review.