This book deserves every single amount of praise it’s garnering right now, what a breathtaking debut in every sense of the word. The Prophets is simultaneously beautiful & gut wrenching, an incredibly important read that could not have come out at a better time. This is one everyone needs to put on their radar.

This was a pretty challenging read for me - it took me a minute to find my flow with everything & I realized right away that I'd have to go slower than usual with this. This is a heavily character-driven, non-linear novel in which you are often reading the same scene but from different perspectives. Once I was able to get a grasp on things, however, the story flowed beautifully thanks to Robert Jones, Jr.'s writing - I was mesmerized & transfixed by his way with words. Samuel & Isaiah, the "Two of Them", were beautifully realized characters & your heart just shattered for them. Out of the multiple perspectives introduced, the most effective for me were Maggie's, Sarah's, & the chapters revolving around the African Kings. The discussions of sexuality within the book, both at the plantation & during the times of the African Kings, were fascinating - if anything, I almost wish we would've just gotten a little bit more of Kosii & Elewa. The cruelties depicted in this book are extremely hard to read but this is not content to shy away from - unfortunately, a lot of white individuals' behavior today is not far off from the atrocities depicted in this book. We have so much work to do, myself included.

I am beyond humbled that I was able to experience this book & I can't thank Robert Jones, Jr. enough for putting this masterpiece out into the world. This is one that'll stick with me for a very long time. In my opinion, this should be required reading.