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seymone's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 star
Scott is masterful at creating short series. I enjoyed all of these stories with the exception of 1 or 2. This is a author I will be following.
Scott is masterful at creating short series. I enjoyed all of these stories with the exception of 1 or 2. This is a author I will be following.
cmasterson's review against another edition
5.0
I picked up Insurrections because I was beyond enthralled with Rion Amilcar Scott's story in Out There Screaming. His style is raw and poetic in that story, and this book is no different. Scott is the master at making his stories palpably human. There is such a range of emotions, intricacies, and life in each story that truly enraptures the reader.
I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, but I will highlight a few of the stand outs:
"A Friendly Game"
This is my personal favorite story in the collection. I really love the before and after of the mother character in this story. And how that contrasted with the boys playing their basketball and their own hierarchical struggles in their group was awesome.
"202 Checkmates"
This story shows a father and daughter bonding over chess over the course of a year. Through these games, we get an insight not only to their lives, but to life itself. It's a fascinating way to tell a story; attaching it specifically to one medium.
"The Legend of Ezekiel Marcus"
I'll be honest. I can't tell you why this story hit me the way it did (of course, like all the stories, the prose and themes were immaculate.) I feel like everyone had a pushover teacher like Mr. Cole, and watching that need to be liked devolve until his eventual downfall was a fascinating journey. And then the kids in the story added a whole other dynamic which was just icing on the cake.
"Party Animal: The Strange and Savage Case of a Once Erudite and Eloquent Young Man"
I love when stories play with form. The usage of the story as an academic article surrounding the case of a man who digressed from a super intelligent boy to a man acting as an animal was fascinating.
I could really go on and on and describe every story with such applause. But that wouldn't be fair to you, reader of this review. You should go visit the town of Cross River for yourself, and see what you can learn.
I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, but I will highlight a few of the stand outs:
"A Friendly Game"
This is my personal favorite story in the collection. I really love the before and after of the mother character in this story. And how that contrasted with the boys playing their basketball and their own hierarchical struggles in their group was awesome.
"202 Checkmates"
This story shows a father and daughter bonding over chess over the course of a year. Through these games, we get an insight not only to their lives, but to life itself. It's a fascinating way to tell a story; attaching it specifically to one medium.
"The Legend of Ezekiel Marcus"
I'll be honest. I can't tell you why this story hit me the way it did (of course, like all the stories, the prose and themes were immaculate.) I feel like everyone had a pushover teacher like Mr. Cole, and watching that need to be liked devolve until his eventual downfall was a fascinating journey. And then the kids in the story added a whole other dynamic which was just icing on the cake.
"Party Animal: The Strange and Savage Case of a Once Erudite and Eloquent Young Man"
I love when stories play with form. The usage of the story as an academic article surrounding the case of a man who digressed from a super intelligent boy to a man acting as an animal was fascinating.
I could really go on and on and describe every story with such applause. But that wouldn't be fair to you, reader of this review. You should go visit the town of Cross River for yourself, and see what you can learn.
mkamara98's review against another edition
5.0
Read this in my class on short story cycles and this was the best one we read! Scott complies the stories in such a beautiful way. Party Animal was my favorite one!
jacqui_des's review against another edition
2.0
There were a few stories in this collection that I enjoyed - 'A Friendly Game', '202 Checkmates' and 'The legend of Ezekiel Marcus'; but I found the second half of the collection a bit tedious and I didn't enjoy some of the usual styles that were employed.
Memorable Quotes
Memorable Quotes
"...the same things that make you want to kill yourself also save your life."
"Why didn't they just pull her aside, grab her, shake her, say what they had to say? Instead they whispered until whispering would no longer do."
"The peacefulness, she realized, was synonymous with vulnerability."
"Those we think of as friends, how easily they can be disposed of when it takes even the slightest effort to see them."
"It must be torment for a god to wake up normal. Not even an exceptional mortal, but barely a competent one."
jvillanueva8's review against another edition
5.0
I loved every word of this book. Scott builds a whole beautiful world using character depth and glimpses into the lives of his town’s residents. Truly incredible.
notesonbookmarks's review against another edition
4.0
Some of these were misses for me, but the big wins were huge. I will be thinking about the characters that Scott created here for a long time.
nerdyrev's review against another edition
4.0
I received this ebook for free from Edelweiss for review purposes. I do not have to give a positive review, but do have to notify the reader how I received the book.
When I started Insurrections by Rion Amilcar Scott, I didn't enjoy it. The first short story was so strange- a man is rescued from attempting suicide by his neighbors. As their relationship grows, the man invites the neighbors to his child's birthday party where he has spent all his money on a Cookie Monster costume that smelled like it came from the dump to make his child happy. The kids run due to the smell and the man is left saddened. The neighbor returns with the Cookie Monster head, listening to the laughter from above, but expecting he would find his neighbor hanging, except this time dead.
I shared the whole story because this is the tone of this book.
The stories are not happy stories. There are not happy endings. This isn't about happy endings though and that is when I got it!
Many times, collections of short stories are named for one of the stories contained within the book. In the case of this book, Insurrections is the title because each story takes place in Cross River, Maryland and deal with the lives of the African American residents that reside within. Each is battling to overcome something- a man who keeps getting mistaken for his drug addicted brother and decides to try to rescue him, a girl who is beaten in chess by her father who claims to be the best chess player in the world until he is beaten in chess by the park expert, or a student who ruins his teacher's life and has to deal with the consequences. All the stories are about overcoming something and sometimes realizing there is a ceiling holding you down.
These are powerful stories of trying to overcome the odds when the odds are so stacked against you. Sometimes the odds are overcome only to learn that there isn't much hope. As stated, this isn't a book with a lot of happy endings.
Scott's writing just flows and is very poetic. He changes his style through the stories to give voice to his characters. I sometimes forgot I was reading the stories of one author. With that written, like many short story collections, there are ones that will connect and others that just will not. I went back to re-read the first story and it still wasn't my favorite of the collection. Neither was A Friendly Game. The three-202 Checkmates, Juba, and The Legend of Ezekiel Marcus really were touching in their own way, but still heartbreaking. I really enjoyed 202 Checkmates for some reason.
As written, this is not a pick to pick up to make you feel good, but it is a group of stories that need to be told. I am currently reading Homegoing and The Underground Railroad, so this book fit right into place of what I am currently reading as a different side to the same story.
I gave this one a solid 4 stars.
When I started Insurrections by Rion Amilcar Scott, I didn't enjoy it. The first short story was so strange- a man is rescued from attempting suicide by his neighbors. As their relationship grows, the man invites the neighbors to his child's birthday party where he has spent all his money on a Cookie Monster costume that smelled like it came from the dump to make his child happy. The kids run due to the smell and the man is left saddened. The neighbor returns with the Cookie Monster head, listening to the laughter from above, but expecting he would find his neighbor hanging, except this time dead.
I shared the whole story because this is the tone of this book.
The stories are not happy stories. There are not happy endings. This isn't about happy endings though and that is when I got it!
Many times, collections of short stories are named for one of the stories contained within the book. In the case of this book, Insurrections is the title because each story takes place in Cross River, Maryland and deal with the lives of the African American residents that reside within. Each is battling to overcome something- a man who keeps getting mistaken for his drug addicted brother and decides to try to rescue him, a girl who is beaten in chess by her father who claims to be the best chess player in the world until he is beaten in chess by the park expert, or a student who ruins his teacher's life and has to deal with the consequences. All the stories are about overcoming something and sometimes realizing there is a ceiling holding you down.
These are powerful stories of trying to overcome the odds when the odds are so stacked against you. Sometimes the odds are overcome only to learn that there isn't much hope. As stated, this isn't a book with a lot of happy endings.
Scott's writing just flows and is very poetic. He changes his style through the stories to give voice to his characters. I sometimes forgot I was reading the stories of one author. With that written, like many short story collections, there are ones that will connect and others that just will not. I went back to re-read the first story and it still wasn't my favorite of the collection. Neither was A Friendly Game. The three-202 Checkmates, Juba, and The Legend of Ezekiel Marcus really were touching in their own way, but still heartbreaking. I really enjoyed 202 Checkmates for some reason.
As written, this is not a pick to pick up to make you feel good, but it is a group of stories that need to be told. I am currently reading Homegoing and The Underground Railroad, so this book fit right into place of what I am currently reading as a different side to the same story.
I gave this one a solid 4 stars.
spaceyboy's review against another edition
The dialogue not having quotations fucked with my head
raynerayne's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
didn’t like the writing style, stories felt convoluted and fake deep
didn’t like the writing style, stories felt convoluted and fake deep
lukenotjohn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5