| Title | : | Maroons (Grievers, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1849354804 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781849354806 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 265 |
| Publication | : | First published January 17, 2023 |
The pandemic of Syndrome H-8 continues to ravage the city of Detroit and everyone in Dune's life. In Maroons, she must learn what community and connection mean in the lonely wake of a fatal virus. Emerging from grief to follow the subtle path of small pleasures through an abandoned urban landscape, she begins finding other unlikely survivors with little in common but the will to live. This second installment of the Grievers trilogy is a tale of survival, of moving beyond seemingly insurmountable devastation toward, if not hope itself, then the road to hope.
Maroons (Grievers, #2) Reviews
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“Gentleness was an antidote to devastation” (150).
This book, this series, is really too poetic and magical for my words. An apocalyptic fairytale of anarchic community care and interdependence. -
I gulped these two books down, gobbled them, slurped them in and am so satisfied. Honestly, I came to amb through her IG presence - only later to discover her non fiction, then sci-fi writing. Utopian, forward thinking story-telling centered on a Black future - this writing is prophetic and hope instilling hope. Asking myself - How can I be of service?
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This story was everything I was wishing for at the end of book 1 (Grievers), and even more I didn’t realize I needed! Mysteries and magic revealed at a pace and prose that had me weeping, gasping, cheering, baited breath. The grief and the hope in such real balance, the snippets and elements of the complexities of community organizing, the continued testament to the atrocities faced and relentless resilience of Black Detroiters… for those of us in movement work, it is so palpable that adrienne wrote this for us. Thank you for this masterpiece! Please keep writing, I can’t wait for the next chapter! In the meantime I may just need to read these both over again.
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Grievers was a good book, Maroons was even better. I can't wait for the third.
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Loved this! Was waiting for it after Grievers, and between that time re-read Emergent Strategy and I loved seeing her non-fiction and fiction intertwined and all the beautiful things she's learned through the pandemic about grief and joy.
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So beautiful, so horny
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Loved loved loved so much. It was such a pleasure to read. I am still so romantically in love with this trilogy so far. Grief and sensuality and play and chosen family and magic, it has everything!!!!!!!!!! I need everyone to read this and grievers asap. I will be studying this one and all the magic in it for a long time
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When I finished Grievers I wasn’t aware of a sequel. It stood on its own and stories don't need to tie up neatly. I felt a strong presence from Dune and I was so glad there is more to hear from her and her story. In Maroons Dune becomes friends with another “survivor”. This story shows Dune and Dawud navigating their life in this changed Detroit. As with most of adrienne maree brown’s fiction it is a love letter to Black occupied Detroit. The line between the supernatural is fine as Dune’s model of Detroit starts growing more and more organic material. There’s a deadly realism to the apocalypse presented here. An apocalypse that at the moment is restricted to Detroit.
Dune and Dawud meet up with two other survivors a bit over half way through the story and I felt comfortable with them coming together. Then they meet with a larger group of survivors and I was torn. I don’t think I wanted to share the space occupied by Dune and her three friends, plus Dog with anyone else. At least it comes later on. brown details her worlds, Detroit worlds mostly, with depth and empathy and the people fill your life. By coming in contact with the larger group more becomes known about H-8. The story takes on many more complexities and it’s probably not fair of me to want the small group I love to stay on their own. The more people there are around the more there are people who jar you. That’s true in life. I don’t know if a third book is on its way but there is certainly a lot more to be told and Dune's story is nowhere near finished. -
(4.25 ⭐) A quiet journey through grief & loneliness, reclamation of land & community, and slowly-growing hope.
We’re following Dune, a survivor of Detroit’s fatal Syndrome H-8 pandemic. She’s navigating her new isolated world while grieving her mother (who was patient zero). Dune’s journey through the sharp pain of losing her loved ones leads to unexpected connections with other wandering survivors and a curious magic and power that threads them all together. Throughout the novella, Dune is also attempting to learn more about the origins of the plague.
Though the grief of the survivors was agonizing, I was touched by the cautious optimism that emerged as the survivors began to form new versions of family. The writing and characterization was beautiful & I really felt as though I understood Dune.
I wished we spent a little more time from the perspectives of Captain and Jizo – we were teased with a sprinkling of POV chapters and segments from them, but I was curious about their backgrounds. Perhaps more of that in book 3!
CW: death, racism, confinement, colonization, medical trauma, eugenics, genocide, grief, terminal illness, explicit sexual content
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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.) -
For the first half of the book nothing happens. Two gay people do meet and have a LOT of explicit straight sex. Not saying bi people do not exist but there is a lot more of ‘you sure know how to work that dick’ than I expected from a book with a lesbian protagonist.
The second half doesn’t have much happening either. A utopian commune comes on the scene but they don’t do much aside from sitting around and talking. Very inclusive and progressive but not much happening. There is a school with a curriculum that feels like it came from an anti CRT satire, because it is so cringe, so there’s that.
The big reveals, if anyone is interested in picking up this book since the previous did not answer anything, are not very big. Everyone acts like they are amazing truth shattering revelations, but they really should not be of any surprise to the protagonists in the book.
Overall a big disappointment. Grievers was such an emotional book, full of personal stories and Dune’s internal dealing with grief. This was just sex and wishful thinking and, oddly enough, add placement for magnum icecream, all delivered in a very clunky narrative. -
They stepped into a classroom with students who looked to be middle school age. A brown boy had instructed everyone to sit on their left hand. Eventually there were groans of discomfort and laughter as people's hands fell asleep. Rio checked to make sure Dune was paying attention.
The kid said, "Ok, so you see how your hand can fall asleep so fast? Or your legs if you sit a certain way too long, like when we meditate?" The kid shook his own hand. "And now you can't feel what it's doing? And it feels so weird and uncomfortable as it wakes up that you wonder if you can even take it?"
The kids laughed and screamed affirmations.
"Well that can happen to people's morals and values too. For white people, coming to this country made their morals fall asleep. And they did a bunch of things–like imagine if your hand was asleep, but stealing everything in sight and hitting everyone. around you! And now they are waking up to what they did. And it is very uncomfortable." (222-223) -
where Grievers was a slow... not burn, but ache, Maroons grows. When it turns, it turns riotous.
Although I confess I was a tinge disappointed at some of the more genre -familiar elements of this book, the build toward them is beautifully handled and deeply grounded in what the first book laid out. The exploration of community and gender/sexuality is deeply moving, the characters grounded and touching. I want to know what adrienne maree brown thinks of Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves.
looking forward to the next of the trilogy. -
Great follow up to 'Grievers" with more sympathetic world building containing just the right amount of political commentary. I thought the first book in the series got off to a wobbly start, but this book corrects the course. The new characters are interesting and well developed. The premise gets more intriguing. It moved the narrative and the action forward, and I cannot wait until the next installment. A timely book for black and brown readers, especially those from Michigan. Definitely makes one contemplate trauma and the grieving process.
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I enjoyed the premise of Grievers but felt like it was clunky. It couldn’t tell if it wanted to be a fiction or non-fiction text, and it was trying too hard to figure that out at the expense of character and world building
Maroons rectified a lot of these issues. I flew through this book in three days, it was incredibly captivating and a beautiful illustration of anarchic community care. I know little to nothing about Detroit but could feel both amb & the characters’ love for their city, it was easy to immerse yourself in the story. Highly recommend reading it! -
This is book #2 of a series, I recommend reading #1 Grievers first.
A horrible plague, H8, strikes Detroit, slaying the black population of the city. It appears to be an artificial disease created by white supremacists. Dune wanders the city recording the dying words of the victims and arranging into a model of Detroit. She starts finding other survivors and then the magical realism pops up with plants acting strange, etc. A decent read. -
It is not often that I am moved as greatly as I have been by this trilogy. Grievers was captivating, but Maroons just blows one away. A story of triumph, community, love that knows no boundaries… a wonderful tale that should be read by everyone. Brown’s writing is uplifting, brings people together, and affirming. Thank you for writing this.
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Incredible, lovable cast of characters, deep respect for the unfolding story, the way the first book stood alone and this one dove deeper into it. This is an incredible series forged in the fires of our time. It is a guidebook and a beacon of hope.
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In the second Grievers, Dune finds community. We find answers for the H8 virus
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I didn’t like this one as much as the first one, but considering I thought the first one was almost perfect …
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Wow, i feel like i just woke up from a very detailed inspiring magical dream. What a vision! The story really developed into itself and rhe character descriptions are so delicate. Thank you amb!
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There is power in grief, but there is so much more power in hope and community, and Brown’s words carry such wonderful magic.
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LOVED - tore through this while on vacation and wished it could go on forever...
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This book is absolutely beautiful. You must read Grievers first. Dark, poetic, horrific, sexy, queer, magical, inspiring. If there is a 3rd one I will get it asap.
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3.5 stars
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I’ve read a lot of books and this is easily the most life changing series I have ever read.
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While Grievers felt like a necessary meditation on survival amidst chaos and loss, Maroons is a celebration of resilience, community, and creating new modes of being with others.
