Hush Harbor
By: Anise Vance
Genre: Fiction
Number of Pages: 288
Published: September 5, 2023
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Dates Read: September 22, 2023 - September 26, 2023
Format: ARC / Paperback

After a young, black, unarmed teen is shot and killed by police, a revolution is formed in an abandoned housing project called Hush Harbor, in honor of the secret spaces their enslaved ancestors would gather. Jeremiah Prince and his sister, Nova, are the leaders, but their ideological differences regarding how the movement should proceed differ. When a new mayor with ties to white supremacists threatens the group and locks the city down, they collectively must come up with a plan of survival.

As much as I thought this novel would be about the revolution and protests and marching – this was mostly about an already established, what felt more like a commune, movement. This also focused on the personal experience of the members, especially Malik, who, at the beginning of the novel, was getting recruited right in the middle of it all.

The story was still good and I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting going into it. Of course the issues with racism and white supremacy are the main focus of this book and the author did a wonderful job at writing those. I think I may have struggled with the writing style a bit. It would go from super formalic and dense to a whole page full of dialogue with no movement indication. It didn’t catch my emotions and though I was interested in the story, I didn’t care too much for the characters, minus Jeremiah’s story.

Overall, this was still a good story and an important one at that. The debut writings of this author still intrigue me to read more of his when the next release comes.

*Thank you Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review