❤️ loved this book because...
Every now and then I read a book that expands my on perceptions of the world and those who dwell within it. A book that cuts through the distracting stress and division of life in the 2020s to awaken my curiosity and empathy. Joe Okonkwo's short story collection Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck was one of those books.
All too often social media forces us into dehumanising political categories, turning real, living, multifaceted people into simplistic caricatures. Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck captures all our glory, ugliness, and complexity through its beautifully interwoven stories, some of which follow characters across vast spans of their lives. Their situations can be heartbreaking, their characters flawed, and their relationships fractured, but the narrative always presents them in a manner that's compelling and it does so without judgment.
I've recommended this book to so many people in my personal life, and I'm thrilled to evangelise it to even more.
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🐇 I couldn't put it down
1 author picked Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Independent Publishers Awards (IPPY) Silver Medalist in LGBT+ Fiction
The eclectic stories in this collection are bound by the threads of desire in its many forms, above all, the desire for love and a place of safety in a world where being Black and gay can thwart the fulfillment of that longing. The characters are complex, driven, difficult, and even, at times, unsympathetic, but always compelling. In other words: fully rounded human beings living complicated lives.
A proud Black woman who escaped her rural, impoverished town returns after the collapse of her marriage and faces the scorn of those she…
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