A tightly written and compelling psychedelic adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Skye Papers is a captivating debut, one that melds the personal, political, and artistic into an unforgettable whole.” —Largehearted Boy
“Skye Papers may be Ajalon’s first novel, but she is an experienced artist: a sonic slam poet, musician, multimedia performer and filmmaker with a deep back catalog, evident on every page. From the rhythmic, riffing, incantatory prose to the novel’s cinematic crosscutting and recursive structure, to the minutiae of Skye and her friends’ daily struggles as artists, we get lost in a world that Ajalon renders with precision and lyricism that elude her main character.” —The New York Times
“Set in the street scenes of nineties-era New York City and London, Skye Papers merges race and class, queerness and anarchy, all while keeping a Philip K. Dick–ensian eye on the entities with the power to monitor and control our freedoms. Too real to be sci-fi, with a gritty imagination, Jamika Ajalon’s debut marks the arrival of a formidable new voice, unafraid to bring the creepy quotidian to fantastical conclusions.” —Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms
“There is a new literature being born: it is Black and it is queer, it vibrates between punk and soul, it has wanderlust, it invents its own form of freedom with characters both lost and found. Jamika Ajalon’s debut novel leads this surge. Skye Papers is a story of becoming—part love story, part artistic path, coming of age on the streets of London drug fueled, part surveillance-state dystopia—from a wholly unique and necessary new voice.” —Pamela Sneed, author of Funeral Diva
“Skye Papers is required reading! A visceral narrative of artists of color in a transatlantic nineties art scene, this novel bursts forth with visionary aim.” —Fork Burke, author of Licking Glass
“Jamika Ajalon has woven an intense psychological journey through the paradoxical life of Skye, whose poetry-drenched narrative leads us on an unpredictable odyssey beyond the limits of imagination. Along with Skye’s psychedelic comrades, readers navigate the silenced worlds of the early 1990s international underground art squat cultures of raving mad artists reveling in anti-fashions. From St. Louis, Chicago, New York, London, Amsterdam, and beyond, we are granted rare access into the vibrant minds and often psychedelic/transcendental vaults of three artists who knew too much—ruthlessly hunting for meaning in themselves, in their ancestry, and in their environment with the rise of surveillance tech and reality TV. Skye Papers is not only one of the most addictive reads of this year, it’s a must reread in order to unlock the living labyrinths of loving madly, performing badly, and most importantly, surviving oneself while daring to risk everything to experience a creative life beyond the fringes of one’s own expectations and limitations.” —Malik Ameer Crumpler, poet, editor, and rapper
2021-04-14
In the 1990s, a Black college student escapes the suffocating confines of suburbia to tumble headfirst into life on the outer edges of urban society.
This debut novel will shift the ground beneath your feet. When aspiring poet Skye drops out of her first year of college in Chicago to look for Scottie, a mysterious young man she'd met on a Greyhound bus, what follows is an intense, questioning, drug-addled adventure. Skye heads to Manhattan and shows up at the address Scottie had given her, where she meets an older woman named Pieces. She wakes up alone the next day with a chunk of her memory missing, then finds a note from Pieces reminding her that she'd promised to meet her and Scottie in London. "DON'T FORGET," it said. Stepping into Pieces’ old hostessing job long enough to buy her ticket, she hops a plane to London and discovers the gritty bohemian life of squatting, busking, and general drug-fueled partying. Still, the days hold an unreal tinge to them, and Skye finds herself in a one-sided obsession with Pieces, who begins to withdraw and skips town to Amsterdam. Beyond the mystery of Skye’s missing memory and hazy dream visions, a darkness seeps out from beneath the floor of their home, dubbed the Trashed Palace, and into Skye’s consciousness. Meanwhile, the reader is already aware that someone has been watching Skye since New York City via hidden cameras; intermittent chapters of observation are laid out as if they're snippets from a screenplay. Though the novel is deftly plotted and full of well-rounded, interesting characters, the desperate anger of Skye and Pieces’ relationship is meant to be abrasive, giving the book a jagged edge.
A tightly written and compelling psychedelic adventure.
Narrator Karen Chilton delivers yet another spectacular performance in this punk-infused novel about music, art, friendship, and memory. Black 20-something Skye is looking for a place to belong when she meets Scottie and Pieces, two intriguing artists full of revolutionary ideas. She follows them to London, where she dives headfirst into an exploration of selfhood and community, fueled by drugs, raves, multimedia art, late-night conversations, and city wanderings. Chilton’s voice is chameleon-like, rising and falling in volume as Skye’s first-person narration moves between anger, confusion, and bliss. The novel takes some surprising turns, but Chilton’s ability to fully embody each character makes listeners feel as though they are right there in the moment with Skye and her crew—as surprised by each new revelation as they are. L.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
