One of Our Kind - by Nicola Yoon (Paperback)

About the Book

"When Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, they hope to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to fit in. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on spa treatments and keeping up appearances. Jasmyn's only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by Liberty's outlook, a frustration that turns to concern when their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. As Jasmyn learns more about Liberty and its founders, she discovers a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she could never have imagined"--

Book Synopsis

A hotly-anticipated and endlessly provocative new thriller of race and privilege set in an all-Black gated community from #1 New York Times best-selling author Nicola Yoon - "Brilliant...Your book club will be discussing this one for DAYS."--Jodi Picoult

Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world's troubles.

Jasmyn's only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.

Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?

Thrilling with insightful social commentary, One of Our Kind explores the ways in which freedom is complicated by the presumptions we make about ourselves and each other.

Review Quotes

One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Most Anticipated Mystery/Thriller of the Spring
A Crime Reads' Best Psychological Thriller of the Month
One of Parade's Best New Books of the Week
Named an "It Book" of June by Book Riot

"One of Our Kind [has]...a freight-train feel. It fits in with a recent wave of Black social horror that includes novels like The Other Black Girl and movies like Get Out....The warmth in Yoon's writing, though, sets this book apart. The affection and care she has for all her characters and the reasons that have taken them to Liberty deepen the novel's stakes and heighten its terror. Yoon also reminds us, through Jasmyn's friendships and her relationship with her husband, King, of the richness and intimacy of Black culture, and underlines how much more we are than our trauma."
--Kashana Cauley, The New York Times

"[An] intense, politically charged thriller set at a gated Black community in Los Angeles, where Jasmyn Williams and her husband, King, learn that the wounds of police brutality and racism affect different people in very different ways. Some just want to wrap themselves in luxury and spa treatments--if that's what's really going on at the community's cultish wellness palace. Truly chilling."
--Marion Winik, Oprah Daily

"An unsettling social thriller that is Get Out meets Rosemary's Baby. One of Our Kind...is set in Liberty, Calif., a fictional idyllic all-Black gated community outside of Los Angeles. Jasmyn, a public defender expecting her second child, moves there with her venture capitalist husband and their young son looking for a place where they can feel safe and supported. What she finds isn't the Black utopia she dreamed of, but a town more interested in self-care than social justice issues. When Jasmyn starts digging into the community's history, she uncovers a shocking secret about Liberty's founders that threatens to tear her family apart."
--Shannon Carlin, Time

"A slow-burn thriller that crosses the cinematic vectors of Get Out and Stepford Wives in a story about a young family that moves to a prosperous Black community, only to find that all is not as utopian as it seems."
--The New York Times

"Yoon's characters talk honestly about race and the various strategies of speaking out or fitting in....Artful writing and pacing sustain the tension to the very end. And this is a story you'll want to talk about afterward."
--Suzanne Perez, KMUW

"File best-selling author Nicola Yoon's latest under thriller or literary fiction or dystopian fiction, but make sure you read One Of Our Kind, a story of the "perfect" gated community for people of color where all-inevitably-is not as it seems."
--Michael Giltz, Parade

"Many have ventured into the 'neighborhood that is not what it seems' category of suspense, but no one has done it better than Nicola Yoon....Absolutely jaw-dropping."
--Molly Odintz, Crime Reads

"With haunting and powerful prose, Nicola Yoon brilliantly imagines a world with much to tell us about our own."
--John Green, New York Times best-selling author of Turtles All the Way Down

"Brilliant, provocative, seminal -- there aren't enough adjectives to describe how much food for thought Yoon's novel provided. When cultural identity is shaped by trauma, can you even imagine who you are when that trauma is excised? What is the difference between equality and equity? And how deep into the magma of racism does implicit bias go? Your book club will be discussing this one for DAYS."
--Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Wish You Were Here

"Nicola Yoon can write about any subject beautifully, but what she's done in One of Our Kind is as thrilling as it is lusciously written. I can't remember the last time a book kept me turning the pages so quickly, or kept me up so late. One of Our Kind is for readers who want to be taken to the edge of expectation, and solidly dropped into the middle of a new nightmare. I still have goosebumps."
--Ashley C. Ford, New York Times best-selling author of Somebody's Daughter

"Provocative...Sure to spark book club conversations for years to come. Who says you can't tackle big, important contemporary ideas in a page-turning thriller?"
--The Seattle Times

"[One of Our Kind] is set in a newly planned utopian community for Black Americans in California....As with all utopias, usually, things aren't exactly as they seem....For fans of dystopian fiction, this is a great fast-paced read."
--Jordan Lauf, WNYC

"Masterful. . . . Yoon maintains taut, nerve-shattering suspense throughout as she delves into societal fault lines and cultural anxieties, crafting a brutally effective examination of how generational trauma roots itself in the body. The dialogue in particular shines as the characters argue, sympathize, and search for connection with one another, even in the face of the terror that surrounds them. Yoon's latest will linger in readers' minds long after its horrifying conclusion."
--Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"Yoon is skilled at sustaining the tension throughout Jasmyn's investigations, exposing the ways that Black communities are undermined both internally and externally. It's an artful page-turning thriller, but constantly mindful that decisions about community and identity can put lives at stake. A bracing tale of the perils of groupthink and willful ignorance."
--Kirkus Reviews, STARRED

"Yoon steadily builds suspense and provocation in this chilling, subtly speculative tale via perfectly selected details and unnerving conversations...In the mode of Percival Everett, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and Rion Amilcar Scott, Yoon presents a riveting tale spiked with surprises, laced with compassion, and designed for discussion as it raises unsettling questions about class, Blackness, parenthood, social responsibility, justice, and the hidden repercussions of deep, centuries-spanning trauma."
--Booklist, STARRED

"The paradoxes and discontents of the upwardly mobile Black bourgeoisie are territory the Jamaican-born, wildly successful Yoon knows intimately and draws with precision. Like Kiley Reid (Such a Fun Age and Come and Get It), Yoon vividly captures the racial and political zeitgeist... [A] potent illustration of the effects of racial trauma...Bold and razor sharp."
--BookPage

"Chilling....Yoon's novel plants serious, relevant questions about what true safety and true freedom look like, about what it means when Black pride and Black joy are subsumed by racism, fear, and repeated trauma....A topical novel ripe for discussion and debate."
--Norah Piehl, BookBrowse

"I'm a huge fan of Nicola Yoon. The Sun is Also A Star left me in tears. Yes, that is a good thing. But now the author is moving into new territory: adult fiction. And adult fiction that sounds SUPER SCARY. I'm in."
--Emily Martin, BookRiot

About the Author

NICOLA YOON is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Instructions for Dancing; Everything, Everything; and The Sun Is Also a Star, and is a coauthor of Blackout. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Award recipient, a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award winner and the first Black woman to hit #1 on the New York Times Young Adult best-seller list. Two of her novels have been made into major motion pictures. She's also the copublisher of Joy Revolution, a Random House young adult imprint dedicated to love stories starring people of color. She grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist David Yoon, and their daughter.