I thought I knew Harriet Tubman's story, but this fictional book about Harriet Tubman coming back from the dead to make a hip-hop album showed me just how wrong I was about her story. Final Score: 4.9

Content Disclosure: This book and review touch on slavery and its continued trauma, racism, religious trauma, and queer trauma. I’ll say up front that I’m a straight, white woman and I want to be mindful that the weight that this book carries may land very differently for others.

What This Book Did Well This was such a fresh look at Harriet Tubman and the early abolitionists. What floored me most was the way this book defamiliarizes what slavery actually was. It doesn’t let you coast on the whitewashed, sanitized textbook version. Small choices do enormous work here and it sits with the trauma that came after people were freed, which is something we almost never discuss. That reframing alone justified the whole book for me.

The other thread that I really admired was the discussion around religion being both a weapon and a lifeline - how Christianity was forced onto enslaved people to keep them docile, while so many enslaved people and their descendants find genuine comfort and community in religion today. Simultaneously, our protagonist, Darnell, has religious trauma stemming from religious spaces that rejected him for being queer. I grew up evangelical, but am no longer religious, so I see plenty of the negatives clearly, but I also understand the positives, particularly the sense of peace and community that comes with religious organizations. This book holds both of these truths without flinching, and I’m still chewing on it.

I also loved the humor, which is a small miracle given how heavy the subject matter is. It was just enough - a one-off line here and there that was genuinely hilarious, and then right back into it. The humor was fantastic, while also never overpowering the weight of what was being said.

And the modernization of these historical figures - imagining what they might actually sound like today - struck me as a really smart teaching technique. It makes the history just a little more legible to a modern reader without ever dumbing it down or sanitizing their experiences. In my opinion, Bob’s craft backs everything up. There were so many lines I highlighted in this short book that I will be thinking about for a long time.

Audiobook Experience I set myself up for success by tandem reading this one (listening to the audiobook narrated by Bob the Drag Queen while physically reading a copy) and I’d highly recommend going in that way if you can. There’s something special about hearing this story through the author’s voice and tone. Bob’s personality shines through the book and I loved that intimacy and Bob’s passion. That said, a celebrity author isn’t necessarily a trained narrator, and while Bob did a fantastic job, there are few things I wanted to note. Bob narrates quickly, and with the amount of dialogue this book has, I found it hard to tell the characters apart at point just by ear alone. The narration pacing wasn’t totally consistent either, while the narration always has a pretty quick pace, it was especially noticeable in the opening chapters.

While none of these are deal breakers, since I’m really encouraging readers to go the tandem reading route there are a couple more things I wanted to note: there are so many quotable lines, I think if I had done the audiobook alone, I’d have been pausing constantly to write them all down. Additionally, I did notice a couple of times that there were slips in the narration and a couple of times (specifically with the song lyrics) that short lines were missing. They weren’t critical, but since I was tandem reading I caught them.

Where It May Fall Short Truthfully, I don’t have much in the way of real critique, most of my “issues” are more confessions.

One thing I’ll flag, though I landed on the like side of it: the book balances the historical stories with a fictional story as a throughline, but the pacing isn’t even. At the beginning of the book, you get a lot more of the historical stories and near the end the fictional storyline gets more of the spotlight. I could see people wanting more of one or the other. Additionally, the fictional thread isn’t super complicated, but for me having a clean storyline that carries the themes and overall message was a strength.

A confession: I’m a big fan of Bob! Since I was listening to Bob narrate the book as well, I pictured Bob as the protagonist the whole time - my brain refused to separate them. That’s not on Bob, but if you come in as a fellow fan, fair warning you might do the same.

The only other thing isn’t really a flaw, just something to help set your expectations: the book throws you straight into its alternate universe and asks you to accept the premise without any handholding. I personally loved that, but I could see it tripping up readers who want more set up before the rules of the world click into place.

Final Thoughts, Opinions & Recommendations This one is for readers who will also be pissed that they spent years in their history classes learning the propagandized, whitewashed version of history and for readers who are comfortable with a book going from devastating to hilarious in the same paragraph.

Who it might not be for: as I flagged up top, if you carry trauma around slavery, racism, religious trauma, or queer trauma - especially if you have intersections of those - please go in knowing this book sits in all of that directly.

My thanks to my local public library for having both the audiobook and ebook available with almost no wait! GO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIES!!!

Additionally, I would like to thank Jennifer & Lucy, the co-founders of Pagebound, for putting this book in the Pride 2026 Readalong! Getting to read this book along with everyone else is such a joy and I’m so grateful for the experience!

TL;DR Would I Recommend it? 110%, just be mindful of the content warnings specifically for slavery, racism, religious trauma, and queer trauma. Would I Reread it? YES! Would I Read More From This Author? YES!

Star Score Breakdown Personal Enjoyment: 5 Overall Execution: 5 Craft & Writing Quality: 4.75 Characters: 5 Plot: 4.75 Final Score: 4.9

There are some cool things about this book. The magic is super interesting. One of the characters is a delight. The general atmosphere is enjoyable (enhanced by the audio book narrator being Scottish.)

Sadly, though, this book is entirely too long (or rather, not nearly enough happens to justify the length) and the ending pissed me off so much I got out of bed to come to a computer to make a 100% post with bullet points. My complaints are entirely spoilery so I wont rehash them here, but I hated it and while I was having an okay time until a certain plot point, that plot point & how it unfolds makes me feel like I wasted all the time I spent leading up to it. It wasn't satisfying to me & instead of inspiring me to pick up the next one it's inspired me to not read another Ross.

PLEASE don't make a decision based on my opinion alone, though! A lot of people love this book! The ending did work for a lot of people! It just didn't work for me.