What readers think of The Prophets, plus links to write your own review.

This literary novel is so beautifully and powerfully written that the prose sings like poetry, demanding that readers stop and reread not only paragraphs but also entire pages.

Masterfully written by Robert Jones Jr., this is the story of the forbidden love between Samuel and Isaiah, two slaves on the Elizabeth Plantation (but everyone aptly calls it Empty) in Mississippi in the early 1800s. Joined at the soul when they were little boys, the two become best of friends and eventually lovers. They live in the barn, caring for the animals, and together they do more work than any of the other slaves. Everyone is fine with this arrangement until the slave Amos ingratiates himself with the master, Paul Halifax, and asks to preach Christianity to his fellow slaves. Amos then decides that this unholy relationship must be stopped and punished—so he tells the master what's going on in the barn. What happens next is astonishing, tragic, horrifying, and strangely liberating.

That is just a simple description of a complex, multilayered plot told from both the slaves' and enslavers' points of view. It is brilliant, ingenious, and emotionally wrenching. But most of all, this novel is a love story, and it is one that first made my heart sing and then broke it. It's a tribute to the power of love in any time or place--to transform and help us survive the horrors of life—but it is especially poignant here. The body may be enslaved but the heart and soul soar free with love.

One of the most creative aspects of this novel is the chapter titles, all of which are biblical. Sometimes the chapter refers to a character's name, such as Samuel or Isaiah, but other times the chapter title reflects a biblical book, such as Exodus, Song of Songs, or Bel and the Dragon. A solid grounding in the Bible is helpful, but if you don't have that knowledge, Google the biblical name and you can probably make the connections between that chapter's narrative and the corresponding book in the Bible.

This is not an easy read. Emotionally, it's a sucker punch to the heart—over and over and over. But it's so worth that anguish!

I'll start with the cover of this remarkable debut novel. Its design is on trend, for sure, but it's also perfect for The Prophets, a book that will transcend trend. Look at the silhouettes and the layers and the shades of color. The silhouetted faces indicate bodies down, prone and separated, yet the faces ascend, as if forming the foundations of mountains, and they look up. Robert Jones Jr. has written novel as testimony, with its central question: Did Black queer people exist in the past? Of course they did, but where are they in the historical record? Jones imagines their history, from ancestral Africa to the antebellum South. This is a book worthy of a deep-dive exploring its layers, inciting meditations and conversations about love and beauty and strength amid horrendous brutality. I'll end by emphasizing that at the heart of this book is Love.

Let me start by saying there's no way my words will do this book justice. Robert Jones Jr.'s The Prophets is a heartbreakingly beautiful and remarkable book that's both historical and literary fiction. Set on a plantation in the Deep South, slaves Isaac and Samuel find comfort in each other despite the cruelty of their violent owner. Jones' lyrical language transports you to the time and place and despite the difficult subject matter, I didn't want to put the book down. Isaac and Samuel's story shows that hope and love can take root in even the darkest of places. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Thank you, Robert Jones, for sharing your brilliant story-telling in a skillfully woven and written tale. Back in June, I helped form a racial justice task force at our church. Over the past many months, I have read books and articles, listened to podcasts and watched movies related to race and race relations. I will add this amazing novel to the list that I will recommend to others. Its many layers unravel through chapters named for biblical books and characters, which makes it of interest to book groups that are faith-based. Those readers are not the only ones "The Prophets" will appeal to. Many groups are now reading books related to race relations, and not many works written recently fit that bill. It is multi-layered and invites further research and exploration—perfect for a serious book group. Since it takes place more than 150 years ago and also reflects on much earlier times, the room for discussion is expansive. I highly recommend this book and thank BookBrowse for giving me the opportunity to read it.

Reading this book was an intense experience, but it was mesmerizing. The writing is lyrical and beautiful while telling a story about the horrors of slavery as well as the great love between two slaves. This would be a good book club selection, allowing for much discussion of not only the story and the characters, but also the literary techniques the author uses to create a vivid world where hatred, love, desire, self-loathing, loss, and other emotions are raw and on full display.

In The Prophets, we the readers are transported to the Antebellum south and invited into the lives of Samuel and Isaiah, two young slaves who live on the plantation known as "Empty". Robert Jones, Jr. clearly loves language. Lots of language ---- lots of descriptive sentences that are sometimes overwhelming. I felt as though I knew most of his characters very well by the book's conclusion.
When I consider the book in its entirety I can't help but wonder the motivation for writing this particular story. We all have had our appetites fed with many books about the south and the terrible conditions the plantation owners imposed upon the slaves.
This book is different. It explores the relationship between two young male slaves who have fallen in love and look to each other for tenderness in excruciatingly ruthless surroundings. Imagine these two young men who take care of the animals in the barn and work together with such rhythm and clarity. Now place them and their tender natures under the thumb of their owners who do not believe they are human. Owners who actually have conversations about how to even categorize these black people from Africa. They do not believe these properties have souls. They are simply property. Quite a contrast of characters.
In this book, we have a look at the belly and bowels of the ships that transported the stolen Africans and delivered them to, in this case, a plantation. Jones' words place you directly on the rows of pallets where men and women are stacked with just inches separating them from the person lying above, chained together and unable to do so much as gather enough saliva to swallow as they relieve themselves where they lay.
We experience the brutal punishments meted out for the smallest infractions, real or manufactured. We gather with women in secret as they gather what they can find - herbs, scraps of rags, river water, so that they might soothe the backs of Samuel and Isaiah after a severe whipping.
Add to that, the women on the plantation who are repeatedly raped, and expected to 'produce' future slaves for the betterment of the operation. The children running around are various shades of black, and not very black and almost white, and all shades in between. Many don't know who their parents are because they were stolen or given away at some point in their young lives. Some know that "Massa" is their father.
An older slave wants to gain favor with the 'Massa' and asks for permission to learn the Bible and preach. This leads to questions about the gay relationship taking place under all of their watchful eyes.
But throughout the book, despite the vicious treatment they endure, Samuel and Isaiah cling to each other and are ultimately faced with a decision that affects everyone ---- literally every being who lives here on Empty.

The author claims that he is picking up where Toni Morrison and James Baldwin left off. His writing proves him to be correct. The writing is superb even if the vernacular was sometimes difficult for me to understand.
The subject matter is so relevant in today’s world. Nonetheless, it is difficult reading. Enlightening about issues of enslavement in the United States that I had not considered before reading this book. The concerns among the enslaved people were so real. The entanglements between the slaves and the slave owners were well described.

I read a fair amount of African-American writers. I was delightfully surprised by this novel. When I first taught Beloved by Morrison to my juniors, I skimmed it for vocabulary level. I found it's not the level of vocabulary that's challenging; it's the ideas, structure, and poetic nature that makes her work difficult but worthy of the effort. The Prophets is the same. Jones presents the story in a way that is fresh, and the language is beautiful. I found myself pausing, thinking, rereading, and reconsidering.

The only negative to the sexual content Is that I couldn't teach the novel in the community where I taught for decades. The School Board would never approve the title.