Of One Blood

Starred review from December 14, 2020
Mysticism, horror, and racial identity merge fluidly in this thrilling tale of love, obsession, and power, first serialized in Colored American Magazine from 1902 to 1903. Hopkins (1859–1930) takes readers on a journey from turn of the century Boston to an ancient, long-hidden Ethiopian civilization that will put readers in mind of Wakanda or El Dorado. Reuel Briggs, a white-passing, mixed-race Harvard medical student, falls in love with the enchanting, mixed-race singer, Dianthe Lusk, and in order to offer her a good life once they are married, he takes a job as a researcher on an archeological expedition to Ethiopia. With an ocean between them, Dianthe and Reuel’s relationship faces seemingly insurmountable odds as they encounter dangers both at home and abroad. As Reuel’s journey takes him into the heart of a lost kingdom, he learns a secret about his own identity that changes everything he thought he knew—and puts his future with Dianthe in further jeopardy. The suspense is tangible and the final reveal will leave readers reeling. This easily transcends the Victorian lost world genre to be relevant, thought-provoking, and entertaining today.

February 1, 2021
Hopkins is an important figure in African American literature, and the reissue of Of One Blood, first serialized in 1902, seeks to introduce her to a new generation. The book uses elements of fantasy, adventure, and horror to examine issues facing African Americans at the turn of the century. The story follows Reuel Briggs, a Black medical student passing as a white man. One day he hears a beautiful Black singer, Dianthe, at a concert. When he next sees her, she is dying in his arms. Reuel brings her back to life using inexplicable methods, and then travels to Ethiopia to find his fortune. What he finds in the ancient city of Meroe will challenge and upend his prior knowledge of the world and his place in it. This novel reads like the pulp fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but with an eye toward the African diaspora and how it connects to their descendants in America. Of One Blood recalls both classic adventure stories and more inclusive interpretations of the genre, like Nisi Shawl's Everfair (2016) and Esi Edugyan's Washington Black (2018).

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