The love for Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS just keeps on coming.

For BOOK RIOT, Mel Ashford includes the collection among 8 Weird Genre Fiction Books by Diverse Authors.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS is a collection of short stories by the fantastic Nalo Hopkinson. It’s about as weird as it gets, and Nalo Hopkinson is an excellent speculative fiction writer. There’s a flying cat in one of these stories, and it’s still the story that sticks in my mind the most.

Arianna Rebolini at BUZZ FEED NEWS in 20 Books To Read If You Want To Get Into Black Sci-Fi And Fantasy mentions two Hopkinson titles: Brown Girl in the Ring and FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

BuzzFeed Books recently asked Goodreads about its most popular Black speculative fiction titles. Below are 20 books that get high ratings and ample attention from the site’s many lovers of sci-fi and fantasy.

[…]

7. Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

The rich and privileged have abandoned an alternate Toronto, leaving the rest of the population behind barricades and unable to escape. There, the inner city returns to an older way of life — farming, bartering, herbal medicine, and mysticism — until the wealthy decide to prey on the impoverished communities for organ donation, and a young mother must turn to spiritualism and ritual to save her family.

5-star review: “Compelling from beginning to end, I see how Hopkinson places Caribbean culture within the realm of scifi/fantasy, looking at race and gender in ways that resonate with current realities for many POC. Her work deserves the same recognition and reverence as Octavia Butler. Hopkinson is a masterful storyteller and gives us characters we can relate to and will remember long after putting down the book. I only regret that I didn’t read this one back in ’98 when it was released.” —Inda
[…]

18. FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS by Nalo Hopkinson

Falling in Love With Hominids comprises over a dozen years of Hopkinson’s new, uncollected fiction, which draws from Afro Caribbean folklore.

5-star review: “From macabre to magical, Nalo Hopkinson transports us worlds just half a step away. Horrific and beautiful characters and events weave a tapestry of stories that are engrossing and unlike anything you’ve read before. I savored every delectable story. You have to read this!” —Natalie Hébert

THE LESBRARY also include a pair of Hopkinson title (The Salt Roads and HOMINIDS) in The Sapphic Fantastic: Bi and Lesbian Fantasy Books.

The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson’s books are always a trip, and The Salt Roads is no exception. This book bounces between different POV characters and time periods, all bound together by their relationship to the goddess Ezili. This has a focus on racism, colonialism, and slavery while also including several queer characters. The Salt Roads isn’t linear, and you do rocketed from place and to place while also jumping through time, but it’s fascinating and compelling throughout.

Check out my full review here.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS by Nalo Hopkinson

I’m cheating and putting in another Nalo Hopkinson book, even though only the novella has f/f content! FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS is worth reading for the novella alone, but this collection as a whole is one of my favourite books I’ve ever read. (And there is other queer content, just not f/f.) “Ours Is the Prettiest” is a Borderlands series, which means it shares characters and a setting with other authors. It also has an interesting look at a queer community and the complex, multi-layered relationships between everyone involved.

Check out my full review here.

COOL CURRY BOOKS shares a fascinating info graphic, QUEER SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY BOOKS BY AUTHORS OF COLOR, that includes FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

Angela Guh in SOCIAL DISTANZINER (ISSUE 2), includes FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS in Black Canadian Authors: A Reading List.

Non-Black readers, perhaps you have pledged to be an ally, or a better ally, in fighting anti-Black racism. Recognize that this is the first step in your commitment to a long journey of learning and unlearning. Allyship is not a status we can achieve by declaring it, it is something we have to continuously work at. As pandemic restrictions lift, and as we return back to our “normal” lives, we need to think about what this “normal” entails and recognize what needs to change, namely, the systems that perpetuate racial injustices.

Part of that work includes amplifying Black voices and reading more works by Black writers. This includes reading stories of Black joy in addition to stories of Black pain. It’s time to read more. Here are some books by Black Canadian authors – this is by no means a comprehensive reading list, but it can serve as a starting point.

Fulton College Library Queer Book Club‘s August selection was FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.