DNYUZ
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Television
    • Theater
    • Gaming
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
DNYUZ
No Result
View All Result
Home News

This Novel Is a Cry for the Missing Black Women Across America

October 21, 2025
in News
This Novel Is a Cry for the Missing Black Women Across America
492
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BOOM TOWN, by Nic Stone


In December 1980, Ebony magazine ran a sprawling feature called “The Mystery of the Disappearing Blacks.” It chronicled a series of Black missing persons and murder cases across the United States, with a particular focus on a spate of incidents in Atlanta, and examined the theories about what may have happened to the victims. In addition to fears about safety, the piece also articulated a meta anxiety — that Black victims aren’t prioritized in the same way that white victims are.

This is the concern that gives shape to “Boom Town,” the pacey, racy new thriller that marks the young adult writer Nic Stone’s first foray into adult fiction. Set in the charged world of Atlanta nightlife, the book explores questions of safety, visibility, queerness and survival through the lives of women who strip for a living and love for free.

At the center of the novel is the titular strip club, Boom Town. Open its doors and you’ll find an ensemble of dancers onstage, under neon lights, ready to make good money from their craft. Two dancers in particular shine: Felice Jade Carothers, who is known as Lucky, and Micah Michelle Johanssen, who goes by Lyriq. They’re remarkable on their own, but have also become legendary performing as a duo called “the Lovely Ladies.”

When the book opens, all is not well. The Lovely Ladies have broken up, both as dance partners and as lovers, and Felice has gone missing; Micah hasn’t seen her in over a year. Then one of the new dancers at Boom Town, Damaris, disappears as well, taking a stack of cash with her. A “creepy” white man named Thomas McIntyre, a club regular, emerges as the connection point. It was when he first started coming to the club that Felice and Micah’s relationship fell apart. Months after Felice vanished, he set his sights on Damaris. Her disappearance prompts Micah to investigate what’s going on — she’s determined to make amends for the brutal end to her relationship and discover what’s happened to the two women.

The novel is mostly split between Micah and Felice’s separate timelines and perspectives, following Micah in the present as she hunts for answers, and flashing to the past to show what Felice was confronting before she disappeared. But Boom Town itself is a star character too, and Stone pulls the reader into the club’s rich world.

Here, the music is always loud; the dancers are beautiful, golden-brown, amber or honey-skinned; glistening and preened. These women are many things, including therapists, teachers, victims, survivors, sex workers and romantics. They might have a master’s degree, or a keen eye for detail. Some of them have led difficult lives, but Stone gives her characters agency — they have also made bold choices. Within this book, there is a challenge: Don’t you dare underestimate these women, or fail to remember the fullness of their humanity.

The book is at its best in the club. While Stone makes Boom Town glow, she doesn’t shy away from its flaws. As the book progresses, we learn about the club’s depraved secrets, and the horrific treatment its staff and dancers face. There are narratives here about trafficking, drugs and sexual abuse that cut close to the bone.

Some textual devices, however, don’t work quite as well. Stone thrives on drama and device, favoring mic-drop endings to her chapters, big reveals and juicy coincidences. As the book goes on, the story becomes convoluted as characters weave in and out of spaces and places and timelines. Meanwhile, McIntyre develops into something of a caricature, his character flagging under stilted dialogue and nonsensical actions.

Still, McIntyre’s flatness seems intentional. He is not a man so much as a manifestation, a cipher through which Stone channels the long history of racialized, misogynistic violence and the fear that type of violence brings. He repeatedly coerces these women and brutalizes them, and he gets away with it without any legal repercussions. With McIntyre, Stone captures the dread the Ebony article highlighted: that when Black women disappear, when they are endangered or killed, the mechanisms of justice do not help them.

In that sense, “Boom Town” is a work of cultural memory, tracing the line between the vanished girls of Atlanta’s past and the unprotected women who still navigate its underworld. It’s a novel that taps into fear, but at its heart, this is a book stitched together with love. Black women, the book says, have been and always will be one another’s saviors.


BOOM TOWN | By Nic Stone | Simon & Schuster | 276 pp. | $28

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff is a former senior staff editor on Narrative Projects, where she worked across the series Black History Continued, and the former editor in chief at gal-dem magazine.

The post This Novel Is a Cry for the Missing Black Women Across America appeared first on New York Times.

Share197Tweet123Share
I didn’t think river cruises were for me, but my first one had so many surprising perks that I’ve changed my mind
News

I didn’t think river cruises were for me, but my first one had so many surprising perks that I’ve changed my mind

by Business Insider
October 21, 2025

I was skeptical about going on a river cruise, but the itinerary and accommodations made it a great experience.Emily SchlorfIn ...

Read more
News

Blue Jays in World Series for first time since 1993

October 21, 2025
News

Comfy Knitwear and Loafers With Coins

October 21, 2025
News

‘Paranormal Activity’ Wants to Scare You From the Stage

October 21, 2025
News

How Russia’s new tactics pose new winter threat to Ukraine

October 21, 2025
Bucs  star Mike Evans suffers broken clavicle in potential season-ending injury against Lions

Bucs star Mike Evans suffers broken clavicle in potential season-ending injury against Lions

October 21, 2025
Send kids to school with a cough or sniffles? Some parents say no way

Send kids to school with a cough or sniffles? Some parents say no way

October 21, 2025
President Trump’s Next Big Win for Seniors: Expanding Medicare to Cover Obesity Medications

President Trump’s Next Big Win for Seniors: Expanding Medicare to Cover Obesity Medications

October 21, 2025

Copyright © 2025.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel

Copyright © 2025.