Iterations: Zonnique Tony and the Eighth Reprise

by Njera Keith

While Zonnique Tony’s life is made complicated by her experience as a queer, Black woman living with chronic depression, these circumstances aren’t the most complex aspects of her identity. Zonnique is a Black Martian, raised on a racially monolithic settlement on the red planet. Because her old-school, militant grandfather, Ali Tony, founded The Settlement, Zonnique is forced to navigate a toxically patriarchal culture, both at a familial and societal level. Her issues with her upbringing inform her migration to Earth and empower her to step into her own political identity as a socialist revolutionary. As Zonnique confronts the reality of a solar system ravaged by capitalism, an Earth on the brink of climate destruction, and a colonized Mars, she discovers that the magic that exists in her universe is the most powerful support for her political activities. Ultimately, Zonnique develops a paranormal prowess that changes her relationship to mental health and discovers a spiritual truth that reveals the true extent of her responsibility to the universe’s inhabitants.

323 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 26, 2023