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The Last Suspicious Holdout: Stories
The critically acclaimed author of The Rib King returns with an eagerly anticipated collection of short stories including the title story written exclusively for this volume, that explore relationships in a Black neighborhood over the course from the late 1980s to the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration.
The twelve stories in The Last Suspicious Holdout and Other Stories capture powerful and poignant moments in the everyday lives of African American families, friends, and neighbors. Taking place in an unnamed "sliver of Southern suburbia" in the years spanning from the beginning of the Clinton presidency to the eve of Barack Obama's election, each of these exceptional works of short fiction explore how the inequities of our society—in the criminal justice system, education, and healthcare—as well as issues like the "war on drugs"—shape and scar ordinary lives in deeply personal ways.
In "False Cognates," a formerly incarcerated attorney struggles with paying raising tuition costs to keep his troubled son in an elite private school. In "There He Go," a young girl whose mother moves them constantly yearns for stability and clings to a picture of the grandfather she doesn't know, inventing stories of his greatness that contrast with the actual man.
In this fearless and at times funny collection, Ladee Hubbard transcends stereotypes to provide a fuller portrait of Black American life and its undercurrents. The characters inhabiting her world present diverse configurations of family—grandmothers and granddaughters who live together as roommates; cousins and uncles who form tight bonds; and fathers who are mainly present. Each is part of a community where daycares and babysitters are never taken for granted; where books and words are revered.
The Last Suspicious Holdout and Other Stories mirrors and celebrates Black resilience. Though their finances, jobs, and businesses may be vulnerable to forces they cannot control, the neighbors in these stories bravely confront the realities of their lives, and firmly believe that hope is not a promise but a choice.
The twelve stories in The Last Suspicious Holdout and Other Stories capture powerful and poignant moments in the everyday lives of African American families, friends, and neighbors. Taking place in an unnamed "sliver of Southern suburbia" in the years spanning from the beginning of the Clinton presidency to the eve of Barack Obama's election, each of these exceptional works of short fiction explore how the inequities of our society—in the criminal justice system, education, and healthcare—as well as issues like the "war on drugs"—shape and scar ordinary lives in deeply personal ways.
In "False Cognates," a formerly incarcerated attorney struggles with paying raising tuition costs to keep his troubled son in an elite private school. In "There He Go," a young girl whose mother moves them constantly yearns for stability and clings to a picture of the grandfather she doesn't know, inventing stories of his greatness that contrast with the actual man.
In this fearless and at times funny collection, Ladee Hubbard transcends stereotypes to provide a fuller portrait of Black American life and its undercurrents. The characters inhabiting her world present diverse configurations of family—grandmothers and granddaughters who live together as roommates; cousins and uncles who form tight bonds; and fathers who are mainly present. Each is part of a community where daycares and babysitters are never taken for granted; where books and words are revered.
The Last Suspicious Holdout and Other Stories mirrors and celebrates Black resilience. Though their finances, jobs, and businesses may be vulnerable to forces they cannot control, the neighbors in these stories bravely confront the realities of their lives, and firmly believe that hope is not a promise but a choice.
8 pages, Audiobook
First published March 8, 2022
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About the author
Ladee Hubbard
5 books185 followersLadee Hubbard was born in Massachusetts, raised in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands and currently lives in New Orleans with her husband and three children. She received a B.A. from Princeton University, a Ph.D. from the University of California-Los Angeles, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published short fiction in the Beloit Fiction Journal and Crab Orchard Review among other publications and has received fellowships from the Hambidge Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. She is a recipient of a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
December 21, 2021
I loved these interconnected stories. They are fiercely intelligent, warm in their own way, and absolutely absorbing. Hubbard has a deft sense of character and community and I really enjoyed piecing together the connections between the collection’s characters. Excellent excellent excellent.
May 25, 2022
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The Last Suspicious Holdout and Other Stories is a prescient and timely collection capturing the everyday experiences of Black Americans from the 1990s to the mid-2000s. Ladee Hubbard hones in on family dynamics and I appreciated all the different familial relationships we get to see in these stories: from the classic ones focusing on the bond between parents and their children to ones between grandparents and grandkids. Many of these stories delve examine the criminal justice system, focusing in particular on the criminalization of young Black men.
Through different perspectives and contexts, these narratives explore systemic discrimination of minorities, the realities of those who are affected by social inequality, and the shifting landscape of American politics. In many of these stories, characters are faced with choices that blur the line between right and wrong, good and bad. I appreciated the author’s nuanced approach to difficult topics and her empathetic portrayal of characters who embody both flaws and virtues. Some stories stood out more than the rest and overall, although I found this a compelling read, as collections of short stories go this feels rather run-of-the-mill. The storytelling is solid but I can't say that I remember specifics about the characters and or their arcs. Still, I am aware that I am quite picky when it comes to short story collections so this is by no means a negative review. Also, I will definitely be checking out more by Hubbard, perhaps I will find her full-length work to be more memorable.
The Last Suspicious Holdout and Other Stories is a prescient and timely collection capturing the everyday experiences of Black Americans from the 1990s to the mid-2000s. Ladee Hubbard hones in on family dynamics and I appreciated all the different familial relationships we get to see in these stories: from the classic ones focusing on the bond between parents and their children to ones between grandparents and grandkids. Many of these stories delve examine the criminal justice system, focusing in particular on the criminalization of young Black men.
Through different perspectives and contexts, these narratives explore systemic discrimination of minorities, the realities of those who are affected by social inequality, and the shifting landscape of American politics. In many of these stories, characters are faced with choices that blur the line between right and wrong, good and bad. I appreciated the author’s nuanced approach to difficult topics and her empathetic portrayal of characters who embody both flaws and virtues. Some stories stood out more than the rest and overall, although I found this a compelling read, as collections of short stories go this feels rather run-of-the-mill. The storytelling is solid but I can't say that I remember specifics about the characters and or their arcs. Still, I am aware that I am quite picky when it comes to short story collections so this is by no means a negative review. Also, I will definitely be checking out more by Hubbard, perhaps I will find her full-length work to be more memorable.
April 9, 2022
Compelling, well written love the scope and span
December 1, 2023
Regrettably, I haven’t had much luck with short story collections this year!
I am so fascinated by this time period (early 90s and thereafter), which is so integral in the formation of Black Gen X as a coherent (?) group. This collection captures the decade-and-a-half when my parents fully came into adulthood. The first story is set in 1992, when they would have been just a few years younger than I am now (23 to my 25.) The final story is set in 2007, the year when my family moved from my dad’s hometown of Prince George’s County, Maryland to my grandmothers’ home region: the Carolinas. The third story, “Bitch: An Etymology of Family Values (1994)” is where this collection had the most promise for me, and I think that’s because it has the cleanest exploration of how this time in history shaped the ideological bents of the generation coming up in it. The following quote really summarizes a lot of this for me:
“A whole lot had changed since then. They’d gone from sleeping on a used mattress in a studio apartment to living in a big house on Cobb Hill. They’d gone from standing in the rain on picket lines to shaking hands with city leaders and attending meetings at City Hall. First Reagan then Bush and now Clinton had moved into the White House, and while a lot of their former allies had given up or been forced underground, they drove through town in Mercedes convertibles and shopped for designer clothes. Yet even in this, Mrs. Montgomery thought, they were only doing what was expected of them.” (39)
I really wish more people were doing retrospectives on the values imparted to Gen X during their adolescence, and how these values bore (often disastrous) fruit when they came of age in the 90s and beyond. One of the best recent examples I can think of is that NYT profile on Kamala Harris’ time at Howard, and how it set the course for her political decisions in the future, but this is just one piece, when I feel like this topic warrants at least twenty different books!! I frequently think about what it means for people like my parents to have been born in August 1969, right between the assassinations of MLK and Fred Hampton; to have been children in the 1970s, during the first major expansions of Black suburbia and last significant waves of the Great Migration; and to have been teenagers during the 1980s, as our country embraced a neoliberal agenda that prioritized individual over collective success, unyielding deference to economic markets, and continued government divestment from the broader public’s welfare.
In my opinion, people who came of age in this time period have internalized the danger of Black collective action and the opportunity of Black American assimilation more than any other generation. I appreciated how this book tried to show just why that is. Through not-so-fictional examples, Hubbard seems intent on exploring what this generation would have come to understand about our country’s unrelenting punishment of Black leftists and its conditional promotion of Black centrists (only to later punish them in different ways.)
While I loved this idea, unfortunately I did not love its execution. Despite my best efforts, I just couldn’t connect with many of the stories in this collection. Some ended just as they got interesting, while others never got interesting at all. I even felt that the few I enjoyed would have been better if I could fully grasp how they connected to the previous stories. (I hate when an interconnected book is too boring in places for the reappearances to pay off by the end.)
I especially wish we could have seen the Center for Creative Unity earlier, and been introduced to Leon directly. The ghosts hanging around this collection are more interesting than the collection itself, and I think that’s my biggest gripe with this book: it is using the 90s-2000s timeframe to reflect on the aftermath or fallout from situations that began in an earlier timeframe (such as Leon’s arrest circa 1985.) So many of these stories began in the middle of these characters’ arcs, which would have been fine if we fully understood the climactic moments that came before. Since we don’t ever gain that understanding, I think starting the collection in an earlier period (say, 1983) could’ve helped us appreciate the 1992-2007 period as the chickens coming home to roost for these characters.
I may have more thoughts after my buddy read discussion, but as of now, I would not strongly recommend this one.
I am so fascinated by this time period (early 90s and thereafter), which is so integral in the formation of Black Gen X as a coherent (?) group. This collection captures the decade-and-a-half when my parents fully came into adulthood. The first story is set in 1992, when they would have been just a few years younger than I am now (23 to my 25.) The final story is set in 2007, the year when my family moved from my dad’s hometown of Prince George’s County, Maryland to my grandmothers’ home region: the Carolinas. The third story, “Bitch: An Etymology of Family Values (1994)” is where this collection had the most promise for me, and I think that’s because it has the cleanest exploration of how this time in history shaped the ideological bents of the generation coming up in it. The following quote really summarizes a lot of this for me:
“A whole lot had changed since then. They’d gone from sleeping on a used mattress in a studio apartment to living in a big house on Cobb Hill. They’d gone from standing in the rain on picket lines to shaking hands with city leaders and attending meetings at City Hall. First Reagan then Bush and now Clinton had moved into the White House, and while a lot of their former allies had given up or been forced underground, they drove through town in Mercedes convertibles and shopped for designer clothes. Yet even in this, Mrs. Montgomery thought, they were only doing what was expected of them.” (39)
I really wish more people were doing retrospectives on the values imparted to Gen X during their adolescence, and how these values bore (often disastrous) fruit when they came of age in the 90s and beyond. One of the best recent examples I can think of is that NYT profile on Kamala Harris’ time at Howard, and how it set the course for her political decisions in the future, but this is just one piece, when I feel like this topic warrants at least twenty different books!! I frequently think about what it means for people like my parents to have been born in August 1969, right between the assassinations of MLK and Fred Hampton; to have been children in the 1970s, during the first major expansions of Black suburbia and last significant waves of the Great Migration; and to have been teenagers during the 1980s, as our country embraced a neoliberal agenda that prioritized individual over collective success, unyielding deference to economic markets, and continued government divestment from the broader public’s welfare.
In my opinion, people who came of age in this time period have internalized the danger of Black collective action and the opportunity of Black American assimilation more than any other generation. I appreciated how this book tried to show just why that is. Through not-so-fictional examples, Hubbard seems intent on exploring what this generation would have come to understand about our country’s unrelenting punishment of Black leftists and its conditional promotion of Black centrists (only to later punish them in different ways.)
While I loved this idea, unfortunately I did not love its execution. Despite my best efforts, I just couldn’t connect with many of the stories in this collection. Some ended just as they got interesting, while others never got interesting at all. I even felt that the few I enjoyed would have been better if I could fully grasp how they connected to the previous stories. (I hate when an interconnected book is too boring in places for the reappearances to pay off by the end.)
I especially wish we could have seen the Center for Creative Unity earlier, and been introduced to Leon directly. The ghosts hanging around this collection are more interesting than the collection itself, and I think that’s my biggest gripe with this book: it is using the 90s-2000s timeframe to reflect on the aftermath or fallout from situations that began in an earlier timeframe (such as Leon’s arrest circa 1985.) So many of these stories began in the middle of these characters’ arcs, which would have been fine if we fully understood the climactic moments that came before. Since we don’t ever gain that understanding, I think starting the collection in an earlier period (say, 1983) could’ve helped us appreciate the 1992-2007 period as the chickens coming home to roost for these characters.
I may have more thoughts after my buddy read discussion, but as of now, I would not strongly recommend this one.
June 6, 2022
In 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙤𝙪𝙩, Ladee Hubbard weaves thirteen interconnected short stories spanning from 1992-2007 to highlight the plight of the Black middle class. Hubbard’s stories do not stray away from the hard topics at all—she tackles the prison industrial complex, the war on drugs, gentrification, moral corruption in politics, social injustice and social unrest, unfair policing, systemic racism, infidelity, mental health, morality, and American family values. Quite frankly, Hubbard doesn’t hold out on naming the ills of American society and/or the flaws of her characters in this collection.
While I do not have any real issue with the subject matter perse, I find that the stories were not always easy to follow and left me confused and indifferent. I felt rushed to get to the next story and had no real connection to the story I just read. For example, I didn’t understand the purpose of the story, “Five People Who Crave Sauce.” Why did a story about ketchup need to be discussed? I like ketchup, but I didn’t understand it here. I would definitely need a reread to fully immerse myself into a better understanding of the characterization and plot, which I’m not sure I would be willing to do. I really did want to like this collection, but it just didn’t work for me as much as I expected. I did like the title story “The Last Suspicious Holdout” and “The Night Nurses” from the collection.
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙤𝙪𝙩 was my first work from Hubbard that I’ve read, but I’m interested in reading her much larger works like 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙗 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜 and𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙧. 𝙍𝙞𝙗𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨 so I can experience the breadth of her talent. I know she’s great at her craft, but the characters did not develop well enough for me here. Her resume speaks for itself, but I also don’t hold out my views either so I hope y’all respect my opinion. Every book isn’t a five-star read.
While I do not have any real issue with the subject matter perse, I find that the stories were not always easy to follow and left me confused and indifferent. I felt rushed to get to the next story and had no real connection to the story I just read. For example, I didn’t understand the purpose of the story, “Five People Who Crave Sauce.” Why did a story about ketchup need to be discussed? I like ketchup, but I didn’t understand it here. I would definitely need a reread to fully immerse myself into a better understanding of the characterization and plot, which I’m not sure I would be willing to do. I really did want to like this collection, but it just didn’t work for me as much as I expected. I did like the title story “The Last Suspicious Holdout” and “The Night Nurses” from the collection.
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙤𝙪𝙩 was my first work from Hubbard that I’ve read, but I’m interested in reading her much larger works like 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙗 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜 and𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙧. 𝙍𝙞𝙗𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨 so I can experience the breadth of her talent. I know she’s great at her craft, but the characters did not develop well enough for me here. Her resume speaks for itself, but I also don’t hold out my views either so I hope y’all respect my opinion. Every book isn’t a five-star read.
March 8, 2022
The running theme throughout this collection of short stories is about the many ways that things affect the black community: disparities in social class, gentrification, and systematic racism.
The stories were vivid, and I raced through them all, even though some held my attention more than others. My main problem with this series of short stories is that they were SHORT. I love good story development and I felt like I only got slices of life and story before I was cut off and thrust into the next story. Even though they are all interconnected.
My favorites were “Bitch: An Etymology of Family Values, Flip, and the Book’s namesake were my favorites.
Even though they were short stories, again,I did love how they all interconnected and came together to tell a broader story of a black community. Reminding everyone we are not a monolith. Even in the same neighborhood.
I want to thank Net Galley for an ARC. All opinions are my own.
The stories were vivid, and I raced through them all, even though some held my attention more than others. My main problem with this series of short stories is that they were SHORT. I love good story development and I felt like I only got slices of life and story before I was cut off and thrust into the next story. Even though they are all interconnected.
My favorites were “Bitch: An Etymology of Family Values, Flip, and the Book’s namesake were my favorites.
Even though they were short stories, again,I did love how they all interconnected and came together to tell a broader story of a black community. Reminding everyone we are not a monolith. Even in the same neighborhood.
I want to thank Net Galley for an ARC. All opinions are my own.
March 12, 2022
"A Sliver of Black Southern Suburbia"
More of this genre, please. In this collection, Hubbard offers interconnected stories of societal issues found not where many people expect, but in the heart of the black middle-class, a section oft-ignored.
As with any short story collection, some will garner more attention than others, and that's okay. Yet, I cannot think of any story where I did not pay rightful regard. Plus, seeing my name attributed to a fictional character rang my chimes.
4/5
More of this genre, please. In this collection, Hubbard offers interconnected stories of societal issues found not where many people expect, but in the heart of the black middle-class, a section oft-ignored.
As with any short story collection, some will garner more attention than others, and that's okay. Yet, I cannot think of any story where I did not pay rightful regard. Plus, seeing my name attributed to a fictional character rang my chimes.
4/5
June 28, 2023
A fantastic collection of linked short stories focusing on a single community from the early 1990's up through Obama's election in 2008. The character development and observational eye are both outstanding. So good. Between this book and The Rib King, Hubbard is now on my automatic buy list.
January 15, 2022
The Last Suspicious Holdout is a collection of interconnected short stories centered in a common neighborhood and features a myriad of flawed, broken characters from all walks of life. While some of the stories were written more than a decade ago, the situations and circumstances are timeless and cyclical: for example, the challenges of single mothers, re-gentrification, the machinations of the prison industrial complex, the ramifications of the “War on Drugs” on impoverished and minority communities, etc. These stories are grounded in real-world problems and issues – marital problems, rebellious youth, financial struggles, scheming politicians, etc.
At its core, it is the story of a community – the good, the bad, and the ugly bits are on full display in each tale. Most stories and their characters are not “happy” and some stories appear to have open/implied endings - but that didn’t discount how much I enjoyed connecting the inter-relationships between each story. It’s hard to pick a favorite (although I loved the title story, There He Go, and Five People Who Crave Sauce) because each contains a character(s) that reappears or is mentioned in the following sequences or a seemingly random piece of information/mention evolves into a pertinent component in another story causing many refreshing “a-ha” moments.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to review!
At its core, it is the story of a community – the good, the bad, and the ugly bits are on full display in each tale. Most stories and their characters are not “happy” and some stories appear to have open/implied endings - but that didn’t discount how much I enjoyed connecting the inter-relationships between each story. It’s hard to pick a favorite (although I loved the title story, There He Go, and Five People Who Crave Sauce) because each contains a character(s) that reappears or is mentioned in the following sequences or a seemingly random piece of information/mention evolves into a pertinent component in another story causing many refreshing “a-ha” moments.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to review!
February 23, 2022
A very mixed bag. I quite enjoyed some of these stories but others I felt indifferent toward or fell completely flat for me. 3 stars might actually be too generous, so call it 2.5.
Taking place over the span of 15 years in the same unnamed community, this collection is one that explores Blackness and timeless issues like the drug war and the prison industrial complex system with deftness and honesty, and occasionally striking prose. I feel the author loses the way in the gimmick a bit, though—these stories are interconnected, and while I like collections of interconnected stories I feel it somehow took a toll on the overall quality here? I can’t put my finger on why.
This was an enjoyable enough read—and it’s short!—but I don’t think I’ll remember much about it in months to come. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Taking place over the span of 15 years in the same unnamed community, this collection is one that explores Blackness and timeless issues like the drug war and the prison industrial complex system with deftness and honesty, and occasionally striking prose. I feel the author loses the way in the gimmick a bit, though—these stories are interconnected, and while I like collections of interconnected stories I feel it somehow took a toll on the overall quality here? I can’t put my finger on why.
This was an enjoyable enough read—and it’s short!—but I don’t think I’ll remember much about it in months to come. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
May 20, 2022
DNF- not because I didn’t like this book, but because I’m not in the right mood to read it. Plan to come back to this
Update: I finished this book and there were some stories I loved and some that I didn’t care for. More in-depth review to come
Update: I finished this book and there were some stories I loved and some that I didn’t care for. More in-depth review to come
April 2, 2022
4.5 stars. Excellent. Delightful stories which together paint a picture of a community and culture little known to me as a white man in America.
September 19, 2025
I had really liked The Rib King, one of Ladee Hubbard's novels I read earlier this year, but I feel this collection of short stories is even superior... The characters in each story is always a character we briefly heard about in a previous story; they all take place in a suburb in a Southern state, towards the end of the 90s and early 00s, and we follow a series of African American characters... There's dark humour and cruel twists that reminded me of Roald Dahl's stories. They were all really good and imaginative, I loved them all but will remember the most the one about five people's stories told through their favourite sauce/condiment.
October 6, 2022
I really enjoyed this book of short stories.
The stories were compelling and I liked that they all had elements of one another in each story. Like the small pieces and characters were linked through elements of each story told.
This is a quick read and really great writing!
The stories were compelling and I liked that they all had elements of one another in each story. Like the small pieces and characters were linked through elements of each story told.
This is a quick read and really great writing!
September 6, 2024
Creatively curated short stories that shed light on social injustices impacting the Black community. I loved the way the stories and characters intertwined! And the commentary on the war on drugs and the prison industrial complex were golden ✨
Personal faves: "Bitch: An etymology of family values," the titular chapter, and "Crack Babies!"
Personal faves: "Bitch: An etymology of family values," the titular chapter, and "Crack Babies!"
March 4, 2025
A decent collection of short stories. The author’s voice is enjoyable but the stories themselves were average for me. 3 stars.
March 15, 2023
The Last Suspicious Holdout is a collection of 12 powerful domestic stories that explore relationships existing in a Black neighbourhood over a couple decades (1992 to 2007)
These story capture Black lives & bodies that have been overshadowed and gnawed by the failures of society, government and the haunting predilection of the government for throwing Black men in prison. Each story poignantly explores the defining moments in sub-culture from 'welfare queens' to 'crack babies' and the fateful emergence of the Black middle class in the wake of Obama's inauguration.
From fathers who have just come back from prison re-entering society to women barely holding their home together; Ladee Hubbard has done such a great job painting a portrait of Black resilience and excellence in the face of post-slavery oppression.
It is a short but punchy collection.
These story capture Black lives & bodies that have been overshadowed and gnawed by the failures of society, government and the haunting predilection of the government for throwing Black men in prison. Each story poignantly explores the defining moments in sub-culture from 'welfare queens' to 'crack babies' and the fateful emergence of the Black middle class in the wake of Obama's inauguration.
From fathers who have just come back from prison re-entering society to women barely holding their home together; Ladee Hubbard has done such a great job painting a portrait of Black resilience and excellence in the face of post-slavery oppression.
It is a short but punchy collection.
May 11, 2022
I need some time to think about this one.
January 24, 2022
**Thanks to NetGalley and Amistad Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.**
I've been on a short story kick lately, so I was excited to read this collection. However, I was really disappointed with how this book was executed. Obviously, short stories don't have the same level of character and plot development as regular novels, but these stories were written in a way that made it extremely difficult to figure out what was happening and even how the characters within the same story were connected to one another. Additionally, all of the stories in this collection were supposed to be linked, which could have been really cool, but because none of the characters were introduced with a good foundation, I just got more confused when characters popped up again later in the collection. Ultimately, this one didn't do it for me, and I think there are much stronger story collections that focus on similar topics.
I've been on a short story kick lately, so I was excited to read this collection. However, I was really disappointed with how this book was executed. Obviously, short stories don't have the same level of character and plot development as regular novels, but these stories were written in a way that made it extremely difficult to figure out what was happening and even how the characters within the same story were connected to one another. Additionally, all of the stories in this collection were supposed to be linked, which could have been really cool, but because none of the characters were introduced with a good foundation, I just got more confused when characters popped up again later in the collection. Ultimately, this one didn't do it for me, and I think there are much stronger story collections that focus on similar topics.
March 8, 2022
Y’all, I loved everything about these intertwined short stories!
Each story pins on a timeline starting in the 1990’s to Obama’s presidential election. From the hype of kool-aid during a hot summer day to major corporations trying to disrupt and take advantage of local communities, I thoroughly enjoyed the attention to detail to keep each story authentic to where it fell within the 15 year time span.
I felt Ladee Hubbard did a phenomenal job of keeping the concept of community front and center in each story. Her characters will stick with you long after you’ve finished reading this book. The stories that stood out to me were: Crack Babies!, Houston and the Blinking What, False Cognates and the novel’s namesake The Last Suspicious Holdout.
Thank you to Amistad and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Last Suspicious Holdout will be a must read for any avid short story readers and I cannot wait to purchase my own physical copy for my collection.
Each story pins on a timeline starting in the 1990’s to Obama’s presidential election. From the hype of kool-aid during a hot summer day to major corporations trying to disrupt and take advantage of local communities, I thoroughly enjoyed the attention to detail to keep each story authentic to where it fell within the 15 year time span.
I felt Ladee Hubbard did a phenomenal job of keeping the concept of community front and center in each story. Her characters will stick with you long after you’ve finished reading this book. The stories that stood out to me were: Crack Babies!, Houston and the Blinking What, False Cognates and the novel’s namesake The Last Suspicious Holdout.
Thank you to Amistad and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Last Suspicious Holdout will be a must read for any avid short story readers and I cannot wait to purchase my own physical copy for my collection.
February 28, 2022
A terrific collection of linked short stories- linked by the community in which they are set and by characters which appear in more than one of them. Each takes place in a different year- sequentially- in the run up to the election of Barrack Obama. The language shines, the characters and their situations feel real. You, like me, might enjoy one story more than the rest but know that this is often the case with collections. These can easily be read one at a time over a period of days (my preferred method). Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Fans of Hubbard's long form work and those who like short stories should pick this one up.
March 17, 2022
THE LAST SUSPICIOUS HOLDOUT is a series of interconnected stories that chronicle the lives of neighbors in a Black southern suburb from the late 90s to the 2000s. The stories are vivid, thought-provoking, and hold a strong sense of community. Hubbard offers insightful commentary on the systemic racism, gentrification, and disparities in social class among this Black middle-class neighborhood. The stories are quick, compulsively readable, and I loved seeing familiar characters reappear later on. These powerful stories celebrate Black resilience and joy in the face of adversity. Thank you so much @amistadbooks for sharing this title with me!
February 15, 2022
I don’t know how Ladee Hubbard does it - these are interconnected short stories brilliantly written with complexity and a strength of purpose with thread after thread of humanity and human-ness juxtaposed with realities of life are cruel and familiar. This is superstar level writing that I relished. At times I slowed my reading speed and at other times I read aloud because the written words and cadence were so beautiful. Loads and loads to discuss in this one - fabulous book club discussion group choice. Highly recommend.
April 14, 2022
I struggled with how to rate this one. I liked it but didn't love it. The interconnectedness of the stories was smooth, and I liked getting multiple characters' perspectives on the same situation, but when story after story followed this structure, it got repetitive; I think the collection would've been stronger if this structure was used more sparingly. Maybe I'm just not the audience for this particular collection?
March 30, 2022
Ladee Hubbard is as much of a tapestry weaver as she is a writer. You follow her along on each individual section—and when it's done, step back and see all the connections that were made along the way. And besides the masterful story craft, she writes people so believably. I loved this collection just as much as her Ribkins books and consider myself a devoted fan of her work.
April 7, 2022
4 🌟 | A collection of interconnected short stories that explores life in American for Black Americans. I really enjoyed the slice-of-life story telling that spans from the early nineties to the early aughts. Highly recommend 🙌🏻
February 15, 2023
The interconnected aspect really took me out of these stories as I was constantly trying to figure out who we had seen before and where. And it just seemed to me like there were so many names in each story, so I was constantly taken out!
February 22, 2022
4 stars
This is a compulsively readable collection of interconnected short stories that I read in one day and likely would have read in one sitting if not for some mandatory errands.
The characters all exist in the same general space but reflect distinct relationships and experiences, and - especially for the abbreviated format - they are all remarkably well drawn. There wasn't a story in this collection I disliked, but I am partial to the titular event.
I was not aware of this author at all until a prominent review appeared on Goodreads recently. If you are experienced with Hubbard, you likely already know the gem within, but if you are also new to this author, I recommend taking the time to get to know them - and their intriguing characters - better through this collection.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Amistad Press for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
This is a compulsively readable collection of interconnected short stories that I read in one day and likely would have read in one sitting if not for some mandatory errands.
The characters all exist in the same general space but reflect distinct relationships and experiences, and - especially for the abbreviated format - they are all remarkably well drawn. There wasn't a story in this collection I disliked, but I am partial to the titular event.
I was not aware of this author at all until a prominent review appeared on Goodreads recently. If you are experienced with Hubbard, you likely already know the gem within, but if you are also new to this author, I recommend taking the time to get to know them - and their intriguing characters - better through this collection.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Amistad Press for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
September 18, 2023
I had wanted a collection that resembled Stories from the Tenants Downstairs or The Women of Brewster Place. I found this collection frustrating because the writing was rather obtuse/not accessible (a story of yams being a metaphor). There were a lot of characters, and you had to really work at getting all the connections among the stories.
I think it comes down to the fact that it felt like the author wanted the reader to put in a considerable amount of work while reading this, and as a reader I was frustrated by that.
I think it comes down to the fact that it felt like the author wanted the reader to put in a considerable amount of work while reading this, and as a reader I was frustrated by that.
December 31, 2023
I love short story collections. I especially love collections that have connected stories. This collection was great but I was left wishing for more when it comes to how the stories connected. Felt disjointed. But each story taken individually was pretty great.
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