ジャクソンひとり

by Jose Ando, 安堂 ホセ

「実際に生きてるってこと。盗用したポルノごっこじゃなくて」
アフリカのどこかと日本のハーフで、昔モデルやってて、ゲイらしい――。
スポーツブランドのスタッフ専用ジムで整体師をするジャクソンについての噂。
ある日、彼のTシャツから偶然QRコードが読み取られ、そこにはブラックミックスの男が裸で磔にされた姿が映されていた。
誰もが一目で男をジャクソンだと判断し、本人が否定しても信じない。
仕方なく独自の調査を始めたジャクソンは、動画の男は自分だと主張する3人の男に出会い――。

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Japan, Audiobook, 21st Century, Japanese Literature

160 pages, Hardcover

Published November 16, 2022

About the author

Jose Ando (Japanese name: 安堂 ホセ) was born and raised in Tokyo, and is of African-Asian heritage. His debut novel Jackson Alone was awarded the 59th Bungei Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Akutagawa Prize, as was his second novel, The Camouflaged Man. His third novel, Dtopia, won the 172nd Akutagawa Prize, solidifying his presence as one of Japan’s brightest young literary stars.

Reviews

[Jillian B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is about four biracial Japanese gay men who team up to mess with those who’ve mistreated them, banking on the fact that people won’t be able to tell them apart. It’s a bit ironic then, that my biggest gripe with the novel is that telling the various characters apart was a bit confusing—they were constantly swapping identities, and the different characters didn’t feel distinct enough for me to have a firm grasp on their different personality traits.

Still, I really enjoyed the fresh perspective of this book. I’ve read a lot of Japanese lit over the years, and queer perspectives, especially those of gay men, are still relatively rare—and this is the first book I’ve read that depicts what it’s like to be half-Black in Japan. It was really eye-opening to see a portrayal of the everyday discrimination these groups face. The plot felt like a bit of a missed opportunity, because I feel like it could have been done better, but this book was still worth reading just to get a glimpse of Japan through the eyes of gay, biracial men. I would love to see more books like this!

[this_eel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is kind of a mess. It starts and aborts many ideas and several plots in a half-hearted way, all culminating in an act of violence that’s poorly described and only thematically related to the rest of the book. The premise as described is baaaaaaarely followed through on. I did enjoy the disaffected narration and some of the things it had to say about race and queerness (and often more so, racism and homophobia) in Japan. Still the whole thing was kind of like why are we here what’s the plan mouthing off and not writing a second draft. But the translation had some energy to it, and hey, it was quick!

[Karolina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 pomysł na pewno nietypowy i zaczęło się dziwnie, ale dobrze. No ale niestety im dalej, tym gorzej, a końcówka to w ogóle było jedno wielkie wtf, i didn’t get it?

[羽 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books that jump out at me on a hunch are usually interesting. This book is no exception, and is by far the best novel I have read in recent months.

The main character is Jackson, a gay man who is a mix of African and Japanese. At work, he learns that a pornographic video of someone who looks like him is circulating. He has no memory of when he was filmed. No, he think he has a faint memory of it.

By chance, Jackson meets three mixed gay men. The four, who have similar facial features, band together to find the source of the video. At the same time, they impersonate each other and play a little prank on each other. They have similar skin color, eyes and noses. They take small revenge on those who judge them by their appearance.

While it's a scintillating read, we are also reminded that the Jacksons are perceived as "one person" rather than four. Four people with different personalities and personal lives. But the only thing that people remember about them is that they are mixed men.

The story draws you in. The writing is refined and clear. The descriptions are straightforward, the conversations are sharp, and the expressions of feelings and subtleties of the heart when exposed to the gaze of others are very good.

This book is the debut novel of Jose Ando, himself a mix. I look forward to following this promising newcomer in the future.

[Amelie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK/Footnote Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

This novel was so promising to begin with. It opens with Jackson, a massage therapist for a sports company who, in his professional and personal life, experiences prejudice about his race and sexuality. He is shocked when his colleagues discover an explicit video featuring a man that looks very similar to him. In search of answers, he meets three other men of similar appearance, who are all also gay and mixed-race. Realising its exploitable potential, they plan to float between each other’s identities and thereby both find the culprit and seek revenge upon others that have wronged them.

At first, we are delivered exactly what we are promised, which is a biting commentary on being Black in modern Japan. Having the four perspectives meant getting an insight into their separate experiences and opinions, while their physical similarity parodies the racist assumption that ‘they all look the same’. Ando manages a level of distinct characterisation that is impressive for such a short novel. I also enjoyed the switching of points of view, which meant the reader got to see events and characters from both a personal and outsider’s perspective.

But, along the way, something went wrong. From around 75% through, I (and, judging from reviews, a lot of other readers) lost understanding of what was going on, or what it signified. What I felt was a novel rooted in reality descended into surrealism which failed to justify itself. As I finished reading, I was confused and unsure what I was meant to take from it. Had the pace of the beginning continued, though, this could be a near perfect novel—it’s just a shame that none of those ideas followed through.

[endrju]

This made no sense at all, I'm sorry to say. Which is a shame, as I requested it from Netgalley expecting something more along Yigit Karaahmet's Summerhouse (also published by Soho Crime). Thankfully, it was a rather quick read.

[lou´ · Rating 2 out of 5]

le principe de l'histoire donnait grave envie mais l'écriture est trop fouillie, j'étais perdue tout le long du livre :/ on se perd dans les personnages et dans l'intérêt de l'histoire

[Jamie Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated how weird this was and the use of doppelgängers to explore racial prejudice, identity and sexual autonomy. Ultimately I don’t think it came together in a satisfying conclusion and the final chapter seemed like a separate short story.

[Corinne’s Chapter Chatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one unfortunately didn’t have the impact I was hoping for. I genuinely think it may be a case of being somewhat lost in translation, and I found myself wishing I could read Japanese to experience the source material as it was originally intended.

While I loved the premise, there was a lot of setup with very little payoff. The story never fully comes together and then ends rather abruptly, which left me feeling unsatisfied.

That said, the audiobook narration by Pun Bandhu was excellent. He was engaging throughout and did a great job differentiating the characters. The book itself is also very short—just over three hours at 1x speed—so I finished it in about an hour and a half.

In the end, I still think this is worth reading. There’s the beginning of a compelling story here, and it does offer a glimpse into the racism experienced by mixed-race individuals within Japanese culture, which was one of the more meaningful aspects of the book.


I was fortunate to receive a complimentary ALC from RB Media via NetGalley, which gave me the opportunity to share my voluntary thoughts.

[Mark Kwesi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jackson Alone by Jose Ando is an intruiging queer neo-noir revenge novella. It hooked me with a strong start, then almost lost me with too many characters and side stories. In the end, I realized that this excess was the point, and that the turn is handled quite cleverly. I didn’t love every part and found it a bit uneven, but the finish earned my respect.

[Lindsay pinkcowlandreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into listening to Jackson alone, thinking that this was going to be a gruesome, revenge story and found it to be something little different.

Jackson is a massage therapist, but he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the office staff and clientele. He stands out for being mixed race, half Japanese and half African. This becomes a detriment when one of the clientele finds a violent pornographic film. It appears to be featuring Jackson…

Jackson has no memory of this occurring, but the person in the video looks exactly like him… But things start to turn around when he meets up with three other queer mixed race people who look eerily similar to him…

All four of them are not completely happy in their current life positions and decide to use this newfound found multiple identities to mix things up.

I found the idea and the premise to be quite unique, but I had hoped for a bit more resolution to the unsanctioned pornography and the fallout from Jackson’s office. Overall, I felt like I was left, feeling unsatisfied by the resolution of the story.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Pun Bandhu and enjoyed their reading voice. I do think this book would have done well to have additional male narrators for the additional doppelgängers just to create more distinction between the characters. I think Pun does a relatively decent job differentiating them, but with four characters in play, as an audio it became difficult to tell which character was speaking in turn.

[Delphine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5

Très agréable surprise. Un roman sur le racisme que subissent les métis noirs/asiatiques au Japon. Si on rajoute à métis et à noir le fait d'être un homme gay, et on a la totale en terme d'oppressions systématiques. L'auteur lui-même métis et probablement gay connaît son sujet.

Une demi-étoile perdue parce que j'ai pas du tout compris ce qu'il essayait de dire avec la scène finale. Elle est beaucoup trop courte et il s'y passe beaucoup trop de trucs pour arriver à démêler tout ce que l'auteur y a empaqueté.

Le seul point vraiment négatif, c'est qu'il n'y pas un seul personnage féminin dans tout le livre. Même pas un tout petit.

[Willemijn · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, you know how people talk about losing the plot? That's exactly what this book is.

I picked up Jackson Alone this afternoon and read it in one go. But, I didn't understand 90% of what I was reading. So, I re-read it this night and now I don't understand 60% of what I was reading. So, much better, but still not good...

The first time around, I couldn't figure out what was happening or why it was happening. The characters were incredibly confusing to me because they don't have distinctive individual voices. There are also a lot of strange (time) jumps that threw me off. I didn't understand anything.

The second time around, I started to get a better grip on the story. I was able to connect certain events to one another and it was easier to differentiate between the different characters. But by the gods, this book took a lot of brain juice to read!

This book was our book club pick. It's not something I would choose myself, but that's what's fun about being in a book club! Trying new things and expanding your point of view.

The concept of the book scared me, quite honestly. But I could see the potential of a thrilling and shocking story, so I was willing to give it a try. Unfortunately, I don't think this worked out that well. Just like other reviews on here say, there's a lot going on and it's like not everything fits together or makes sense. The blurb promised something different if you ask me.

I also couldn't connect to the characters, because they make the strangest choices. I didn't even feel bad for them when genuinely bad things happened to them?! That was a bizarre experience...

There are some hard-hitting quotes in here. Also quite a few honest paragraphs about racism and how it's basically everywhere. But once the book started getting somewhere with that, it got lost just as quickly.

I am glad that I reread it, but damn... What did I read? Curious to see what my book club thinks about this book.

[readbytasha]

i liked this! v short novel with a lot to say on being black(/mixed race) and queer in japan and the narrative shifts so seamlessly between the foursome. but it’s such a short book so the conclusion felt a bit rushed!! an enjoyable reading experience though!

[Phoebe · Rating 2 out of 5]

what a peculiar book. I was really into it at the start but it became so confusing and distracted, esp for such a short novel

[Lily Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gimmicky and I don’t really remember it now. I liked the idea, it sounded interesting, but it fell flat for me.

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a beguiling novella, that’s for sure. It managed to say a whole lot about racism, classism, cultural appropriation, the surveillance state, social power & status, celebrity, and queer identity in contemporary Japan, among other things. These sociological observations were abundant but subtle, presented as quotidian and the narrative didn’t remark on them. The whole concept of the story hinges on the interchangeability of Black men, even by those who lust for their bodies. Everything is presented to an almost exaggerated degree, and parts of this story are dark satire, but that is mixed with a detached naturalism that makes the whole thing hard to categorize. It certainly engendered reflection on the intersectionality of these issues and more, without ever once feeling didactic, self-righteous, or scolding. That made this is constantly intriguing and engaging read.

I say it is beguiling though because these observations are done in the midst of a threadbare narrative, which I suppose isn’t uncommon in farces or satires but contrasted with the detached, naturalistic tone much of the narrative adopted. We have an intimate third-person and yet there still feels like an observational distance, not because we don’t have access to the characters’ thoughts but because their emotional landscape is reserved and not as wildly expressive as parts of the story would imply they should be. There is some head-hopping, which is to say switching POV across characters within a single page without any clear narrative delineation, and it had an interesting effect here. Generally excessive head-hopping just feels like amateur writing, without the narrative clues to direct the reader to where they should be, but here it felt very intentional and it aligned with some of the themes of the story. These characters are individuals but they also are porous, confused for one another even by the narrator, seemingly, and it helped create a level of surreality and distance that set the tone for the story.

The nature of the story meant the characters didn’t feel particularly well-rounded, each had a distinct history but that was just kind of explained to the reader, we didn’t come to understand them through their emotional experiences, they didn’t have inner story arcs, and they almost felt disposable. This made sense for the story being told but it made it hard for me to care about any of them, much less try to follow the logic in the narrative action. It all lent to a detached, observational style that was more performative than inviting. The writing itself felt direct, with short, declarative sentences that almost felt clinical. This kept the story moving quickly and tended to highlight the absurdity of what was happening. It is smart for this to be novella length, because it can sustain its level of weirdness and ambiguity for that long without feeling stretched thin, but it does come at the expense of a meaningful or emotionally resonant plot. Instead it almost reads like a number of interconnected tableaus stitched together.

I definitely enjoyed reading this. It feels confident in its style and decisions, and does a great job of creating opportunity for reflection. I do wish there had been more substance to the characters, and I would have liked there to be either clearer inner journeys happening or a more robust narrative plot, something to hook my attention a little more concretely. It does read really quickly and will leave you scratching your head, if nothing else, as you think about race, identity, and power.

I want to thank the author, publisher, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

i mean... what even was this?

i knew it was going to be weird going in and that's not usually my genre, but the synopsis caught my eye so i figured i'd give it a chance.

but really like.. why?

i thought that it had a lot of good bones, good things were being set up: talking about what it's liked to be mixed race and queer in a largely homogenous society, surveillance on Black lives, the experience- good and bad- of coalitions of social groups. But to what end? I felt a lot of these themes were left unresolved in favor of composing the revenge narrative.

Where I thought this book excelled was in atmosphere. Everything is so tense and off-kilter. There's an neasy blurring of lines between imagination and reality. At first, Jackson tells the reader in no uncertain terms that he is not the man in the video, but then throughout the novel he gets weird sense memories of the event, like the feeling of the music ripping through him, or the familiarity with the hotel carpet. Ando also set up characters who are all distinct in the basic facts of their life, but somehow also become porous in each others' presence, as if they want to escape into each other. The "head-hopping" between each man, so to speak, is so fluid it's blink and you miss it.

All four men come together and break apart in ways that should be alarming, but which are smoothed over by the apathy of the writing style, which makes it all the more unsettling. Even though the narration is third person limited, the reader is shut out from more meaningful thought process that would form the basis of motivations or explanations. Why do they care about each other? Why are they really helping each other? Why are they so eager to transgress social norms wearing another's identity?

The answers to some of these questions (I felt) were left intentionally vague to amp up the eerie atmosphere, but when you have no answers at all, everything feels cheap.

Even though the whole book is a series of bizzare interludes, the ending in particular felt like an abrupt departure from the rest of the book. I knew from the general bent of the story that we were never going to get a satisfying conclusion that neatly explained everything, but the nonsensical nature of the final pages really made me question what the whole point of the bok even was.

However, I am more than willing to entertain the idea that this is a me problem, that it's I who just didn't understand. Reading the audiobook defintely got me through this fast and helped me avoid getting snagged on thorny passages. I feel like if I read this physically, I'd keep trying to go back and reread to wring meaning where there was none. On the other hand, I do acknowlege that because the audiobook kept ushering me on, I wasn't reading as closely as I could have. It's a balancing act. Things could have also been lost in translation, but who's to say.

I do want to give props to the audiobook narrator- Pun Bandhu so good at portraying this tone of ceaseless, dizzying apathy and disaffection. that when moments of clarity rip through it feels like a bucket of cold water tossed on you.

Given I'm not so sure that I got everything out of this book I could have, I'm very interested to see what other people are saying about it. I feel bad giving this a midling rating considering that the average rating is quite low. I suspect perhaps that a lot of people don't get it, so they rate it lowly. But what're ya gonna do, that was my experience with this book.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be a minority in any culture brings its own challenges. In a country such as Japan, as is sometimes parodied and in fact is here in one scene, known for both courtesy and priding itself in social unity as a tool of communal good, it causes a contradiction of interests for the majority. Four mixed-race black Japanese men have absorbed the subconscious to outright prejudices and awkward interactions their entire life differently. They're given a chance to see these variations and compare grievances after they're brought together by a shirt each mysteriously received. It's a key to a scandalous viral video featuring someone people believe to be each of them.

Hyped up with accumulated aggravation, chemical assistance, and comradery they devise a plan to strike back against those who have pushed their buttons for too long. In turns they take advantage of others' blindness and pretend to be each other to enact revenge on behalf of each other. The experience is cathartic if not a touch ironic given what brings them together. Looming in the background remains the disturbing video and its source of it.

I file “Jackson Alone” with a group of titles that are bursting with potential but absolutely fall apart for me. There are so many valid, important, points this book could be making. Is it a book about the dangers of AI, data collection, privacy, and the commodity that's made of black bodies and culture regardless of individuals? Is it a book about external, internalized, systematic, and even intraracism with its notes of colorism by some characters and regional prejudices? Is it about the evolution of social response to queer identities? Is it about discrimination and hypocrisy seen towards sex work? Is it about community and the assumed uniform opinions and reactions we expect a group to have? Is it about finding what defines you?

Yes and no to all of these. If the book's purpose was to bring this questions to the forefront of readers minds, yes this was a success. Because of how crucial these conversations are, I can't give it less than three stars.

However, as a contained narrative this was scrambling all over the place. While there was character evolution, I'm not sure I can call it progression or development, there was no follow through on any of these potential messages. I'm not even sure if it really handled the initial plot concerning the video. Combine that with a complete surrealist twist that just brings up its own set of questions and I ended this reading experience just baffled.

While I am incredibly grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to explore this story, it's been a while since I've been so conflicted on evaluating a book. I want to engage people in all of these discussions. To have them all in one place is beneficial. I enjoy being challenged and books that compel you to think. But it's hard to recommend it when I feel I've seen them individually addressed in other places that was a more fulfilling reading experience.

[Zaynab · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were a more granular- if I believed in quarter stars, this might be a 3.75. I really enjoyed it.

This is one of the most unique, interesting premises I have encountered. I was gripped from the opener, it delivers on the premise. I felt like I was fully in it with the characters, I actively wanted to keep reading all the time. It's a quick read, while there is a clear narrative, there is a lot of somewhat disparate scenes that ultimately contribute to the same conversation. Some of these scenes, or ideas could have lingered more, or been more developed. They also don't need to be. They accomplish what they want to do.

One thing I really appreciate about the story, is how every moment is, sort of underscoring it's point. There's a big final set piece that seemingly comes out of nowhere, but it does very much play with the same themes. And despite being a serious conversation, devoted to exploring it's themes of fetichism and othering, it's also a playful novel. It's a little tongue in cheek, a little quirky. It has that thing I love where it feels like modern mythology. It's a story that makes me want to sit down with people and recount the plot, just to hear it again. It's ultra realist, and ridiculous in a way that only seems to lend more truth to it, and I liked that.

On the translation: I cannot attest to the accuracy of it. Prose wise, it was the type of writing that left me with the feeling that either there is some quality, a casualness or simplicity to the writing in it's original language that the translator is trying to preserve in English. Or, it's possible that during the translation process, the most obvious, typical English words were chosen to the detriment of style. I think it's most likely a combination of both, it's tempting to me to blame the translator. One example is that I kept noticing early on that the book is full of filler words like 'really' and 'so', like it might say, the walk through the park is really long, when 'really' could easily be removed from the sentence, or a different adjective could be chosen. It's not the language is simple, because again if there's a conversation quality to the original, I think it makes sense to preserve that, it's that (the translation) is simple in a way that felt unintentional, and inelegant.

It bothered me until it didn't (once I got into the story I was in it). It's a short book so it didn't bother me for very long. The characters are both unique and believable, I was rooting for them. If this had been a more plotty book, with an over-focus on the mystery, it may have overstayed it's welcome. But it doesn't and isn't, it does exactly everything it needs to do.

[Pudsey Recommends · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jackson Alone is a short, blistering riot of a novel; unhinged, darkly funny, and sharply queer ( in the political sense ). Written by Akutagawa Prize–winning author Jose Ando and presented here in Kalau Almony’s confident, fluid translation, it marks Ando’s English-language debut and announces a singular new voice coming from Japanese literature.

The novel follows four Black Japanese gay men, Jackson, Jerin, Ikiru, and X, whose lives intersect after a violent BDSM pornographic video circulates online, featuring a man who looks uncannily like Jackson, a massage therapist at a corporate wellness firm. In a society quick to fetishise, surveil, and flatten mixed-race bodies, resemblance becomes a trap. Rumour, racism, and corporate paranoia spiral as none of the men can be reliably distinguished from the others by those who hold power over them.

What begins as a mischievous, buddy-comedy revenge plot: they start switching identities, playing tricks on bosses and lovers who have wronged them, it all slowly mutates into something far more disturbing. Ando delivers a whodunit that mixes satire, workplace politics, internet horror, and queer intimacy, shifting tones with dizzying speed. The result is savagely funny but also quite chilling, particularly when the characters come to realise that the system exploiting them is more dangerous than any individual villain.

Ando’s prose crackles with rhythm and irreverence, toggling between farce and fury and offersling a fresh, unsparing commentary on race, prejudice, queerness, fetishism, and visibility in contemporary Japan. As Ando himself has noted, “Japanese literature has rarely made space for diversity” without treating it as exceptional; Jackson Alone refuses that framing, insisting instead on multiplicity, anger, and agency.

Kalau Almony’s translation captures this volatility beautifully, preserving the novel’s humor, menace, and emotional bite. The audiobook narration by Pun Bandhu further sharpens its tonal shifts, giving each character a distinct presence while underscoring the novel’s central irony: how easily society collapses difference when it refuses to look closely.

Not a perfect book, but a thrillingly inventive one, Jackson Alone is luminous in its oddness and impossible to forget. I cant wait to see what else Ando produces.

Thanks to RBMedia, Recorded Books for the ALCK

#pudseyrecommends

[kilmosnaps · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

Is weird boy lit a category? I’m not sure how this came on my radar but this was a stunning English debut.

This seemed like a searing critique of contemporary Japanese culture and issues with race. This was giving me Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte and had modern 8MM vibes but I didn’t feel disgusted when I finished.

This was short, but intense and visceral. Read the book jacket and get absorbed. I want Ando’s other books to get translated.

“Why do you assume this was me, anyway?”
“I mean, it looks like you.” The captain’s response got a laugh.
“What about him looks like me?” Jackson said.
“The… way he looks.”
“The way he looks. Can you be more specific? Which parts exactly look like me?”

‘He had absolutely no memory of this. And that was why, strangely enough, he could watch the video as if through someone else’s eyes, and have the irresponsible reaction he did…’

“Some of us have bodies that can’t help but overreact, you know?”

‘This was the third man he’d hit in the park’

‘He wasn’t sure when this had become a habit of his period when he saw something that excited him, he wanted to touch it. If he couldn’t, his brain registered that as a sort of loss, and he’d begin filming in secret to compensate for the perceived privation.’

‘The Japanese necessary to explain the situation escaped Jerin, so he just shook his head silently.’

‘There was no need to discuss what step two was.
They all knew: Identify the criminal.’

‘When this happened, he would tell himself that it was a “necessary cost.” His memory of the carpet, though, was vivid, and that had been his proof that he was the person in the video. But now, as he spent more time as one of the four Jacksons, his sense that he was the one who did endured it, that sense that had weighed down on him so heavily, began to melt away.’

“Maybe it’s actually more logical for us to keep going for these little revenges instead of focussing on finding the one who did it…”

‘Each time Jerin had arrived in a new country because of his father‘s job, the meaning and value of his face, too, would change…’

‘Jackson tried to squeeze some anger out of his body, but the truth was there might not have been any to begin with.’

‘I just hate the way you try to make everything into a beautiful little story.’

[Nick Artrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I requested and received an eARC of Jackson Alone by Jose Ando via NetGalley. No one at the corporate offices of Athletius Japan knows much about the massage therapist, Jackson, but there's plenty of speculation. He used to be a model, he might be gays. He's mixed race, half-Japanese, half-black. Gossip surrounding him is further fueled by the sudden appearance of a violent, pornographic video featuring a man who looks a lot like Jackson. When Jackson meets three other queer mixed-race men who are also being targeted by the video, the group forms a plan to exact revenge.

I think the spirit of Jackson Alone is very strong. The story offers a really sharp criticism of racism, othering, and fetishization. It’s easy to be lured into rooting for Jackson and his collaborators, but they’re not written as saintly characters. They’re complex and prickly with their own set of hypocrisies; that doesn’t negate the physical and social violence they’re subjected to, but it does make them much more real, human. Reading about the act depicted in the video made me feel physically uncomfortable, I’m a little bit vanilla and squeamish, but that was a benefit of the reading experience for me. It strengthened my investment in the revenge plot!

The pacing and tension in this novel were both really well done. There was a sense of foreboding throughout the entire narrative that I found really compelling and thought it really spoke to some of the themes explored in Jackson Alone. Unfortunately, near the end of the novel I found myself having to reread several passages, attempting to wrap my mind around the turn the story had taken. It was disorienting, but then the entire book was a disorienting experience. It certainly made an impression. Overall, I enjoyed this novel and the commentary offered by Ando through his characters, but it will definitely be a book that I’ll be puzzling over for some time to come.

[tjthebooknerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

😏Looking for an engaging, quick read to get you ahead on your 2026 reading goal 😏

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

For an audiobook just over 2 hours this book packs a punch! Jackson Alone is by Jose Ando, a Akutagawa prize winning author (for his novel ‘Dtopia’).

Jackson, a mixed race masseuse in contemporary Japan, one day discovers a video of someone being sexually tortured and he has a sinking feeling that it may be him… Through a series of conicidences he meets other queer black men who work together to find out who’s responsible while also exacting revenge on those that have done them wrong (taking advantage of the fact that no one can seem to tell them apart…) Throughout this novel queerness, racism and identity is explored in the setting of modern day Japan.

I really like how everyday prejudice is explored not only through the victim but the perpetrator as well!

Some parts felt disjointed as you jumped to different POVs but it also added to the thrilling feeling, like that prickly feeling racing across your skin when something bad is going to happen!

I absolutely loved the narration by Pun Bandhu, with his deep, rhythmic voice that draws you in but adds an eerie atmosphere to the novel!

Jackson Hitori is Jose Ando’s debut novel (in Japanese) and now Jackson Alone (translated by Kalau Almony) is his first novel to be translated into English. Cannot wait for Dtopia to be translated to English! ♥️🏳️‍🌈

Thank you to Netgalley, Jose Ando and RB Media for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four Black Japanese, gay men are brought together when they are blackmailed with an explicit video. The video might be of one of them, it might be of someone completely different, but in a society that has decided they look the same, does it matter?

This book delves into the intersection of racism and homophobia, exploring the microaggression and abuse the four encounter constantly. As they grow closer in their search for answers about the video, they realize that if people can’t tell them apart, they can use that to pull pranks on the shitty people in their lives. As they start switching names and clothes, there are times when it becomes difficult to tell which character we’re actually following. POVs change mid-paragraph, and with a switch of a jacket, we realize that who we thought was one character was someone else the whole time.

There’s also moments when we slip into the POVs of some of the casually racist, abusive men that surround the four, and it’s pretty vile. It adds another layer of understanding to what the four deal with on a daily basis.

The ending is something else- I need more people to read this so I can get more people’s takes on it. This is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought it was fascinating. I can’t wait to read more from Jose Ando.

Thanks to netgalley and Soho Press for a free e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, thank you to Soho Press (Soho Crime) for granting my wish for the eARC! I was fascinated by the premise, and it didn't disappoint.

This is a tight little novella that starts, shockingly, with a crime - the release of a strange sex video, obviously without the participant's consent. But whose is it? When four mixed Black men come together after all receiving the same mysterious shirts with QR codes that link to that video on them, the mystery continues to deepen -- but also the examination about what it is to be mixed and Black and queer in a hugely homogeneous society.

I looked up Ando (who is also half Black and queer) and now that I know he was heavily inspired by Mieko Kawakami in his general writing life I can definitely see it. It's weird but not surreal and has something to say even with characters who may not necessarily be likable (but also, do they have to be? Eh). Each of the four men, despite being from somewhat similar backgrounds, are quite distinct in themselves as well even in this short book, and while I wouldn't really call the ending satisfying... I'm not the sort of reader that needs everything wrapped up or properly placed in boxes either. This was a book I looked forward to getting back to.

I hope Soho translates more of Ando's work, and you bet I'll be there hitting the request or wish button next time around too.

[Annie Tasaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75⭐️ Before I rate this, I want to say that some of my reviews might have to do with the translation. It felt incomplete and like something was missing to me, but also was intriguing and had a lot of potential. Some of it might have to do with some things being lost in translation.

This book starts with Jackson. Jackson is a gay man living in Japan. He is also of mixed race African-Japanese. He works as a massage therapist for a sports team. At work he learns that a disturbing pornographic video is circulating of someone who looks eerily like him. He has no recollection of it or no way to verify if it’s him. From here the book gets wilder. Jackson ends up meeting three other mixed race gay men who look like him and who also could be the victim in the video. If I’m honest it was confusing. When it ended I had to rewind and listen to the last chapter again and still it left me confused or wanting more. But I did enjoy what it said about race and queerness in Japan. How no one seemed to really see them as individuals.

Unique little book. I did enjoy Pun Bandhu’s narration. Thank you to NetGalley, RB Media and the author Jose Ando for the advanced listening copy. All my opinions are my own.

[Ale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fast-paced and compelling read, driven by an intriguing mystery and spiraling events that drag you, and often the characters, along. This momentum becomes an intriguing backdrop for the stress and constant scrutiny experienced by the four main characters. The themes explored, queerness race and subversiveness, are usually developed in slower, more introspective narratives, but I found it refreshing that here, despite being the whole reason for the plot, mixed it in with a heady investigation, they end up having a surprising sense of normalcy. These men stand out in the eyes of society, but it's not weird it's just a part of life, the narrative is too preoccupied with folding its own questions on themselves to linger on it.
Despite the brisk pacing, all characters, not only Jackson, are developed enough to feel distinct, and their relationships take shape quickly and effectively.
The only element that seemingly clashes with the otherwise well‑crafted structure is the ending, while it has its place, it does feel rushed and somewhat abrupt from a plot perspective, even if thematically it flows well as a culmination.
I thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC to review.

[iam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half of this novella about four queer mixed black men in Japan, three of who are targeted by some sort of revenge porn that the people are them assume is of them, when it is, in fact, not. They band together to find out who is targetting them, and how to deal with the aftermath, as well as come up with a plan to switch places to take revenge.
The narrative around queerness/homophobia and racism as well as identity and interchangeability was very interesting, and the way seamless jumps between the four characters really helped bring that point across.

The second half, however, lost me completely. The plot peters out even as the book goes on, and the last chapter was absolutely bewildering to me. A whole new plot with new themes comes up, just to immediately be torn apart, and before I could find any sort of foot in what's going on the book just ends.

Maybe the book is too literary for me, or maybe I struggle a bit with this being a translation, or maybe something else just went compltely over my head, but ultimately this left me vaguely unsettled and very confused.

I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

[Apoorva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating : 4 / 5

Jackson Alone explores the themes of being queer and a person of colour especially in a society with prejudices.

It is a story about Jackson, a person of Japanese-African ethnicity living in Tokyo, working as a massage therapist for a sports company. He keeps a private life and it is life of constant hurdles and combating discrimination. But it gets worse, when one day he falls victim to an online defamation video. While he is not the person in the video, his colleagues do associate him to it. Soon he comes to meet other folks who were people of colour and targeted in a similar manner.

Slowly, it becomes a story of seeking revenge and fraternity in times of hardship.

I did enjoy the book, especially the plot set-up. The Author/Translator use clever writing to keep the reader on edge. It is a short book and a fairly easy read. However, as much as I was hooked to the plot, I did find the ending rather abrupt. I think it might have been intentional though to let the reader fill in the gaps.

I do recommend it to folks looking for a dramatic quick read!

Thank you to the publisher for sending a copy!