‘Get Out’ meets ‘The Stepford Wives’ in Nicola Yoon’s new thriller

When Jasmyn Williams moves her young family to the gated, Black utopia of Liberty, Calif., she thinks she can finally exhale.

But even though she’s surrounded by Black splendor and safety — where the home owners, the teachers, the police, even the Santas are Black — she struggles to fit in.

She expected to find social justice activists passionate about racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more interested in booking spa treatments than engaging with the world’s troubles.

It’s only when she discovers a secret about Liberty and its founders that the bigger, more sinister picture comes into focus. Will Black utopia become her personal dystopia?

New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon says it took years for the ideas in her new novel, “One of Our Kind” to marinate. But once she started writing, it only took her six weeks to write this satire about race and privilege.

On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Yoon joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to talk about what led her to write a book about finding the sinister in a Shangri-La. When does our natural bent to protect and enjoy become destructive? What is the true meaning of community?

And in case you missed it, at the end of their conversation, Yoon recommends three YA novels that are must-reads this summer. They are “The Impossible Us” by Sarah Lotz, “The Familiar” by Leigh Bardugo and Christina Lauren’s “The Paradise Problem.”

Guest:

• Nicola Yoon is a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including “Everything, Everything” and “The Sun is also a Star.” Her new novel is “One of Our Kind.”

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