Riot Son

Set during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests in a city which, though unnamed and unidentifiable, will nonetheless feel familiar to anyone who kept up with the events of that summer, the informative but detached latest from Fields (My Dear Watson) pairs Garrett, a genderqueer teenager recently emancipated from an evangelical cult, with 30-something Devon, a fiery journalist. Interspersed with factual sections on such topics as tear gas and PTSD, Garrett and Devon enter a relationship that is equal parts sexual and paternalistic, as well as partially illegal (Garrett turns 18 several weeks after they begin their affair). This age gap will turn off many readers, and it’s troubling that it’s never seriously addressed. It’s also difficult to see the characters’ connection, as their relationship remains fairly surface level throughout. In fact, there is a general lack of depth to all the characters, due partly to Fields’s focus on setting and the delivery of political information and cultural critique. As documentation of a specific time in history, this succeeds, but it holds little appeal as a love story. (July)