THE BATTLE

In Johnson’s novel, a grandmother and granddaughter with extrasensory perception try to protect themselves and other “changing ones.”

This speculative story, set mostly in Baltimore, follows Linda Russell, a Black woman whose evolving powers of ESP draw her into a quiet but intense struggle. She works as an analyst at the private research initiative Genesis alongside John Bates, with whom she’s in a relationship, where she works to understand what’s happening to gifted people like herself. Her teenage granddaughter, Celeste, who’s calm and perceptive, becomes the focus of her growing concern, as the child has “the ability to sense when the body or mind is in distress due to illness, pain, or fear.” The government shuts down an organization called Health Services Inc. after discovering that it had been targeting minorities like Celeste through genetic testing and unethical procedures. Meanwhile, a U.S. senator considers holding a public symposium for people with similar sensitivities, and Celeste is bullied at school. Linda’s relationship with Reggie, an older gym worker whom she instinctively trusts without knowing why, takes on new weight when she learns he, too, has unusual sensory abilities. As Linda and Celeste’s network of allies grows to include former intelligence officers and medical professionals, Genesis continues to collect data—and the government is watching. Johnson tells this story in short, episodic chapters, rarely more than five pages in length, which keeps the narrative moving at a nice clip—and with a slow accumulation of dread. Some of the dialogue leans a bit too heavily on small talk, with the hellos and how-are-yous of ordinary conversation cluttering up exchanges more often than not, but the interactions still effectively carry emotional weight. The novel treads some of the same thematic ground as Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel, Parable of the Sower, as well as Marvel Comics’ X-Men stories, particularly in its interest in social fear and the difficulties that face gifted outsiders. However, Johnson also focuses on other distinct concerns—privacy, family, medical consent—as the story builds steadily toward a tense and fast-moving final third.

A thoughtful and suspenseful tale draws upon past and contemporary fears with aplomb.