harpercollins

A revelatory look at one of America's most progressive cities--Minneapolis--as journalist Justin Ellis returns to his hometown to grapple with the quiet history of white supremacy in the wake of George Floyd's murder, uncover his family's story of surviving "Minnesota nice," and revisit the city years later as state violence again forces the question of what a real reckoning looks like. It's the "North," they like to say, not the Midwest. It's dif­ferent. Minneapolis is a city for everyone. But in 2020, George Floyd's murder by the city's police left many Americans stunned and wondering, "How could this hap­pen in Minneapolis?" To Ellis, the real question is: What made people think it couldn't?The Minneapolis Justin Ellis grew up in is not the idealistic metropolis it claims to be. The "City of Lakes" was built on discrimination-- in its housing, its schools, its politics--much like all other American cities. Black families were systematically cut out of the prosperous neighbor

It’s not in my nature to beg, but I’ll stay on my knees until I feel that flame sputter out.And then …I’ll rip the world to shreds.I’ve tumbled into a darkness so deep it’s hard to see the light, my petals curling inward as I tip my face from the sun. Hide from my monstrous actions.Traitor. Murderer.High Mistress.My mistakes hunt me down, and I’m pulled into a political tug-of-war, balancing Ocruth’s welfare on the edge of a bloody blade. The moon is swelling, the weight on my shoulders compacting, and my unfailing curiosity keeps weaving its roots in the wrong direction.Horrible truths unravel, casting explosive light on everything I thought I knew. I’ll have no choice but to shed my morals, my withering self-preservation, and sow the seed of a plan set to bloom beneath a bloated moon.One wrong move could destroy everything.Destroy me.Lines will blur, blood will spill, and I’ll learn how fragile I really am—at a cost far greater than I could have imagined.Fate is a ravenous beast, and