Atlanta YA author Nic Stone unspools a seductive erotic thriller with her first adult novel, the thumping, throbbing “Boom Town.”
Following three Atlanta sex workers — Damaris “Charm” Wilburn, Michah “Lyriq” Johanssen and Felice “Lucky” Carothers — the novel explores how these women juggle their health, relationships, customers, traumas and secrets while dancing in the city’s premier gentlemen’s club. With more twists and turns than a dancer sliding down a pole, the novel revolves around two women who go missing, leaving the reader and Lyriq sleuthing after their whereabouts.
Set in the Black Mecca of Atlanta, capital of strip club culture, local charm oozes off the pages, from club culture’s role in hip-hop, to WSB reporters and drool-inducing lemon pepper wings. But beyond Atlanta, “Boom Town” reflects a broader cultural reset in which strip clubs and the women who dance in them ascend to a central seat in American discourse.
Long floating in the periphery of polite conversations, strip clubs have straddled the line between infamy and acclaim. From “P Valley” on Starz, the Jennifer Lopez film “Hustlers” and Cardi B’s origin story to the new STARZ docuseries “Magic City: An American Fantasy,” strip clubs have strutted from the underground economy into the daylight. The profession that has seeded Black culture since Maya Angelou danced is now getting its due.
This shift in social status flows through “Boom Town,” which portrays the strip club as the city’s nucleus of desire, art, power and commerce. From the dancers’ perspective, the club is both a site of gratification and empowerment as well as a dungeon of predation and exploitation — all depending on the night, all depending on the customer.
Credit: Nic Stone
Credit: Nic Stone
Characteristic of her writing style, Stone renders the strip club as both dangerous and delectable, terrifying and tempting, a place where dancers provide “a form of debauched psychotherapy” for clients.
As Lyriq begins her search for the missing dancers Lucky, her lover, and Charm, her protégé, the novel unfolds like the fair play mysteries of old, brimming with teasing clues and mysterious characters. Leads abound: flip phones, business cards, a Bible, a strange coffee shop, missing cash and an ominous journal. Why it takes Lyriq over a year to start looking for Lucky is as big a question as her whereabouts.
“Why hadn’t I reached out to make sure she was good?” asks Lyriq in a fit of guilt. “Why had I shut out the woman who would have done anything for me … what the hell was wrong with me?”
These are questions not only for Lyriq but also for the reader and this country. Why does America abandon Black women — the people who nurture us the most — when they go missing? This prompt hits like a ton of bricks and suggests a sad conclusion: In real life, those who do the most for us garner the least concern, particularly when they no longer provide value. This is a contradiction that Lyriq seeks to resolve as she dives into a life-threatening investigation of what happened to Lucky and Charm.
The plot weaves back and forth through time, toggling between characters and points of view into a narrative call and response. It is a non-linear whodunit, where each clue from the previous chapter cues a flashback in the next chapter as the reader travels back to the moment when the item in question was just an object on a table and not yet a piece of evidence in the mystery. The first half of “Boom Town” is something of a slow burn as clues unfold and tease and taunt the reader. But as it goes on, the disparate threads come together in a delectable third act that is as delightful as it is curious.
The novel’s commentary on the mistreatment of women is timely, as many scenes echo testimonies from the all too familiar court cases of powerful men behaving badly. An array of sex workers flutters through these pages, recounting harrowing tales of abuse and assault. Stone offers an unflinching exploration of the darker side of the sex industry, looking at the pain endured by women in the grasp of powerful men.
But far from a morality play, “Boom Town” is populated by Black women who play dynamic roles, not only as victims but also as perpetrators. They are not only striving working-class individuals but also well-to-do elites. There are Black women committing shocking betrayals upon sex crime victims and Black women enjoying wealth and privilege, such as the character Stone skewers by quipping, “Sis done moved out here to the burbs and morphed from Katrina to Karen.” In “Boom Town,” Black women are not merely receptacles for pain but perpetrators of pain, as well as each other’s ultimate saviors. The dynamism of Stone’s characters makes it difficult to put them into a box and interesting to struggle with, be ashamed of and root for.
“Boom Town” is an Atlanta narrative through and through, whisking us on a riveting jaunt across Georgia’s red clay, down I-85 and up to Lake Lanier as we lace up our black Air Force Ones and prepare for battle. Readers will be dazzled as Stone balances her exploration of the local terrain with commentary on race, gender, sexuality and class in a tone calling to mind the best of FX’s “Atlanta,” which similarly blended the grandiose and gritty. At turns humorous, harrowing and heartbreaking, “Boom Town” is a complicated and captivating tale of subjugation, sex and — above all — suspense.
FICTION
“Boom Town”
by Nic Stone
Simon & Schuster
288 pages, $28
AUTHOR EVENT
Nic Stone. 44th and 3rd Bookseller presents Nic Stone in conversation with author Kimberly Jones 7 p.m. Oct. 14. For ages 18 and up. Free-$34.76, including book. Auburn Avenue Research Library, 101 Auburn Ave., Atlanta. 678-692-6519, 44thand3rdbookseller.com
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
