Overview

It was a truth universally acknowledged that if you lived in The Ghetto in Brooklyn, you had roaches. Unicorns Don't Come to Black People is a brilliant collection of urbanized fairy tales from All Roaches Go to Heaven" to "Blackless" Ms. Spears' stories repurpose the old to express the realities and brutalities of ghetto life. The themes of language, duality, and hope weave their way through each narrative like a golden thread, leading the reader through the precious yet perilous lives of inner city children. There are deep betrayals and horrible scars that compete with laughter and love in each of the stories. The love/hate relationship with the ghetto, the foundation and crucible of each tale, is apparent. There are terrible battles, as there are in all fairy tales, between good and evil, hope and despair. These are never entirely lost or won but must be left to the future to decide.