Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston: Review by Sean Dowie
Archangels of Funk, Andrea Hairston (Tordotcom 978-1-25080-728-1, $29.99, 384pp, hc) July 2024.
Andrea Hairston’s Archangels of Funk forced me to rewire my brain chemistry. The book contains a stew of dense but rewarding elements as people, dogs, spirits, and bots dot a literary canvas unlike anything I’ve read. It’s a cozy dystopia that demands attention, demands that you think on its wavelength. The book largely contains good but flawed characters doing their best as they honor the past, live in the present, and build a better future. That multiplicity isn’t just in its themes but in the way it jumps from descriptions of bots to spirits, two elements not usually connected in the genre. The novel is not harnessed to any expectations of dystopias and flows on its own course. Elements are seemingly inspired by a diversity of cultures, but Archangels of Funk is a singular concoction.
After the Water Wars have wracked the world both environmentally and sociologically, Cinnamon helps humanity survive and maybe even flourish. She’s aided in creating a nook of society where education, companionship, and play reign. One cornerstone of that is the yearly Next World Festival. It’s a carnival featuring music, theatre, and revelry. It’s almost the time of year for it to begin again. With the help of her friends, pets, and ancestors, Cinnamon must reckon with her past, stop interlopers from wrecking her festival, and help those close to her in the condensed time frame the novel takes place.
I couldn’t quite find a foothold in the first 10% of the novel. I experienced the rhythmic dialogue and lyrical prose, introducing myself to terms one more imaginative than the next, but only flirted with a grounding. Then, something clicked, and I no longer just admired the prose from afar. I fully inhabited the story. I was no longer adrift. The coziness enwrapped me, the creativity swept me in, and the story propelled me.
Archangels of Funk is made up of short chapters, jumping back and forth between a handful of different characters. Cinnamon is the most prominent character, but the book moves to other people, two uniquely characterized dogs, and circus bots. Hairston does a masterful job of giving each character their own voice.
In lesser hands, this approach might seem scattered, but Hairston wisely makes the festival the magnetic center holding things together. Biking is a prominent part of the story, so it’s appropriate the plot structure feels like a wheel. The characters are the spokes, diverging and going on their adventures, but are held together by the hub that is the festival. While the story doesn’t move in a straight line, there’s momentum. Layered and vibrant dialogue thrusts the narrative to life. So does the worldbuilding. Each tidbit of information made me hungry for more, as I followed the story like a trail of breadcrumbs.
Sometimes lyrical passages in the later chapters Archangels of Funk went on too long. There were also a few chapters seemingly meant to be amusing divergences that felt like filler. That feeling was present in the final parts of the book, because the novel started overstaying its welcome. The story certainly deserved to be chunky because the unique ideas deserve exploration to ground readers in its world, but I don’t think it needed to be this long.
I’ve never read anything remotely like Archangels of Funk. It’s an ambitious novel, and Hairston has the craft to make it work. Go in expecting a demanding experience, but your attention will be rewarded. I came out of the experience with a good taste in my mouth – one I’ve never felt before and hope to again.
-Sean Dowie
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Sean Dowie is a writer and editor living in Toronto, Canada. He’s an Assistant Editor at Augur Magazine, contributor at the fanzine Nerds of a Feather, and is on FIYAH Literary Magazine’s book reviewing team. When not obsessing over literary activities, he’s usually directing short films.
This review and more like it in the August 2024 issue of Locus.
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