I picked this one for the nostalgia. Late nineties, early two thousands, hip hop magazine world, what could be more fun? Instead, I got pulled into something a lot heavier than a summer read, and we're talking through all of it today.

"If I Ruled the World" follows Nikki Rose from a young staffer caught in an affair with a much older, married publisher, through years of microaggressions at a mainstream magazine, all the way to her own seat as Editor-in-Chief at Sugar. Along the way, she learns the hard way that getting promoted and getting protected are two very different things, and that naming what happened to you is sometimes the only way to finally move past it.

A quick note before you press play: this episode discusses s*xual as**ult in detail, since it's central to the book itself. Take care of yourself first.

I'm also breaking from our usual sound this episode, swapping my intro and outro for old school hip hop instrumentals to match the era we're talking about today.

Up next month: our first mystery thriller pick, "The Fervent Whites" by De'Shawn Charles Winslow.

Because the stories are Black, the voices are rich, and the plot always thickens. Like and Subscribe!

In this episode of The Ink is Black, host Tiffani Staten digs into Tolani Akinola's debut novel, Leave Your Mess at Home: a Nigerian-American family drama about four adult siblings, a decade of buried secrets, and one very consequential Thanksgiving. This episode contains full spoilers and discusses heavy themes including SA, emotional and physical abuse, and the sudden death of a loved one.

Tiffani explores each sibling's arc, the mother's obsession with appearances, and the quiet devastation of a father who stayed silent too long. At the center of it all is one word: compromise. And the question the book keeps asking is whether the peace we fight to keep is ever really worth the price.

Two girls. Same wound. Completely different fates. In Tayari Jones' Kin, it's not just motherlessness that shapes Niecy and Annie. It's what Honeysuckle, Louisiana decides each girl's loss is worth. This episode digs into respectability politics, the mothers who showed up flawed and anyway, and what it costs a community when it decides some girls don't deserve grace. Spoilers included. Trigger warning: unsafe abortion, pregnancy loss, childhood abandonment, and trauma. Next month: Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola.