L.A. Fields
In an unnamed American city during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, two people meet in a cloud of tear gas, and experience love in the time of COVID-19.
Devon Amis is a thirty-something Texan and journalist dealing with the emotional fallout of a recent breakup and previous war correspondence. Garrett Robertson is a homeless genderqueer teen and freelance reporter newly emancipated from a cult religious upbringing. They and their fellow freedom fighters (lawyers, medics, and activists) experience right-wing violence, police brutality, autonomous zones, federal crackdowns, and murderous vehicular attacks — all of which combust in one life-altering conflagration on the Fourth of July.
Riot Son weaves real-life news events from one turbulent summer with a romance for the ages.
Riot Son
Paperback, 232 pages
Cover and interior design by Ryan Vance"Riot Son represents a departure for L.A. Fields: not just a novel, the author moves deftly between the story of unlikely lovers Devon and Garrett and a sort of guide to 2020, complete with masks, rioting, and handy primers on how fascism and trauma work. Unapologetically political and provocative, Riot Son is both an unconventional love story and a gritty snapshot of America in one of its many times of crisis. As always, Fields takes her characters seriously no matter who they are, and it is this depth and complexity that will keep readers turning the pages of Riot Son as quickly as any of her previous works." -Katharine Stevenson, PhD
"Provocative, timely, and insightful. I found myself riveted from the start, eager to see where the summer of 2020 would take Devon, Garrett, and the makeshift family of social warriors they form along the way. With Riot Son, Fields has given us a masterfully written gem of a novel. - Eugene Cross, Fires of Our Choosing
"Riot Son is both encyclopedia and intimate, fictional and factual, love story and riot story. It is a sumptuous urgent read, and L.A. Fields is a master of her material, and better yet a master of what matters." - Keith Banner, Next to Nothing
"Riot Son is a tender and tumultuous May-September romance which ignites during a series of riots in the summer of 2020. Protestors Devon and Garrett explore their sexualities, how much of themselves they're willing to give to the cause, and who they want to become while ducking tear gas canisters in the sultry sun." - Erik Rebain, Arrested Adolescence
"Riot Son encapsulates the warlike atmosphere of the Black Lives Matter protests and the high anxiety, high stakes of fragile, young love." - Jill Mceldowney, Otherlight