Names Like Prayers
When seventeen-year-old Malik Rios dies at Black Hollow youth facility, the official story is tragedy. The truth is worse.
His brother Desmond testified before Congress and waited for justice. Now he has the files, the funding trail, the emails, and the footage of children restrained in chairs too big for their bodies. He has enough to burn it all down.
Mama E stitches the names of the dead into cloth and leads marches on knees that ache. Her ledger of the lost is almost full.
Tariq, Malik's best friend, carries an old recorder that still plays a voice that should be gone.
They can stay silent, or they can say the names.
For readers of Jesmyn Ward and Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys.
Content Note
Contains depictions of institutional abuse, mental health crises, and the death of minors.
Featured Review
“A hopeful story of the human condition that chooses morality under difficult circumstances.”
— Reedsy Discovery
Listen to Chapter One
Hear the opening chapter of Names Like Prayers, narrated in Gene Scott’s own voice.
Gene Scott's audiobooks are narrated using a licensed digital model of the author's own voice, created from his recordings and approved by him for each production.
