"[A] nuanced, unsentimental portrait . . . [The characters] ring remarkably true." --Los Angeles Times

"A writer of exceptional gifts and grace." --Joyce Carol Oates

"Here [Susan Straight] has again reached into the hearts and hurts of her Rio Seco people and walked with sureness and tenderness on the land they inhabit. Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights is a beautifully told, smoldering book that says that survival with dignity shines brighter than the California sun." --Shelby Hearon, Chicago Tribune

"This is a triumph, a portrait of a young black man trying to find his way that ends not in prison, drug dealing, or death, but with small moments of affirmation and the acceptance of responsibility that are a tribute to his will and intelligence. It counters all stereotypes about black men that are prevalent in contemporary writing." --David Nicholson, The Washington Post

"A lyrical and intelligent storyteller, [Susan Straight] burns clean the forbidding barriers of culture and race that blind people to one another." --People