Reviews
“Time-travel back to the mid-1800s — for a contemporary school project on the lives of slave women. … Come again?
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Don’t let the premise throw you. The Unexpected, by Helen Collier, sneaks up on the reader in the way that thoughtful science fiction does. It takes you out of your reality and puts you in someone else’s. This book serves up a dose of fantasy and magical realism that delivers hard truths about racism and the legacy of slavery in a digestible manner... READ FULL ARTICLE
An unflinching fable about slavery and race by Margaret Viggiani April 2020
“Helen Collier’s novel The Unexpected describes the atrocities endured by black female slaves in the eighteenth century. Collier’s cleverness with magical realism presents Meow the Catfish, who helps a white student named Dawn to get the real evidence she needs to give an oral report of the female slave. Meow and Dawn travel back two-hundred years where Dawn meets May Bee and her babies. A terrifying saga about the enslaved female told from a perspective of stories told down through generations of female ancestors.”
Margaret S. Barrie, Published Poet and member of the African-American Writers’ Alliance in Seattle, Washington
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“I laughed, and I cried. However, I couldn’t stop turning pages until the very end, and even then, I wanted more.”
Reverend Susie Brantley, Temple Georgia
“The author’s book, The Promise Keeper, found me open to receive and learn from the many lessons of life she brings to the reader.”
Bishop M. Gallaher
“Helen Collier weaves science fiction and social reality into one hell of a story. Her heroine, Ms. Anna, takes us to worlds beyond our planet, moving readers toward an understanding of how race hatred and violence can destroy that which we love if we cannot find a way to live in solidarity.”
Guerry Hoddersen, author of One Hemisphere, Indivisible Permanent Revolution, and Neoliberalism in the Americas
“Helen Collier has created a metaphor for the many challenges that people face as individuals and in relationships with friends, families and communities …”
Susan Seykato Smith, Editor, August 2015
