Nic Stone’s leap from young adult literature to adult fiction arrives with considerable force in Boom Town, a psychological thriller that explores power, agency, and survival within Atlanta’s exotic dancing community. While the novel demonstrates Stone’s evolving narrative sophistication and fearless approach to complex subject matter, it occasionally struggles under the weight of its ambitious premise and fragmented structure.
A Daring Departure for Stone
Best known for her powerful young adult novels like Dear Martin, Stone ventures into uncharted territory with her first adult work. The transition feels both natural and jarring—natural because Stone has always tackled difficult social issues with unflinching honesty, jarring because the adult thriller space demands different pacing and psychological depth than her previous work.
The novel centers on Lyriq (Micah Michelle Johanssen), a former headliner at Boom Town strip club who becomes increasingly concerned when two dancers—Damaris “Charm” Wilburn and her former partner Felice “Lucky” Carothers—disappear under suspicious circumstances. What begins as a missing persons mystery evolves into a labyrinthine exploration of power dynamics, sexual exploitation, and institutional corruption.
Narrative Structure: Ambitious but Uneven
Stone employs a multi-perspective narrative that shifts between present-day action and journal entries from the missing women. This structure creates an intimate portrait of each character while gradually revealing the web of connections binding them together. The journal format, particularly Lucky’s entries, allows Stone to explore the psychological complexity of women in sex work without sensationalizing their experiences.
However, the ambitious structure occasionally works against the novel’s momentum. The timeline jumps can feel disorienting, and some perspective shifts interrupt rather than enhance the building tension. The pacing suffers when Stone lingers too long on certain revelations while rushing through others that deserve more exploration.
Character Development: A Mixed Portrait
Lyriq emerges as Stone’s most complex protagonist to date—a cancer survivor navigating her role as dance manager while investigating her friends’ disappearances. Stone captures her internal contradictions beautifully: Lyriq’s protective instincts war with her survival instincts, creating genuine moral complexity. Her relationship with the club’s culture feels authentic, avoiding both romanticization and condemnation of sex work.
The antagonist, Thomas McIntyre, represents Stone’s most pointed critique of privileged masculinity. A wealthy white businessman who secretly co-owns Boom Town, Thomas embodies the insidious nature of systemic abuse. While his characterization sometimes veers toward caricature, Stone generally manages to keep him grounded in recognizable patterns of predatory behavior.
The supporting cast varies in effectiveness. Bones, the club’s ostensible owner, provides necessary tension but feels underdeveloped. The missing women, Lucky and Charm, come alive through their journal entries, though their voices occasionally blur together despite Stone’s efforts to differentiate them.
Writing Style: Evolution and Growing Pains
Stone’s prose has evolved considerably from her young adult work, incorporating more sophisticated psychological insight and mature thematic content. Her dialogue crackles with authenticity, particularly in scenes set within Boom Town. She captures the rhythms of Atlanta’s Black community with precision, using AAVE naturally rather than performatively.
The author’s background in educational content creation serves her well when explaining the mechanics of strip club culture without resorting to male gaze objectification. Stone treats her subject matter with respect while maintaining the thriller’s necessary edge.
However, some passages reveal the growing pains of transitioning to adult fiction. Certain explanatory passages feel overly didactic, as if Stone hasn’t fully trusted her adult audience to grasp subtleties that she previously spelled out for younger readers. The novel occasionally suffers from information dumps that slow the narrative’s natural flow.
Thematic Depth: Feminist Thriller with Substance
Where Boom Town truly succeeds is in its feminist reimagining of the thriller genre. Stone refuses to treat her female characters as victims or objects, instead presenting them as complex individuals making difficult choices within constrained circumstances. The novel explores how economic necessity, personal agency, and systemic oppression intersect in ways that complicate simple moral judgments.
The exploration of Atlanta’s underground economy feels particularly relevant, connecting to broader conversations about labor rights, sexual autonomy, and economic inequality. Stone doesn’t offer easy answers but asks important questions about who deserves protection and who gets to make choices about their own bodies.
Technical Elements: Solid Craft with Room for Growth
Stone demonstrates strong plotting instincts, seeding clues throughout the narrative that pay off satisfyingly in the novel’s climax. The mystery elements work well, though genre thriller fans might find the pacing occasionally uneven compared to more conventional thrillers.
The Atlanta setting feels vivid and lived-in, with Stone’s local knowledge adding authenticity to everything from neighborhood dynamics to club culture. Her research into the exotic dancing industry shows in the realistic details about working conditions, safety concerns, and internal hierarchies.
Cultural Impact and Representation
Boom Town represents important progress in thriller fiction’s representation of Black women’s experiences. Stone centers her Black female characters’ agency while acknowledging the real dangers they face, avoiding both victimization narratives and unrealistic empowerment fantasies.
The novel’s treatment of sex work deserves particular praise for its nuanced approach. Stone neither condemns nor idealizes the industry, instead focusing on the individual women’s experiences within it. This perspective feels especially valuable in contemporary conversations about labor rights and bodily autonomy.
Areas for Improvement
The novel’s ambitions occasionally exceed its execution. Some plot threads feel underdeveloped, particularly the investigation elements that should drive the thriller’s momentum. The revelation of Thomas’s ownership stake in Boom Town, while thematically important, comes too late to generate maximum impact.
Certain character motivations could use clearer development, particularly regarding the complex relationships between the dancers. Stone’s commitment to showing rather than telling sometimes leaves crucial emotional beats underexplored.
Comparison to Similar Works
Boom Town shares DNA with other female-centered thrillers like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Attica Locke’s The Cutting Season, though it lacks the former’s psychological precision and the latter’s historical depth. The novel’s closest comparison might be Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay, another work that uses crime fiction to explore systemic inequalities.
Within Stone’s own bibliography, the novel represents a clear evolution from her young adult work while maintaining her commitment to social justice themes. Readers of Dear Martin will recognize Stone’s moral seriousness, though they should expect a much darker and more complex narrative landscape.
Recommended Similar Reads
Attica Locke’s Bluebird, Bluebird – Another thriller exploring Southern Black communities with similar attention to systemic issues
Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay – Crime fiction that centers racial and economic dynamics with comparable thematic depth
S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears – Southern noir with authentic character voices and social consciousness
Tana French’s In the Woods – Psychological thriller with complex character development and atmospheric writing
Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series – Classic crime fiction featuring Black protagonists navigating institutional corruption
Final Verdict
Boom Town succeeds more often than it stumbles, representing a promising evolution in Stone’s artistic development. While the novel doesn’t fully achieve the seamless integration of social commentary and thriller mechanics that define the genre’s best works, it offers enough compelling characters, authentic cultural detail, and important thematic content to satisfy readers seeking substance alongside suspense.
Stone’s willingness to tackle difficult subject matter with nuance and respect positions her well for future adult fiction endeavors. Despite its structural imperfections, Boom Town establishes Stone as a thriller writer worth watching, particularly for readers interested in diverse voices bringing fresh perspectives to familiar genre conventions.
The novel works best for readers who appreciate character-driven mysteries with strong social consciousness. Those seeking fast-paced action or straightforward procedural elements might find the pacing occasionally frustrating, but patient readers will discover a thoughtful exploration of power, survival, and solidarity that lingers long after the final page.