Brief (Spoiler-Free!) Synopsis
“Tristan Strong Keeps Punching” by Kwame Mbalia sees protagonist Tristan Strong facing off against his archenemy, King Cotton, once and for all. Traveling up the Mississippi River, he encounters old friends and new foes in an effort to save his world from the forces of evil.
Content Warnings: Death (Major Character Death), Violence (PG-13)
What Do I Think?
Tristan Strong has been one of my favorite of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint (and that’s saying something!). For a start, Tristan’s voice is so strong (pardon the pun) and so genuinely present within every moment of the story – it’s impossible to escape his witticisms or sarcastic comments, which grounds you into the story right away. “Keeps Punching” continues to hold on to that strength, and Tristan’s voice feels all the more important as a result. In “Punches a Hole in the Sky”, Tristan’s voice was morose, oftentimes giving in to the grief he felt – here, sadness (while still present) has given way to anger, and Mbalia uses Tristan’s rage to symbolize the fury of all young black boys who see a world set against them.
In “Keeps Punching”, it very much feels as if the world has been set against Tristan. Old foes return to cause mayhem, his friends are in constant danger, and his powers seem to be working against him. The stakes could not be higher in this story, and it jumps from trial to trial with only a little breathing room in between. Mbalia’s worldbuilding continues to be a great strength of his, mixing in African American folk legends with West African mythology to highlight the devastation and terrible ordeals that many black families have suffered throughout American history. It sounds like something that should come across heavy-handed, yet Mbalia manages to strike a fine balance between history and fantasy.
Overall, “Keeps Punching” ends the Tristan Strong trilogy with a mighty bang. One can only dream of what phenomenal projects Kwame Mbalia might come up with next.
Jacob Ryckman 