Summary

First-person narration describes central character Riley, a young black man who wears blue contact lenses, bleaches his hair blond, likes black women, is not gay, and who likes cosplay and comic book conventions. That narration also comments on itself, describing the reasons why it (the narration) seems self-aware and “meta … if there is something meta in this narrator’s consciousness and self-consciousness or this overindulgent aside, it isn’t meta for the sake of being meta; this narrator’s consciousness is just letting you know about said consciousness up front, like a raised black fist” (2). Back in the narrative, Riley (who is dressed like an anime character at the request of his girlfriend) is on his way to a comic convention when he is grabbed by the cigarette-stained hands of Brotha...