Urbanize editor pens ‘wickedly funny’ Atlanta gentrification novel

Josh Green

Tue, 06/03/2025 – 15:22

Of course, right?

Inspired by more than a decade of covering Atlanta real estate development, neighborhoods from West End to Oakhurst, and actual local mishaps involving escaped reptiles, Goodbye, Sweetberry Park is the second novel and third fiction book from Urbanize Atlanta editor Josh Green.

Work on the book—with a tongue-in-cheek subtitle “A Novel of City Life, Creeping Gentrification and Flesh-eating Snakes”—began back in the days of Curbed Atlanta (RIP). The story very much carries the spirit of that popular city website.

Green, the founding editor of Urbanize’s second city site to launch, studied creative writing (along with journalism) in college and graduate school. His first novel Secrets of Ash (2023) was nominated for Georgia Book of the Year, earned runner-up honors at the Hollywood Book Festival, and won an international competition, the IndieReader Discovery Awards for Literary Fiction, among other accolades.

The Sager Group; cover design, Siori Kitajima

Beneath its dark-comedy surface, Goodbye, Sweetberry Park is about the power of a diverse neighborhood coming together—in the face of a sweltering summer, a zoo fiasco, and gentrification pressures from invasive, shady real estate professionals who might sound quite familiar to Atlanta development watchers.

In recent weeks, the book has been the subject of coverage in Atlanta Business Chronicle, a WABE radio news segment, the Serene Stories podcast, and book club features, with more on the way. Its Amazon and Goodreads ratings are both 4.9 of 5 stars to date.

Here’s a sampling of what critics and other outlets are saying:

“The issues Green’s tale touches upon—housing, race, migration, grief, and the changing face of cities—are familiar all over… [It’s a] big-hearted consideration of gentrification and the erosion of time.” —Kirkus Reviews (verdict: “GET IT”)

“There’s no shortage of drama in this fast-paced, comic thriller full of snappy dialogue and big, colorful characters.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Wickedly funny.” —Gwinnett Daily Post

“What happens when you mix together Atlanta gentrification, escaped venomous snakes, and a drunk narrator nicknamed God? Anarchy that borders on being a little too real.” —Atlanta magazine Q&A