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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The Black Girl Survives in This One by Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans
4 reviews
betweentheshelves's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I'm usually pretty meh about YA anthologies (because for the most part, I don't think teens are drawn to them), but horror lends itself well to short stories! This was a pretty good mix of stories, with a lot of the authors taking tropes that we know from horror and adding their own spin on them. Definitely would be a great anthology to read during spooky season!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Death
elliott_the_clementine's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Rarely do you get an anthology where every story is distinct, important, and extremely good - The Black Girl Survives in This One is that anthology. A fantastic book that stands out among short story collections and horror/fantasy/sci-fi novels. Excellent!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Body horror, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Car accident
justinekorson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Thank you To Netgalley for giving me an Arc of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
Whenever I read anthologies, I try to talk about the book as a whole and also touch on each individual story. Overall I enjoyed most of these stories. I think with a lot of anthologies I've read there are some that get me and some that don't. Since I anticipated this being more of a horror story, I expected many of these to frighten me. I think there was only one or two that actually scared me though unfortunately. Most just fell a bit flat or didn't have any scare factor for me at all. Other people might feel different about this stories though. Here's my thoughts on all of them!
1.Harvesters: This one was genuinely really creepy. It reminded me of In the Tall Grass a little bit (except it was corn in this story). I think it mainly scared me because while the Black girl does survive in the end (as the title implies) her actual fate after the story ends was... iffy. She didn't actually escape the creature chasing her like she thought and I think that itself was horrifying to me that she realized this too late.
2.Welcome Back to The Cosmos: Any story about space is going to fucking terrify me and just like in the first story (Harvesters) the idea that someone can shapeshift into someone you know and take their place... is horrifying. As with the first one, she didn't realize something was wrong UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE. It's very creepy and stressful TBH.
3.Ghost Light: I love a good ghost story but... this wasn't that good. As a fellow theatre kid who performed shows in a "haunted theatre" (does every theatre group try to scare the new freshman with a story like this?) I thought I'd really enjoy this. It felt a little rushed though (understandable since it's meant to be a short story) but I felt like this could have been a good idea for a full length novel and not something short like this.
4.The Brides of Devil's Bayou: This was an interesting story with the generational abductions that kept happening in her family but it wasn't really scary to me. The dreams she was having were scary though but overall I wasn't very moved by this.
5.TMI: This story was just... confusing ??? I say confusing because I didn't understand what I was supposed to be scared about. I'm sure there were downsides to this flip phone that would help you read peoples minds but since the characters were so vague about particulars I didn't feel the sense of urgency that other characters were having in previous stories. The ending was also very abrupt.
6. Black Pride: Another story that wasn't scary but I really, really enjoyed it. Iv'e always been a fan of were-shifts. The twist for this story was really fun! I didn't expect it to be ALL of her friends but that made it better. I also liked how it took place in a different era than the other stories. The visuals were really on point for this one.
7. The Screamers: This one was kind of... cheesy. It was another ghost possession story but instead of being scared for the characters I just thought it was a little funny how the haunting was being presented. I did like the characterization though of Amani's relationship with her brother and her guilt over what happened. The portrayal of grief in this story was the best aspect of it.
8. Queeniums for Geranium: Honestly.... I did not like this one. The way the story played out felt very farfetched. When she went from "This is weird" to immediately climbing into the air vents to find a way out all I could think was "That would not be my first thought if I was trapped". Most air vents I see aren't big enough for someone to crawl into either so that didn't feel real to me. I also just didn't understand how she could care so much for her sister after what she did to her! Then again I'm a little petty.
9. Inheritance: I think it might be my fault that I didn't understand this story. I don't think I was paying as good attention as I should have. The creature that was described in it sounded cool, especially since I'd never heard of it before but the events between Delaney and Miles in the attic confused me since it kept hopping back and forth between the past and the present.
10. Black Girl Nature Group: While I obviously loved that the girls got their revenge and escaped, this story also felt a bit cheesy. I was confused how the girls were trapped in an invisible dome? What was keeping them there? How? This invisible dome concept is also used in Local Color and I was surprised to see it brought up twice.
11. Cemetery Dance Party: Another cheesy story but with zombies this time!! The fate of these characters was... confusing. I wasn't sure how many kids actually escaped the cemetery other than the three? four? I think that had stuck together. Did the rest of that senior class die? Did the zombies escape the cemetery or were they confined to the grounds because that was how the curse worked? It was very unclear. I did enjoy the zombies though despite the cheesiness in the beginning of the story.
12. The Skittering Thing: This one was also a little confusing? I don't understand why the girls would play this weird hide-n-seek game with this girl they barely knew and their parents. The parents playign was the real surprising part of it. The parents weren't bad people, they seemed genuinely nice but it was just weird. The ending though was terrifying. I think I'm really just afraid of things or creatures that can shape shift into people you know and trick you.
13. The Black Strings: This reminded me of a movie or another book I read but I'm not sure what exactly. I kept trying to guess the ending and found that I was wrong every time. I kept expecting the killer to be certain people and then those people would DIE and I was like "whelp it's this person then". I also don't understand Nora's reasoning at the end of the story for why she did what she did? In the end their band didn't win anyways so what was the point of all of it.
14. Local Color: Did not expect the grandpa to ALSO be a shapeshifter. It was pretty gross too that she gave the shapeshifting creature (?) her first kiss on accident. I'd be horrified if I was her. I also don't understand how a book about old myths would have a map of her hometown park? I had thought the map was for somewhere else at first when she talked about it but I must have not been paying attention again when she talked about it.
15. Fox Hunt: This felt like a movie Jordan Peele would write. I was glad this anthology ended with a really good story. I had kind of guessed what was going to happen before it did but the way that it was written was incredible. I loved that she was able to fight back against the people attacking her. I was rooting for her hardcore and was glad she gained her autonomy!
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
Whenever I read anthologies, I try to talk about the book as a whole and also touch on each individual story. Overall I enjoyed most of these stories. I think with a lot of anthologies I've read there are some that get me and some that don't. Since I anticipated this being more of a horror story, I expected many of these to frighten me. I think there was only one or two that actually scared me though unfortunately. Most just fell a bit flat or didn't have any scare factor for me at all. Other people might feel different about this stories though. Here's my thoughts on all of them!
1.Harvesters: This one was genuinely really creepy. It reminded me of In the Tall Grass a little bit (except it was corn in this story). I think it mainly scared me because while the Black girl does survive in the end (as the title implies) her actual fate after the story ends was... iffy. She didn't actually escape the creature chasing her like she thought and I think that itself was horrifying to me that she realized this too late.
2.Welcome Back to The Cosmos: Any story about space is going to fucking terrify me and just like in the first story (Harvesters) the idea that someone can shapeshift into someone you know and take their place... is horrifying. As with the first one, she didn't realize something was wrong UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE. It's very creepy and stressful TBH.
3.Ghost Light: I love a good ghost story but... this wasn't that good. As a fellow theatre kid who performed shows in a "haunted theatre" (does every theatre group try to scare the new freshman with a story like this?) I thought I'd really enjoy this. It felt a little rushed though (understandable since it's meant to be a short story) but I felt like this could have been a good idea for a full length novel and not something short like this.
4.The Brides of Devil's Bayou: This was an interesting story with the generational abductions that kept happening in her family but it wasn't really scary to me. The dreams she was having were scary though but overall I wasn't very moved by this.
5.TMI: This story was just... confusing ??? I say confusing because I didn't understand what I was supposed to be scared about. I'm sure there were downsides to this flip phone that would help you read peoples minds but since the characters were so vague about particulars I didn't feel the sense of urgency that other characters were having in previous stories. The ending was also very abrupt.
6. Black Pride: Another story that wasn't scary but I really, really enjoyed it. Iv'e always been a fan of were-shifts. The twist for this story was really fun! I didn't expect it to be ALL of her friends but that made it better. I also liked how it took place in a different era than the other stories. The visuals were really on point for this one.
7. The Screamers: This one was kind of... cheesy. It was another ghost possession story but instead of being scared for the characters I just thought it was a little funny how the haunting was being presented. I did like the characterization though of Amani's relationship with her brother and her guilt over what happened. The portrayal of grief in this story was the best aspect of it.
8. Queeniums for Geranium: Honestly.... I did not like this one. The way the story played out felt very farfetched. When she went from "This is weird" to immediately climbing into the air vents to find a way out all I could think was "That would not be my first thought if I was trapped". Most air vents I see aren't big enough for someone to crawl into either so that didn't feel real to me. I also just didn't understand how she could care so much for her sister after what she did to her! Then again I'm a little petty.
9. Inheritance: I think it might be my fault that I didn't understand this story. I don't think I was paying as good attention as I should have. The creature that was described in it sounded cool, especially since I'd never heard of it before but the events between Delaney and Miles in the attic confused me since it kept hopping back and forth between the past and the present.
10. Black Girl Nature Group: While I obviously loved that the girls got their revenge and escaped, this story also felt a bit cheesy. I was confused how the girls were trapped in an invisible dome? What was keeping them there? How? This invisible dome concept is also used in Local Color and I was surprised to see it brought up twice.
11. Cemetery Dance Party: Another cheesy story but with zombies this time!! The fate of these characters was... confusing. I wasn't sure how many kids actually escaped the cemetery other than the three? four? I think that had stuck together. Did the rest of that senior class die? Did the zombies escape the cemetery or were they confined to the grounds because that was how the curse worked? It was very unclear. I did enjoy the zombies though despite the cheesiness in the beginning of the story.
12. The Skittering Thing: This one was also a little confusing? I don't understand why the girls would play this weird hide-n-seek game with this girl they barely knew and their parents. The parents playign was the real surprising part of it. The parents weren't bad people, they seemed genuinely nice but it was just weird. The ending though was terrifying. I think I'm really just afraid of things or creatures that can shape shift into people you know and trick you.
13. The Black Strings: This reminded me of a movie or another book I read but I'm not sure what exactly. I kept trying to guess the ending and found that I was wrong every time. I kept expecting the killer to be certain people and then those people would DIE and I was like "whelp it's this person then". I also don't understand Nora's reasoning at the end of the story for why she did what she did? In the end their band didn't win anyways so what was the point of all of it.
14. Local Color: Did not expect the grandpa to ALSO be a shapeshifter. It was pretty gross too that she gave the shapeshifting creature (?) her first kiss on accident. I'd be horrified if I was her. I also don't understand how a book about old myths would have a map of her hometown park? I had thought the map was for somewhere else at first when she talked about it but I must have not been paying attention again when she talked about it.
15. Fox Hunt: This felt like a movie Jordan Peele would write. I was glad this anthology ended with a really good story. I had kind of guessed what was going to happen before it did but the way that it was written was incredible. I loved that she was able to fight back against the people attacking her. I was rooting for her hardcore and was glad she gained her autonomy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Classism, Cursing, Bullying, Child death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Animal death, and Racism
bookishmillennial's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
Thank you to Libro FM and the publisher for the ALC!
Thank you to Libro FM and the publisher for the ALC!
There were scarier things than high school.. and she was one of them.
This was a fantastic anthology of short horror stories with Black final girls!!! Ahhhh, I loved the foreword by Tananarive Due, who teaches Black horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA: "The Black Girl Survives in This One is a groundbreaking project that rebukes and revises Black women's invisiblity and servitude in horror. We get to be the heroines, and we get to survive. Cultural value is reflected in the arts, and the Black women in this anthology are asserting that we matter." (I am not Black, I don't want me choosing this quote to be misleading. I just found this to be a powerful, intentional way to open the book!)
As with any anthology, some stories may be your favorites and some may be just fine. However, I genuinely had a great time listening to each of these during my travels! It's so hard to pick standouts but I will try:
-Harvesters by L. L. McKinney: things go awry at a rural house party! This felt like it could be expanded and adapted into an MTV or Freeform made-for-tv movie!
-The Brides of Devil's Bayou by Desiree S. Evans: an inspired take on generational bargains/curses in the Louisiana Bayou
-Queeniums for Greenium! by Brittney Morris: POV: your sister invites you to a MLM weekend and is convinced her new age smoothie can cure your allergies (this may have been my favorite one, I really had to contain my frustration and anger while I was on the plane listening to this!)
-The Black Strings by Vincent Tirado: our final girl sees black strings that show her competition's deaths (she is a musician)
-Inheritance by Camara Aaron: learning about soucouyant while on a visit to the Caribbean (Dominican Republic)
I found so many new-to-me authors in this anthology and I will be checking out their other work ASAP!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Racism, Torture, Gore, Murder, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Kidnapping
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