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apollos_books's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.75
This is an extremely impressive, memorable collection of Black horror short stories. None of these stories are "bad" - They are all extremely well-written, inspired, unique, and engaging in their own ways. Some stories felt like more "complete" narratives. Others left me wishing the author had saved the story for a full novel so I could keep reading! At worst, I would finish a short story going "...well. okay!" before beginning the next one. I think this collection would be soo fun to analyze in a book club/group discussion given the density of commentary on and symbolism regarding Blackness (and Whiteness) across the diaspora that can be found here. Highly recommend.
My favorite stories (in order of presentation):
My favorite stories (in order of presentation):
- Reckless Eyeballing by N.K. Jemisin
- The Other One by Violet Allen
- Pressure by Ezra Claytan Daniels
- Flicker by L.D. Lewis
- The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson
- Your Happy Place by Terence Taylor
- Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark
- Origin Story by Tochi Onyebuchi
iblyth's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
evielittlestone's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
carolina_has_an_idea's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I love this. First two stories are great. The first one was weird but interesting. The second was more of a classic horror vibe but kept my attention. These stories weren't really scary stories to me. They were more off-putting. The variety is great. I read one story before bed most nights. I think that's the best way to tackle this book. Overall I love about half of the stories and liked 4. There were some that I didn't like but they were not too many of those. Top four for me, Dark Home, La Siren, Your Happy Place, and Flicker. I think about Flicker a lot.
This was a great introduction to authors I haven't read yet. Overall I would recommend.
This was a great introduction to authors I haven't read yet. Overall I would recommend.
books_nooks_spooks's review
4.0
You best believe I was out there screaming when I heard that Jordan Peele was editing a horror anthology! I really enjoy his work as a director (Nope is my favourite of his) and I was really keen to see what he would present to the literary world!! There were also some names attached that caused me to wiggle in glee. The book itself is actually really beautiful and when I was kindly gifted a copy from @igot everything else was immediately dropped as I cooried in and started reading. This is a real mixed bag of stories. It’s a big book and not because of the volume of tales it tells but because some of these ‘shorts’ are not actually that. And I found it was those ones that didn’t work for me, not because they were poorly written it was simply the format. However, I know a lot of people prefer a longer length yarn in anthologies. The shorter, snapper stories were the ones I really enjoyed and these one’s definitely gripped my attention better. Overall the great stories were REALLY great and the meh stories were exactly that. There was no middle ground with this book. I think at some point I’ll definitely re-read and see if my attention span is any better second time around
coleycole's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
A great short story collection. Loved the NK Jemisin, Tanarive Due & Nalo Hopkins stories particularly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
sausome's review against another edition
fast-paced
4.0
4/5 stars - This was a great anthology with many heavy-hitter favorite authors, and a few new discoveries for me. Some stories didn't work for me, like any short story collection, but most were great. N.K. Jemisin, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Nnedi Okorafor can do nothing wrong - amazing storytellers. P. Djeli Clark, Violet Allen, and L.D. Lewis are new to me and wrote my other favorites of this collection. Okorafor's story was my absolute favorite of the whole collection.
"Reckless Eyeballing" - N.K. Jemisin (Black cop Carl sees eyes on car headlights, which leads him to suspect that the driver is guilty of a crime.)
"Eye & Tooth" - Rebecca Roanhorse (Siblings act as supernatural job-for-hires, accept a job in rural Texas from a woman with a supernatural creature problem.)
"Wandering Devil" - Cadwell Turnbull (Man who moves from town to town meets woman who wants him to settle down. But something is off.)
"Invasion of the Baby Snatchers" - Lesley Nneka Arimah (Aliens impregnating humans and trying to take over Earth; detective lead is trying to track them down/eliminate/study them.)
"The Other One" - Violet Allen (Woman can't let go of her ex, keeps thinking about him, texting him sometimes with no response, then someone begins messaging him with weird then alarming things to lure the woman to the sender. Things get creature-strange.)
"Lasirèn" - Erin E. Adams (Three sisters are tempted by a siren, despite warnings from their parents.)
"The Rider" - Tananarive Due (2 sisters try to get to Montgomery, Alabama during the Freedom Riders movement.)
"The Aesthete" - Justin C. Key (Futuristic/sci fi story where a being finds out he's The Chosen One living in a futuristic USA that might or might not declare him legally a person.)
"Pressure" - Ezra Claytan Daniels (Written in 2nd person with main person the only half-black cousin in a mainly white family during a family reunion.)
"Dark Home" - Nnedi Okorafor (A single Nigerian-American woman's father dies and she travels to Nigeria where she violates customs during the funeral to keep a token to remember her father by. Something follows her home.)
"Flicker" - L.D. Lewis (Four friends try to survive in a world that's gone crazy because of unexplained blips of pure darkness that last increasingly long.)
"The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World" - Nalo Hopkinson (A woman confronts the beast that terrorizes her village in a coastal cave/tidal pool, but instead, the beast becomes part of her.)
"The Norwood Trouble" - Maurice Broaddus (A young girl experiences a lynch mob in the years before civil rights in the U.S. but she's in a kind of magical town where the orchard guards against would-be white infiltrators.)
"A Grief of the Dead" - Rion Amilcar Scott (A man grieves the death of his twin brother who dies during a mass shooting at a concert, then struggles with wanting to follow him in the same way. The horror in this one was minimal and more about the horror of guns and continued mass shootings in the US.)
"A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree" - Nicole D. Sconiers (Two young women are killed on a dangerous stretch of road in different decades. Their spirits are bound there, where they kill misbehaving male motorists to pass the time.)
"An American Fable" - Chesya Burke (A black military veteran is traveling to Chicago from the south after serving in World War 1 - he experiences all manner of racism from the whites around him, for whom his service to his country means nothing b/c he's black, and when he becomes under attack, a lone young black girl leads him to another place.)
"Your Happy Place" - Terence Taylor (A man who works at a prison moving prisoners to some kind of lab wants to find out more about what's happening, only to discover some unsavory things about himself. Futuristic, sci-fi horror.)
"Hide & Seek" - P. Djèlí Clark (2 young siblings must hide when their mother comes searching for them. The house belonged to their grandfather who practiced Hoodoo, and their mother and dead father also practiced magic that turned on them. Their mother is like two people, monster and teacher.)
"Origin Story" - Tochi Onyebuchi (This was probably a least favorite, just because I couldn't really understand it all. It's written like a play where 4 white boys become aware of their caricature nature and that they're fictional characters in a play, turning into an examination of whiteness as boys.)
"Reckless Eyeballing" - N.K. Jemisin (Black cop Carl sees eyes on car headlights, which leads him to suspect that the driver is guilty of a crime.)
"Eye & Tooth" - Rebecca Roanhorse (Siblings act as supernatural job-for-hires, accept a job in rural Texas from a woman with a supernatural creature problem.)
"Wandering Devil" - Cadwell Turnbull (Man who moves from town to town meets woman who wants him to settle down. But something is off.)
"Invasion of the Baby Snatchers" - Lesley Nneka Arimah (Aliens impregnating humans and trying to take over Earth; detective lead is trying to track them down/eliminate/study them.)
"The Other One" - Violet Allen (Woman can't let go of her ex, keeps thinking about him, texting him sometimes with no response, then someone begins messaging him with weird then alarming things to lure the woman to the sender. Things get creature-strange.)
"Lasirèn" - Erin E. Adams (Three sisters are tempted by a siren, despite warnings from their parents.)
"The Rider" - Tananarive Due (2 sisters try to get to Montgomery, Alabama during the Freedom Riders movement.)
"The Aesthete" - Justin C. Key (Futuristic/sci fi story where a being finds out he's The Chosen One living in a futuristic USA that might or might not declare him legally a person.)
"Pressure" - Ezra Claytan Daniels (Written in 2nd person with main person the only half-black cousin in a mainly white family during a family reunion.)
"Dark Home" - Nnedi Okorafor (A single Nigerian-American woman's father dies and she travels to Nigeria where she violates customs during the funeral to keep a token to remember her father by. Something follows her home.)
"Flicker" - L.D. Lewis (Four friends try to survive in a world that's gone crazy because of unexplained blips of pure darkness that last increasingly long.)
"The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World" - Nalo Hopkinson (A woman confronts the beast that terrorizes her village in a coastal cave/tidal pool, but instead, the beast becomes part of her.)
"The Norwood Trouble" - Maurice Broaddus (A young girl experiences a lynch mob in the years before civil rights in the U.S. but she's in a kind of magical town where the orchard guards against would-be white infiltrators.)
"A Grief of the Dead" - Rion Amilcar Scott (A man grieves the death of his twin brother who dies during a mass shooting at a concert, then struggles with wanting to follow him in the same way. The horror in this one was minimal and more about the horror of guns and continued mass shootings in the US.)
"A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree" - Nicole D. Sconiers (Two young women are killed on a dangerous stretch of road in different decades. Their spirits are bound there, where they kill misbehaving male motorists to pass the time.)
"An American Fable" - Chesya Burke (A black military veteran is traveling to Chicago from the south after serving in World War 1 - he experiences all manner of racism from the whites around him, for whom his service to his country means nothing b/c he's black, and when he becomes under attack, a lone young black girl leads him to another place.)
"Your Happy Place" - Terence Taylor (A man who works at a prison moving prisoners to some kind of lab wants to find out more about what's happening, only to discover some unsavory things about himself. Futuristic, sci-fi horror.)
"Hide & Seek" - P. Djèlí Clark (2 young siblings must hide when their mother comes searching for them. The house belonged to their grandfather who practiced Hoodoo, and their mother and dead father also practiced magic that turned on them. Their mother is like two people, monster and teacher.)
"Origin Story" - Tochi Onyebuchi (This was probably a least favorite, just because I couldn't really understand it all. It's written like a play where 4 white boys become aware of their caricature nature and that they're fictional characters in a play, turning into an examination of whiteness as boys.)
bravesirtoaster's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5