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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
A wonderful collection of short horror stories by incredibly talented Black authors. While not every story resonated with me, I appreciated the variety. Some were more supernatural fiction than horror per se, but I genuinely feel that each story was crafted with intention.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
slow-paced
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i was so excited to read this, especially during the tail end of "spooky season".
however i have to be honest and say it wasn't quite what i expected. jordan peele's films leave me scared out of my mind, so i thought that would be the brief for this collection. however i would go as far as to say none of the stories were really scary at all. they do fall into the horror genre, and some are creepy or unsettling. but not all of them, and certainly none of them got my mind/heart racing, personally. some of them were very deeply sad, which is a different kind of horror i suppose.
perhaps some of the stories were too focussed on brevity, and edited down too much? given they were all well-written, i kept finding myself wishing some stories in the collection had more room to breathe and more space in which to develop (particularly the very shortest ones). i do see the appeal of showcasing as many authors as possible, but i think that including fewer stories and giving them a few more pages to play with for suspense-building purposes could've been beneficial. (and then there could've been two volumes!! there were easily enough unique concepts to fill two books.)
all of that said, all of these stories were good. (hence the 3.75 star rating rounded up.) many of them are excellent. they all explore interesting, thought provoking and worthy themes. for the most part, characters are complex and plot lines unpredictable. there were some cool references to both ancient and modern folklore, and fantastical examinations of serious real-world circumstances. that's very much up my street and i worked my way through this collection pretty quickly as a result.
i would recommend to anyone who enjoys creepy, politically-focussed and/or folkore-inspired short stories, that won't leave you terrified to turn the lights off just before bed.
however i have to be honest and say it wasn't quite what i expected. jordan peele's films leave me scared out of my mind, so i thought that would be the brief for this collection. however i would go as far as to say none of the stories were really scary at all. they do fall into the horror genre, and some are creepy or unsettling. but not all of them, and certainly none of them got my mind/heart racing, personally. some of them were very deeply sad, which is a different kind of horror i suppose.
perhaps some of the stories were too focussed on brevity, and edited down too much? given they were all well-written, i kept finding myself wishing some stories in the collection had more room to breathe and more space in which to develop (particularly the very shortest ones). i do see the appeal of showcasing as many authors as possible, but i think that including fewer stories and giving them a few more pages to play with for suspense-building purposes could've been beneficial. (and then there could've been two volumes!! there were easily enough unique concepts to fill two books.)
all of that said, all of these stories were good. (hence the 3.75 star rating rounded up.) many of them are excellent. they all explore interesting, thought provoking and worthy themes. for the most part, characters are complex and plot lines unpredictable. there were some cool references to both ancient and modern folklore, and fantastical examinations of serious real-world circumstances. that's very much up my street and i worked my way through this collection pretty quickly as a result.
i would recommend to anyone who enjoys creepy, politically-focussed and/or folkore-inspired short stories, that won't leave you terrified to turn the lights off just before bed.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated