Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror by Jordan Peele, John Joseph Adams

28 reviews

savvylit's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This excellent collection of horror stories is brimming with immensely talented Black authors. Not only that, but the frights are non-stop - regardless of whether they are rooted in terrifying reality, magic, or mythology. One of my personal favorites in this collection is the opener: "Reckless Eyeballing" by N.K. Jemisin. In it, a cruel highway patrolman notices that some vehicles have developed human eyes. In another favorite, "Your Happy Place" by Terence Taylor, a former prisoner turns into a whistleblower at the experimental prison where he had been incarcerated. Lastly - but certainly not least - in "Lasirèn" by Erin E. Adams, a trio of sisters in Haiti reckon with a siren and her devastating demands. And those are just my own favorites! This anthology has so many more stories that are just as chilling and riveting.

Overall, I would highly recommend this collection to the following folks:
• fans of horror & speculative fiction.
• fans of Jordan Peele & his films.
• fans of the Netflix series "Black Mirror."
If you fit any (or all) of those categories, you will definitely not want to miss out on Out There Screaming!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Racism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Mental illness

kshertz's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Always hard to review a short story book! There was about 5-6 stories I absolutely loved and the rest were good too! It’s how I discover new authors though. NK Jemison was great as per usual and now I want to look up these other amazing authors. Very scary in very different poignant ways. Worth a read if you like the scary stuff!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Ableism, Body horror, Addiction, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Drug use, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

As with most anthologies, there's a range of quality in the collected stories. Some were amazing and haunting, others were just ok, and a handful seemed not to understand the assignment (i.e. they were very clearly not horror.). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Grief, Death, Animal death, Gore, Violence, Cursing, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Sexual content, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

jaygabler's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you Random House for the free book. The new horror read of the season is a collection of short stories edited by Jordan Peele. A cop who sees eyes everywhere, an artificial being hunted by his therapist, the origin story of our era's scariest villains...all chillingly good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

onthesamepage's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The combination of an anthology curated by Jordan Peele and including a handful of authors I've loved reading from before made picking this up a no-brainer. There's an intro by Peele that explains the premise behind the anthology, which is basically meant to be like the Sunken Place in Get Out, i.e. a manifestation of the authors' personal horrors. I was really intrigued by this, since I felt like I was getting to peek into the authors' brains. I admittedly don't read much horror, but most of the stories felt on the tame side and lean more "vaguely disturbing" rather than outright "oh god what did I just read".

I do want to mention a couple of standouts, though.

Reckless Eyeballing by N.K. Jemisin (5⭐)
This was such a banger of a short story. It was unsettling and disgusting and I loved every second of it.

Flicker by L.D. Lewis (5⭐)
I loved the premise and the execution of this, and thought it was really creepy to boot.

Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark (5⭐)
I loved the slow build-up and how gradually we got to the meat of the story in this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Addiction, and Child abuse

Minor: Homophobia

ilusomochi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the first ARC I was approved for on NetGalley and what an honor it was to read these perfectly crafted horror stories. 

Reading horror is much like watching it. Some stories are good and some are bad. Out There Screaming may be my favorite collection of horror stories to date. 

Luckily, this Anthology was chock full of fantastic writing. There was not a single story that I did not like. Now, the caveat of horror is that the good stories make you feel an amalgam of disturbed feelings. I was spooked, uncomfortable, sad, and sometimes hopeless, especially when the stories tied in realistic themes of problems we face in reality. But that is why I loved reading this anthology so much. I like when literature evokes strong feelings. Whether you are a seasoned horror lit enthusiast, just getting into the genre, or are curious, this is the perfect fall read to dive into. Knowing that Jordan Peele had a hand in editing, makes the experience that much more special. 

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for entrusting me with a set of masterpieces. I will be sure to look for other writings of these authors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Racism, Addiction, Slavery, Sexual assault, Grief, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Gun violence, Excrement, Colonisation, and Suicide

eternallyicarian's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Misogyny, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Racism, and Violence

different content warnings for different stories, i am not sure what to tag as moderate/minor/explicit so they're getting explicit, better safe than sorry i guess.

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Slavery, and Blood