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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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Racism, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
Minor: Homophobia
dogearedbooks's review
dark
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Murder
annreadsabook's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
4.5
If you were a 90s kid and loved/were forever traumatized by that book SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK and are looking for something similar this season, let me tell you this is one of those books. It’s jam-packed with stories from powerhouse Black writers such as Tananarive Due, Nnedi Okorafor, P Djéli Clark, N.K. Jemisin, and many more. These are stories that examine what it means to be scared in our world—it pushes the boundaries of Black folks’ realities and nightmares (because sometimes our reality can be the stuff of nightmares).
While I enjoyed all of these stories, some stand-outs to me were those by Tananarive Due, Tochi Onyebuchi, Terence Taylor, and Nnedi Okorafor. I love how each of these stories take reality and morph it into something a bit more unrecognizable and all the more unsettling. This book is a series of funhouse mirrors distorting the already warped world that Black folks occupy—you probably won’t like (or forget) what you see. There’s all-seeing cars, mysterious hitchhikers, dark entities that hound people late into the night, and much more. But that’s all I’m about to say! No spoilers here!
Y’all are gonna definitely want to get your hands on this! Your October scary story reading will not be complete without it.
Thank you so much to Random House for the gifted ARC!!!
While I enjoyed all of these stories, some stand-outs to me were those by Tananarive Due, Tochi Onyebuchi, Terence Taylor, and Nnedi Okorafor. I love how each of these stories take reality and morph it into something a bit more unrecognizable and all the more unsettling. This book is a series of funhouse mirrors distorting the already warped world that Black folks occupy—you probably won’t like (or forget) what you see. There’s all-seeing cars, mysterious hitchhikers, dark entities that hound people late into the night, and much more. But that’s all I’m about to say! No spoilers here!
Y’all are gonna definitely want to get your hands on this! Your October scary story reading will not be complete without it.
Thank you so much to Random House for the gifted ARC!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Car accident, and Murder
Minor: Mass/school shootings
probablyaster'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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
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.
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