I started this last November and yep, took me until today to just finally dust it off my TBR. I quit it because honestly I didn’t really enjoy this entire anthology at all. Some of the stories bored me out of my skull. I always try to make sure I post a min-review on each story in an anthology, but I almost DNFed this one and felt bad about that since most of the writers are Black and POC. Also this got awards which made me wonder again if I have horrible taste or what. Anyway, this was 3 stars at best. Here’s my breakdown.
“Reckless Eyeballing by N.K. Jemisin (5 stars)-I thought this was a strong story to start with. We follow a Black cop named Carl who finds out the stops he has against Black passengers has witnesses. A surprising one.
“Eye & Tooth” by Rebecca Roanhorse (5 stars)-Takes a bit to get going, but we follow Zelda and Atticus (brother and sister) as they go on a mysterious case and figure out what is going on with an older lady who calls them. I do think that it would have been great if this one had been longer.
“Wandering Devil” by Cadwell Turnbull (4.5 stars)-Oh Freddie. This one was good, but still just didn’t hit the same as the prior two stories.
“Invasion of the Baby Snatchers” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (3 stars)-This one got really confusing real quick for me.
“The Other One” by Violet Allen (2 stars)-Eh. This wasn’t really interesting in the end to me. I think I just got bored of Angela and her “love” for Oglethorpe. There’s no there there about why she loves him before we got tossed into this horror/love story.
“Lasiren” by Erin E. Adams (1 star)– This was just a shrug from me. Not that interesting and this honestly had me going maybe I should DNF since I wasn’t really at this point enjoying too many of the stories and I knew I had a lot to get through.
“The Rider” by Tananarive Due (5 stars)- Due’s story is what kept me going here. This was fantastic. A horror novel set during The Civil Rights Movement when two sisters who seem to be hunted by people who mean them harm and a rider who is intent on its mission too.
“The Aesthete” by Justin C. Key (2 stars)-One of the longer stories and I was bored senseless about reading about “art” and the “Creator”. I think it had something to do with robots or AI. I am not re-reading. Just going through my notes I took.
“Pressure” by Ezra Claytan Daniels (2 stars)-A stream of consciousness short story that doesn’t work.
“Dark Home” by Nnedi Okorafor (3.5 stars)-I think that Okorafor often has similar themes in her works, and this one, an older Nigerian American woman who is not married and has no children has something dangerous after her. It just drags a bit here and there.
“Flicker” by L.D. Lewis (1 star)-Way too short to even get into the beat of the story for me.
“The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World” by Nalo Hopkinson (1 star)-I honestly didn’t understand this story and really skimmed it.
“The Norwood Trouble” by Maurice Broaddus (1 star)-I honestly feel like I read this story in another collection. Or another author’s take on a similar plot. It just drove me crazy while reading. I just didn’t find it that interesting after the last story.
“A Grief of the Dead” by Rion Amilcar Scott (2.5)-Honestly, a different spin on Frankenstein for me? Or at least playing at things that should be left dead like “Pet Sematary.” It just didn’t wow me.
“A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree” by Nicole D. Sconiers- (2 stars)– I got real tired of reading that “You’re my house.” I didn’t follow much of this story honestly. I do know a character said something was totes ugly and I was just kind of done then.
“An American Fable” by Chesya Burke (4 stars)-I honestly really enjoyed this one. Taking place during the 1918s, a Black Man trying to escape up north to Chicago runs into something otherworldy.
“Your Happy Place” by Terence Taylor (2 stars)-very repetitive. I hope you like reading blood and pus. I just didn’t really like the whole version of The Matrix we got here.
“Hide & Seek” by P. Djeli Clark (2 stars)-Not that good. I was surprised I didn’t like this one since I loved “Ring Shout.”
“Origin Story” by Tochi Onyebuchi (1 star)-Written in play format and I just didn’t like it and care enough about it. A weak story to end on I think.