Kate’s Review: “Out There Screaming”

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Book: “Out There Screaming: A New Anthology of Black Horror” by Jordan Peele (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Random House, October 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

There is no disputing that Jordan Peele is a super important and super talented voice in horror as a whole right now. Whether it’s his films that are making waves, or his dabbling in TV, or his work in podcasts, Peele is very much a huge influence, and rightfully so. And now horror literature is being brought into that, as Peele is the editor for “Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror”, in which he picked authors and stories to bring together for a short stories collection. I was pretty thrilled to see that this was available on NetGalley, and I added it to the slew of short stories collections I read for th past year (it really was a short story collection heavy year for me!). And once I started, it was hard to stop.

“Eye & Tooth” by Rebecca Roanhorse: Serena has reveiwed some of Rebecca Roanhorse’s fantasy titles on here (though we both did “Black Sun” for Book Club), but hey look she does horror too! I actually knew this because she also had a story in “Never Whistle At Night”, but “Eye & Tooth” really stood out to me. Atticus and Zelda are siblings who work as ghost hunters/busters/cleaners of bad energies, and are called to a remote house in Texas by an elderly woman. She says she has a monster problem in her fields. Zelda and Atticus think they can help, but the woman is keeping something from them. I really liked this creature feature story, whether it was the creepiness of the cornfields, the sibling relationship between a psychic brother and a not as clearly gifted sister, or the big twist that was surprising but also a little heartfelt in a way? It was just a really fun tale.

“The Rider” by Tananarive Due: I am ashamed to say that I hadn’t read anything by Tananarive Due until I read this short story, and boy oh boy am I going to rectify that post haste because I think this was my favorite in the collection. During Freedom Summer two sisters are traveling as Freedom Riders to help fight for voting rights and against the Jim Crow South. While traveling on a bus in a remote area, they and the driver are waylaid by a mysterious entity in the middle of the road. Due builds the tension in this perfectly, not just of the thing in the road that upturns the bus ride, but also the tension of being two Black Freedom Riders in the Deep South, as it was a very dangerous position to be in. I was on the edge of my seat until I turned the last page. Just fantastic.

“Dark Home” by Nnedi Okorafor: I’ve read some Okorafor in the past and enjoyed her work immensely, so I was very excited to see what she was going to bring to this anthology and was not disappointed. A Nigerian-American woman returns to her hometown after her father, a beloved member of the community, passes away. During a traditional ritual, she decides to pocket an item to remember him by, which is against tradition. When she returns home, strange things start happening. I really loved this one as it combines dark fantasy and horror elements with aspects of Igbo culture, and creates an unsettling story about traditions, grief, and things that haunt us.

And honestly, the collection as a whole was pretty good! I really loved these three stories, and there were a few that very well could have been in my top three as well (special shout out to “Lasirèn”; I love a scary siren story) because they were so good. There were a few that didn’t work for me as well, whether because of pacing issues or the fact that they veered more towards Science Fiction themes, which only works for me in VERY specific settings. But there are so many voices here with so many perspectives, and so many sub genres to choose from, that any horror fan will probably be right at home while also exploring voices they haven’t had as much experience with. And as mentioned above, the scary things in this collection are not limited to the supernatural; there are lots of real life horrors like racism, classism, misogyny, and the realities of living in the United States as a Black person, both past and present.

It’s really been a year of short stories collections for me, and “Out There Screaming” is one of the last ones of 2023 and it was a great one to almost end on! I hope that Jordan Peele keeps curating anthologies like this, because he has a knack for it. And I hope that we get to see more from some of these authors very soon.

Rating 8: A varied and well rounded collection of horror stories from Black voices and perspectives, “Out There Screaming” is a must read for horror fans.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Out There Screaming” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.