Kate’s Review: “The Black Girl Survives In This One”

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Book: “The Black Girl Survives in This One” by Desiree S. Evans (Ed.) & Saraciea J. Fennell (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, April 2024

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

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

Book Description: Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one.

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.

The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L. L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maritza & Maika Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado, with a foreword by Tananarive Due.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this short stories collection!

2023 was the year of the Short Stories collection for me, as I tackled so many anthologies and had a pretty good time doing so. I think I can safely retire my previous disclaimers about me not being super into short story collections, as lately they have been working pretty well for me. Because of this, I had no hesitation when requesting “The Black Girl Survives in This One”, a YA horror anthology edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell. I’m always looking for more diverse voices in my genres, and seeing a collection that showcases some well known Black YA horror authors was pretty neat. I was lucky enough to have my request granted, and once I dove in I found a pretty fun horror anthology.

As I am wont to do for short stories collections, I will pick my favorite three stories to spotlight, and then I will talk about the collection as a whole.

“Ghost Light” by Erin E. Adams: As a former theater kid who did both acting AND tech work (Saturday mornings were usually spent at the auditorium building and painting sets in high school), I knew that “Ghost Light” was going to be a favorite from the jump. Janine, a stage manager with ambitions and drive is running a show of “Macbeth”, and after a performance she is left behind to tend to the theater. While working, she meets up with the resident ghost. And that ghost is up to no good. This one was probably one of the less traditionally scary stories in the collection, as Janine is dealing more with a poltergeist and having to duke it out with her, but I really loved the action, and I really loved the way that Adams worked theater superstitions regarding ghost lights and The Scottish Play into this story. It made me all nostalgic for my theater days as a teenager.

“The Brides of Devil’s Bayou” by Desiree S. Evans: This was one of the stories that wove in dark historical themes with the horror elements, and it was my favorite to do so. Aja is a college freshman who has returned to her childhood home in the Louisiana Bayous, who has been haunted by a supposed family curse that takes the eldest daughters down the family line on their nineteenth birthdays. With her birthday approaching, Aja wants to confront her fears and prove to herself once and for all that it’s not real. But then she starts seeing visions of the ancestors who were lost, and wonders if the demon is coming for her after all. I am always a huge sucker for family curse and prophecy stories, but what I really enjoyed about this one is that Evans creates the lore around a female ancestor who was so desperate to escape slavery she makes a pact to sacrifice people down the family line. It makes for an added layer of tragedy and injustice, as well as a really solid metaphor for the familial and generational trauma Aja’s family has suffered because of slavery in America. It’s powerful (and scary) stuff.

“The Skittering Thing” by Monica Brashears: I think this was my favorite story in the collection, and for me it was definitely the scariest. Friends Sunny and Charlotte accept the invitation of their new classmate Ray to sleepover at her house. When the family brings up playing a game they call “Skitter”, which is a blackout version of hide and seek, Sunny and Charlotte find themselves in a dark house playing a weird game. And it may not be one of the new family members that is on the hunt in the dark. This was was so uneasy and so unsettling, the tension building higher and higher until it reaches a weird and disturbing conclusion. I really loved this one.

As a full collection, it was a bit more of a hit or miss endeavor for me. I think that part of this is that this is, at its heart, a YA collection, and while the authors are all talented story tellers and are really hitting the nail on the head when it comes to audience and message, young adult horror and I have a complicated relationship due to the fact I’m not the target audience. What I mean by that is that it always feels like YA has a tendency to feel a need to really spell things out for their readers, and it can sometimes feel hamfisted for me. But as noted, I’m not the target audience, and this kind of writing choice could very well go over better with a teenage reader than it does me.

“The Black Girl Lives in This One” is a fun collection that showcases some great authors. If you have teenage horror fans in your life, especially Black girls who may be sick of a lack of representation in the genre, this is the book to check out!

Rating 7: A solid horror collection written by and about Black women who will not be stopped, “The Black Girls Survives in This One” is scary and empowering.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Black Girl Survives in This One” is included on the Goodreads lists “2024 Books by Black Authors”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.