I picked up Out There Screaming for its impressive list of contributors and wasn't disappointed. These stories really span the subgenres of horror and speculative fiction and resonate with Jordan Peele's signature take on social horror. Not every short story was memorable, but I was never bored. This is a great option for spooky season!

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an eARC of this book.

Jordan Peele, the king of horror, has compiled a fantastic collection of stories. The writers use their short story to really capture the reader. Each one was better than the one before and I wanted to keep reading each one. This is a fantastic collection and I will definitely revisit it especially during spooky season.

What a wonderful collection of stories from many of today’s literary greats! These stories are grounded and timely - meaning that they are inspired by African American folklore and mysticism and the everyday challenges experienced by some people (of color/Black folk). These are horror stories rooted in terrorism and struggle, feature monsters (real and imagined), alternate realities, and dabble in Black Magic and Voodoo.

For example, N.K. Jemisin’s Reckless Eyeballing deals with police brutality with a guilt-induced mental twist; Eye & Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse dabbles with power in the blood and the gifts of two siblings. Tananarive Due’s The Rider gives homage to her family members via two activists sisters preparing for a Freedom Ride and encounterthe the power and protection of the ancestors in an unexpected rider. P. Djeli Clark’s Hide & Seek has a mother training her sons to hide for their lives. Notable contributors include Nnedi Okaoafor, Tochi Onyebuhi, and Nalo Hopkinson – and a host of others deliver nineteen thought-provoking stories.

These are mildly horrific on the scare scale (I’m not one who can tolerate true horror and these didn’t cause me to have nightmares - smile), but were creepy and thought-provoking. Jordan Peele edited and chose well - as we knew he would.

Highly recommended for the Halloween Season.

Thanks to the publisher, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

It’s no secret that my favorite genre is social horror, so when I received an advanced copy of this book, I was ecstatic. This book is a piece of art and I loved every page. I think this is a must read for any horror enthusiast. Many of the books I see recommended by fellow bookstragrammers are overwhelming written by white males. This is a call to diversify your bookshelves. You’re missing out otherwise. While many of the stories beautifully, intricately, and horrifyingly included historical scenes, places, and events, each and every story had an extremely timely and poignant message: the roots of racism are deeply embedded into the ground, and the bloody, violent, hateful, terrifying trees they sustain are stronger than ever. Their roots are even more deeply embedded into the soil, and their branches upon which many people were murdered continue to be the symbol of of death and evil as racism continues to weave its way throughout everyday life for so many people.

This anthology of stories included horror, sci-fi, folklore and more. Some of my favorites included cultural spiritual references from African countries and the lore behind them. I found my self looking up and researching things I had no knowledge of which always makes a book better to me…when it inspires you to look further and opens you up to learn about things you otherwise wouldn’t have experienced.

While I literally loved every story, here are a few of my favorites:

Reckless Eyeballing, N.K. Jemisen: a masterful story that includes themes of police brutality and profiling. As a public defender, this story resonated with me as, while I have never experienced this myself as a white woman, I see it and hear it and read it everyday through the experiences of many of my clients as we work their case.

The Rider, Tananarive Due: two Freedom Riders try to take a bus to Montgomery when things go horribly left. The creature featureness of this book was amazing and the theme of racial violence and its horrors were palpable and scary as hell.

The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World, Nalo Hopkinson: This beautiful haunting story about a girl who dives down in the the blue hole to face a monster that plagues her village was incredible. There was some of the most intense body horror I’ve read. The story is also written in the local dialect and this just further launches the reader into this world. One of my favorites!

The Norwood Trouble, Maurice Broadus: A young girl experiences racial mob violence in this terrifyingly brilliant story where racism is the monster. The dichotomy of “christian beliefs” and culturally passed down spiritualism was beautifully written and powerful. The theme of the power of stories and culture being passed down to generations as to not lose one’s identity and to empower one to fight the continuing war of white violence and racism was incredible. I loved this one.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @ransomhouse for the arc electronic edition. I loved it and cherished it so much I bought the physical copy from a local bookstore.

As soon as I saw that Jordan Peele was putting out an anthology of horror stories, including stories by some of my favorite authors, I knew immediately I wanted to get my hands on it. Considering I am a huge fan of Jordan Peele’s horror movies, as well as some of these authors, especially N. K. Jemisin and Rebecca Roanhorse, I had very high expectations for this collection.

The best part of this collection as a whole was the social commentary explored in many of the stories. I was disappointed to find few of them very viscerally scary, but for many of the stories, the writing was excellent and thought provoking. I also love that the stories spanned genres; some stories felt like sci-fi horror, some gory body horror, some fantasy, and some strange and difficult to describe.

Overall, I wished the stories were longer; many of them felt they were ending just as I was settling into the unique and strange world. I often feel my brain needs more time to get the sense of the creepiness and build ambience.

My favorite story in the anthology was Pressure by Ezra Claytan Daniels, which was so strange and unconventional for horror that I truly didn’t know what to expect with every page turn. Another that stood out to me was The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson, which was gory and frustrating in the best way.

I generally enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I think it’s a great collection to kick off October with something less terrifying and more thought provoking, with ambiguous endings that left me wanting more.

Out There Screaming was a great anthology. My favorite was Jemisin's story, but they all deal with the inherent horrors of being Black in this society.

if you’re hoping to add more diverse authors to your horror shelves this year, and are intrigued by the promise an excellent collection of Black horror short stories from a variety of extremely talented authors, I recommend you take a spin through the stories in OUT THERE SCREAMING!

I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology; I found the vast majority of the stories compelling, engaging, and well-crafted. (there were a few misses, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a multi-authored short story collection that *doesn’t* have those — at the end of the day you as a reader simply aren’t going to resonate with every single author’s writing, and that’s okay!) They’re clever and creative in their commentary about the horror of anti-Blackness, and their use of horror themes and tropes; they cover a wide variety of horror subgenres (including sci-fi and historical), and many incorporate folklore in really interesting and effective ways; and once I started reading, I really did not want to stop, even when I hit the stories that didn’t resonate for me.

my favorite stories: “A Grief for the Dead” (beware the CWs for this one but it was VERY well done), “Reckless Eyeballing” (NK Jemisin starts this collection off with a BANG, folks), “Eye and Tooth,” and “Lasirén.”

OUT THERE SCREAMING releases October 3rd (tomorrow!) and is an excellent addition to your Halloween season TBRs; I highly recommend it! thanks so much to Random House and Netgalley for the advance copy!

A unique complication of short stories by various authors that all have a different take on horror and a great read at the start of spooky season! My favorite chapters were:
- "Reckless Eyeballing" by N.K. Jemisin has an corrupt cop as the lead character who uses his position and power in ways that negatively impact others, but starts seeing eyes in the headlights of other cars and tries to figure out what may be the cause.
- "Eye & Tooth" by Rebecca Roanhorse where a sibling pair of monster hunters encounter someone unexpected on a job
- "Dark Home" by Nnedi Okorafor about a women who lives in Phoenix goes to Nigeria to lay her father to rest after he dies. She brings home a piece of his jewelry that causes more trouble than it's worth
- "Flicker" by L.D. Lewis. One of the shorter stories, but impactful in how well it captured the fear of suddenly losing your sight
- "A Bird Sings By the Etching Tree" by Nicole D Sconiers follows two young girls who passed away tragically on a dangerous highway and invent a contest where one can win the chance to go home
- "An American Fable" by Chesya Burke did a really good job of taking a very real fear of lynching and leveraging that horror while also adding some supernatural elements
- "Your Happy Place" by Terence Taylor is set in a modern day prison where a former inmate turned employee Martin is helping a Dr. Hal Wexler with 'The Process' to download life skills into current inmates. But all is not what is seems with The Process program or with Martin.

Thank you to netgally for providing a free advance copy of the ebook in exchange for my review.

One of the things that I struggle with the most when it comes to rating short story collections is that in every collection, there’s always at least a few stories that didn’t work for me. With this short story collection, I really enjoyed quite a few. With that being said, my favorite stories were:

Eye and Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse
Lasirèn by Erin E. Adams (I am not kidding when I say I would read Erin’s grocery list if she published it)
The Rider by Tananarive Due
Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor
Flicker by LD Lewis
The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson
The Norwood Trouble by Maurice Broaddus
Hide & Seek by P. Djèlí Clark

When it came to the stories that I didn’t love (still liked), it was mostly because I felt like they ended too abruptly and I didn’t grasp the full impact.

A lot of the stories within Out There Screaming evaluate tough subjects through a Black lens. Such as grief, race, death, trauma, among many others. I appreciated the different kinds of horror used throughout the book, whether it be more psychological or cosmic and I really felt the impact when certain stories grabbed onto the history of what it means to be Black in America.

If you like any of Jordan Peele’s movies such as Get Out, Us, or Nope, this book should absolutely be a must read for you this October.

Jordan Peele initially drew me to this book, but the author’s stories are what kept me going. These are the types of stories where you have to read in between the lines and really absorb the messages that are being set.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of this ARC. I went into it blind, not really knowing anything about it. It's hard to rate anthologies because I enjoyed some and others not so much. But in the end, the book is a great collection of horror and really makes you think. I would definitely read full books by many of the contributors.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

As soon as I heard this anthology was coming out, it became one of my most anticipated releases of the year. It absolutely lived up to my expectations. There are stories included that were so good, so mind-blowing that I ended up buying all the author's works. Strong 5 stars.

Reckless Eyeballing by N.K. Jamison ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eye & Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wandering Devil by Cadwell Turnbull ⭐⭐⭐
Invasion of the Baby Snatchers by Lesley Nneka Arimah ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
The Other One by Violet Allen ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lasirén by Erin E. Adams ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25
The Rider by Tananarive Due ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Aesthete by Justin C. Key ⭐⭐⭐.5
Pressure by Ezra Claytan Daniels ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dark Home by Nnedi Okafor ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25
Flicker by J.D. Lewis ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson ⭐⭐⭐.5
The Norwood Trouble by Maurice Broadus ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Grief of the Dead by Rion Amilcar Scott ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Bird Sings By the Etching Tree by Nicole D. Sconiers ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
An American Fable by Chesya Burke ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Your Happy Place by Terence Taylor ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Hide & Seek by P. Djélí Clark ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Origin Story by Tochi Onyebuchi ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25

I was so excited when I got approved to read Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele before it was released! I am a horror girl okay?? And I especially love BLACK horror, so I couldn’t wait to dive into this collection! But sadly, I hated it and couldn’t even finish. I got through nine of the stories and then quit.

So many stories in this collection were pointless and directionless. I would spend the whole story waiting for something to happen, and then the story would end and nothing ever happened… The stories felt unfinished. I ended almost every single story with questions.

The only story that I really loved was The Rider by Tananarive Due. This is not a shock because Tananarive Due is my favorite author of all time, so of course she delivered! There were a couple other stories that I thought were kinda good, but I only enjoyed them compared to the other terrible stories in the collection. Tananarive Due’s story is the only story that would hold up in a collection full of great stories.

This is the most disappointing book I have read all year…

I go into more detail about my thoughts in my YouTube video review, so make sure you watch that! (@BookTribe)

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this arc. All opinions are my own.

To be honest the only thing that caught my eye on this cover was the name Jordan Peele. As far as book covers go it's kind of bland for the horror genre.
Being a huge fan of Jordan Peele movies I had hoped that the stories here would be as "spine-chilling" as his films. (As claimed in the synopsis)

Unfortunately, it's an inconsistent mixed bag more like his hit-or-miss Twilight Zone episodes were.
Stories worth a mention were Eye and Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse, about monster hunting siblings.
Lasiren by Erin E Adams about children who have been warned to never trust a woman alone in the water.
The Rider by Tananarive Due in which two sisters take an unexpected detour on their way to join the freedom riders in Montgomery. and Hide and Seek by P. Djeli Clark about children being raised by a mother with a strange addiction.

You may enjoy it more than I did. For me it was just an OK read.

4.5. What a stellar collection of stories, Jordan Peele really excelled here in curating this anthology. I was only familiar with a few of these featured authors before reading, but I've definitely found several new folks I really want to read more from in the future. My personal favorites were The Other One by Violet Allen, Pressure by Ezra Claytan Daniels, Flicker by L.D. Lewis, and Hide & Seek by P. Djeli Clark. So many of these stories could have easily been full length novels, however there's something special about restricting them to short fiction. It packs a different kind of punch; fast and hard, leaving you wondering who you are and what just happened. A huge thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this as an ARC.

It's no surprise that Jordan Peele, one of the most influential horror voices in the genre, knows how to pick a well rounded collection of horror and dark fantasy tales by Black authors who are up and coming or established in the horror lit community. I really liked lots of these stories, a number of which I loved, and while a couple didn't work for me it was more because they were more science fiction based (which is a genre I don't really care for). My favorite stories were "Eye & Tooth" by Rebecca Roanhorse, "The Rider" by Tananarive Due, and "Dark Home" by Nnedi Okorafor, but there were so many others that I enjoyed that it was hard to pick a top three. And while I had read a few of these authors I now have a number of new to me authors that I will be checking out post haste. This is a perfect read for the upcoming Halloween season, with many themes, supernatural horrors and realistic horrors of American racism to name just a couple.

OUT THERE SCREAMING is a great anthology. I hope Jordan Peele edits more. Until then, I have a bunch of new authors to check out.

Fascinating creepy and unsettling but all a beautiful tapestry of horror. I love short story collections for this reason. There is so much variety. I especially loved Invasion of the Baby Snatchers, Lesirèn, A Bird Sings by the Etched Tree and Your Happy Place but all have their moments.
Felt like Jordan Peele’s twilight Zone of horror and I enjoyed the crazy ride.

I enjoyed most of the stories in Out There Screaming. There is something for everyone. There's some heavy hitters in this book too. P. Djeli Clark and Tananarive Due were really good. It a great book to keep reading, but I forced myself to space it out. I would have liked to know in the Table of Contents which author wrote which story, but it was not listed (it is listed when you get to the actual story). Overall, a great anthology.

An anthology of 19 horror stories by black authors.

I enjoyed this collection. There's something for everyone here-- body, psychological, cosmic, creatures, ghosts, historical horror etc In some cases every day life and social injustice is the horror at the core.
The fun thing is, many of the stories have unexpected twists or takes on the genre. This is an important, necessary collection. We need to hear all voices and lenses, especially within the horror community, where proper representation can often be lacking, or underexposed.

Phenomenal! A haunting, and occasionally hilarious, black horror anthology. I was so excited to be offered an eARC for this book. I am a huge fan of Jordan Peele, as well as most of the featured authors. What a terrifyingly chilling treat to read. I absolutely recommend and can't wait until my preorder arrives.