Out There Screaming is a new collection of short stories inspired by a deeply disturbing scene in Jordan Peele’s Get Out: if you were trapped in a place that is haunted by your worst fears, what does that place look like? It looks a little different in every one of the stories in this book, but there is a common thread between them all: the main characters are powerless against larger forces of destruction in their lives.

I don’t usually read a lot of short fiction, because I feel like it goes by too quickly for me to really get invested, but there were some incredible stories in here that definitely proved me wrong. I especially loved “Eye & Tooth” by Rebecca Roanhorse, a story about two sibling monster hunters with special abilities of their own; “Pressure” by Ezra Claytan Daniels, a story about the only mixed-race cousin in a white family who is invited to see a “cure for global warming” that doesn’t go as planned; “Flicker: by LD Lewis, in which a group of friends are trying to understand why the entire world has started experiencing sudden bursts of blackouts; and “Hide & Seek” by PP. Djeli Clark, about a pair of siblings growing up with their addict mother, descended from a line of voodoo practitioners.

Maybe I’m just unaccustomed to short story collections, but I did find the transitions between stories to be a little jarring. I wanted a little more flow, maybe a little overlap between stories or some sort of grouping in genres and categories that made sense to me. It took some time to situate myself in a completely different setting with different characters and drastically different plots. However, about halfway through the book, I learned to take them one story at a time – rather than trying to read several, I would read one story, and then put the collection away for a day or so before picking it back up again. It made for slower reading, but it helped when I set my expectations for one story and one story alone.

In all, I’ll give Out There Screaming an 8 out of 10. Maybe not every story spoke to me directly, but they all were solid pieces of vivid, immersive horror, and I think any reader interested in horror will find something they like.

A great spooky anthology! I enjoyed most of these stories, and it was cool to read some shorter stories from some of my favorite authors.

I got this collection of black-authored horror stories and started reading in September. My arc didn't have the written forward or note from Jordan Peele, but he did edit these stories. I assume the finished product will have something from him and I know with the political situation in the world that fact will influence buyers either in the positive or negative.

I hope you're able to read through the individual authors in the collection. If not, I hope there are voices you can support individually if you are not getting this collection. There was sci fi horror that left me fretting over the well-being of AI and where social media might leech into intimate areas of life. There was real world police violence, and extraterrestrial horror meets loss of reproductive rights. My favorite story that still haunts me is Cadwell Turnbull's Wandering Devil, a classic cross-road, blues player, southern horror ambience I must have more of!

Interesting batch of stories. I enjoyed the book for the most part. I do feel like the book could have more of a jump scare feel. But not sure.

This was so incredible. This was probably the first short story collection that I read and at least enjoyed every story in here. All of the stories were done so well, and there was such a good combination of “this is scary” and “this is real life racism scary” and “this is real life technology scary”. Some of them were just fun but with some light themes or maybe even heavy themes. Like I said, a good combination.

I also really liked the order of these. Reckless Eyeballing seemed like a good story to start off on and Origin Story 100% needed to be the last story in the book.

I also listened to the audiobook and can confirm that is worth a listen. Jordan Peel narrates the forward and there is a full cast for the rest of the stories.

Since so many of the stories were great, I decided to list the ones that I would likely give five stars to if rated individually.

Reckless Eyeballing by N. K. Jemison
Car has eyeballs that are witnessing horrible things
Real world scaries medium, technology influence low

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers by Lesley Nneka
Arimah
Aliens are using humans as baby makers.
Real World Scaries low, technology influence medium

The Other One by Violet Allen
Your ex may not be your ex?
Real world scaries low, technology influence low
Actual scaries and gore level high

The Rider by Tananarive Due
1960s Freedom Riders
Real world scaries high, technology influence low

The Aesthete by Justin C. Key
Spectators watching daily lives of humanoids
Real world scaries low, technology influence high


Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor
Something came home with a woman after a funeral
Real world scaries medium, technology influence high

Flicker L. D. Lewis
A woman starts seeing a black spot in her vision and then it really escalated.
Real world scaries medium, technology influence medium-high

A Grief of The Dead by Rion Amilcar Scott
Crazy bird things and people who don’t stay dead
Real world scaries high, technology influence medium

A Bird Sings by The Etching Tree by Nicole D. Sconiers
Spanning from 1993 -Present two girls try to cause car accidents
Real world scaries low, but medium to high if you think about some of the dialogue a little longer, technology influence low

Hide and Seek by P. Djeli Clark
Two brothers play hide and seek with their mom
Real world scaries medium-high, technology influence low

Origin Story by Tochi Onyebuchi
Set like a play 4 “White Boys” chat about their roles in the play
Real world scaries medium, technology influence low


Tw: racism, homophobia, themes of colonialism, gore, mentions of suicide, suicide ideation, death of a loved one

Thanks to publisher and NetGalley for e-arc.

This was an amazing collection. I can't say every story was a five star, but more were exceptional than not. Even those that didn't quite work for me still managed to explore real world issues in a unique way within the horror genre. To me, that is horror at its peak.

Absolutely stellar collection of Black voices in horror. Knowing it was curated by Jordan Peele was exciting, he's one of the freshest and most exciting voices in movie and television horror and seeing him turn his eye towards some of my favorite authors while introducing me to new ones, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves horror and wants to see more Black voices in the genre.

I was so excited to read this anthology. As soon as I heard it was Jordan Peele and a bunch of authors I already love, I definitely had high expectations. It started out really strong with N. K. Jemisin's short story, and I also enjoyed a few others throughout, but overall it seemed to lose my interest the farther I got into the book. They were all fine, but the best short stories are definitely put at the front of the collection.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc. I look forward to reading more.

The “Out There Screaming” anthology is an absolute powerhouse of chilling stories by some incredibly talented black authors. Perfectly crafted with Jordan Peele, who is a household name thanks to his incredible storytelling through his films has brought forth a masterpiece. There is something for everyone in this collection from stories of the supernatural, terrifying monsters, horrific sci fi, and cultural folklore there’s a guarantee that there’s a story for everyone in this collection. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to reading this collection!

Really great book with amazing characters and a great plot. Was easy to get into and it was very engaging. This is a book that I can see a lot of people of horror enjoying.

Really solid anthology - cohesive but with a lot of variety. Favorites were probably "Dark Home", "the Most Strongest Obeah Woman", and "Origin Story."

Out There Screaming was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 and one of the most disappointing. While I enjoyed some of the short horror stories, most fell flat. This anthology would have been better off marketed as a speculative fiction collection because that's what it felt more like.

Either way, I've discovered a few new authors in the horror genre (mainly the lesser known authors understood the assignment!) which means this wasn't a total waste!

I started this book in August and finished it now in December. Based off that, it sounds like I didn’t enjoy this and that’s not the case! I’ve just been in a severe book slump (not because of this book though). I enjoyed these stories, some more than others of course as expected.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book!

Actually quite a strong anthology. You always expect some sort of range in the quality of stories of an anthology like this that's pulling together varied authors under a somewhat broad overarching theme, but the range here works, oscillating between weird fiction, traditional horror, and beyond.

Out There Screaming is another of my favourite anthologies of 2023. 

It contains stories by popular Black authors and new writers, in a wonderful mix of subgenres. 

We have some historical horror, sci-fi, weird fiction, comedy, and one story written as a play. The stories are creepy and demanding of the reader, thoughtful and bizarre at times.

My personal favourites were: 

Reckless Eyeballing by N.K. Jemisin
Wandering Devil by Cadwell Turnbull
The Other One by Violet Allen
The Rider by Tananarive Due
Flicker by L.D. Lewis
Origin Story by Tochi Onyebuchi

Not every story was to my taste, but the standouts were wonderful and will stick with me a long time.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for my review copy of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this overall, and I don’t think there was one bad story in the bunch. Per usual when reading any anthology there are stories I like more than others, but I remained engaged throughout the entire book. In my opinion, Out There Screaming is a wonderful mix of horror, science fiction, lore, and social commentary told from the perspective of Black experiences. These stories let us briefly glimpse into dealing with death, grief, racism, technology, and spirituality through their eyes.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary book to read and review in exchange for my honest opinion. #NetGalley

This anthology was a mixed bag of hit or miss, with the majority being either underwhelming, lacking in plot or just not my preferred writing style. The ones I did enjoy were new to me authors that I will be seeking out to read more of their work.
The favorite stories were “Eye & Tooth”, “The Other One” and “The Rider”.

Overall, a solid anthology but not one I’d be recommending to others as a whole.

It is definitely hard to write a review of an anthology because inevitably, some stories are going to work more for you than others.

For me, this collection had more misses for me than hits - I think I expected a bit more on the horror side of things, and was left wanting more scares from most of the stories. I also feel like the length was a little intense; I had a really hard time finishing this because there were so many stories, and as I said, a lot of them didn’t work for what I was in the mood for.

With that said, I did find quite a few new authors through this collection - I look forward to reading their novels!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

Overall this was a great collection of stories. My scores were highly skewed towards 4 & 5 stars. The writing was excellent throughout all stories and the only 1* I gave out was because I really didn’t understand what was going on but I think if you understood, you’d like it (not meant for me and that’s ok 🙂).

I was really happy to see authors that I already had on my TBR list (N.K. Jemisen, Tananarive Due, P. Djeli Clark) and now I have some new ones to add.

Favourite stories:

- The Other One
- Lasirén
- Dark Home
- Flicker
- A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree
- Your Happy Place *** FAVE