I really wanted to love this one but unfortunately a lot of the stories fell flat for me. There were a few I really enjoyed but it seemed like a lot of the stories felt rushed or ended abruptly. Overall, it was entertaining and a quick read. Definitely good for horror fans, especially teen/YA horror readers.

We love the premise of this one, a collection of short horror stories by well-known YA authors that challenge stereotypes about race, gender, and sexuality. The stories felt very modern, tackling issues we read about in the headlines every day—climate change, privilege, sexual violence—and universal emotions like fear and anger, especially in the face of injustice and oppression. We liked some stories better than others (“The Golden Dragon” and “Docile Girls” were our favorites), but we think there is something here for everyone: the stories present a wide range of situations and voices that will appeal to a wide range of students.

For students who like horror, there’s a lot of gore and creepiness (and plenty of supernatural creatures), and the settings include a circus, a hedge maze, a suburban home with no parents for the weekend, a haunted house, a dystopian world covered in water, a high school gymnasium, and a creepy basement (to name a few).

This collection is probably most appropriate for older teens, given the amount of gore (including cannibalism) and profanity, but it’s a little hard to make recommendations about what’s appropriate in the horror genre given that the point of it is to be scared, creeped out, and a little disgusted. Students who watch a lot of horror movies already will find it right in line with what they’re used to; those who are just sampling the genre might want to stick to the options we’ve identified as appropriate for middle school students.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Tor Teen for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

(3.5 stars, rounded up in an acknowledgement that this is not my personally preferred genre!)

Review will be posted on https://threeheads.works/category/blog/ya-books/ on April 8.

Fantastic horror anthology. YA readers craving stories that are actually creepy and scary will love this book. There was great variety among the stories and I appreciated that the authors came from a good range of POC backgrounds. Highly recommend.

Such a fun read! 13 scary stories from 13 authors of color covering a full gambit of existential horror to the good old fashion slasher. Highly recommend !

I received this as an ARC - thank you for the opportunity to review.

Since this is a collection of short stories, my rating is the overall review of them. There are obviously some stories that I enjoyed more than others. I am not typically a reader of this genre, but having it broken down in short stories made it easy to read. I could get through one or more stories as I wanted or as time allowed.

I definitely recommend this book, especially to those like me, who don't read this usually.

A wonderfully delicious anthology that left me wanting MORE (positive connotation) the editors did an exceptional job of gathering the best of the best for this anthology and I can’t wait to have my own hard copy!

Thanks so much to Tor Teen for the review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review❤️

5.0⭐️

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a eARC of this novel!

The white guy dies first Hass to be one of my favorite anthology books I have ever read. This story takes classic horror movie tropes and turns them on their head. We all know in most horror, movies, and novels. The white guy is always the one that lives and gets away with everything but in these stories, it’s different. we get to see people of color, and queer people win and become leaders of their own stories, which is what drew me into this book so much. This anthology had an A-list cast of authors, which made it even more fantastic!

My two favorite stories were Docile girls by Chloe Gong and Best served by H.E. Edgmon. Docile girls stood out to me and became one of my favorites because obviously it’s written by the incredible Chloe gong but also it gives a new twist and intriguing storyline to a locked room, murder mystery which who doesn’t love. Best served cold became my other favorite, because it was the one that spooked and creeped me out the most. The author had a way of seeking the cold into your bones and keeping it there who knew writing could give you the heebie-jeebies so much.

I love some more than others, but each one was exciting to read, and had me rooting for the main characters even though I probably shouldn’t have because they were committing some crazy things! Each story was so different and impressively creative. You had some supernatural, some science fiction and some just straight up murder!

All Eyes on Me 3/5
Hedge 3/5
The Golden Dragon 4/5
Best Served Cold 5/5
The Protégé 3/5
Docile Girls 5/5
Gray Grove 4/5
Everything’s Coming Up Roses 4/5
Heaven 3/5
Break through Our Skin 1/5
wasps 2.5/5
Hell Is Other Demons 3.5/5
The Road to Hell 3.5/5

This YA horror anthology was sick. As the title states, the white guy dies first, literally. He dies first in every story. These stories are written by some top tier authors and they are so diverse. Every story was a unique experience.

A lot of the stories reminded me of Are You Afraid of the Dark and Goosebumps episodes, but much more mature and gory.

I’m going to review my favorite stories below:

All Eyes on Me by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé was about clowns (which we can all unanimously agree are horrifying) and it had a lot of build up, but the ending of the story fell very flat for me. I liked it, and enjoyed the sexuality and identity exploration, but I wanted more. This was such a fresh take on a clown story, so it got bonus points for ingenuity.

Hedge by Kalynn Bayron was genuinely creepy & I liked it a lot. Such a unique story about plants. I know that sounds odd and short, but trust me. It was insane.

The Golden Dragon by Kendare Blake was also great. I loved this Korean feminine rage story, and it even made me laugh at some points. The entire story was entertaining (and dark) from start to finish.

Best Served Cold by H.E. Edgmon was an indigenous story and soooo disgusting, but well done. Absolutely disturbing. I liked it lol. I cannot guarantee everyone will like it, but it sent chills down my spine and shocked me.

The Protege by Lamar Giles was wilddddd. It’s a magician story so it made me think about the episodes in Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark with magicians, but this was so much darker than I expected. This story was intense and very fast paced. It had me on the edge of my seat and freaked me out a bit!

Docile Girls by Chloe Gong was SO FUN. It’s a locked room murder mystery about an Asian girl who is stuck with her boyfriend who dumped her and the friends who exiled her from their friend group. As head of the dance committee, she’s forced to spend a few hours one night with them decorating the school for the upcoming dance. However, things do not go as planned when kids start getting murdered. This was fairly predictable, but definitely had some twists that were crazy!

Gray Grove by Alexis Henderson is about two friends who are vlogging in an abandoned plantation and things become sinister as they’re filming. Eery, poignant, and packs a punch.

Everything’s Coming Up Roses by Tiffany D. Jackson was soooo crazy. This is told in journal entries about an unhinged girl working in a Home Depot who has some obsessive tendencies. This is the shortest story of them all, but it was gripping & disorienting to say the least.

I also really liked Hell is Other Demons by Karen Strong. This is a story about some kids summoning a demon and shit hits the fan FAST. It’s gory, it’s outrageous, and it was clever.

Also special shout out to The Road to Hell by Terry J. Benton-Walker - that was deranged and reminded me of Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey… but this one is best described as “WTF”.

Overall, of the 13 short stories I was really impressed by 10 of them, which is a winner in my book! This is YA so keep in mind that these are all told from a teenager’s perspective and through their eyes. They all explored race, culture, identity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and more. It was full of social commentary and it was a horror delight. I am so glad the white guy died in all the stories!! 😅


Thank you so much NetGalley and Tor Teen for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank You, Net Galley and Tor Publishing Group, for my early copy of "The White Guy Dies First." I am enjoying these spooky stories by my favorite authors. Most of these stories gave me goosebumps, and I try not to read them at night.

This is only my third short story collection and I loved it! The collection of stories by authors that I truly loved was a great read. This book gave me so much thrills and horror but with a little bit a mystery. I was happy to have been given an arc and discover new authors to me. Thank you Netgalley!

I love short stories from different authors. I enjoyed the view point from so many of these authors. There wasn’t a standout story but the quality of the stories was there. As always I took away new to me authors. If I had to pick I loved Alexis Henderson, Chloe gong & TDJ stories.

3.5⭐️

This was a mix of stories I really liked a lot and others that I really didn't. I thought the overall theme of this short story collection was great. I found some new to me authors that I'd like to read from again.

I have provided mini reviews of each story below.

┊All Eyes on Me 4⭐️
I really thought this one actually would have been fantastic as a literary story. The horror piece felt a bit forced In. I would read this one in a longer format.

┊Hedge 5⭐️
This was my favorite. Reminded me of the ring or the grudge.

┊The Golden Dragon: 2⭐️
This one didn't really resonate with me.

┊Best Served Cold: 4⭐️
This one was so horrific and I will be thinking about this one for a long time. Cannibalism and lgbqt representation.

┊The Protégé: 4⭐️
This was a fun fantasy horror story With magic and cults. It was a great time.

┊Docile Girls: 2⭐️
I barely remember this one. It didn't really stand out,

┊Gray Grove : 4⭐️
I really liked this podcast ghost hunter like story. Fun with lore.

┊Everything’s Coming Up Roses: 3⭐️
I really enjoyed the writing style of this one with journal entries and the revel at the end.

┊Heaven: 1⭐️
I really didn't enjoy this one sadly. I couldn't connect with horror in heaven.

┊Break Through Our Skin: 4⭐️

┊Wasps: 3⭐️
I enjoyed the paranormal elements of this story. The wasp detail was terrifying.

┊Hell is Other Demons : 2.5⭐️
Demon possession and a job working in hell.

┊The Road to Hell : 3⭐️
Writing style and pov was tough for me. But it was an interesting take.

Thank you to NetGalley and TOR for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

Overall, this anthology was okay.
I will be honest and say that the I judged the book by its cover and wanted to dive into the anthology.


The standouts that I enjoyed the most were these short stories:
Ghoulfriends Online Blog by Terry J. Benton-Walker
All Eyes on Me by Farida Ábíké-Íyímídé
Hedge by Kaylynn Baylon
Wasps by Mark Oshiro

(2 stars ★)

that was interesting 😭 i don't usually venture into horror/comedy so i can't really formulate that much of an opinion, but the golden dragon short story by kendara blake (sisters helping each other get revenge) and docile girls by chloe gong were my favourites. it's refreshing to not see poc characters getting killed off first.

Because this is a collection of short stories, it's a bit difficult to really give it a solid rating so I'm going to break down my ratings for each individual story and then give an "overall" rating at the end from averaging all of them. So let's start!

This collection of stories is based in the terrible history of horror cinema (books as well) killing off the black or even any person of color first or second. They're always seen as castoff characters and it's happened so often that it's become a "joke" and a stereotype in horror. I love that this decides to flip that around and do things differently.

This won't have spoilers, but know it will be referencing the person who died vaguely because it's literally called "The White Guy Dies First" so we know that someone dies in all of the stories.

1. All Eyes on Me - 3 stars - This one started off really good and had fun writing, but I ended up not loving the morality of the ending. This story follows our main character who feels trapped in her current relationship with a racist boyfriend who clearly undervalues her for who she is. She ends up attending a circus with him and events unfold from there.
I normally love my heroine in a horror movie to overcome things and have righteous vengeance, but I feel kind of weird about the vengeance in this one. He definitely deserves some major retribution, but I don't know if to the extent that happened. I just felt a bit weird about this one.

2. Hedge - 1 star - Yikes. This pretty much just confirmed that me and Kalynn Bayron are not meant to be as reader and writer. This is following our main character whose father died a few years ago in mysterious and grostesque circumstances. He ends up tagging along with his brother and his brother's friends to the place where the father died. Strange things happen from there.
This is definitely one I feel like doesn't belong in this collection? That may just be more, but this felt out of place and was just a misery to read. I think horror fans who don't mind depressing endings will potentially be a fan of this. I like some sort of hope so this isn't the one for me.

3. The Golden Dragon - 5 stars - NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. This was literally everything I wanted from this collection. This is following our main character who is Korean American and she works at her parents Chinese restaurant. She's made friends with a group of racist white people who can't tell or don't care to tell the difference between difference asian races. Her sister is really skeptical of the group and is always telling her that the friends and her boyfriend are just using her. One night she goes with her friends to a garden or something similar and events happen at that point.
This was the retribution I was waiting for and I'm completely obsessed with this story. I loved the creepy horror aspects and the twist at the end (even though it was kind of obvious). It was just absolutely perfect for this type of collection.

4. Best Served Cold - 1 star - Well we are back to a style of horror that I'm not a fan of. I do love the writing style of this one and I love that it's following a Native American MC. This is following our main character who is trying to reconnect with her heritage. She has a good relationship with her brother who is in a situationship/friendship with this perfect looking white guy that our MC is a little suspicious of. One night her car breaks down and unexpected things happen.
Again, I liked the writing and the general story, but it was grotesque. Like was making me physically ill reading. I also, again, hate hopeless endings and this one had a final twist I didn't love. I think I would have put this higher if the ending had been different.

5. The Protege - 2 stars - At this point in the collection, I'm just exhausted. None of these stories were exactly what I was picturing and this one, again, just didn't hit. This is another one where I loved the beginning. This has such a cool and creepy premise and the writing was great that I was totally drawn into the story until it got weird. This is following our main character who is a kid learning magic from his neighbor. The neighbor ends up leaving a box with the boy and the box causes problems to arise and changes his life forever.
This one honestly just got super weird at the end. I didn't love what happened after we found out what was in the box. It was unexpected and not in the best way. Again, another one that felt like everyone was being punished. I'm starting to think at this point that maybe horror anthologies are also not for me.

6. Docile Girls - 4 stars - Okay so this was basically the first story, but more slasher so I ended up liking this one way better. I think the first story was a bit underdeveloped so it just didn't hit as hard as this one. This is definitely the definition of a slasher and fit soooo well into this collection. It was very on-the-nose. This is following our MC who has just been dumped by her uber popular boyfriend, turning her into a social outcast. She refuses to be defeated so ends up going to help set up for a school event when they're all suddenly locked inside. Bodies start dropping one by one and one of them has to be the killer.
I really think this one just worked so well because it's my exact horror style that I like. The heroine gets her revenge and the bad guys go down. I also just generally enjoy the slasher genre more than other genres in horror. It worked really well and I liked how it was written and the characters were developed.

7. Gray Grove - 2 stars - I kind of just don't get this one? It feels so incomplete and random. I think this one would have made for a good novella, but it felt underdeveloped and not finished as a short story. This one is following our MC who is one part of a podcast duo. Rumi is more of the behind the scenes person and does all the heavy lifting. Her and Kaitlin go to a plantation to tell the story of Kyle who died in the marsh after attacking William, a black boy he'd been bullying. Rumi and Kaitlin have a difference in opinion about what should be on the podcast and there are repercussions.
I really liked the story until the end wasn't actually an end. This almost felt like a free sample from Amazon of a book where you can read the first three pages and then you get the whole book. I do love the social commentary and it brings up the issues of having weddings on plantations and it's discussed in a very short and direct way that really makes you think about it. But... that ending? It just didn't really feel thought out.

8. Everything's Coming Up Roses - 5 stars – Wow wow wow. This one was honestly phenomenal and it even had tropes that I hate and I still loved it. This short story tells the plot through a series of diary entries that are in evidence for some sort of crime. We meet our main character who is an 18 kid who is dealing with some difficult mental health issues. Slowly as we read we learn more and more about the situation.
I literally can’t say anything else because it’s a creeping dread story so I definitely don’t want to give anything away. This was phenomenal. It really makes me want to read a full length novel by Tiffany D. Jackson. This was just so well done and I can’t say enough great things about this one.

9. Heaven – 4 stars – This reminded me so much of parts of Annihilation. This is following our main character who lives in a place called Heaven that is a locked area that holds the last of humanity after the Sunken occurred. Our MC’s girlfriend goes missing and he decides he needs to search for her and uncovers a long-kept secret.
This was so unique compared to the other stories in the collection. I really wasn’t expecting it and this is straight up horror Sci-Fi. It was just so interesting and I didn’t see where the story was going. This was a really good surprise

10. Break Through Our Skin – 1 star – This is a no from me. This was a really gory story that just didn’t work for me. This is following our MC who is struggling with being a transgender individual in a society that degrades people like them. They’re not currently out and struggle with that throughout the story. They are currently working for an archeologist who is bigoted and racist in his beliefs, which our MC just deals with to get a good recommendation. When the museum gets a prestigious new artifact, a new world opens up.
There was so much I wanted to like about this story, but none of it ended up working for me when put all together. I like the representation of a trans character in this collection and I loved the countdown and what the countdown ended up standing for. Other than those two things, this story was unbearable. Everyone, including our MC, was beyond frustrating and it was just hard to read about any of the characters. It was also just really gory and made my stomach turn a few times. I wasn’t expecting this collection to be so graphic since it’s labeled as YA.

11. Wasps – 4 stars – This was a really good one and another that I feel fits super well into this collection. This is following our MC who is currently dealing with her and her mother’s home being taken away by a neighbor. They’re constantly working to cover legal bills while also protecting the home from the neighbor breaking in. Our MC notices a break in and begins to act a bit strangely.
This was so good and I was rooting so hard for the MC. This is definitely a comeuppance story and it’s very unique with the method. This is one that I would love to become a full length story or a novella. There’s such a cool history behind the story that obviously wasn’t explored.

12. Hell is Other Demons – 1 star – This is actually my least favorite of all of the stories just because it was easily the worst written. It was so choppy and felt as if this were a first draft of some sort of fanfiction. This is following our MC who gets dragged into being part of a summoning of a demon by her friend’s boyfriend and honestly I don’t think I could tell you the rest of the plot because I kept zoning out. That’s how bad the writing was. It just didn’t feel edited and was so weird to read.

13. The Road to Hell – 5 stars – I’m obsessed. This was genius for a story idea and that the collection ended with this. I’m not sure it 100% wrapped up the collection since it was more of a haunted house story than a “White Guy Dies First” story, but it was by far the coolest one and totally different than anything I’ve read. This is following our MC who is actually the haunted house. We learn everything from the house’s perspective and it’s literally so cool to see how the house got haunted and how it feels about situations and it slowly descending into madness. I loved it. I’m obsessed. This worked so well as a short story. I think this in long-form would have gotten boring, so this was perfect.

I was actually surprised that I liked the stories in this immensely more than I thought I would. Surprisingly enough for the intended audience, this had a good bit of gore and the stories were pretty great. This will be out in July, and it should definitely be on your TBR.

Thanks to Netgalley and TOR Teen for this ARC!

Buddy read with Zana

➡Black History Month

➡The Diverse Baseline

August Prompt B: An anthology by BIPOC authors

1. Ghoulfriends Online Blog by Terry J. Benton-Walker ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Zana found this blog a little cheesy, but I was very much into it. I'm a terrible person, and I find unfunny things very funny. Or the rest of your humor is wrong.

2. All Eyes on Me by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé ⭐⭐⭐⭐

While I loved this from the start, the ending nearly ruined it for me.

Helen reminds me a lot of my younger self. Maybe myself right now. I wouldn't like to unpack that. Her boyfriend, and the inner monologue she has with herself while trying to break up with him, gives me PTSD.

In what world is Hel a nickname for Helen?

If I lived in a place called Nowhere, I'd leave, too.

3. Hedge by Kalynn Bayron ⭐⭐⭐

Teenage boys are so sad. Not that men are much better, in my experience. Boohoo.

4. The Golden Dragon by Kendare Blake ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story is about two Korean American sisters whose parents own an American Chinese restaurant. Racism abounds.

Sophie has started hanging out with the in crowd, a group of rich, white, entitled brats. One of them in particular has been paying close attention to her, and she is basking in it. Her sister tries to warn her off, but she doesn't listen.

I guessed the ending, but I'm a petty bitch and enjoyed the hell out of it, so whatever.

5. Best Served Cold by H.E. Edgmon ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hannibal would be proud. IYKYK

6. The Protégé by Lamar Giles ⭐

Respectfully, what the fuck was that?

This was boring. Then it got weird. Then it made no sense.

7. Docile Girls by Chloe Gong ⭐⭐

As I have dnf every Chloe Gong book I have ever tried, I knew this would be a difficult read for me. We don't vibe.

To the people that feed their dogs and treat them better than their skin children, fuck you. I'll be over on /dogfree.

Looking back, mainly at myself, but also at these shorts, every WMAF relationship is making me cringe. I'm also mortally offended.

8. Gray Grove by Alexis Henderson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

To the people that look at the past and let racism slide, just because it was "the times," fuck you.

Being new to the South would suck. The weather. The allergies. The humidity. To be fair, I'm from there, and hate all of the above. But it would suck.

I'm tired of reading about jellyfish.

Another thing that mortally offends me is people getting married in former plantation houses. Like, just don't.

9. Everything's Coming Up Roses by Tiffany D. Jackson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm fucked up. I'm not usually into epistolary style stories, but this was my favorite of the bunch as of yet. I will never look at gardening the same.

I thought this girl was just weird, but damn, the vibes are wrong with this one. I laughed so hard. The protagonist actually reminds me of a really obnoxious reviewer here. IYKYK

10. Heaven by Adiba Jaigirdar ⭐⭐⭐

I call this one Mermaid Necromancy, which is not a spoiler, because it's obviously not exactly that, but kind of. Dystopian worlds are hit or miss, but keep in mind, the government is always keeping secrets!

As someone who grew up Catholic, I am triggered that this city is called Heaven, and that there are gates to get in.

11. Break Through Our Skin by Naseem Jamnia ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We've got racist white professors, deadnaming, and overprotective parents. What could go wrong with a school named the Oriental Institute?

I love when white men mansplain my culture to me. Thank you. I had no idea. Even worse is when they try to break out in my native language, and pronounce it so horribly I have zero idea what they're trying to say. At this point, I should just stop asking. I'm uninterested in this attention.

And I'm not usually one for unwillingly given sacrifices, but in this case, eat up.

12. wasps by Mark Oshiro ⭐⭐⭐

The gentrification is strong in this one. It's easy to argue both sides of the gentrification war. On one side, people deserve affordable housing, especially if they're the ones that lived in and built the neighborhood. On the other side, do I get excited to see a new hot yoga studio and juice spot? Guilty.

The anger quickly turned to surprise as this got a little more Stephen King than I was expecting. I enjoy sentient things.

13. Hell Is Other Demons by Karen Strong ⭐⭐⭐⭐

As an atheist, this spoke to me. I grew up Catholic, and the idea of Heaven and Hell are so ingrained in you to make you behave that it makes me sick. I like the lore here that there are other places to go to. Surely the afterlife, if it exists, is not as binary as American politics.

14. The Road to Hell by Terry J. Benton-Walker ⭐⭐⭐

I always enjoy an interesting POV, and this was interesting. The Shining level interesting. Book, not movie.

15. Epilogue ⭐⭐⭐

Related to the prologue, but infinitely shorter. It's fine.

Hit or miss collection. I really liked the opening, but found the next couple pieces to be lackluster. Some standouts existed, but overall, an uneven anthology. I do like the concept that these are the missing pieces written by the interns, though, as it adds another layer.

Described as 13 scary series. 13 authors of color. 13 times we survived the first kill.

With an anthology of short horror stories, you inevitably have some you gravitate towards or enjoy more than others. From the circus, condemned gardens, haunted/magical houses, ancient artifacts, and demon summoning, there's something for most horror afficionados

Some standouts include: All Eyes on Me; Docile Girls; Wasps; Hell is Other Demons; and The Road to Hell. There was a bit too much body horror some stories for me personally, but I appreciated the variety and flow of this anthology.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group for an egalley on NetGalley.

As with every short story anthology, I liked many of them and disliked many of them. My absolute favourite one was "The Golden Dragon" by Kendare Blake! It was really well done and I liked the sister relationship a lot.

The enjoyed the ones at the beginning a lot more than the end. These stories are also really gory and I think for a YA title that should be a bit clearer on the back of the novel.

This was a really great collection that I can't wait to recommend to people!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending this to me in advance.