Hello and welcome to The Black Experience 2.0: Giving White Comfort The Backseat.
The Black Experience 2.0 is the second edition of The Black Experience which was held last year in February. The Black Experience is a month long blog series held in honour of Black History Month, which features Black authors and Black bookish content creators and aims at highlighting Black stories and experiences.
TBE 2.0 is especially about giving Black people the space to be fully them and share their stories while centring themselves and their experience of Blackness and without care for the white gaze.
Today on TBE 2.0, author Amber McBride(she/her) talks about Hoodoo/Rootwork, the problem with mainstream exploitation of Hoodoo and some book recommendations that incorporate rootwork, in the first post in the subsegment Black Magic.
(Black Magic is a sub segment of TBE 2.0 with the contributions of authors and bloggers recommending books by Black authors. With the exception of Hoodoo, Black Magic is a sub series of recommendation list)
HOODOO – ROOTWORK – BLACK MAGIC
To put it simply Hoodoo, also known as Rootwork or Conjure, is an African American magic system that arose in the Americas after enslaved Africans were stolen from their homelands and stripped of their way of life. Hoodoo and its many practices are as unique as regions in North and South America, but the pillars of Hoodoo include—the elevation of ancestors, knowledge of and working with herbs, roots, candles, sticks and bones, oneness with nature and balance.
Hoodoo unlike Voodoo is not a religion rather a series of rituals and traditions that when applied properly can bring good fortune and ward off bad energies. Many enslaved African Americans were not permitted to practice the religions/traditions of their homelands and therefore many elements of Hoodoo were hidden in plain sight. This is why often Hoodoo uses Bible verses or psalms in tandem with many spells.
Those who practice Hoodoo have an enormous respect for nature and therefore all herbs and roots should be sourced ethically. If a particular root is rare or going extinct it is important to find a substitute. Tree bark should not be continuously taken from the same tree. Any bones used should come from animals that have already passed on. Furthermore, as articulated in Sticks, Stones and Bones by Stephanie Rose Bird, metals (silver, copper, lead, iron) often share similar properties to bones and can be used as replacements.
In recent years Hoodoo has been exploited by mainstream media. Often linked to Voodoo or Witchcraft. It is easy to see the similarities, but these practices are each unique and should be respected for their profound differences.
The problem with Hoodoo being seen as something new and profitable by the mainstream is that shops sell products that are not ethically sourced and therefore carry bad charges. If the roots, oils, candles are not carrying the right energies more harm than good can be done. In short, capitalism got its hands on Hoodoo and went wild.
Hoodoo’s links to African and African American ancestors make it a uniquely African American practice. With this said, Hoodoo does borrow and give to many traditions, including Native American rituals. Many belief systems around the world that utilize storytelling, respect for ancestors and admiration of nature have similarities to Hoodoo. These practices have conversations with each other, but nuance is important when learning and respecting any belief system in and of itself.
I am not here to say that only people of African descent can practice Hoodoo, but an extensive knowledge of African and African American traditions is needed to practice it in any substantial regard.
Practicing Hoodoo is different for each Conjurer or Rootworker, but respect for the ancestors and the living world around you is of paramount importance.
Twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher was born into a family with a rich tradition of practicing folk magic: hoodoo, as most people call it. But even though his name is Hoodoo, he can’t seem to cast a simple spell.—HMH Books
This book gives a comprehensive overview of Hoodoo/Rootwork and the importance of sticks, stones and bones in the practice. It is an excellent introduction into Hoodoo.
Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted. Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.—Macmillan
Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.—Simon and Schuster
About Amber McBride
Amber McBride is an English professor at the University of Virginia. She also low key practices Hoodoo and high key devours books (150 or so a year keep her well fed). In her spare time she enjoys pretending it is Halloween everyday, organizing her crystals, watching K-dramas and accidentally scrolling through TikTok for 3 hours at a time. She believes in ghosts and she believes in you.
Hello and welcome to The Black Experience 2.0: Giving White Comfort The Backseat.
The Black Experience 2.0 is the second edition of The Black Experience which was held last year in February. The Black Experience is a month long blog series held in honour of Black History Month, which features Black authors and Black bookish content creators and aims at highlighting Black stories and experiences.
TBE 2.0 is especially about giving Black people the space to be fully them and share their stories while centring themselves and their experience of Blackness and without care for the white gaze.
Today on TBE 2.0, horror author, Sylvester Barzey (he/him), talks about the alienation of Black people and Black characters in modern horror and the whitewashing of the genre.
For those of you that don’t know, I’m a horror addict. My love is for everything and anything that falls within the genre, so much so that I started writing within the genre. I didn’t go with haunted houses or serial killers; I went with a section of the genre that I believed was open-minded and accepting to BIPOC within the fan base. I became a post-apocalyptic zombie author and boy was I ever wrong about my beloved genre.
Now, you might say, but Sylvester you silly goose you’re Black, the horror genre has no safe place for you. Normally you would be right, Black voices within the horror genre are non-existent but I feel like they have grown and will continue to grow, but I wasn’t going after the whole genre. I wasn’t trying to take Karen and Ken’s bloody basket and run with it. I stepped into a genre that I believed would be safer for minorities because minorities built the genre.
Look at any zombie author or writer and they will normally cite Night of The Living Dead as the reason they got into the genre, a movie made by George A. Romero (son of a Lithuanian mother and Spanish father) starring Duane Jones (son of a strong Black woman) these two New Yorkers made the movie that became the foundation for the modern zombie genre. So, I assumed the genre was in fact safe and used to minorities within the house they built. What I didn’t factor in is throughout the years since Romero and Jones gave us Ben in Night of The Living Dead, the White fan base has slowly removed strong minorities from the head of the genre to side characters. Most zombie books now have White, ex-military or survivalist major characters who come across a minority in their journey, but you can really only tell they’re a minority by whatever stereotype the authors threw in.
If you look at the Amazon charts for zombie fiction, you see very little non-White characters and writers. Romero the man that people praise for giving birth to the genre had Strong Black Leads in all three of his Dead movies and a Strong Black Villain in his fourth but somehow his fan base didn’t get the memo of this being a trope within the genre. Which is hard to understand because every other horror genre seems to rehash their tropes to death, but having a strong Black character was just one that the zombie genre left in the past, no matter how hard its creator tried to include Black actors?
Now, while many people have modeled their worlds or used Romero’s groundbreaking film as inspiration, few have adapted the use of Strong Black Leads within their worlds. There are some exceptions such as LT Warren in Z Nation and Michonne in The Walking Dead, but given the gap between 1968 and the creation of those characters, you would think there would be many more examples.
Let’s look at some modern examples of how White creators have pushed Black characters to the side in the zombie genre. We consider the Walking Dead the revitalization of the zombie genre, and Robert Kirkman himself has said the comic series was like a love letter to Romero’s Night of The Living Dead, so much so that Kirkman was going to use the same name. While Kirkman pays a lot of tributes to Romero’s creation in his comics, none are strong Black characters until later on in the series when we meet characters like Tyrese & Michonne. The first Black characters we meet are Morgan and his son, but they’re mainly a plot device to explain the issues in that universe. Kirkman’s introduction of Morgan is far from what Romero did with Ben.
The Walking Dead show was even worse for Black characters. They stripped most of the ones that came from the comics of everything that made them great, iconic scenes were cut or given to other characters. Then came the running joke that there could only be one Black male on the show at a time, because of the older Black character being killed off once they introduce a newer one.
It seems when something becomes successful off of the help and labor of minorities; the concept is white washed and replaced with white characters. Is it because the creators are just writing what they know? Or do they buy into the excuse that Black led stories won’t sell? 28 Days Later kick started a zombie craze. The key characters were a White Male and Black female. Now after the success of that project you would think they wouldn’t mess with the formula much, but in 28 Weeks Later we follow a White family as they try to overcome the apocalypse. What happened to the minor representation they had before? Who sat down and decided they wanted to remove one whole element that reaches a whole other fan base?
The Whitewashing of the genre isn’t just in Hollywood movies, but all throughout zombie media. The need to include themselves within the genre has slowly polarized it to the minority community. Now when people think about zombies and the apocalypse it’s a picture of a white survivor overcoming extreme odds but there were no more extreme odds than Ben, a Black man in the 60s trying to take control of a situation from a White man, while the dead surrounded them.
I know a handful of BIPOC within the zombie genre and when it comes time for collaborations for anthologies or marketing, it never seems like they involve those BIPOCs. Much like Hollywood’s horror space, I see slow change coming within the zombie genre, but it’s still disheartening that a space minorities built was taken over and now we’re looked at as outsiders, trying to break in. I just want to say on behalf of all zombie BIPOC authors… We’re taking the genre back, one story at a time.
About Sylvester Barzey
Sylvester Barzey is a best selling horror and fantasy author who grew up in Bronx, NY and was later transpalented to Lawrence, GA. A military veteran with an addiction to all things horror, Sylvester’s goal is to shine a spotlight on BIPOC characters within the horror/fantasy genre. You can find Sylvester athttp://www.sylvesterbarzey.com
Hello and welcome to The Black Experience 2.0: Giving White Comfort The Backseat.
The Black Experience 2.0 is the second edition of The Black Experience which held last year in February. The Black Experience is a month long blog series held in honour of Black History Month, which features Black authors and Black bookish content creators and aims at highlighting Black stories and experiences.
TBE 2.0 is especially about giving Black people the space to be fully them and share their stories while centring themselves and their experience of Blackness and without care for the white gaze.
Today on TBE 2.0, I’ll be sharing a list of 21 YA books by Black authors releasing this year.
(21 of 21 is a sub segment of TBE which showcases 21 books by Black authors in different categories releasing in 2021.)
Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike Iyimide
Genre: Thriller
Expected publication date: 1 June (US); 10 June (UK) Blurb:
An incendiary and utterly compelling thriller with a shocking twist that delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism, from an exceptional new YA voice. Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…
The K’sundii royals must prove themselves to the mystical Dragons Kings, and to their people. But time is running out.
Kahmel and Jashi don’t have much time to win over their people by finding the remaining three Dragon Kings and having a fighting chance against the Zendaalans when they go to war. The Courts and the Equalizers are getting tired of warning them against their brazen attitudes, and warnings may soon turn to very real threats.
Jashi is still getting used to her role as Faresha and rebel member, and it doesn’t help that Kahmel has been as distant as ever since they found the first Dragon King. She’s worried it’s because of a gap of trust.
She’s hoping to prove her worth both to the country and herself by doing her part in the research of the dragons and bettering herself as a dragon rider by researching something called the “Drake Bond”.
But she can’t fight the feeling that it won’t be enough.
Felix Ever After meets Becky Albertalli in this swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.
The Hate U Give meets Shadowshaper in Bethany C. Morrow’s A Chorus Rises, a brilliant contemporary fantasy set in the world of A Song Below Water.
Teen influencer Naema Bradshaw has it all: she’s famous, privileged, has “the good hair”— and she’s an Eloko, a person who’s gifted with a song that woos anyone who hears it. Everyone loves her — well, until she’s cast as the awful person who exposed Tavia’s secret siren powers.
Now, she’s being dragged by the media. No one understands her side: not her boyfriend, not her friends, nor her Eloko community. But Naema knows the truth and is determined to build herself back up — no matter what.
When a new, flourishing segment of Naema’s online supporters start targeting black girls, however, Naema must discover the true purpose of her magical voice.
A debut YA novel-in-verse that is both a coming-of-age and a ghost story.
Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted.
Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.
Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable.
Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.
So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C Morrow.
Genre: Historical Fiction/Retellings
Expected publication date: 7 September 2021
Blurb
Four young Black sisters come of age during the American Civil War in So Many Beginnings, a warm and powerful YA remix of the classic novel Little Women by national bestselling author Bethany C. Morrow.
North Carolina, 1863. As the American Civil War rages on, the Freedmen’s Colony of Roanoke Island is blossoming, a haven for the recently emancipated. Black people have begun building a community of their own, a refuge from the shadow of the old life. It is where the March family has finally been able to safely put down roots with four young daughters:
Meg, a teacher who longs to find love and start a family of her own.
Jo, a writer whose words are too powerful to be contained.
Beth, a talented seamstress searching for a higher purpose.
Amy, a dancer eager to explore life outside her family’s home.
As the four March sisters come into their own as independent young women, they will face first love, health struggles, heartbreak, and new horizons. But they will face it all together
A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!
Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.
For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.
So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean “Mercury” Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights — plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.
Until they’re not.
Denver begins to realize that she’s trapped in Merc’s world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.
Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl’s dreams can be used against her — and what it takes to fight back.
In this riveting, keenly emotional debut fantasy, a Black teen from Houston has her world upended when she learns about her godly ancestry–and with evil sinking its claws into humans and gods alike, she’ll have to unearth the magic of her true identity to save both her worlds.
Perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Tomi Adeyemi, and The Hunger Games.
“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders.
Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.
Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghizon—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.
A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes.
She looks me hard in my eyes
& my knees lock into tree trunks
My eyes don’t dance like my heartbeat racing
They stare straight back hot daggers.
I remember things will never be the same.
I remember things.
With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend.
The highly anticipated second—and final—book in the immersive fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore that began with the New York Times bestselling A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, from author Roseanne A. Brown. Perfect for fans of Tomi Adeyemi, Renée Ahdieh, and Sabaa Tahir.
Karina lost everything after a violent coup left her without her kingdom or her throne. Now the most wanted person in Sonande, her only hope of reclaiming what is rightfully hers lies in a divine power hidden in the long-lost city of her ancestors.
Meanwhile, the resurrection of Karina’s sister has spiraled the world into chaos, with disaster after disaster threatening the hard-won peace Malik has found as Farid’s apprentice. When they discover that Karina herself is the key to restoring balance, Malik must use his magic to lure her back to their side. But how do you regain the trust of someone you once tried to kill?
As the fabric holding Sonande together begins to tear, Malik and Karina once again find themselves torn between their duties and their desires. And when the fate of everything hangs on a single, horrifying choice, they each must decide what they value most—a power that could transform the world, or a love that could transform their lives.
A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love—she’ll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.
After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.
Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?
With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.
Jane the Virgin meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in this charming debut romantic comedy filled with Black Girl Magic. Perfect for fans of Mary H. K. Choi and Nicola Yoon, with crossover appeal for readers of Jasmine Guillory and Talia Hibbert romances.
Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She’s rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she’s a true leading lady is in her own writing—in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.
When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first workshop, the words are just…gone. Fortunately, Caroline has a solution: Tessa just needs to find some inspiration in a real-life love story of her own. And she’s ready with a list of romance novel-inspired steps to a happily ever after. Nico, the brooding artist who looks like he walked out of one of Tessa’s stories, is cast as the perfect Prince Charming.
But as Tessa checks off each item off Caroline’s list, she gets further and further away from herself. She risks losing everything she cares about—including the surprising bond she develops with sweet Sam, who lives across the street. She’s well on her way to having her own real-life love story, but is it the one she wants, after all?
A romantic, heart-felt, and whimsical novel about letting go of the past, figuring out what you want in your future, and staying in the moment before it passes you by.
Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant.
He’s ready for his life to finally begin, until one night, when he passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected…in 1969, where he connects with a magnetic boy named Michael.
And then, just as suddenly as he arrived, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect—the ability to time travel. And they’ve tasked their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift.
Andre splits his time bouncing between the past and future. Between Michael and Blake. Michael is everything Andre wishes he could be, and Blake, still reeling from the death of his brother, Andre’s donor, keeps him at arm’s length despite their obvious attraction to each other.
Torn between two boys, one in the past and one in the present, Andre has to figure out where he belongs—and more importantly who he wants to be—before the consequences of jumping in time catch up to him and change his future for good.
This Is Us for teens, this luminous and heartbreaking contemporary novel follows a girl caught between two brothers as the three of them navigate family, loss, and love over the course of two summers. For fans of Far From the Tree, Emergency Contact, and Nina LaCour.
Before she kissed one of the Cohen boys, seventeen-year-old Jessi Rumfield knew what it was like to have a family—even if, technically, that family didn’t belong to her. She’d spent her childhood in the house next door, challenging Rowan Cohen to tennis matches while his older brother, Luke, studied in the background and Mel watched over the three like the mother Jessi always wished she had.
But then everything changed. It’s been almost a year since Jessi last visited the Cohen house. Rowan is gone. Mel is in remission and Luke hates Jessi for the role she played in breaking his family apart. Now Jessi spends her days at a dead-end summer job avoiding her real mother, who suddenly wants to play a role in Jessi’s life after being absent for so long. But when Luke comes home from college, it’s hard to ignore the past. And when he asks Jessi to pretend to be his girlfriend for the final months of Mel’s life, Jessi finds herself drawn back into the world of the Cohens. Everything’s changed, but Jessi can’t help wanting to be a Cohen, even if it means playing pretend for one final summer.
Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing–and what we owe one another.
Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends via Soul Train; Gwin finds salvation in the music of Prince much to her congregation’s dismay and Jesenia, miles ahead of her classmates at her gifted and talented high school, is a brainy and precocious enigma. None of this matters to Boss Man, the monster who abducts them and holds them captive in a dilapidated house in Queens.
On the night they are finally rescued, throngs line the block gawking and claiming ignorance. Among them is lifetime resident Miss Metropolitan, advice columnist for the local weekly, but how could anyone who fancies herself a “newspaperwoman” have missed a horror story unfolding right across the street? And why is it that only two of the three girls—now women—were found? The mystery haunts the two remaining “victim girls” who are subjected to the further trauma of becoming symbols as they continuously adapt to their present and their unrelenting past.
Like Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, Ferrell’s Dear Miss Metropolitan gives voice to characters surviving unimaginable tragedy. Inspired by real events, the story is inventively revealed before, during, and after the ordeal in this singular and urgent novel.
The behind-the-scenes access of Almost Famous meets the searing revelations of #metoo in this story of a teen journalist who uncovers the scandal of the decade.
Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she’s equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She’s got this.
Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie’s world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn’t know whether she’s flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she’s in over her head.
One woman’s account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she’s reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn’t step up, who will?
From the author of Full Disclosure, this is a moving testament to the #MeToo movement, and all the ways women stand up for each other. (less)
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her
Seventeen-year-old Reyna has spent most of her life at her family’s gorgeous seaside resort in Tobago, the Plumeria. But what once seemed like paradise is starting to feel more like purgatory. It’s been two years since Reyna’s mother passed away, two years since Aiden – her childhood best friend, first kiss, first love, first everything – left the island to pursue his music dreams. Reyna’s friends are all planning their futures and heading abroad. Even Daddy seems to want to move on, leaving her to try to keep the Plumeria running.
And that’s when Aiden comes roaring back into her life – as a VIP guest at the resort.
Aiden is now one-third of DJ Bacchanal – the latest, hottest music group on the scene. While Reyna has stayed exactly where he left her, Aiden has returned to Tobago with his Grammy-nominated band and two gorgeous LA socialites. And he may (or may not be) dating one of them…
Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Where the Rhythm Takes You is a romantic, mesmerizing novel of first love and second chances.
A mesmerizing novel in verse about family, identity, and finding yourself in the most unexpected places–for fans of The Poet X, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and Jason Reynolds.
Nima doesn’t feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn’t.
As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn’t give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry.And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else’s. . .she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had.
Nothing short of magic…One of the best writers of our times.– Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times Bestselling author of The Poet X
In this sweeping debut, actress Asha Bromfield takes readers to the heart of Jamaica, and into the soul of a girl coming to terms with her family, and herself, set against the backdrop of a hurricane.
Sometimes the storm is inside of you…
Tilla has spent her entire life trying to make her father love her. But every six months, he leaves their family and returns to his true home: the island of Jamaica.
When Tilla’s mother tells her she’ll be spending the summer on the island, Tilla dreads the idea of seeing him again, but longs to discover what life in Jamaica has always held for him.
In an unexpected turn of events, Tilla is forced to face the storm that unravels in her own life as she learns about the dark secrets that lie beyond the veil of paradise—all in the midst of an impending hurricane.
Hurricane Summer is a powerful coming of age story that deals with colorism, classism, young love, the father-daughter dynamic—and what it means to discover your own voice in the center of complete destruction.
Fans of Netflix’s On My Block, In the Heights, and readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Ibi Zoboi will love this debut novel about a girl whose life is turned upside down after one local act of vandalism throws her relationships and even her neighborhood into turmoil.
Chinelo, or Nelo as her best friend Kate calls her, is all about her neighborhood Ginger East. She loves its chill vibe, ride-or-die sense of community, and her memories of growing up there. Ginger East isn’t what it used to be, though. After a deadly incident at the local arcade, all her closest friends moved away, except for Kate. But as long as they have each other, Nelo’s good.
Only, Kate’s parents’ corner store is vandalized, leaving Nelo shaken to her core. The police and the media are quick to point fingers, and soon more of the outside world descends on Ginger East with promises to “fix” it. Suddenly, Nelo finds herself in the middle of a drama unfolding on a national scale.
Worse yet, Kate is acting strange. She’s pushing Nelo away at the exact moment they need each other most. Nelo’s entire world is morphing into something she hates, and she must figure out how to get things back on track or risk losing everything—and everyone—she loves.
Afternote: There are a lot more than 21 YA books by Black authors coming out this year and for several reasons I can’t include them all on this post.
A good resource for finding YA books by Black authors (releasing this year and anytime) is Melanin in YA. You can follow on Twitter, Instagram and check out their website.
Also, I only included the Amazon links here because it’s a lot easier for me, but if you’re able to, and particularly if you live in the US or UK, do patronise your local indie or check at Bookshop.org and give Black owned bookstores priority (even if you only do this for this month).
I hope you enjoyed this post and see in you in the next one.
Hello and welcome to The Black Experience 2.0: Giving White Comfort The Backseat.
The Black Experience 2.0 is the second edition of The Black Experience which held last year in February. The Black Experience is a month long blog series held in honour of Black History Month, which features Black authors and Black bookish content creators and aims at highlighting Black stories and experiences.
TBE 2.0 is especially about giving Black people the space to be fully them and share their stories while centring themselves and their experience of Blackness and without care for the white gaze.
Today on TBE 2.0, author and bookstagrammer, Viano Oniomoh (she/her) talks about writing for the Black perspective, for yourself and the joy in reading characters just like you.
I remember, clearly, the first time I consumed a piece of media featuring Black MCs front and centre. It was a romance novel published by Harlequin called SAVING GRACE, written by Angela Winters. I recall the slight sense of displacement and disbelief I felt at seeing someone like me not only depicted on the front cover, but proudly and lovingly described within the pages.
In the five years before this moment, I was already an avid reader, ever since I picked up my first romance novel—and first full-length novel in general—at six years old. All the books I’d read focused unsurprisingly on allocishet white characters and experiences. In fact, every single piece of media I engaged with was so saturated with white people and whiteness that when I picked up SAVING GRACE, I refused to believe that that could be my reality; that I could live and love and laugh—that I could simply exist—without changing anything about myself in order to fit into the faux idea of “perfection” white supremacy tried to violently force down my throat.
Predictably, not only did the overabundance of the White ExperienceTM in all the media I consumed affect how I saw and interpreted the world, it also affected my writing.
When I launched my semi-professional writing career on wattpad in 2011, whiteness and white supremacy made me believe that if I wrote books with Black characters and experiences front and centre, no one would want to read them. Whiteness touted itself as The Universal ExperienceTM, and if I dared deviate from that experience, my work would be deliberately vilified and misconstrued; “I can’t relate to this”, “I’m just going to imagine Harry Styles as the MC xD”, “Black people have FEELINGS?”
Fast forward five years later; I’ve joined writer circles on social media (or “book twitter”) in 2016, and slowly, agonisingly, began to wean myself off of the harmful lies I’d subconsciously internalised. I picked up the FIT series by Rebekah Weatherspoon in my early days on book twitter, and was brought nearly to tears when I saw a close reflection of myself in those pages. Unlike my first experience with Black representation, I was now in a position where I could recognise how harmful white supremacy had been to my perception of myself and my worldview.
But even as I grew hungry for more of the euphoria I felt at seeing myself represented, the fear of reducing, decentring, or even completely eradicating whiteness from my works lingered pervasively. It was only as I began to practically drown myself in arts and literature that were unflinchingly Black, that I began to question why it was so important to cater to whiteness in my work. Whiteness certainly didn’t need me to help flaunt its supremacy, so why did I need its “support”, or exist in fear of its condemnation?
At this point something in me just—snapped. The whiteness of it all became so overwhelming, so frustrating, so damn exhausting, that I decided I just did not care anymore.
Whiteness asks why a Black author would choose to make a main character Black, but doesn’t offer the same uncouth courtesy to their white counterparts. A Black author who writes books with ONLY Black MCs is seen as having “an agenda”, meanwhile Karen McKaren can write twenty books featuring the same pale skinned, red haired and blue eyed MC, and no one will bat an eyelash.
Whiteness will make you believe that no one but white people or white-centred experiences can be multifaceted. A book about Black joy is seen as unrealistic because whiteness has stated that pain and suffering is the One and Only Black Experience.
Whiteness was doing so damn much, I decided I no longer wanted any part of it.
No longer will I “stop describing skin colour” because it makes white people uncomfortable. No longer will I downplay my language and culture, because white people just wouldn’t understand. No longer will I write a single white character ever again, because a cast full of POC just might feel “alienating”. No longer will I cater to whiteness, both in my works, and in the way I live my life.
I write now for the eleven-year-old me who picked up her first book featuring two unapologetic Black MCs loving each other, and couldn’t believe she could possibly be depicted in a romance, because whiteness told her that Black people weren’t built for love. I write for the seventeen-year-old me who was afraid to write even one unapologetically Black MC, because whiteness told her no one would “relate” to that.
I decided that whiteness would take the back seat. In fact, whiteness could go right ahead and get out of the damn car. Because for every ONE story written for, by, and about Black people, there would always be thousands written to cater to the white gaze.
Why did I need to be one of the thousands, when I could be part of the one?
About Viano Oniomoh
Viano Oniomoh is a passionate reader and writer, who was born and raised in Nigeria. She spends fifty percent of her time writing, forty percent reading, and the other ten listening to BTS. She may or may not use magic to get everything else in her life done. She also has no idea how to write about herself in the third person.
Stay in touch with Viano via her social media pages:
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” has to be the worst advice I’ve heard especially when it’s taken quite literally… in literature (i know that was a good one).
Hello and welcome to By The Cover! By The Cover is a small (I do think for now) blog series about book covers and the books they represent, because the truth is covers do represent books. Book covers are the face of books, like how you have a person or group of people as the face of an organisation, book covers work just like that. In By The Cover, I celebrate book covers or give my thoughts on them and sometimes evaluate books by their covers.
So you might be thinking why this? Why pick something so superficial? Well because humans are a superficial race, or maybe I should stop here and talk about myself. Yes, to some extent I am superficial. I love aesthetics and pretty things, and when I want to get something one of the requirements is does it look nice? Will I feel happy just by looking at it? Will I be proud to show it off? Being able to look past appearances is great, it’s a very good thing actually but I can argue with book covers appealing to the aesthetic/superficial nature of people is the best strategy. So I say again that the advice don’t judge a book by its cover doesn’t apply to actual books because like it or not book covers are an important marketing strategy.
Today on the opening issue of By The Cover, I’ll be starting by showcasing some of my favourite 2021 book covers that have been revealed so far and a surprise book cover reveal 👀 (The cover has already been revealed on Twitter, but I can’t change this part of the post now). This list was hard to curate because there are so many book covers already revealed that I loved and I wanted to have a manageable number of books on this list.
My list, as usual, contains mostly diverse books — which means they feature authors or characters from marginalised backgrounds. And today to kick this series off, I’m going to start with a rather gorgeous surprise that I know you’ll all love!
Unveiling the Cover (Cover Reveal): A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne Brown
Where to find the author: @rosiesrambles both on IG and Twitter
Surprise! I know you loved that cover because have you seen it?! *sobs uncontrollably*
It was so hard keeping this a secret for most of the week because I needed to scream about it to someone. The models, the outfits, the colours, the brilliance… I think the people who are truly relieved about the fact that I can show y’all this cover are my mum and sister because they must be tired of seeing me flailing and trying not scream around the house.
But yes, that is the cover! No, I am still not ok. How is it possible to love a cover so much?
Remember to check out Rosie’s Twitter and IG for her announcement also and follow her!
A Chorus Rises by Bethany C Morrow
Is it possible to tattoo an image on your brain? Because I’ll like to have this cover tattooed on my brain so I can never forget the brilliance of it. The colours, a dark skinned Black girl on the cover, her facial expression, the magic of it all. Wake me up when the book is out already.
I can say a lot about this cover. The colours and the homage to the Jamaican flag, the illustrations, it’s overall beauty. Black authors are winning in 2021.
If this book cover had a smell or taste, I bet it’d smell and taste like pink bubblegum. This cover is the cutest thing I’ve seen, just looking at it raises my serotonin levels. It is so C-U-T-E. My heart feels so full from the adorableness
On the day this cover was revealed, I tweeted that I wasn’t ok and I am delighted to announce that I am still not ok. The details on this cover! The Black and Igbo excellence. I need to lay down.
Ok, Zainab. Deep breaths. You are fine. I am not fine! This cover is absolutely gorgeous. Who gave the cover artist the right? I need to have a word with them.
If I was given the choice to go back to the moment before I saw this cover, despite how this book lives rent free in my find and the beauty haunts my dreams, I won’t take it. This cover is just…
*takes a full minute to sob* I will never get over Black girls and boys on book covers. I will never get over dark skinned Black girls and boys on book covers. I will never get over seeing Black love displayed on covers, but this cover is just everything. The colours, the illustrations, having a fat dark skinned Black girl on the cover, the loud and proud celebration of Black love. I love this so much.
The fact that this book is by Anna-Marie McLemore so I didn’t need any convincing to add it, but that cover *screams*. The cover! The colours, the angles, proportioning…*deep breath*
I know this sounds kinda punny, but the cover also feels like home. It’s soft, warm and gives this happy energy like what home should feel like. It’s a perfect cover for this book.
One of The Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite
I love this cover so much! The details, the Black girls on the cover and the variations in their skin tone, the way it showcases Black hair, it’s absolutely brilliant and I just want to hold the book.
Hello book lovers! Welcome back to my chaotic corner. Today I’ll be talking about something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
This post is mostly inspired by all the shit that has been going on in the book community lately, and by lately, I guess I can say for the past three or so months. These events aren’t limited to this short timeline, actually they’re recurring issues in the community but they’ve occurred far too much and too closely lately.
First I’d like to state a common and well known fact. Bloggers are unappreciated, international and marginalised bloggers even more so. If you’re a blogger, your effort isn’t as valued (well by publishers) as much as your counterparts on other platforms. Now, if you’re also international or/and marginalised, it’s going to be harder for you than for the average privileged (from location, race, identity and socioeconomic class) book blogger and that’s pretty difficult. And to be honest, being underappreciated or ignored is the easiest of the downsides of book blogging, the worst is the abuse or maybe I should be nicer and call it mistreatment. It’s the subtweeting, harassing, gaslighting and defamation from people a little higher up the chain than you are. It’s the ghosting and being taken advantage of. There’s a lot book bloggers go through for people who promote and market books for free. We do it for fucking free.
Now to the post proper. I should probably start by introducing myself again and properly. I mean stuff that should be on my about me page if I got my shit together long enough to finish it.
Hi! I’m a Black queer Muslim blogger from Nigeria, a third world country. My country is in a permanent recession (or are we in a depression right now?) and our currency isn’t worth much in the global stock market. Apart from that, we have a huge class difference and a high poverty rate. If you aren’t rich, you’re probably poor and the middle class is more close to the poverty line than anything. And my family isn’t rich! So in either place we fall in the class categories, it doesn’t look so good. My country also doesn’t have the fancy thing called libraries. Libraries here are few and only for educational pursuits.
I’m also a fourth year student of nursing science and I live with anxiety, persistent depressive disorder, and chronic pain. And I blog at my free time which is nonexistent. I should also mention that I don’t have a job because the way the educational system is structured in my country doesn’t give room for that, especially for medical and paramedical students.
Now that we’ve covered the basic things about me and the things that inadvertently affect my reading and blogging experience let’s talk about blogging costs me; financially, mentally and socially.
FINANCIALLY
Yes, first we’re starting with money talk.
I’ve already established that: 1) I’m from a third world country in an economic crisis. 2) I’m not from a wealthy family and with the class difference, being part of the lower middle class isn’t much. 3) I am a student at a university and have no job, so in essence I’m fully dependent on my parents. 4) Libraries and accessibility of books is a dream here.
I have quite a lot to say in this segment and multiple angles to explore, so I’ll be breaking this down into subtopics.
Books and Finance.
The Cost of Running a Blog.
Books and Finance
I’ve already given a brief introduction to this subject, but I’ll go deeper here.
Simply put, here in Nigeria we don’t have much of a reading culture. Not a lot of people read recreationally and it’s reflected in how accessible books are made.
Libraries aren’t created or funded or equipped for recreational reading. Bookstores usually have more self help, religious books and locally published books, most of which are available only because they’re included in the school curriculum. Some bigger bookstores sell fiction not entirely created for school reading, but for people who just love to read, but these books are mostly local published. International books are available only at a few bookstores and when they’re available, they are incredibly expensive.
One of the most laughable and unrealistic things I see from people online is when they talk about buying books and bookish content creation is a labour of love. I’m usually torn between being irritated or finding it adorable, because wow imagine thinking books are so readily accessible or affordable for everyone. It’s such a privileged and innocent take.
Now we’re talking books and money, let me roughly convert some major currencies to the Nigerian currency, Naira, or rather convert Naira to them. The equivalent of a US Dollar is 377.00 Naira. An euro converts to 444.67 Naira and a British pound is equivalent to 488.34 Naira. So in case you missed it somehow, with exchange rate and shipping, done by an individual or an enterprise, books are fucking expensive.
It also doesn’t help that we have very limited sources for books. Book Depository might ship to most corners of the world, but it hasn’t covered half of Africa yet and Nigeria is one of the forgotten places. Amazon Kindle is currently restricted in Nigeria so I guess no ebooks for us. Books on Kobo are hardly available to us too. Shipping with Amazon, would cost an arm and a leg for a student like me and sometimes costs even twice the amount of the book. Even if I’m able to buy a book and ship it safely, I’ll still have to pay a fee at the post office to get it. So again if you didn’t understand, books are expensive.
Books can be expensive enough to cost my groceries at school for a month. Sometimes a book costs as much as a banquet at a 5 stars hotel, and all that precious purity aside, I will without any hesitation or a second thought choose food over books. I apologise to the labour of love crowd, but I choose sustenance and treating myself once in a while.
The only avenues to get books available to us which I’m extremely grateful for are these few bookstores, Scribd and one I recently found thanks to Mafalda, Blackwells.
So please, next time you have your quirky or hot take to make, think about people like me that find it hard to access books and buy books. Think about all international bloggers.
The Cost of Running a Blog
Oh now I have so much to say or maybe not much because this is hard to articulate.
One of my greatest annoyances when someone comes on Twitter to bash book bloggers is they don’t know how much what we do costs us, particularly financially. Like I said before, book bloggers promote books for free but to be a book blogger is to prepare to spend money, a rather major fact I didn’t know before starting my blog.
The cost of running a book blog to the benefits of it, runs in negatives. To be a blogger who’s taken seriously, you need to be on the top of your game.
You need to be able to buy the latest or semi latest books. You need to be online and readily available on your social media because personality and approachability goes a long way. You need to have a decent looking blog, because nicer aesthetics does help get a larger audience. Sometimes you’ll have to have giveaways to grow your following. You need to be updated, and all these costs money.
To have a professional looking website/blog, you’ll have to spend on it and if you can’t you’ll have to learn to make it work somehow. Which means graphic making attempts which you’ll have to be on the internet to do (which also costs money). Being active on social media also requires constant internet.
Like I said before, I’m just a uni student with no job and a lot of stress. I run my blog independently and pay all the costs that come with it myself. To help my platform grow, I’m almost constantly online. I’m either on social media talking about books and things related to books or researching stuff for my blog or supporting other bloggers or making graphics or trying to improve my blog. I do all this at a self acquired cost. To constantly be online, my already sky high because of school and school related research internet usage shoots high each month and each month I pay for it myself from my monthly allowance.
It’s part of the reason, I’m not really on bookstagram much because I need to manage my finances and not spend all the money I should use on myself on my blog and bookstagram. Also speaking of bookstagram, it’s quite hard for me to navigate the highly material trends as a perpetually broke uni student in a third world country.
A chunk of my finances go to running this blog and it hurts so much when someone says I’m not worthy of compensation or decides to harass me for my work.
MENTALLY
I’m about to get very real with you all here. I’ve talked a lot about how much book blogging costs me financially but for me the largest cost has been mentally.
If you recall, I said I was a 4th year student of Nursing science living with anxiety, persistent depressive disorder and chronic pain. What I didn’t say before is as a 4th year nursing student, I’ve had 2 years starting from my second year of almost no holidays, writing exams just before or after festive breaks and dedicating my semester breaks to clinical work experience which for reference is also unpaid. Another thing I didn’t say is I spent at least ¾ of the past two years in on and off depressive episodes , and as I write this post I’ve been recently diagnosed with severe depression in addition to my dysthymia which means I’ve felt like absolute shit for most of the year.
Studying nursing is rough. Very rough. One of my best friends (who isn’t in the profession) says it’s a full time job. For me and the other students at my uni, it’s studying for a minimum of 22 course units (which I just get to take this year) each semester and a maximum/steady rate of 24 units. It’s having classes from 9am to 4pm every weekday with one day dedicated to a full shift at the hospital. It’s also having classes on the weekends because your syllabus is too broad to fit into the schedule. It’s spending your nights up trying to finish assignments and during exam season sleeping for less than 4 hours for a month. It’s wanting to cry and if you’re me crying because the pressure is so much. It’s studying your butt off because less than a 50% is an F and you also use a CGPA system. Being a nursing student in my country is to have your mental limits constantly exceeded.
And there’s book blogging. There’s having to be online and active. There’s having to draft posts, participate in tags, write reviews and plan readathons. It’s having my nonexistent free time dedicated to book blogging. To making TBRs, reaching my Goodreads goals and getting on top of my ARC lists. It’s another stress I don’t need as a depressed nursing student.
I also love book blogging sometimes. Sometimes it’s this fun thing to do to destress from the pressure of school. But that’s not all the time because I also do have an audience to work for and sometimes it’s too much for me.
SOCIALLY
Here comes the funny and very short part.
If you’re my friend or have ever interacted with me, you already know I’m very shy and awkward well until I become comfortable enough to unleash my chaos. Suffering from anxiety doesn’t help either and one of my goals for the end of uni was to be more social, more open and do more things. But with the limited free time and how I dedicate a huge chunk of it to blogging it’s really hard.
I do enjoy blogging, but I don’t think if you’re not a blogger you know the amount of time creating content for a blog takes.
I love book blogging. Sometimes it’s fun, like really fun, but sometimes it feels like a chore. Book blogging is so much more complicated than y’all paint to be. It’s so much work and book bloggers deserve so much better. This is my experience or a small condensation of it. My experience is not universal but I think all book bloggers who read this have something they can relate to.
So please treat us dignity and listen to what we say because it’s the least you can do for us. We put in so much and we don’t get enough. A book blogger asking for compensation isn’t unethical, I think it’s a good work ethic, knowing your time is worth something. Have the decency to talk things out respectfully with us and please stop ghosting us.
Support your favourite book bloggers. Boost our works, let us know when you tried something out because of us. Tip us because it goes a long way. Just treat us the way you want to be treated.
Goodnight (because it’s night, my time) from me. Support me and people of my community. Be a decent human being.
A small updateabout my Ko-fi, due to PayPal’savailability and regional policies, my Ko-fi is out of commission indefinitely (till PayPal works for Nigerian creators or until another alternative comes up). If you want to tip me, you send me a dm on Twitter for alternatives available in my region. Thank you.
‘Tis the season for scare and fear, for warm lights and colours, for spiders and skeletons, for sweaters and scarves, for pumpkins and pranks. Ok, I don’t know if any of that makes sense, but hello and welcome, because it’s fall again!
So I should probably say that I needed confirmation from my friends because I live in a tropical region and the closest thing we have to fall is still months away, which I’m sad about because it’s my favourite time to the year, but if it’s fall wherever you are do make sure to enjoy it for me.
So today in mood of the season, I bring you a list of 28 books by Black authors and authors of colour which fit the vibe of the season. Not every book in this list will be creepy, some are just dark, some are a bit disturbing and you might just find a ghost friend or boyfriend or two 👀
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia (Adult)
An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . .
From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes a novel set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find – her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind
Now I haven’t read this book yet, but my one of best friends loves this book so much and has recced it to me and I trust her taste in books. Also have you read the blurb yet?! The entire vibe of this book just screams creepy so yeah.
The Year of The Witching by Alexis Henderson (YA/Adult)
A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.
But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.
Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.
First, screams! What do I have to do to make you read this book? Do I have to jump hoops, cry up a river, make a 99 slides PowerPoint? Anything!
I love this book so so much. It’s just chef kiss. It’s so deliciously creepy and dark, it’s a total heart eyes. The entire message of the book, the writing, the characters,the vibe. Everything is perfect.
I need October to come real quick so I can have an excuse to reread.
Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.
I promised ghost boyfriends, so here you go! Cemetery Boys is one of my most anticipated YA books of this year and all of my faves love too. I’ve only heard good things about this book and I am so excited to read it.
Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business. Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too late. With the family dynamics of Coco and action-packed adventure of Ghostbusters, Claribel A. Ortega delivers both a thrillingly spooky and delightfully sweet debut novel.
Spooky middle grade! I just started reading MG again this year and Ghost Squad is one of the books on my October and Latinx Heritage Month TBRs. I lowkey hate the fact that I have to wait till next month to read this book, but maybe by then I can somehow convince my little sister to listen to the audiobook with me.
* Chosen as a 2020 Kirkus Prize Finalist for Young Readers’ Literature! *
A Malaysian folk tale comes to life in this emotionally layered, chilling middle grade debut, perfect for fans ofThe Book of BoyandThe Jumbies.
I am a dark spirit,the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.
Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable.
But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive . . . before they are both lost to the darkness.
Fans of Holly Black’sDoll Bonesand Tahereh Mafi’s Furthermore series will love this ghostly middle grade debut that explores jealousy, love, and the extraordinary power of friendship.
Earlier this year for The Ramadan Readathon, I read Hanna Alkaf’s debut The Weight Of Our Sky and I adored it. For most of early this year, I was in an emotional capsule but this book made me feel and cry. I have been so excited for her sophomore book, The Girl and The Ghost, which is a book about a Malaysian girl, Suraya, and her ghost friend turned sinister, Pink.
Zombierella: Fairy Tales Gone Bad by Joseph Coelho and Illustrated by Freya Hartas (PB)
A yellow moon hangs in a satin sky the night Cinderella, barefoot and in hand-me-downs, slips at the top of the stairs … and dies. But not for long. The Shadow of Death arrives to breathe life back into her bones and, for three nights only, Cinderella goes forth as ZOMBIERELLA. With her skin as cold as ice and her faithful horse Lumpkin back by her side, can she seek revenge on her three cruel, fake sisters, once and for all?
Crawl out of the grave and step into your mushroom carriage for this haunting and humorous adventure of the undead girl searching for her happily ever after. The first in a funny, deliciously dark, three-part series of twisted classics, written in verse by award-winning poet Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Freya Hartas.
Um, I don’t really read children’s book but Cinderella as a zombie coming back for revenge and written in verse? Sign me up for this!
Gustavo is a ghost. He is good at doing all sorts of paranormal things, like walking through walls, making objects fly and glowing in the dark. And he loves playing beautiful music on his violin. But Gustavo also has a problem. He is SHY. Which means some things are harder for him to do, like getting in a line to buy eye-scream or talking to the other monsters. But Gustavo longs to be a part of something, he longs to be seen. More than anything, he wants to make a friend. So, plucking up all his courage, he sends a very special letter: “Dear Monsters, I would like to invite you to my violin concert at the Day of the Dead party…”
With exquisite detail and visual humour, Flavia Z. Drago’s vivid illustrations tell a sweet and offbeat story of belonging, bravery and friendship that is sure to be a treat for little ghouls and goblins everywhere.
Another children’s book rec! When I saw the cover and an excerpt for this book on the publishers Twitter I could not resist adding it because it’s seemed so cute and Gustavo seemed adorable. I promised a ghost friend, so y’all better read for Gustavo.
A Song Of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown (YA)
For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.
But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.
When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?
The first in an fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction.
Hehe. You were probably expecting it and here it is! But seriously, did you think I was going to make a book recommendation list and somehow not manage to add my favourite YA fantasy to it? Eh, no.
Apart from being my favourite book, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is perfect for spooky season because of its magic. With necromancy, magic wielders, grimfolk and magic creatures, gods and other powerful entities; what other book could be perfect for spooky season.
Nothing is more important than loyalty.
But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?
Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?
And it is here also! Once you saw ASOWAR on the list, you should have know my other, but not less beloved, fave was going to be on the list!
Raybearer is also a magical book with the Raybearers themselves, Hallows and redemptors. Some scenes in the book are really creepy (at least to me because of cultural significance). All I have to say is add this book to your list!
The Girl from The Well Duology by Rin Chupeco (YA)
You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.
A dead girl walks the streets.
She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.
And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.
Because the boy has a terrifying secret – one that would just kill to get out.
The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as “Dexter” meets “The Grudge”, based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story. suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.
*Synopsis of The Girl from the Well
From all the reviews I’ve read, these books seems dark, creepy and gruesome, and I love it already. I also love Rin Chupeco’s writing. The Bone Witch, my introduction to their work was thoroughly engrossing. If there’s a book series that’s definitely on my spooky list, it’s this Duology.
In the captivating start to a new, darkly lyrical fantasy series, Tea can raise the dead, but resurrection comes at a price.When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha-one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles and make a powerful choice.
I cannot make a spooky list without this gorgeous series. I started (I haven’t finished it yet because I’m a mess as usual) The Bone Witch last year October and if I hadn’t dropped it while I could, I’d have had a problem doing so which is bad when you have exams upcoming. The Bone Witch is a gorgeous book that starts the story of Tea’s, a young dark asha, descent to villainhood. It has necromancy, familiars, monsters and beautiful haunted girls.
A new collection of short stories from Hopkinson, including “Greedy Choke Puppy,” which Africana.com called “a cleverly crafted West Indian story featuring the appearance of both the soucouyant (vampire) & lagahoo (werewolf),” “Ganger (Ball Lightning),” praised by the Washington Post Book World as written in “prose [that] is vivid & immediate,” this collection reveals Hopkinson’s breadth & accomplishments as a storyteller.
I first got to learn about Nalo Hopkinson’s work in February during The Black Experience from Nelo @BookedUnicorn who gave so many recs of her books. I started on this one back then for the stress of the year got to me, and I loved Nalo Hopkinson’s writing. I’m hoping to finish this one this year.
The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother.
She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
I have no commentary but it’s Nalo Hopkinson so read it!
Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval.
There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit.
She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him.
I am currently reading this one and wow. I’m not more than 55 pages into it but I already love it and the fact that my mum loves it endorsement enough because she usually doesn’t say she likes books unless they’re historical romance. Kingdom of Souls has necromancy, blood magic, twisty plots and complex characters.
Sirscha Ashwyn comes from nothing, but she’s intent on becoming something. After years of training to become the queen’s next royal spy, her plans are derailed when shamans attack and kill her best friend Saengo.
And then Sirscha, somehow, restores Saengo to life.
Unveiled as the first soulguide in living memory, Sirscha is summoned to the domain of the Spider King. For centuries, he has used his influence over the Dead Wood—an ancient forest possessed by souls—to enforce peace between the kingdoms. Now, with the trees growing wild and untamed, only a soulguide can restrain them. As war looms, Sirscha must master her newly awakened abilities before the trees shatter the brittle peace, or worse, claim Saengo, the friend she would die for.
Danger lurks within the roots ofForest of Souls, an epic, unrelenting tale of destiny and sisterhood, perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and Susan Dennard.
Ok, I should admit that one tenth of the reason why I’ve been counting down to spooky season is so I can read this book. Forest of Souls is one of my anticipated reads of the year and the synopsis and all I’ve heard about it makes me want to read it even more.
In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.
When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.
At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet:The Beautiful.
I admit at the risk of my friends finding out and yelling at me that I have yet to read this book despite owning it for close to a year now. I honestly love the sound of this book and the lushness it promises. So this list is also a reminder for me to get my mess together and finally read this book.
(Ok, I started this book before this post went up and I am intrigued!)
Forest of A Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao (YA)
An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl’s quest to become Empress—and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.
Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?
Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins—sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute
Before you ask, I read almost 10 books at a time and my Goodreads reading shelf is absolutely chaotic. I started this book in late July and although I was loving it, I had my worst slump during that time and August and had no desire to read dark books, and make no mistake this book is quite dark. Although I’m only at the early chapters, I love the writing and I am very interested in reading about Xifeng’s descent to darkness.
In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes.
As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next.
The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost
The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told
The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide
Where Dreams Descendis the startling and romantic first book in Janella Angeles’ debut Kingdom of Cards fantasy duology where magic is both celebrated and feared, and no heart is left unscathed.
This is another book that Zainab started but somehow even though she adores it hasn’t finished because well we all know she’s a mess. Where Dreams Descend is a lush and atmospheric dark fantasy following our MC, Kalia. From the very first page, I fell absolutely in love with this book. I could literally feel the atmosphere. I’m hoping now my slump is over, I’ll be able to finish this book.
Akata Witchtransports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?
I’ve always been sad that there aren’t enough books with albino main characters and I can’t forgive myself for not reading this book and especially as it’s also set in Nigeria. So one of my goals this spooky season is to read this book and get my sister to read it too.
Nnedi Okorafor’s first novel for middle grade readers introduces a boy who can access super powers with the help of the magical Ikenga.
Nnamdi’s father was a good chief of police, perhaps the best Kalaria had ever had. He was determined to root out the criminals that had invaded the town. But then he was murdered, and most people believed the Chief of Chiefs, most powerful of the criminals, was responsible. Nnamdi has vowed to avenge his father, but he wonders what a twelve-year-old boy can do. Until a mysterious nighttime meeting, the gift of a magical object that enables super powers, and a charge to use those powers for good changes his life forever. How can he fulfill his mission? How will he learn to control his newfound powers?
Award-winning Nnedi Okorafor, acclaimed for her Akata novels, introduces a new and engaging hero in her first novel for middle grade readers set against a richly textured background of contemporary Nigeria.
I don’t have much to say about this book, but it looks great.
It’s Carnival time, and the Carribean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance and pageantry. Masked “Midnight Robbers” waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favourite costume to wear at the festival–until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime.
Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth–and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen’s legendary powers can save her life…and set her free.
A story about a dangerously curious young undergraduate whose rebelliousness leads her to discover a shocking secret involving an exclusive circle of students . . . and the dark truth beneath her school’s promise of prestige.
You are in the house and the house is in the woods.
You are in the house and the house is in you . . .
Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years—summers included—completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises its graduates a future of sublime power and prestige, and that they can become anything or anyone they desire.
Among this year’s incoming class is Ines, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, pills, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. The school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves and their place within the formidable black iron gates of Catherine.
For Ines, Catherine is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had, and her serious, timid roommate, Baby, soon becomes an unlikely friend. Yet the House’s strange protocols make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when Baby’s obsessive desire for acceptance ends in tragedy, Ines begins to suspect that the school—in all its shabby splendor, hallowed history, advanced theories, and controlled decadence—might be hiding a dangerous agenda that is connected to a secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.
Sketchy schools, hidden secrets, dark academia like vibes…I am looking.
When Marcella Leones relocates her family of aswang vampires from the Philippines to Portland, Oregon, she raises her grandchildren under strict rules so humans will not expose them. Her only wish is to give them a peaceful life, far away from the hunters and the Filipino government that attempted to exterminate them.
Before she dies, she passes on the power to her eldest grandchild, Percival. He vows to uphold the rules set forth by Leones, allowing his family to roam freely without notice. After all, they are aswangs.
However, when the aswang covenant is broken, the murder rate in Portland rises drastically. Who is behind the murders? And who is behind the broken covenant? Along with sensie Penelope Jane, Percival must find the truth.
It’s then they discover that there are other breeds of aswangs—werebeasts, witches, ghouls, and viscera—who have been residing in Portland for years.
Based on Filipino folklore (aswang), “Vampires of Portlandia” is a fantastical tale of different monsters coexisting in the weirdest city in America.
A gruesome war results in the old gods’ departure from earth. The only remnants of their existence lie in two girls. Twins, separated at birth. Goddesses who grow up believing that they are human. Daughters Of Nri explores their epic journey of self-discovery as they embark on a path back to one another.
Strong-willed Naala grows up seeking adventure in her quiet and small village. While the more reserved Sinai resides in the cold and political palace of Nri. Though miles apart, both girls share an indestructible bond: they share the same blood, the same face, and possess the same unspoken magic, thought to have vanished with the lost gods.
The twin girls were separated at birth, a price paid to ensure their survival from Eze Ochichiri, the man who rules the Kingdom of Nri. Both girls are tested in ways that awaken a mystical, formidable power deep within themselves. Eventually, their paths both lead back to the mighty Eze.
But can they defeat the man who brought the gods themselves to their knees?
I thought whether or not I should add this but what better time is there for Black girl magic, deities, Igbo mythology and culture than spooky season. Also the cover made it impossible to ignore lol.
A startling debut about class and race,Lakewoodevokes a terrifying world of medical experimentation—partThe Handmaid’s Tale, partThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
When Lena Johnson’s beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed, the black millennial drops out of college to support her family and takes a job in the mysterious and remote town of Lakewood, Michigan.
On paper, her new job is too good to be true. High paying. No out of pocket medical expenses. A free place to live. All Lena has to do is participate in a secret program—and lie to her friends and family about the research being done in Lakewood. An eye drop that makes brown eyes blue, a medication that could be a cure for dementia, golden pills promised to make all bad thoughts go away.
The discoveries made in Lakewood, Lena is told, will change the world—but the consequences for the subjects involved could be devastating. As the truths of the program reveal themselves, Lena learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the sake of her family.
Provocative and thrilling,Lakewoodis a breathtaking novel that takes an unflinching look at the moral dilemmas many working-class families face, and the horror that has been forced on black bodies in the name of science.
I’m ashamed to say that I almost forgot about this book. I first knew about this book in February when I was making my compilation of books by Black authors this year and this book peaked my curiosity. I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet, but during this season I will.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Adult)
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary,The Only Good Indiansfollows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’sThere Therein a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.
Ok, this book sounds absolutely creepy and I’m not sure I whether or not to read it for my own sake.
Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite (Anthology)
Eleven fresh vampire stories from young adult fiction’s leading voices!
In this delicious new collection, you’ll find stories about lurking vampires of social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than just blood, eager vampires coming out―and going out for their first kill―and other bold, breathtaking, dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night.
Welcome to the evolution of the vampire―and a revolution on the page.
Vampires Never Get Oldincludes stories by authors both bestselling and acclaimed, including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.” Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.
Thirteen of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.
Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.
Contributors include Kendare Blake (reimagining “Metzengerstein”), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morge”), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).
Not gonna lie, they had me at Rin Chupeco and Tiffany D Jackson.
And that’s it from me today! I hope you’ve found one or two books you’dloveto read on this list and you have an amazing new season (if it’s fallforyou and if it isn’t I hope you still have an amazing few weeks ahead).
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