Book Review - Out There Screaming Edited By Jordan Peele And John Joseph Adams

Anyone reading, or even glancing at these reviews will have noticed a certain pattern has emerged. The reviews are usually of autobiographies, history books, travelogues, collections of essays, or books on racism. All non-fiction books. I was set to review a book in a similar vein this time until I saw a banner ad for Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror and instantly I knew it had to be the next book to review. Turns out once in a blue moon banner ads actually work, which was a surprise to be sure but not an unwelcome one. Out There Screaming is an anthology of horror short stories by Black authors edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams. I couldn’t say how involved Peele was in the editing of this book. He may have handpicked each of the stories included personally, or it could be a marketing move and he could have just attached his name to it and wrote the forward. Either way the simple act of putting Peele’s name on something sets certain expectations based on the films he has directed. I’ll admit it was his name that sold me on it. As the Oscar winning director of Get Out, Us, and Nope; Peele’s name carries weight, it promises horror which uses social commentary on life as a Black person in America and the injustices they face. It promises spookiness with a point, and scares that will make you think. I can say Out There Screaming simultaneously matched and exploded those expectations with the 19 stories included; visiting some very surprising and unexpected places.

As with any anthology it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There are a lot of subgenres of horror included with the stories being wildly different to each other. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it absolutely shows width and breadth that Black horror encompasses. It is not one thing and can be much more than stories about Black trauma that it can get reduced to by some, as important as those might be. Out There Screaming shows that Black horror is an empty bottle. Anything can be put into it. Several of the stories could even be described as not strictly horror but more science fiction that dips its toes into the horror pool. There are stories here that are deeply entrenched in aspects of folklore from the African diaspora that I had never heard of before, stories based in historical horror that focus more explicitly on the struggles Black people have been through, and even an alien invasion story to give a few examples. Each story takes these familiar tropes and themes and puts a unique spin on them that I haven’t read before based in the Black perspective and how that perspective can differ from author to author. Even the classic old school, bread and butter horror mainstays like zombies, ghosts, and monsters are given new approaches which refresh them. The diversity of narrative styles, voices, genres, and tones results in a collection that feels like a real showcase of Black talent both established and new, and introduced me to more writers I’ve never heard of but would like to see more from.

Don’t get me wrong, not every story included shattered my mind into a million pieces with its amazingness, but that’s the nature of anthologies, some stories are going to strike the reader harder than others. I would hate to call any of the array of stories offered by this book outrightly bad as it’s a very subjective thing. The stories that stood out to me might not necessarily stand out to another reader; the ones that didn’t grab me might be another reader’s favourites. Having said that, one of the stories that I really liked was Eye & Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse. It features a brother sister demon hunting team who have a case in an old mansion owned by a creepy old woman with a possessed doll. Of all the stories included, this one felt most to me like it could easily be expanded into not just one novel, but an ongoing series of books following this sibling team as they travel America dealing with different supernatural cases. Roanhorse did a great job quickly establishing a well-worn dynamic between the brother and sister which felt authentic despite the more heightened supernatural elements around them.

Flicker by L.D. Lewis was also one of my favourites. It’s a much darker story of a world on the brink of apocalypse. The world begins experiencing blackouts plunging everything into absolute pitch-black darkness for random amounts of time. When the blackouts end there are disturbances with gravity and people dead with their faces vanished or fused with objects around them such as a street lamp. As a fan of video games, I quickly recognised that all these events sound suspiciously like glitches in a janky or broken game. My suspicions were confirmed when one character voices the theory that they all live in a computer simulation and the simulation is bugging out and breaking down around them. It is horror with a sci-fi twist so that is probably why I leaned towards it so much. It really did a fantastic job capturing the oppressive sense of finality and existential dread the characters face as they are trapped in a world that’s ending and are powerless to do anything to stop it.

Another standout was The Most Strongest Obeah Woman Of The World by Naolo Hopkinson. In this story a girl goes deep underwater to kill an eldritch snake like sea monster which gives slight Lovecraft vibes in its unknowable monstrousness. She fails to kill the creature, and instead it grafts itself onto her body. What follows is a story heavy on Cronenbergian levels of body horror as she attempts to remove the thing that is changing and warping her body against her will. The details Hopkinson gives when describing the way the creature has embedded itself in the girl’s stomach and transformed her leg into a tentacle are disgusting and really nail the feeling of this alien presence invading and trying to take control of her body. The story is told in Jamaican patois so alongside the body horror it feels less like a short story in a book and more like an old folk tale being passed onto the reader from an unseen narrator.

I could write about each of the nineteen stories in this book and what I thought of them all day but when you boil it down there’s one question that comes up with anything to do with horror: is it scary? To that question I can answer yes, but it’s a different kind of scary than might be expected. I didn’t scream out loud in fear or need to put the book away and come back to it later. It’s disturbing in places, and carried a feeling of eeriness, and discomfort in a way that stuck with me after reading. Most of the stories left me contemplating how I would have reacted if I were in the characters shoes. Horror as a genre in general has historically struggled with representation, often relegating Black characters to the sidelines or using them as mere victims to be killed off and discarded. ‘The Black guy always dies first’ has become an old observation about horror to the point where it’s widely joked about, and even subverted in places. Peele’s commitment to redefining horror by centring Black voices and experiences in his films is on display here and not only reclaims space but enriches the genre as a whole. Out There Screaming is a statement that horror can be a tool for catharsis, empowerment, and social examination as well as good old-fashioned scares. The well of talent this book draws from is deep with the authors writing stories that defy stereotypes and amplify marginalised perspectives. Even if a story isn’t explicitly focused on making a point about society and just wants to tell a spooky tale, each one is unapologetically steeped in cultural nuance, whether through language, setting, or thematic concerns. As a complete package its one I’m very glad I read, and one I would encourage anyone looking for some short, but impactful and unexpected scary stories to read.

If you would like to buy this book, please click here: https://tinyurl.com/2s23jpnb