On Our Radar Horror Noire Edition: Horror by Black Authors We’re Dying to Read

On the heels of doing research for my list of 50+ Black horror authors, I’ve found several titles that I’m howling at the moon for this Horror Season. Black writers are often not thought of when we speak of genre fiction, but it’s past time to put a stake in that idea and lay it to eternal rest. So, lets take a look at some books that I want to send chills down my spine.

---

Spooky Reads & October Plans

October has hit the calendar, and for many of us, that means scary reads, chilly nights, and the warmth of pumpkin drinks to keep our bones from rattling.

Now, I’m not one for pumpkin drinks (the seasonal sacrilege, I know) but I do know a thing or two about getting into the Halloween Spirit. This little scribble is going to be about the reads of the season and some thoughts about October’s spooky plans.

Unarmed Truth & Unconditional Love | A Review of Dear Martin by Nic Stone

“About 1 in 1,000 black men and boys in America can expect to die at the hands of police… That makes them 2.5 times more likely than white men and boys to die during an encounter with cops.”

The above statistic is an opening line in a report run by the LA Times in August of 2019, detailing the realities of police violence against communities of color, particularly against black boys and men. This statistic is just a number to many young Americans but a dangerous reality for black and brown boys living in the United States.

Justyce, a soon-to-be graduate and honor roll student, lives this reality in Nic Stone’s Dear Martin, a book that explores what it means to be a young man forced grapple with and question how not only authority figures see him and boys like him, but how his peers see him, too.

This self-perception is tested from the moment Dear Martin begins—a simple attempt at helping his currently drunk and bumbling ex-girlfriend get home safely turning into a violent and unprovoked encounter with a police officer. This encounter, a first for Justyce, springboards vivid political discussions in his debate classes, with his peers, even the adults in his life, and leads to one escalation after another that leaves Justyce questioning his own humanity, and questioning whether or not it even matters when others’ judgement can mean the difference between life and death?

Across the Stars and Back Again | A Review of Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin

Are you not magnificent? Or you will be, one day. But first, you must earn your beauty.

N.K. Jemisin’s entry into the Forward Series—a series of short stories featuring noted SFF authors—is, in a word, masterful, seeking to answer the titillating question of what would happen if Earth got to the point that it was truly uninhabitable? If, in a last-ditch effort to save humanity, the elite, the best, left, taking themselves to the stars to start anew?

This premise is not one that is new in speculative fiction. It is not even outside the realm of reality, when we have men like Elon Musk existing in our timeline, and the notion of colonizing nearby planets like Mars isn’t entirely novel. Space is, after all, the final frontier, and humanity is ever seeking to expand beyond the natural boundaries given to it.