First published 2018
At an amusement park, customers pay to enter augmented reality scenarios where they hunt terrorists and shoot intruders. The targets they fire at are minority actors playing roles for their entertainment. In another story, a school shooting victim finds himself trapped in purgatory with his killer, forced to confront this shared afterlife together. An author makes a deal with a multi-tongued deity, trading his soul for unknown gains. Adjei-Brenyah places black characters in surreal situations that expose the violence and injustice they face daily. A student navigates the aftermath of campus tragedy. A writer grapples with supernatural consequences. A worker endures the dehumanizing mechanics of entertainment that profits from racial fear. These characters fight to maintain their humanity while systems around them treat them as expendable. The stories reveal how racism and cultural violence operate through both extraordinary circumstances and mundane encounters, showing the painful absurdities that define black experience in America.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, american-fiction, african-american, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary, supernatural-elements
194 pages · Hardcover · riverrun
Content warnings: racism, violence