First published 2023
A police officer starts seeing enormous blinking eyes replace car headlights, and these eyes somehow tell him which drivers to stop. Two civil rights activists board a bus during the freedom rides, only to find themselves abandoned on an empty Alabama road where strange presences wait in the darkness. A young girl descends deep into the earth, hunting the demon responsible for her parents' deaths. These tales anchor Jordan Peele's collection of original horror fiction by Black writers. The anthology pairs supernatural frights with the real terrors of racial injustice in America. Each story dismantles assumptions about safety and normalcy, revealing how horror lives in both the otherworldly and the everyday. Contributors include established voices like N. K. Jemisin, Tananarive Due, and Nnedi Okorafor alongside emerging talents, creating a chorus of perspectives that redefine fear itself.
Genres: african-american, horror, supernatural
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dismantling-assumptions, found-family
Setting: America, Alabama
Period: 21st-century
387 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: racism, violence