I wish I could rate this a five star, but unfortunately it's gonna sit at a three for me. I enjoyed this collection for the most part but it left some things to be desired (when it comes to my taste).


Let me start off by saying none of these short stories were bad, and I even came across some authors whose full works I would LOVE to read. Of course there were some that I loved more than others, which is to be expected when it comes to an anthology.

I honestly felt that this anthology was bit too long. 400 is basically a full book and I found myself getting burnt out after a while. A 400 page book with one cohesive story I can manage, but apparently too many short stories does my brain in.

Another thing that didn't work for me was that I simply did not find any of the books to truly be SCARY. When I saw the author line up and that this was edited by Jordan Peele I was ready to be spooked out of my mind. Unfortunately that never happened. Yes, the stories were interesting and they did have creepy elements to them, but it was nothing that really terrified me like I was hoping.

I have another issue that I think I would rather tackle in a video review because I'm not so good at writing out my thoughts in a cohesive way sometimes.

With all that being said, I do think this is an anthology you should check out if you are interested, and there were some truly unique stories in here written by some talented authors.

My highlights are:

A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree
Hide & Seek
Your Happy Place

I was quite excited to get my hands on an advance copy of Out There Screaming once I heard the premise and that Jordan Peele was part of the project. I'm not usually a huge anthology person because the stories can be hit or miss depending on who compiles them. This makes them equally difficult to rate because there can be many, really good stories, while having some that just miss the mark.

The first story was a rough start for me because I couldn't find a single redeeming thing about our main character. I know many people can read horror like that and enjoy it, but I don't seem to be that kind of person. Despite the rough start, I found this anthology to be overall a great read. Some of the stories that stuck with me the most are:

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers
Lasiren
Dark Home
Flicker
Your Happy Place

It's difficult to choose a stand out story with so many great authors. With that said, I found Dark Home to be especially jarring. It had a nice balance between reality and horror that made it that much more unnerving.

Timed to be published at the beginning of the spooky season, Out There Screaming includes 19 Black authors presenting tales of the fantastical, subtle, supernatural, or spiritual horror. The theme that unifies the stories are, as editor Jordan Peele phrases it, "place[s] where you were stripped of all agency and left alone with your struggle... Sunken Places, their oubliettes." (pg 7).

And what a line up for this volume! It includes contributions by N. K. Jemisin, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tananarive Due, Nnedi Okorafor and P. Djèlí Clark and many others. As all of the works are short stories, we meet the narrator, learn the stories central issue and see it resolve (?) in some way. All of them felt like stand alone entries, and didn't seem to draw from the worlds established in other works. Some make use of humor, but overall the goal here is to discomfort or scare.

Stories I'm still thinking about:

Reckless Eyeballing by N.K. Jemisin - A police officer sees some car headlights as eyes that match their owners, he works to investigate why this happens.

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers by Lesley Nneka Arimah - Aliens are trying to invade Earth via impregnated women, our narrator is part of the force that captures or destroys any known case.

Origin Story by Tochi Onyebuchi - Written as a play script, four white boys grapple with the legacy of white supremacy and try to determine their place and role.

Like any work of anthology, we visit many different worlds and perspectives with some of the stories impacting or lasting longer in memory than others. Any fan of Jordan Peele's film work will find resonance with these works of fiction by some of the best contemporary Black writers of fiction.

This short story collection was great. So many of the stories have fun twists and I was fascinated. Many are unsettling and some are down right scary which is what you would come to expect from something edited by Jordan Peele. I loved discovering new-to-me authors that I want to read more work by.

Jordan Peele’s short story anthology collection “Out There Screaming” brought together heavy hitters in the Black speculative fiction community to scare of pants off this spooky season. Jordan Peele has truly curated a magical experience. Every story I’ve read has been enjoyable and some even surprised me.

I am adding a hard copy of this collection to my library immediately!

I was provided an advanced reader copy from Random House Publishing for an honest review.

While, I haven’t completed the full collection, here’s a synopsis based on what I’ve read so far:

“Hide-and-Seek” by P. Djeli Clark - 5/5
P. Djeli Clark is one of my favorite writers, so I was super excited for this. In the story, two young brothers are engaging in a game of hide-and-seek in their old creeky house. Their mother is the seeker, and everything seems normal until she starts yelling at them when they can’t find good hiding spots, or try to run outside. Apparently outside is off limits and they’ll get eaten by monsters. Mama comes from a line of root workers. Their dad’s skin was turned inside out from some weird magic. And there’s so much.

“Reckless Eyeballing” by N. K. Jemisin - 5/5
This story features a Black cop who is so caught up that he bleeds blue. The cop is know for harassing people and has gotten a reputation for himself. One day, while he’s patrolling the highway, he notices that some of the headlights of passing cars have turned into eyeballs that blink and move and seem to literally have their eyes on him. He investigates and things get ugly.

“Wandering Devil” by Cadwell Turnball
Our main character is always ghosting. Not just women bit literally every. He’ll pull up to a town and live their for months, get integrated into the community and one day get an itch to leave. He’ll break his lease, quit his job and run for the hills. That’s until he receives a prophecy from an old man that he will live happily ever after with the love of his life in an old mill town, if he just stays. He met the love. He’s in the old mill town. But will he listen?

I requested an eARC of this anthology from NetGalley. No one is more surprised than me when I got a copy.

This anthology runs the gamut. New authors, seasoned authors, past, present, future, folklore, magic, technology, climate horror. It is such a variety of themes and crossovers but all of it centers on different aspects of the black experience. I was disappointed to discover one author I liked is so early in her career, she doesn’t have much out yet.

As with all anthologies, some stories spoke to me more than others. I think if I averaged my rating per story, it would be a 4 or 4.5 but even the ones that weren’t my jam were excellent. The quality of the stories and the variety of horror represented makes this a 5 star read for me. All horror fans need to preorder it (preferably from an indie bookstore).

I have no idea why but halfway through, I stopped being able to highlight anything on the Kindle app. I did not have this issue with other ebooks in my app. I had to switch to exclusively using my ereader which slowed me down. Otherwise, no formatting issues with the eARC.

This is as good as the Peele's movies. Short stories usually have stronger and weaker ones, but every single one of these was a home run. I should maybe call this more of an anthology than anything else, but a riveting one at that and one that I highly recommend!

Give me all the horror stories picked by Jordan Peele, please! If I have learned anything over the few years he's been making movies, it is to trust him with my horror-loving heart. The table of contents is overflowing with phenomenal writers, some new to me and others who had me giddy with all the excitement as I came across their names and stories in this journey. There is definitely a story in here for everyone, as the themes and subjects quite literally span across every facet of horror I can think of. My biggest (only?) qualm with the anthology is the tone and pacing between stories. It could be an abrupt transition from one to the other, which I come across in many anthologies. I want to just read and read, and not necessarily have to stop and fully recuperate and gather myself before I can get in the right headspace for something so different, thematically and stylistically. I... I hope that makes sense. But all in all, what a powerful group of stories that I can't wait for more people to experience!

Personally, I think it is hard to write a review on a book that is comprised of multiple short stories (especially when they are all written by different authors). I was invited to read this book and was looking forward to it as an opportunity to learn more about black culture, especially because it is focused on a genre that I typically enjoy.

That said, overall, I did enjoy reading this. There were definitely some stories that I liked more than others. Some were a bit odd or extreme, but others were downright creepy and disturbing (which was a good thing and also the authors intention, I think). Some were so well written that they truly left me sitting and thinking about a world where the subject matter would be a reality.

Well this was FANTASTIC! Anthologies are always so tricky for me to review because most are a mix of good and bad stories, some I really love and some I really hate. I honestly didn’t hate ANY of these stories. Yes, they were a mix of horror, sci-fi, some felt a little more like a drama to me but they were all so good and made me feel so many different things. THIS is what an anthology should be.

This is an excellent, genre-bending collection that any horror fan will appreciate. I loved the diversity between the stories - it kept me engaged and interested throughout.

I love every story in this book and found the creativity behind these stories chilling and some unnerving. Some of the stories remind me of when I imagine of specific scenarios that happened in my life and i think if I could go back to that moment and what if this out of this world bizarre event took place and changed the outcome. Theres something for everyone in this book and im looking forward to reading it again.

Out there Screaming was a great anthology filled with all types of horror, from cosmic horror to psychological horror to your typical hauntings and haunted houses. Hands down my favorite was Reckless Eyeballing by NK Jemisin with the Riders by Tananarive Due coming in a very close second! Buy this book! Just in time for Halloween. #NETGALLEY #OUTTHERESCREAMING

This is the first ARC I was approved for on NetGalley and what an honor it was to read these perfectly crafted horror stories.

Reading horror is much like watching it. Some stories are good and some are bad. Out There Screaming may be my favorite collection of horror stories to date.

Luckily, this Anthology was chock full of fantastic writing. There was not a single story that I did not like. Now, the caveat of horror is that the good stories make you feel an amalgam of disturbed feelings. I was spooked, uncomfortable, sad, and sometimes hopeless, especially when the stories tied in realistic themes of problems we face in reality. But that is why I loved reading this anthology so much. I like when literature evokes strong feelings. Whether you are a seasoned horror lit enthusiast, just getting into the genre, or are curious, this is the perfect fall read to dive into. Knowing that Jordan Peele had a hand in editing, makes the experience that much more special.

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for entrusting me with a set of masterpieces. I will be sure to look for other writings of these authors.

I really enjoyed this. No secret that I was interested because of Jordan Peele’s name being attached but I stayed for the variety of stories in this collection. What a fun spooky read, perfect for October!

Anyone who knows horror knows that Jordan Peele is a genius of the genre. It's no secret. So when this ARC landed in my inbox, I started in on it ASAP. Like a lot of short story collections, this had some big hits and some misses too. Most of them were hits, though, and the misses were still very well written. The quality of writing across this collection is *chefs kiss*. Some of the stories will stick with me for a while. Highly recommended for fans of horror!

Jordan Peele is my favorite director. I love all of his movies and his reboot of my all time favorite show, The Twilight Zone (which I still watch every night before bed)

I loved these tales of horror from black authors. Most authors I’d never read before but there were a few favorites in there like Tananarive Due. Tales of bus rides gone wrong, horrible experiments, dark magic and dystopian worlds.

Here’s a few of my favorites:

The Rider Tananarive Due. Two sisters and activists unknowingly get on a bus to somewhere strange. Where a mysterious and terrifying rider appears.

Your Happy Place Terence Taylor. A man works at a prison that does experiments on prisoners mind. The man has everything he wants, but can’t help but dig into the mystery surrounding the prison and its experiments.

Hide and Seek P Dejeli Clark. Two siblings playing a game of hide and seek with their mother, but this isn’t a game. Dark magic and generational trauma haunt this story.

Loved all the stories! I’ll be picking up a hard copy when it releases and hope that Peele continues to release anthologies.

Out There Screaming is a horror anthology by black authors edited by Jordan Peele and I was so excited to read this. I think Jordan Peele definitely has an eye for a good story so I was very intrigued by the thought of this collection.

One thing that works perfectly for this collection is how differently the stories seem. I wouldn’t be able to put any two stories from this collection together and say they felt similar so I think anyone who picks this collection up will be able to find some stuff they like.

There are a variety of different types of stories in this collection. I’m partial to the ones that leaned a little more science fiction because that’s just generally what I enjoy more but even the ones that had more of a historical vibe were interesting. I picked this up and decided to read two or three stories a day instead of trying to read this in big chunks and I feel like that really helped my enjoyment of it because I never felt bogged down. Some of these stories are a little heavier in theme so reading them back to back to back probably would it have been a good idea.

I think if you are a fan of horror adjacent stories, you would like this. While a lot had horror elements, there was definitely more going on in a lot of the stories than just horror.

it’s always a risk for me when i pick up an anthology because i often have a hard time with short stories. This one was a nice little surprise and overall i really enjoyed most of those stories. i think this collection was super effective and gave us some good, creepy moments. would definitely recommend this one.

Short stories can be very hit or miss for me, and this one was a big hit! As with most short story collections, there were a few that didn't really work for me and resulted in some skimming. But overall, I greatly enjoyed this! There are some very creepy stories and it was refreshing to read so many different works by Black authors. Most of these felt incredibly atmospheric and I was really drawn into all of these different worlds.