Jordan Peele edited this anthology and introduced the world to 19 Black authors of short stories. Overall, the stories were creepy and entertaining. There were a few that didn't grab my attention and some that seemed all over the place. Most were science fiction creepy rather than scary but I appreciate being introduced to some authors and I'll definitely check out their other works. My favorites included:

1. The Rider by Tananarive Due
2. Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor
3. Your Happy Place by Terence Taylor
4. A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree by Nicole D. Sconiers

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC

Out There Screaming is an anthology of horror short stories written by black authors. Edited by renowned film director Jordan Peel, nineteen stories explore the wide and deep spectrum of horror. The appeal of this anthology is just how varied each story is in subject matter. While “horrors” of the black experience, ranging from “superficially” subtle to structural and up to overt and violent racial terror is a common theme, there is so much nuance to the subject matter. Hatred of others is like a monster in itself, making its targets feel helpless at being able to protect themselves or fight back, but some of the stories remind the reader that there are dark and unknown creatures in the world that are indifferent to the concerns of humanity.

The intersection of the historical and contemporary experiences of people of the Black Diaspora is explored richly and darkly. The variety of stories also shows that while the Diaspora share a Sub-Saharan black African ancestry, there is so much diversity in the individual cultures and experiences of its members. A few of the stories deal with folklore and legends, which is this reader's favorite kind of horror/scary genre. Lessons taught and passed down from one generation to the next aid the current generation in evading dark fates, and in some cases, creatures of myth awake to protect those of that heritage from the real life horrors of racist violence against their community. Science fiction horror is also well-represented in this collection. Some of the stories are quite opaque in meaning and very bizarre. Their subject matter is not easily categorized or explained in any way. Readers who enjoy the just plain weird --and value asking themselves, “What did I just read?”--will also find something appealing here.

Without calling out specific authors over others, there are some very talented writers in this collection, and each story is worth reading for the experience. Readers who consider themselves horror fans who enjoy quality, thoughtful writing, and in particular want to explore the black experience in their horror, should definitely check out this collection.

I have to say I am not a horror story fan as a rule but the Jordan Peele name brought me to the reading party. Disclaimer - I had to read them during the day!!

Recommended for short story readers who like edgy stories. Some are horror; some have gore. The best make you think about all of the reasons for the horror and the ones with gore - I closed one eye while reading.

I think that there could have been fewer stories and it would have been more impactful.

I loved that the authors are getting a voice in this book and am sure many of them will be heard from in the future.  

Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for this arc.

I don't typically read anthologies, so my review may be biased. Accustomed to reviewing single-author short story collections, I expected hits and misses in a diverse anthology of 19 stories.

So, I give it 3 stars.

Despite the intriguing author lineup and Jordan Peele's editing, the stories fell short of delivering the spine-chilling experience I anticipated. While interesting and with creepy elements, they lacked the fear factor I hoped for.

Overall, this collection, with its emphasis on quantity over quality (in my opinion), didn't resonate with me in terms of fright or engagement.

DNF'd this. Though some of the early stories were decent, the rest seemed forced...onto the reader. I went into this collection of stories with an open mind and just felt punished for not being a POC.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I absolutely loved this anthology!! It has something for everyone, it has neo-futuristic horror, historical horror, modern horror, fantastical horror, monsters and more. All of these stories spoke to the black diaspora and black history in a beautiful, diverse and inspirational way. Heartily suggest this book to any horror fans!

This book is really hard to review so I’m going to keep it short(ish). As soon as I saw Jordan Peele on the cover, I knew I wanted to read it & was already anticipating a 4 star read (I rarely give anything 5 stars unless it’s a memoir, for the most part.) But these stories are not written by Jordan Peele so I should have lowered my expectations a bit. The thing is, I enjoyed every one of the stories and I liked that there were so many different topics among them. BUT, and this a big thing for me, every single story was left open-ended. They all left me thinking either ‘so, did that really bad thing happen?’ or ‘okay, the bad thing happened but then what? What were the consequences?’. I don’t usually read short stories, so maybe this is common, I’m not really sure.

All that being said, I’d read full-length novels from all of these authors, given the chance. They all have perspectives I’d like to hear/learn more about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me an advanced copy of this book.

So I’ve been very excited to read this and ended up being slower to finish than I’d have liked. My issue was nothing related to the book, except that I generally just don’t like short stories that much. I always feel like a) it takes a while to invest in a new world, narrative style, and characters for me in general, so short stories always seem to end just when I’m settling in; and b) the short stories I end up loving are almost always too short, and I wish they were novellas or novels instead. There are exceptions, but that’s my general feeling about short stories. So I tried to fit some in here and there when reading other books, but I really wanted to read this simply because it’s amazing as a concept. We need more writers of color period, and ESPECIALLY in horror. Horror, to be honest, has basically been solely controlled by a handful of white men for decades - and most of them are getting up there in years. And while I don’t want to say anything about their writing given I do like that handful of white men for the most part, it’s a very sparse genre in terms of either diversity or honestly just anything new.

So in terms of reading this - some stories didn’t work, some were great, and most were just typical of my usual feelings: interesting enough but too short to really lock in on. As a collection, however, I am obviously strongly recommending it if for no other reason than to discover new writers. And if you like short stories, then the selection here is excellent. They range from historical and Gothic horror to sci-fi and body horror and everything in between.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this. I’m so glad this exists.

Jordan Peele is a horror master on the screen and NOW in print. His use of this platform for social commentary in white patriarchal society is frightening. This book is a wonderful mix of ALL the haunts of the world.. Its challenging to rate this type of book as you love some of the stories and other not so much.

Thank you Random House for the complimentary copy.

When given the opportunity to read an anthology of horror stories for the autumn and the editor is Jordan Peele….I couldn’t say yes fast enough! As expected Jordan Peele compiled an anthology that features the most prominent Black and Brown authors in the genre and brought the A team! This has been a fun book to dip in and out of throughout the spooky season. These authors are fantastic and Peele put together a themed anthology that showcases the experience of POC through these tales.
Highly recommend!
#OutThereScreaming #NetGalley #RandomHousePublishingGroup

Out There Screaming is a wonderful anthology. For me, it was the perfect way to discover new authors and explore all the facets of horror through the lens of the Black experience.

I really loved this anthology. Like any collection of short stories, some spoke to me more than others. My favorite was Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor. In this story, a Nigerian American woman travels to Nigeria to bury her father and disrupts a ritual upsetting a secret society she didn't know he was a part of. Without giving too much away, the story is about the all encompassing horror of grief, but it accomplishes its goal in such a creative way.

I also enjoyed many of the other stories in the collection. Many of them focused on themes of racism and injustice, interwoven with supernatural horror. I'd recommend this book to any fan of horror, Jordan Peele, or advocate of anti-racism.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this horror anthology!! I thought it was well put together and I enjoyed getting to read some stories by authors I knew I enjoyed and getting to discover new authors! Really excited to revisit this anthology!

Anthology of Horror short stories by different authors.

Most of the stories are engaging and original - they could easily be a full book on itself. The short format though made some of them end too abruptly for my taste, and I would love to have read more of them.

Highly recommended short story anthology :)

As a horror anthology, it’s edited and curated by horror master Jordan Peele!!! Within these pages, I’ve read very eerie, scary, and uncomfortable short stories that often stuck with me or left me wanting more.

Authors like N.K Jemisin, Justin C. Key, and Nnedi Okorafor were some of the authors who penned stories in this!

There were two stories that stuck out immensely. The first story involved a police officer who saw eyes in the headlights of cars he ‘needed’ to pull over. The mechanical meets the institutional as we traverse through the mind of an abusive cop. The other story was about two siblings who attempt to help a woman and her family but encounter the supernatural in a racist town.

It has a little bit for everyone who is into horror and it’s just a quick read! I really recommend this one :)

5/5☆ as I expected.

There's so many subgenres of horror packed into this beautiful collection.

Some standouts for me were

Flicker - L.D. Lewis

A Grief Of The Dead - Rion Amilcar Scott

Hide and Seek - P. Djèlí Clark

And last but not least,

The Rider - Tananarive Due

I went into this collection being fairly certain I was going to fall in love with it, and I'm happy I was 100% proven right.

This book is loaded with star power but all tell some fascinating stories that intersect between dark fantasy and racial tension.

Probably one of my favorite reads of the year and an incredible way to find more black horror authors ! Highly recommend

Thank you for the arc

A collection of horror tales written by Black authors. Some have racism as a theme, while many do not. The stories were very gook there are only two I did not like. The stories were mostly not scary but they had plenty of atmosphere and weird or shocking endings. I loved the writing all around.

1. Reckless Eyeballing by NK Jemison - A crooked cop starts seeing the front headlights on some cars turn into real eyes. He sees this as a sign that the car's driver is a criminal. Entertaining with a great ending. (4/5)

2. Eye & Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse - Brother and sister monster hunters go to a rural farmhouse to search for a monster killing animals and now something bigger. A delightful story with great characters. (4/5)

3. Wandering Devil by Cadwell Turnbull - Freddy was a wandering man. He'd stop somewhere and stay awhile then suddenly move on again but this time he fell in love and couldn't decide whether to stop for good or not. Very engaging story, and we feel for Freddy. Then a strange ending. (4/5)

4. Invasion of the Baby Snatchers by Nneka Arimah - This starts off describing the alien invasion of impregnating people and then goes on to describe one particular case. It's another fine story with a creepy ending. (4/5)

5. The Other One by Violet Allen - A woman can't stop thinking about her ex of three weeks. He just up and told her he didn't love her one day. This was a little hard to understand and I don't get it. It left me feeling 'meh'. (3/5)

6. Lasiren by Erin E. Adams - A folk tale of a woman in the sea and a girl who goes missing. This was just so-so, readable but it didn't do anything for me. (3/5)

7. The Rider by Tananarive Due - Two young women get on a bus to Montgomery to join the Freedom Riders in 1961. Really good. The author turns a realistic story into a paranormal by adding a strange man/creature. (4/5)

8. The Aesthete by Justin C Key - it's never stated as such but an AI narrates this story about him meeting a woman AI and a special bond between. I enjoyed the story but found it confusing at times. An expanded version would be more satisfying (4/5)

9. Pressure by Ezra Claytan Daniels - Three cousins reunite at one of their mum's places. A series of events leads to a shocking end. Really good. (4/5)

10. Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor - much longer than the other stories. A woman goes back to Nigeria to bury her father. There is a traditional send-off for him. When she returns to Arizona she brings something back with her. A completely satisfying story. Good characterization of the main character and an interesting plot. (4/5)

11. Flicker by LD Lewis - The lights go off for the world and no one can see a thing. This lasts 21 seconds and causes chaos. The world is ending. This was fantastic. So creepy. Great ending. My favorite so far. (5/5)

12. The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson - A girl who was orphaned by the giant beast who lives in the sea hole in the village goes in to kill it. Written like a folk tale, this story was good but didn't interest me much. (3/5)

13. The Norwood Trouble by Maurice Broaddus - This story reads as the horrors of man. Set after the Civil War in Indiana which is in the North but ruled by the South. It tells of racism and how it explodes one night. The story eventually turns supernatural or as the story says "preternatural". A harrowing tale as it's so real. (4/5)

14. A Grief of the Dead by Rion Amilcar Scott - A man's twin brother died in a mass shooting, his parents in a CO2 accident, and his Uncle Charlie was carried off by screeches. His sister comes to see him saying the dead are visiting her. From here the story turns into something completely different. Good characterization and an intricate plot. I didn't find it creepy or atmospheric, though. Decent enough story. (3/5)

15. A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree by Nicole D Sconiers - Two ghosts, for want of a better word, haunt a stretch of highway called "Dead Man's Curve" playing a game of who can kill the most men. Not exactly creepy but I like the women's stories and their powers. (3/5)

16. An American Fable by Chesya Burke - Just after WWII a black soldier returns home to find that in the South blacks are not treated any better than before. On the train to Chicago, he stands up for the other blacks and things go from bad to strange for him. A bit of fantasy in here changes this from an historical tale to something otherworldly but it's just okay. (3/5)

17. Your Happy Place by Terence Taylor - Martin has a happy home life but is worried about his job. He's a prison guard working at an experimental facility where he keeps noticing odd things happening and he wants to find the answers. I loved this one. The first story with a science fiction edge. And very creepy when you think about it. ,(4/5)

18. Hide & Seek by P Djeli Clark - A boy's mother lies in bed her body changing, her breathing heavy. Then he tells the back story of magic in his family. I loved this one. The boy is almost 12 and reads as such; is an entertaining story with a frightening end. (4/5)

19. Origin Story by Tochi Onyebuchi - Written as a play. Political. I got the message but certainly did not consider it entertaining. (0/5)

This was a little underwhelming for me! While I did like few of the stories the others were weirdly out of place. This wasn’t giving. My favorite story is Eye & Tooth!

I struggled a lot reading this book!

Thank you NetGalley for sending the ARC to me