5 Horror Novels by Black Authors You Should Read Today
A Bookish Celebration of Black History Month
Black History Month
Black History Month occurs from February 1st to March 1st and is a celebration of the rich culture and history that African Americans have contributed to American society as a whole.
There are so many fantastic inventions and discoveries that we can contribute to African American creativity and intellect. Additionally, African American influence on art and music has brought such diversity to our thinking in these areas.
There is one area, in particular, where I enjoy the different perspectives of black artists, and that is through horror novels. Here are a few of my favorites from over the years.
5 Amazing Horror Novels by Black Authors
The Good House by Tananarive Due
This novel is the story of Angela Toussaint, a lawyer, who has gone through the unimaginable with the suicide of her teenage son. She has decided to return to the scene of his suicide, the family home in Sacajawea, to try to piece together what caused this tragedy to occur.
What she finds is an evil that has deep history within the house and surrounding community related to Angela herself.
With the slow building of the plot in this story, there is much detail given to the characters, the locations around town, the dynamics of the one black family residing in an all-white community.
The story ventures into the occult, which contributes to an overall frightening and tense atmosphere, especially as the backstory gets explained. This book has been recommended for bookish fans of Stephen King, and with all the bookish SK references in the novel itself, it’s safe to say that Tananarive, herself, is a King fan.
The timeframe here is the release of the movie The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent rise in prominence of the KKK.
However, in this version, the Klan members are interdimensional, Lovecraftian-styled creatures referred to as Ku Kluxes using the D.W. Griffith film as a spell to spread their evil message of hate.
Using real historical events as a backdrop, this novella introduces us to Maryse, a monster-hunter, and her like-minded friends who decide they must rid the South of the dangerous entities before the minds of the populace are poisoned.
This novel packs a punch with some fantastic body horror and gore, a cast of characters that bring the story to life, and a culminating event that just blows your mind. The intelligence and wit behind this novella make it an exceptional read for bookish fans of social issues in our contemporary society.
Roughly based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft titled The Horror at Red Hook, LaValle’s Black Tom is the story of musician Charles Thomas Tester who lives with his father and plays his guitar or performs whatever work comes his way to keep them housed and fed.
The odd job that Tommy is completing as the opening scene begins is the delivery of an item of strange power to an unusual white woman.
Tommy tries to make himself inconspicuous in the all-white neighborhood by dressing as a musician should and carrying his guitar case, but, inevitably, he is reminded that he doesn’t belong.
He is next contacted by a man, Robert Suydam, who would like Tommy to play guitar at a party. The job pays well, so, although Tommy feels apprehensive, he agrees. Thus, he is introduced into the world of the occult and magic, which Tommy may already have some knowledge about. It ends up that Mr. Suydam has a nefarious plot to awaken the Ancient Ones from Lovecraftian lore and risk those inferior to him to carry this out.
Tommy, now known as Black Tom, has another outcome in mind. This is another great horror story that brings into focus social issues that plague society from the viewpoint of those who live it while appeal to the bookish fans of H.P. Lovecraft.
A young girl, Shori Matthews, is wandering through burned remains of a village when Wright first finds her and takes her to safety. Quickly discovering that she has a penchant for blood, Shori begins to feed on Wright, establishing a symbiotic way of life between them.
Having lost her memory, Shori returns to the burned-out village to seek information and is confronted by a man claiming to be her father although his light complexion is in direct contradiction to her own darker skin and features.
He informs her that she is a specially engineered vampire, a product of the pairing of a vampire with an African American woman in the hopes of producing offspring who could withstand the dangerous rays of the sun, and the village where they are standing used to house her female family members.
Uncertain why the females of her family were killed, Shori agrees to move with her father to his village. When her father never arrives to meet them, Shori and Wright find his village on their own. Upon arrival, they find his village in the same state as the one where Shori was found. From surviving villagers, Shori realizes that she is in danger, and it is due to the color of her skin.
An appealing read for bookish fans of vampire plotlines, while maintaining an intelligent and reflective scrutiny of society.
Tempest Landry was killed by a cop, but denied entrance to Heaven. He wasn’t a terrible man. He did steal, but only to help others. Sometimes his actions got people in trouble, but it was only people that deserved it anyway.
This is how Tempest sees it, so when he is commanded to go to Hell, he refuses. St. Peter isn’t sure what to do with someone who refuses to follow his command, so he grants Tempest’s wish to return to Harlem. St. Peter, though, returns him in a different body and with a guardian angel.
The angel is on a mission to convince Tempest to accept St. Peter’s command, while the Devil gets in on the action, trying to gain Tempest’s soul for himself. While an epic battle ensues for the soul of Tempest, Mosley turns this story into a series of teachable moments asking us to consider what is sin, and is sin the same for black people as it is for white people?
Are class and race deciding factors on how sin is perceived by others? Is the music of Heaven better than the blues? This one is a remarkable, humorous depiction of a classic good versus evil theme, and as an homage, will appeal to bookish fans of Langston Hughes’ work.
Reading News
This week, I completed the audiobook of How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. This was a gorefest, but an equally fantastic listen. The narration was perfect and added to the overall creepiness factor of the book. Grady Hendrix is a marvelous storyteller. His book My Best Friend’s Exorcism was released as a film in 2022, and I am very much looking forward to the release of the movie adaptation of his book Horrorstör, which is the first book of his that I read and made me a fan. In addition, there are rumors that his book The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is in the works, as well as, The Final Girl Support Group, which is my least favorite Hendrix book to date, but I’ll still see the movie.
In other news, I started listening to the newly released audiobook of The Cursed Among Us by John Durgin. I was a beta reader for this book last year, and it ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2022. Now, I’m excited to listen to the story and experience it in a different format. The narration has been great so far. I also have a slew of advanced reader copies that have come in, so I’ll be digging into those this week. I look forward to sharing my newest reads with all of you bookish fans!