The Wishing Pool and Other Stories
2023
Ratings3
Average rating4
15
Ratings3
Average rating4
In her first new book in seven years, Tananarive Due further cements her status as a leading innovator in Black horror and Afrofuturism "Due masterfully maintains suspense all the while delineating her characters with a psychological realism that makes the unbelievable credible." --Washington Post Book World "Tananarive Due's characters quietly move into your heart and take up residence. You love them, you fear for them, and they scare you half to death." --Nalo Hopkinson, author of Skin Folk "An eerie epic . . . I loved this novel." --Stephen King on My Soul to Keep American Book Award-winning author Tananarive Due's second collection of stories range from horror to science fiction to suspense. From the mysterious, magical town of Gracetown to the aftermath of a pandemic to the reaches of the far future, Due's stories all share a sense of dread and fear balanced with heart and hope. In some of these stories, the monster is racism itself; others address the monster within, or other universal struggles set against the supernatural or surreal. All of them are written with Due's trademark attention to detail and deep characterization. In addition to previously published work, this collections contains brand-new stories, including "Rumpus Room," a supernatural horror novelette set in Florida about a woman's struggle against both outer and inner demons.
Reviews with the most likes.
Tananarive Due is such a good writer. I still think of the places she took me with My Soul to Keep, and all her strengths there are on display here. I'm more of a pure horror girl than a scifi girl, and that's reflected in my personal favorites in this anthology, but I think readers who are the opposite of me will be just as pleased.
I think the story I'll remember the most is Haint in the Window. I don't want to say too much, but the sense of inevitability and foreshadowing in the story lead to an ending that fulfilled it's promise while offering social commentary and food for thought.
Incident at Bear Creek Lodge was instantly amazing to me, and the more I think about it the more amazing it gets, especially with an understanding of “Classic Hollywood,” and what was asked of Black performers in order to make a living. And also some generational trauma.
We have at least one Monkey's Paw story. For me, this is a story that takes place amidst deep loss, and asks the reader to question what they would do, risk, to reverse the loss. The reader knows, at a distance, the right thing but knows grief doesn't operate at a distance.
Highly recommended, and I will be recommending it a lot, to anyone who will listen to me.
