September: Poppy Z. Brite/Tananarive Due - diversity

Just noticed no one has yet set up a September thread, so here it is.

I don't "know" the two authors at all. And am having trouble finding something on my tbr that's really "horror" to fit this month, so I'm still not sure what I'm doing for it.

A book I already read this month is tagged "horror", but it's a different kind of horror, so I don't feel that I should count it, as it's not the horror genre.

I read Little Bee / Chris Clive and it has the horror tag.

This theme is a tough one for me as well, since I don't have anything on my shelves or on my current wishlist that fits. Also, time is tight this month. So I thought it might be best to just sample a few short stories. I've read a good number of the SFF short stories offered at Tor.com but they also offer some in the horror genre. I found these and will try to read one or more of them before the end of the month. I've read Wong's and Robson's SFF work before and enjoyed them.

"The Auntie", graphic story by Alyssa Wong and Wendy Xu
"Scarecrow", a short story by Alyssa Wong
"Breaking Water", a short story by Indrapramit Das
"Human Stain", a novelette by Kelly Robson

By the way, I'm not really sure what qualifies as "diverse", but in any case, the above list contains an Indian writer, Asian-American writers and one in a same-sex marriage (to another award-winning writer).

If you're looking for ideas, I recently enjoyed the novel Certain Dark Things by Mexican-Canadian writer Silvia Moreno-Garcia and the novella The Ballad of Black Tom by African-American writer Victor LaValle.

Thank you! Short story might be a good idea, with nothing (that I can come up with!) on my tbr.

I will take a look at some of your suggestions!

>2 mathgirl40: I just finished reading Scarecrow. Thank you! I will write and post a review, but is there a way to add it here? Being a short story, it's not coming up in a search.

Thanks so much!

>4 LibraryCin: You're welcome. You can browse through Tor's other horror offerings too, with this search.

I think you'd need to add the entry for Scarecrow manually if you want it in your database. If you search on Alyssa Wong, you'll see that another LT user has already added an entry. However, you cannot use that entry yourself, because a work is known to LT only if it comes from one of the established sources. This is a long-standing LT weakness that many users have complained about. I've occasionally added short stories manually myself, but most of the time, I'm too lazy to do it.

Thank you for posting for this month!

I really wanted to read Due this month, my library has one of her series, but not the first one!!! I hate when that happens.

I borrowed from the library, The Changeling by Victor LaValle from the library. I enjoyed The Devil in Silver from him and the prequel novella Lucretia and the Kroons. I also enjoyed The Ballad of Black Tom that he published last year.

I have on my shelf Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. Although he is not a POC, this book explores traveling for black people during Jim Crow. There is a nice interview between Ruff and LaValle that explains the premise of Lovecraft Country and The Ballad of Black Tom. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/shadows-over-america-matt-ruff-and-victor-...

>5 mathgirl40: Thank you. That was my guess, but I thought I'd ask, anyway. I probably will add it.

Scarecrow / Alyssa Wong
3.5 stars

This is a horror short story. I don’t think I really want to summarize it, as I think part of the story is about figuring out what’s happening. It took a little bit to realize what was going on, but once I did, I thought the story was good.

I just found this thread. I am currently reading The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle and enjoying it. Although I doubt I will finish before tomorrow, I am counting it for this month's read.

I finished "Scarecrow" by Alyssa Wong. It was pretty good but I liked her 2017 Hugo winning novelette "You'll Surely Drown Here if You Stay" better. I also finished Wong's graphic novel "The Auntie". I liked this one a lot, but though it features ghosts, it's more humorous than horrific.

I also finished "Breaking Water" by Indrapramit Das, which is set in India and offers a different take on the zombie tale.