Black Horror on My October TBR

Hi friends 👋🏻 Happy Black History Month and happy October! This year, I wanted to do something different for Spooky Month, by tying it into Black History Month, so my TBR for this year is only Black authors and my watchlist will be as many movies by Black directors that I haven’t seen before. This is something that I decided I would do earlier in the year, and now that it’s here, I’m excited to be exploring Black Horror more than I have before.

Just a little disclaimer for anyone who’s confused about why I’m talking about Black History Month: Black History Month takes place in October in the UK, not February. It’s celebrated in February in the USA because it coincides with the births of two figures who are important in Black American history: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In the UK, we chose October because that is traditionally when African chiefs and leaders would gather to settle their differences. It also started in 1987, which was the 150th anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the Caribbean.

the reformatory by tananarive due

This one is my current read! Tananarive Due is an author that I’ve known about for years thanks to her many many many appearances in horror documentaries and being a recurring guest judge on The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula but I haven’t picked up any of her books until now. This book takes place in 1950s Florida and is about a 12-year-old Black boy who is sent to a reformatory school after kicking an older white boy, and although I’m not very far into it at the time of my writing this post, it’s clear that this book explores the extreme racism of the south and how it affected not just Black people, but white people who were seen as being the ‘wrong’ kind of white,.

the changeling by victor lavalle

The only book I’ve read by Victor LaValle is The Ballad of Black Tom, which is a retelling of The Horror at Red Hook by HP Lovecraft but from the point of view of a Black Man in the 1920s, which I enjoyed and found interesting. I didn’t know about this book until a customer requested it at the library and returned it with a very glowing review so I immediately put it on my TBR for this month. Fairytale retellings aren’t something that I gravitate towards anymore, but I don’t know that much about changelings and I liked how LaValle explored Lovecraft in The Ballad of Black Tom so I’m excited to get around to this one.

zone one by colson whitehead

Colson Whitehead is another author who I haven’t read before. Still, I often see his books in Black History Month displays and I know that he’s received much critical acclaim for his literary and crime books (Obama listed one as his favourite book if I’m remembering correctly). This book is a post-apocalyptic zombie story and while those aren’t my favourite kinds of horror stories and it does sound a little similar to I Am Legend but with zombies instead of vampires, I am interested in this one. Plus, it is worth noting that zombies were stolen from Haitian folklore and turned into something completely different from what they were before, so I like seeing a Black author reclaim them.

fledgling by octavia e. butler

I’ve wanted to read Octavia E Butler’s books for a very long time now and I figured that the end of October would be a good place to start since Fledgling is technically a science fiction book, but it’s a sci-fi book about a vampire. Since Halloween is on a Thursday this year, I figured that the end of the month would be the best time to read it. I’m especially excited to read this book because I’m always on the lookout for more diverse vampire books and movies, since a lot of them tend to be overwhelmingly white (which is understandable because vampires come from Eastern European folklore, with cultures outside of Europe having similar mythological creatures with different names) and, surprisingly, I have yet to read a vampire book by a Black author. Obviously, that’s something that I intend to change.

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What are you reading this month?