The Wishing Pool And Other Stories

(Hardback)

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Description

In her first new book in seven years, Tananarive Due further cements her status as a leading innovator in Black horror and Afrofuturism

Tananarive Due is the master of Black horror, even teaching a class where Jordan Peele guest-lectured. So her new collection, The Wishing Pool, out in mid-April, is a major treat, full of major scares. Due excels at twist endings but also brilliantly creates an atmosphere of creeping dread in which you know something terrible is coming. The Wishing Pool is helpfully divided into four sections, and each feels like a movement in a symphony. There are classic tales of horror, then a series of stories set in a Florida town where the swamp tends to swallow people up; the final two sections shift to science fiction about post-apocalyptic futures. (These last sections include pandemic stories, written before 2020, which hit harder now.) Due shows just how much territory she can cover in one short book and just how versatile terrifying tales can be.
Washington Post

American Book Awardwinning author Tananarive Dues second collection of stories includes offerings of horror, science fiction, and suspenseall genres she wields masterfully. From the mysterious, magical town of Gracetown to the aftermath of a pandemic to the reaches of the far future, Dues 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, each set against the supernatural or surreal. All are written with Dues trademark attention to detail and deeply drawn characters.

In addition to previously published work, this collection contains brand-new stories, including Rumpus Room, a supernatural horror novelette set in Florida about a womans struggle against both outer and inner demons.

Reviews

"Holy hell: These 14 stories from author and film historian Due might scare even the most dauntless horror fans to death. These tales of fright are both intellectually keen and psychologically bloodcurdling, no surprise from an award-winning writer whose command of the Black horror aesthetic rivals Jordan Peele's in originality and sheer bravado . . . The hairbreadth between acute tragedy and the blackest of humor are child's play for the author in 'Haint in the Window, ' which masterfully nods to Octavia E. Butler in the story of a bookseller facing elements out of his control. The five tales in The Gracetown Stories give a sense of Stephen King's fictional Derry or Jerusalem's Lot . . . A patchwork of stories that somehow manages to be both graceful and alarming, putting fresh eyes to the unspeakable."
--Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review"In these 14 powerhouse stories, Due probes history, the grim present moment, and not so far-flung futures, delivering an expansive collection that still hits close to home . . . There are no false notes; every piece is a study in tension, showcasing Due's mastery at balancing action, suspense, and emotion. Centering Black characters and often Black experiences, this is a standout in both Black horror and the genre more broadly."
--Publishers Weekly, STARRED review"I make no secret of the fact that I am both a lover of short fiction as well as a huge Tananarive Due fan. Her writing never fails to remind me that some of the most deliciously twisted imaginations in literature are possessed by some of the sweetest humans on the planet."
--LeVar Burton"Threads of connection weave throughout Due's new collection, which will leave readers wanting more . . . Though the stories include a wide range of supernatural and more Earth-bound horrors, racism and anti-Blackness shadow all of the characters and drive much of the volume's terror."
--Booklist"The latest story collection from Due (Ghost Summer) displays her skills at creating tales both sinister and magical . . . These stories come together to create an excellent jumping-off point for discovering Due's body of work."
--Library Journal"These stories are absolute gold . . . Reading Tananarive Due is like putting your hand on a power cable carrying high voltage; her fiction hums with an electrifying mix of joy and violence. She's a virtuoso of genre and an oldschool scholar of suspense, and every new book is a cause for excitement."
--Joe Hill, author of The Black Phone"I enjoy reading the kind of novel that seduces me right into it and makes me forget about work or sleep. My Soul to Keep does that beautifully."
--Octavia E. Butler, author of Kindred

More Praise for Tananarive Due

"[A]ny new work from Due is cause for celebration . . . All these tales are incredibly well-written, and made me think of Octavia E. Butler on more than one occasion. If you've never read any Due, this is an excellent place to start. She is such an exciting writer, and an important voice in the horror community (her contributions to Shudder's 101 Scariest Movie Moments of All Time were wonderful)."
--California Reading"An eerie epic . . . I loved this novel."
--Stephen King on My Soul to Keep "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"Due masterfully maintains suspense all the while delineating her characters with a psychological realism that makes the unbelievable credible."
--Washington Post Book World

Author Bio

Tananarive Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. Her stories have been featured on LeVar Burton Reads and Realm, and she is an executive producer on Shudder's documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Due and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote for Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone and for Shudder's anthology film Horror Noire. They also cowrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes cohost a podcast, Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!