The Wishing Pool and Other Stories

Starred review from February 20, 2023
In these 14 powerhouse stories, Due (Joplin’s Ghost) probes history, the grim present moment, and not so far-flung futures, delivering an expansive collection that still hits close to home. America’s racism haunts the protagonists of the terrifying “Last Stop on Route 9,” while in the 1960s-set “Thursday Night Shift” a girl gives up her individuality to change the course of history. The pandemics of “Attachment Disorder” and “Ghost Ship” ring an eerie bell without feeling too familiar, and though all the tales are rooted in horror, Due offers glimmers of hope: a young woman decides to put on a comedy show for the survivors of an apocalypse in “One Day Only,” and the tragedy “Haint in the Window” offers a moving celebration of Black literary greats. 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. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary.

March 1, 2023

The latest story collection from Due (Ghost Summer) displays her skills at creating tales both sinister and magical. It begins with a sampling of her dark speculative fiction, an exploration into Gracetown, Due's own fictional small town, and ends with a look at a bleak future that isn't too far away. Like any good collection, this has something for everyone. Afrofuturists will gravitate toward Due's vision (and warning) of what potentially lies ahead of us. Southern gothic horror fans will love visiting Gracetown, a town haunted by ghosts and demons that are both metaphorical and literal. The first part of the book is mainly for readers who just want a bite of something unsettling, which is a great way to describe Due's fiction. All these tales end not with a bang of a resolution but with a subtle and sickening tilt of one's perspective. Some readers might not like the lack of a definitive ending, but others' imaginations will be working overtime long after they close the book. VERDICT These stories come together to create an excellent jumping-off point for discovering Due's body of work.--James Gardner

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2023
Threads of connection weave throughout Due's new collection, which will leave readers wanting more. Many of the stories are set in the aftermath though most were written prior to the onset of COVID-19. Several are linked by a location, either set in or featuring characters with a connection to the mysterious town of Gracetown, Florida. "One Day Only" and "Attachment Disorder" examine the circumstances of the same protagonist 40 years apart. Most stories in the collection have been previously published; the two new stories are "Rumpus Room," about a young mother who must come to terms with her new employer's dangerous secrets, and "The Biographer," about a houseguest whose behavior becomes increasingly unsettling. 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. Recommend to those who enjoyed Due's previous collection of short stories, Ghost Summer (2015), P. Dj�l� Clark's Ring Shout (2020), Tenea D. Johnson's Smoketown (2011), or Colson Whitehead's Zone One (2011).

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2023
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 opening salvo, "The Wishing Pool," takes a universal familial worry and paints it with shades of "The Monkey's Paw." 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: It's just a bad patch of ground ripe with horrors ranging from Cthulhu-like abominations in "Suppertime" to demonic possession in "Migration," in which a friend helpfully asks, "Is that thing acting up again?" Another pair of stories visits a woman named Nayima whose post-apocalyptic endeavors include some light stand-up comedy in "One Day Only" and, much later, the necessity to protect and school her young charge even as her own mind fails in "Attachment Disorder." A final triptych of stories labeled "Future Shock" wouldn't go amiss as episodes of The Twilight Zone. Although the tales vary greatly in length and style, it's the Hitchcock-ian, Black Mirror-tinged reveals and existential questions that stand out--a dying man's final vow, a teeth-grinding amount of child endangerment, or the awful, pedestrian confession, "I broke my daughter's arm." Even in a far-off future, Due finds that big questions endure: "Was it better to die free?" A patchwork of stories that somehow manages to be both graceful and alarming, putting fresh eyes to the unspeakable.

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