A very mixed bag of short stories but worth checking out for the gems. Initially I read the stories by female authors for Women in Horror month, then I came back later and read the ones by male authors. Overall I enjoyed the female written stories more. My favourite of the whole collection was Hair Dreams by Joy Copeland. I also really enjoyed Empty Vessel by Lawana Holland-Moore and Dreads by D.S. Foxx. The final story, Danger Word, by Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes was excellent too.

I was very dissipointed. The First Story was barely a Penthouse letter's hack job with a vampire theme thrown in. More humor than horror. The Second was badly written with some interesting bits but again gratuitous sex. after the first two, I had to throw in the towel. I felt like I was punked.The second had an interesting premise, but the dialogue was horrible and it seemed very amateurish.I could not finish this and think it's a waste of time. I'm very sad about this because I thought it would...

(FROM JACKET)IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT......few possess the courage to gaze into the dim corners of darkened rooms...to face what lurks in lonely places...to traverse the world of the dead. They are the gifted ones. Bear witness to their power as two girls call forth hidden talents to combat an unholy enemy. Sense it in the calm diligence of a solitary black soldier sent to probe a series of bizarre deaths in a Tokyo shattered by World War II. Smell it in the stingingly antiseptic halls of a hospital...

I picked up this audio book, recorded by "Recorded Books Presents", produced by Grio Audio, on 12 CDs. I actually got it from the library by accident. I requested a different book and this one was sent to be in error. But since I had it, I figured I might as well check it out. The subtitle is "A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers". I'm a white female, but I said "why not?"First of all, this book is a misnomer. Although the editor, Brandon Massey, did a good job describing what ho...

This book is apparently the first I reviews on Amazon. At that time, I was not reviewing everything that I read. I have a vague recollection of posting the Amazon review because of the story contained in this anthology written by Linda Addison. In fact, my review was directed at her story rather than the entire book. I must have rated the book 4 stars, but her contribution was definitely a 5-star read.My Amazon review...I was browsing around in Barnes & Noble one day and came across Dark Dreams

I listened to this on audiobook. Massey’s story “Granddad’s Garage” was great and Barnes/Due’s “Danger Word” was good but overall this collection was absolutely awful which really disappointed me.

it's unfortunate that dark dreams starts off on such a horrible note with zane's "resident evil," an awful amalgam of vampire horror and erotica, because i'm sure that it could be really off-putting to someone who picks it up at random. however, if you power through or just ignore the story, i'm finding that DD reads as a typical anthology--some meh stories, and some that really shine. "bras coupe" and "hair dreams" are my favorites so far.

Anthologies are a bit of a mixed bag: some stories you'll like, some you won't. This one's no exception.

I liked most of the stories in this anthology. The first one kind of threw me off but most of the ones that followed were good to go.

This is the first collection of original horror fiction by black authors. I plan to read the next two installments in the series as well. Editor Brandon Massey manages to assemble a very diverse cross-section of fiction, covering a wide array of themes and styles and content. We get everything from quiet introspective horror to splatterpunk and erotica. I suspect there will be few who like everything, but everyone should be able to find something that sings to them. Mine is “The Power” by Linda

My thoughts about this collection of short stories have changed in the weeks since I finished reading them. I enjoyed most of the stories as I read them. However, there are only three I would read a second time. Bras Coupe by Kalamu ya Salaam and Granddad's Garage by Brandon Massey were stories with protagonists and environments that I could vividly see and care about. The ending of each story is creepy yet satisfying. Danger Word by Steven Barnes and Tananrive Due was also in interesting read.

I found the collection boring.

There are a few stand out favorites in this collection. L.A. Banks' 'If the Walls Could Talk', Terrance Taylor's 'Plaything' (reads like an episode of Black Mirror) and the one Tananarive Due wrote with her husband 'Danger Word' (there's a reason that one's last). Themes range from the very real horrors of slavery, to witchcraft and post-apocalypse horror. I look forward to reading more of these authors. Linda Addison's short story collection "How to tell if a Demon has Become Your Friend" has b...

I didn't realize these stories were going to be so short and plentiful. Not my favorite style to listen to, I might need to revisit in print/ebook form. They were odd and creepy, I didn't get a horror feel but maybe I have a different definition of horror than what it actually means lol

There are no words to describe this book 🤦‍♂️

This was one of those listens/reads that makes me think that throwing enough pointless sex and swears into a book makes it publishable.This was an ambitious anthlogy edited by Brandon Massey featuring Black writers - which is what drew me to the book. The best in the bunch were by Chesya Burke (He Who Takes Away The Pain), and Brandon Massey (Grandad's Garage), the editor, and Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes never fail to disappoint, however two or three worthwhile stories out of twenty makes f...

The only reason that I didn't give this book a 5 star rating is because there are two that I just couldn't bring myself to...like. Either way my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE story is by LA Banks, "If The Walls Could Talk". I REALLY WISH some more of her books were on Audible. R.I.H. LA Banks - brilliant author gone too soon.Also I really wished that D.S. Foxx would expand on "Dreads".

I didn't know what to expect especially after I got through the first couple stories. The first story, Resident Evil, has a lot of sex in it. I don't much like sex with my horror. Plus, the story was really poorly written. The dialogue was atrocious. I know that Zane is a fairly prolific author, and I assume she's popular. But this read like somebody's first draft of a story. I didn't care for it.The second story (But Beautiful and Terrifying) was better written, but it was still about sex! Is t...

Massey is one of my favorite horror/thriller/suspense writers and I finally got a chance to read this collection of stories. He has stepped out of the box and given known and unknown African American authors to show their work to the world. The contributing authors are: Zane, Robert Fleming, Chesya Burke, Kalamu ya Salaam, Joy M. Copeland, L.R. Giles, L.A. Banks, Ahmad Wright, Lawana Holland-Moore, Christopher Chambers, D.S. Foxx, Terence Taylor, Linda Addison, Rickey Windell George, Francine Le...

I'm going to be fair and not rate this one. The first six stories were really bad. But it got me to the L.A. Banks story which naturally, was a good one. The following story was bad so I skipped to the Brandon Massey story and that was pretty good. The story after that literally made me say out loud "What the hell was that?" which prompted me to skip to the Barnes/Due story and I enjoyed that one. Thankfully that was the last story in the anthology so I wasn't tempted to try yet another bad shor...