I love the ambition of this anthology. It kicks in the door and dares people to refuse to see black women in horror. While I think as an anthology it would have been more powerful at half the length, the size and volume of authors carries its own message. There’s much to love in this tome, as it is a finalist for the Bram Stoker award this year, and I’ve highlighted a few. “The Monster” by Crystal Connor hits one of my favorite zones: the urban fears of the rural (and in particular the rural sou...

Some of the stories were stronger than others, but I enjoyed this collection overall.

2.5"Summer Skin" by Zin E. Rocklyn ★★★½"Taking the Good" by Dana Mcknight ★★★½"Foundling" by Tenea D. Johnson ★★★½

So powerful/that could control the moon

As one of the editors I am so deeply excited that this book is available to introduce to readers some wonderful, chilling work by African-American women authors they may not have read before.

I am very in favor of people telling their unique stories, as a way of bridging any cultural gaps. And speculative fiction is an excellent vehicle for that. So when Linda Addison offered me a chance to review Sycorax’s Daughters, I jumped at the chance. It’s a hefty read; over 500 pages long so you’ll get your money’s worth.Sycorax was a black sorceress in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In the introductions, Dr. Brooks says, “our project fills the lacunae by privileging Black women’s visions of self...

My initial impression of SYCORAX’S DAUGHTERS was injured by bad layout. If that doesn’t bother you, great, lucky you, but once I saw it I couldn’t unsee it. Specifically, I couldn’t unsee it in the whole 500+ page book. Mid-line paragraph breaks, orphaned dashes, all kinds of strange arrangement errors… it looks like it was exported straight from a word processor.That’s too bad, because there is a lot to like in here. My tastes run more towards fiction than poetry, but I read everything cover to...

This is one of the highest quality anthologies I have read this year--highlighting the short stories and poems of Black women writers. Similarly to "Dark Mojo: Conjure Stories," this is an anthology with an unparalleled quality and features some of the most impactful and hard-hitting fiction I've read in a very long time. This should be on everyone's radar and definitely deserves some recognition come award season.

This book was a fun read. Black womxn writers. Black womxn characters. Fabulous breadth of content: Science fiction. Fantasy. Horror. Comedy. Mystery. Ghost stories. Caribbean mythology. Succubus. Monsters. Shapeshifters. Trolls. The paranormal. Mermaids. Varmpires. American slavery. Torture. Hell. Hallucination. Bad technology of our future or our parallel future. Down by the Bayou. Seeing auras. Voodoo/hoodoo. People of varying social classes. The only dyke bar still open. ... Lacking only wer...

Sycorax, in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, is mute. Her tale is told by others. Her feelings and motives are property of those who know her and take it upon themselves to decipher her to the audience. Sycorax was not given a voice.Her daughters—the 33 women of color who contributed these stories—have rich voices that refuse to whisper. Their words lay on the page with strong marks—bold lines that break boundaries.Their stories are dark and Gothic. Stitched in moments of fear, the authors of Syc...

I picked this up after reading Sheree Thomas' Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora and looking for what else she had published.Other than Thomas I think the only author I'd read before is Zin E. Rocklyn, whose free Tor short The Night Sun I enjoyed. That story has some similar these this anthology, so check it out if you need an idea of what you'd be reading here.Another sample, if you're undecided on purchasing this, is this sneak peek from Nicole Givens Kurtz...

I really enjoyed reading so many short stories written by so many women of color. There were a few poems that I didn't really like too much, but that didn't take away from the awesomeness of the overall anthology. Overall, I loved reading each short story, but my top 5 favorites were:1. Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turn the World Round Midnight by Sheree Renee Thomas2. Letty by Regina N. Bradley3. Ma Laja by Tracey Baptiste (the way this one was written was a pleasure...and a big change from t...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book especially knowing the stories and poems were written by women like me. My family has a waiting list waiting to pass the book to another to read.

To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.I got a copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads program.I won this in a raffle on Goodreads years ago. I was so pumped for it, but then I moved at least once. It kept getting pushed further and further back on my to-read list. Then I finally started reading it last March, then put it down again for months. Every time I picked it up I loved it so much, but then I put it down and forgot it existed.The stories are so amazing. There were very few...

This is an anthology of horror-themed works (short stories and poems) by African American women. I liked the variety of themes in the various works, and the focus in the stories on Black women as focal characters. The stories vary widely in tone and subject matter so I think there is something for everyone, but I personally found the strong religious bent of some of the stories kind of off-putting.Favourites: Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight by Sheree Renée Thomas, K...

Cedar Grove Publishing continues to produce intriguing books that focus on diversity, in both writers and subjects. After books like The Soul of Harmony, Fast Pitch and Pin Drop, Cedar Grove's latest offering is Sycorax's Daughters, a horror anthology written by African-American women.Sycorax is the mother of Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest, but she's never seen in the play. Despite this erasure, Sycorax's presence permeates the story: the powerful witch who was banished while pregnant; thr...

We are Sycorax's DaughtersSycorax's Daughters are us. We are the saviors, the monsters, the witches, the the magic personified. Billed as horror, some stories fall under the speculative umbrella, and leave the reader with thoughts to ponder. Others leave the reader inexplicably chilled and turning on every light possible. Poetry is interspersed and offers views on love, death, and redemption.

So, I'm biased because I am in it! :-) I had never read some of the other authors' work and I have to say, I am honored to be among them. Want a quick horror fiction fix? Check this collection out!

A genre-bending exploration of identity, culture, and the limits of horror, Sycorax’s Daughters capitalizes on the voices of the ignored. This anthology is anything but mainstream, with the majority of the stories stemming from uniquely female experiences with fear, desire, guilt, and revenge. Sycorax’s Daughters is certainly a breath of fresh air in a world of stale, white male-dominated horror, and I found the majority of these stories to be incredibly creative and interesting, combining cultu...

Lots of a great material here. A few duds, but overall some interesting stories by authors that deserve more recognition.