Publishers Weekly
★ 02/20/2023
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. (June)
BookRiot
"This book is amazing. It's been several years since Tananarive Due, one of the great voices in speculative fiction and horror, published a book, and what a book it is! . . . Due's second collection of short stories is worth the wait . . . While the stories vary greatly in terms of character, plot, and style, they all have in common a rumbling undercurrent of fear that'll have you biting the nails on one hand as fast as you're turning the pages with the other."
The best spooky reads for summer, according to a horror writer - NPR's Weekend Edition - Joe Hill's book recommendations
"The Wishing Pool is a master class in horror fiction and sci-fi written by one of the very best in the genre."
Booklist
"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."
Washington Post
"The Wishing Pool . . . 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 . . . Due shows just how much territory she can cover in one short book and just how versatile terrifying tales can be."
Locus Magazine
"The Wishing Pool and Other Stories marks Tananarive Due's first solo work since her 2015 short story collection Ghost Summer and it's a firecracker of a collection . . . like its predecessor, it covers a wide range of genres and subgenres—dystopian, Afrofuturism, horror, Southern gothic, fantasy/ supernatural—and highlights the best of what Due can do . . . As expected from the great Tananarive Due, The Wishing Pool is a strong set of short stories. It would make a great introduction to her body of work for new fans especially. Due is the queen of horror noire, and she is in fine form in this collection. "
|Los Angeles Times
"Black horror is having a big moment. So is its pioneer, Tananarive Due."
Philadelphia Inquirer
"One of the great torchbearers of Afrofuturism and Black horror . . . For Due, horror is situational and philosophical, a bubbling cauldron of terrible irony, systemic breakdowns, and worldwide devastation . . . The title tract in Wishing Pool, meanwhile, is a pitch-perfect, careful-what-you-wish-for tale that leaves readers pondering memory, identity and the meaning of happiness."
Ebony
"Award-winning author Tananarive Due's new four-part collection of scary short stories examine horror, suspense, and science fiction through the lens of racism, Afrofuturism, and the supernatural, with plenty of enticing details to keep you hooked on every page."
LeVar Burton
"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."
Weekend Edition - NPR - Joe Hill
"[A] master class in horror fiction and sci-fi written by one of the very best in the genre."
Men's Health
"For fans of Jordan Peele, horror book fanatics, and people who love short but powerful tales, this book is for you."
From the Publisher
"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
"The Wishing Pool is a master class in horror fiction and sci-fi written by one of the very best in the genre."
—NPR's Weekend Edition, included in Joe Hill's book recommendations: "The best spooky reads for summer, according to a horror writer"
"Award-winning author Tananarive Due's new 4-part collection of scary short stories examine horror, suspense and science fiction through the lens of racism, Afrofuturism and the supernatural, with plenty of enticing details to keep you hooked on every page."
—Ebony
"This book is amazing. It's been several years since Tananarive Due, one of the great voices in speculative fiction and horror, published a book, and what a book it is! . . . Due's second collection of short stories is worth the wait . . . While the stories vary greatly in terms of character, plot, and style, they all have in common a rumbling undercurrent of fear that'll have you biting the nails on one hand as fast as you're turning the pages with the other."
—BookRiot, Recent Horror and Thrillers by Writers of Color
“One of Due’s skills is authentic dialogue and a smooth, easy, acceptable narrative. It’s easy to slip right into the story and lose all sense of time and place . . . During my read through this entire collection, I had an overwhelming sense of what a treasure short stories are; bite-sized works of fiction we can consume a little or a lot of depending on what our heart needs . . . This is a treasure!”
—The Lineup
“The Wishing Pool and Other Stories marks Tananarive Due’s first solo work since her 2015 short story collection Ghost Summer and it’s a firecracker of a collection . . . like its predecessor, it covers a wide range of genres and subgenres—dystopian, Afrofuturism, horror, Southern gothic, fantasy/ supernatural—and highlights the best of what Due can do . . . As expected from the great Tananarive Due, The Wishing Pool is a strong set of short stories. It would make a great introduction to her body of work for new fans especially. Due is the queen of horror noire, and she is in fine form in this collection.”
—Locus Magazine
"One of the great torchbearers of Afrofuturism and Black horror . . . For Due, horror is situational and philosophical, a bubbling cauldron of terrible irony, systemic breakdowns, and worldwide devastation . . . The title tract in Wishing Pool, meanwhile, is a pitch-perfect, careful-what-you-wish-for tale that leaves readers pondering memory, identity and the meaning of happiness."
—Philadelphia Inquirer
"This collection of 14 stories pulls together all of the genres Due does best — mystery, horror, sci-fi, and suspense—to tell truly terrifying stories filled with monsters both supernatural and real."
—Book Riot
"The Wishing Pool is the first book in seven years from the horror and Afrofuturism boss Tananarive Due. It's a collection of short stories that are just as smart as they are scary."
—The Root
"For fans of Jordan Peele, horror book fanatics, and people who love short but powerful tales, this book is for you."
—Men's Health
"Tananarive Due's latest collection, The Wishing Pool and Other Stories is a must-read for fans of horror and speculative fiction . . . Due's writing is captivating and the cover art perfectly captures the book's springtime vibe. Overall, this collection is a testament to Due's incredible talent and a must-read for any horror fan."
—The Lineup, spring 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
Library Journal
03/01/2023
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
June 2023 - AudioFile
Jasmin Walker and William DeMeritt deftly capture the nuances of these short stories, a mix of horror, suspense, and science fiction focusing on racism, abuse, and sexism. An introduction by the author, who is known for Black horror and Afrofuturism, helps illuminate the works. In "The Haint in the Window," DeMeritt introduces a haint (ghost) who upsets everything in a bookstore, keeping the owner, and listeners, on edge until the disturbing climax. Walker's emotive standout is "The Night Shift," in which 13-year-old Shona is helping her mother clean rooms at Memphis's Lorraine Motel, the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Then, in 1969, Shona has a life-altering encounter with Dr. King through the powers of a magical stone. Audio enriches these exceptional stories. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-02-08
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.
