Literature

Weird Black Girls (2024)

2024 · Elwin Cotman · 320 pages · Estados Unidos · Edited by Caedes

Watched: 0
Watchlist: 1
Ratings: 0
Average rating: —
Favorites: 0

A rural town finds itself under the authoritarian sway of a tree that punishes children. A pair of old friends navigate their fraught history as strange happenings escalate in a Mexican restaurant. A pair of narcissistic friends wreak havoc on an activist community. An aloof young man finds himself living through his lover’s memories. And a day of LARPing takes a cosmic turn. In each of the seven stories in this collection, characters pursue their obsessions on paths to glory and destruction while around them their worlds twist and warp, oscillating between reality and impossibility. On display throughout is Cotman’s ability to reveal truths about the human experience—about friendship, love, betrayal, bitterness—through whimsy, horror, and fantasy. Elegiac in tone, imaginative and humorous in their execution, the character-driven stories in Weird Black Girls challenge, incite, and entertain.

Elwin CotmanAuthor

A 2024 title built around Afro-descendant authors, Fantasía and Ficción. Directed by Elwin Cotman.

You’ll like it if you enjoy

Not ideal if you are looking for

Paranormal
Body horror
Witchcraft
Bestiary

When the Beckoning Comes (2021)More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder. But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, which has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. Mira hopes to reconnect with her friends, and especially, Jesse, to finally tell him the truth about her feelings and the events of that devastating long-ago day. But for all its fancy renovations, the Woodsman remains a monument to its oppressive racist history. The bar serves antebellum drinks, entertainments include horrifying reenactments, and the service staff is nearly all black. Yet the darkest elements of the plantation’s past have been carefully erased—rumors that slaves were tortured mercilessly and that ghosts roam the lands, seeking vengeance on the descendants of those who tormented them, which includes most of the wedding guests. As the weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine are forced to acknowledge their history together, and to save themselves from what is to come.

Ghostroots (2024)`Pemi Aguda opens her collection of twelve stories with the chilling tale of a woman who uncannily resembles her sinister, deceased grandmother. When the woman shows a capacity for deadly violence, she wonders—can evil be genetic, passed from generation to generation? Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Aguda’s stories unfold against a spectral cityscape where the everyday business of living—the birth of a baby, a market visit, a conversation between mothers and daughters—is charged with an air of supernatural menace. In “Breastmilk” a new mother’s inability to lactate takes on preternatural overtones. In “24, Alhaji Williams Street” a mysterious disease wreaks havoc with frightening precision. In “The Hollow,” an architect stumbles on a vengeful house.

It came from the trees (2024)The wilderness is in Jenna’s blood. Her Pap was the first Black park ranger at Sturbridge Reservation, and she practically knows the Owlet Survival Handbook by heart. But she’s never encountered a creature like the one that took her best friend Reese. Her parents don’t believe her; the police are worthless, following the wrong leads; and the media isn’t connecting the dots between Reese’s disappearance and a string of other attacks. Determined to save her friend, Jenna joins a new local scout troop, and ventures back into the woods. When the troop stumbles across suspicious huge human-like footprints near the camp, scratch marks on trees, and ominous sounds from the woods, Jenna worries that whatever took Reese is back to take her too. Can she trust her new scout leader? And will her new friend Norrie—who makes her laugh and reminds her so much of Reese—believe her? After the unthinkable happens, the scouts, armed with their wits and toiletries, band together to fight the monster and survive the night.

Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave (2025)13-year-old Mystery—who was abandoned in a cemetery and raised in a funeral home—is plagued by sleep paralysis and the smell of ghosts, but she's used to that. Even though her life might seem "strange" on the outside, she loves it. That is until a priceless heirloom goes missing and her family's funeral home is in danger of being shut down. To clear her Tia's good name, Mystery embarks on an adventure to figure out what really happened to the misplaced necklace. But to do so, she must contend with the angry patriarch of the town’s wealthiest family, a sleep paralysis demon, a graverobber, and the ghastly half-vampire, half-ghost that’s lurking in the Old Ellis Town Cemetery.

You´re not supposed to die tonightCharity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business. But the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they'll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?

Blacktop Wasteland (2020)Beauregard "Bug" Montage: esposo, padre, honesto mecánico de coches. Pero una vez fue conocido, desde Carolina del Norte hasta las playas de Florida, como el mejor conductor de escape de la Costa Este. Al igual que su padre, desaparecido hace muchos años. Tras una serie de calamidades financieras (agravadas por los prejuicios raciales del pequeño pueblo donde vive), Bug participa a regañadientes en un audaz robo de diamantes para resolver sus problemas de dinero y enmendarse de una vez por todas. Sin embargo, cuando todo sale terriblemente mal, se ve envuelto en un sórdido submundo que amenaza todo y a todos sus seres queridos...

Down Came the Spiders (2025)¿Puedes correr más rápido que ocho patas? Andi, de doce años, adora todo lo relacionado con las arañas: son criaturas fascinantes. Así que, cuando encuentra una especie que nunca había visto en la fiesta de Halloween de un compañero de clase, se pone contentísima. Hasta que las arañas empiezan a comportarse de forma inusual y amenazante. Se camuflan increíblemente bien, saltan más alto de lo que ella jamás ha visto, y sus redes son fuertes. Quizás incluso lo suficientemente fuertes como para atrapar a una persona... Andi y sus amigos Carly y Devon intentan encontrar a un adulto que los ayude, pero se ponen nerviosos: los padres que los acompañan han sido inmovilizados por las arañas. Como los únicos que saben lo que ocurre, Andi, Carly y Devon tendrán que enfrentarse a las arañas ellos mismos, ¡antes de que sea demasiado tarde!

Where the Dead Brides Gather (2024)Ambientado en Nigeria, narra la historia de Bata, una niña de once años atormentada por pesadillas, despierta una noche y se encuentra de pie, de guardia ante la puerta de su prima. Su piel, cabello y ojos se han vuelto de un blanco deslumbrante, que ni siquiera el curandero puede sanar. Su prima se casará a la mañana siguiente, pero solo si logra escapar del ataque asesino de una novia fantasma, que estuvo comprometida con su novio. Durante la noche, Bata lucha contra el vengativo fantasma y finalmente lo vence antes de desplomarse. Al despertar, no recuerda nada de lo sucedido. Y cuando el curandero intenta exorcizar las entidades que se aferran a su cuerpo como resultado de su posesión sobrenatural, Bata muere en la alfombra de exorcismo. Ahí comienza su viaje. Mmuọ-Ka-Mmuọ, el recolector de fantasmas del reino espiritual, la lleva a Ibaja-La, el reino de las novias muertas. Allí se encuentra con los fantasmas de novias de todas las culturas que murieron trágicamente antes de casarse, tanto las bondadosas como las malévolas. Bata recibe poderes secretos para luchar contra las malvadas novias fantasmas antes de ser enviada de vuelta al reino humano, donde deberá aprender a usar sus nuevas habilidades mientras se esfuerza por proteger a sus seres queridos.

White Is for Witching (2009)En una vasta y misteriosa casa en los acantilados cerca de Dover, la familia Silver se tambalea por el agujero que les han abierto en el corazón. Lily se ha ido y sus gemelos, Miranda y Eliot, y su esposo, el amable Luc, lloran su ausencia con una intensidad tácita. La casa tampoco está bien, cruje, refunfuña y confunde malignamente a los visitantes en sus laberínticas habitaciones, forzando la cosecha de manzanas de invierno en el jardín cuando las ramas deberían estar desnudas. Generaciones de mujeres habitan sus paredes. Y Miranda, con su nuevo gusto por la tiza y su agudo sentido de los espíritus, está más en sintonía con ellas que con su hermano y su padre. Los abandona lentamente, se aleja de ellos, y cuando una noche oscura desaparece por completo, los supervivientes quedan para contar su historia.

I'll Make a Spectacle of You (2025)Zora Robinson es una ambiciosa estudiante de posgrado en el programa de sus sueños, Estudios Apalaches en la Universidad de Bricksbury. Cuando su asesor de tesis le sugiere que investigue el folclore local sobre una bestia que deambula por los bosques que rodean el campus, Zora descubre a una población local poco dispuesta a hablar con un forastero. Al profundizar en la historia de la bestia, descubre una supuesta sociedad secreta llamada los Guardianes, que tiene tenues vínculos con la bestia... y con el propio Bricksbury. Zora pronto se ve acosada por visiones, y su conexión con la realidad comienza a flaquear mientras lucha por descubrir qué es real y qué es folclore. Pero cuando un estudiante desaparece, Zora comienza a preguntarse si los Guardianes alguna vez se disolvieron. Hay algo en el bosque y tiene los ojos puestos en Zora.

Weird Black Girls (2024)

Synopsis

Authors 1

Tags 5

Why watch it?

Who is it for?

Influences

Similar books