Picture this: it’s a gloomy October night, the sky is grey as a ghost and the sound of rain smattering against your window fills the room. All Hallows Eve is approaching swiftly and there’s something in the air; that cozy feeling of being tucked away, safe and warm, while autumn rages on outside. What better time to indulge in a spine-chilling read? The horror genre, both in film and literature, has long been dominated by White authors, but I say the spooky season is for everybody. Below are five thrilling, eerie, and downright creepy novels written by authors of color that are sure to get you in the mood for Halloween, whether you’re an experienced horror buff or just dipping your toes into the genre for the first time.
- White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
White is for Witching is one of seven highly acclaimed novels by Helen Oyeyemi and follows twins Eliot and Miranda Silver as they reckon with the death of their mother in Haiti. Back on the cliffs of Dover, England in a mazy, capricious house that once belonged to her mother’s ancestors, Miranda grieves with particular intensity. She develops Pica, a disorder that causes her to crave inedible objects. As she spirals deeper into her condition, she begins to sense that the previous inhabitants of the house might not be as far away as they once seemed.
2. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a long-time horror writer, but as far as under-your-skin creepy goes, Mexican Gothic takes the cake. Set in 1950s Mexico, we follow glamorous socialite Noemí as she sets off to High Place, a Gothic English manor in a rural mining town, after receiving a letter from her cousin claiming that her husband, his family, and the house itself are trying to poison her. At once a classic gothic tale and a sharp critique of European colonialism, Noemí’s struggle to unearth the secrets of High Place takes readers on a journey spanning decades into the past and paints a haunting picture of the consequences of meddling with ancient powers beyond our understanding in the name of greed.
3. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
Fledgling is the last novel published by the iconic author Octavia Butler, one of the most iconic black writers in horror and sci-fi, before her passing in 2006. A thrilling spin on one of the most classic horror tropes of all time, Fledgling is, at its core, a vampire story like no other. Butler tells the tale of Shori, who appears to be an ordinary 10-year-old black girl. In reality, she is neither ordinary nor a girl; she is a 53-year-old member of the Ina species who are nocturnal, long-lived, and survives by feeding on human blood. Shori’s tale begins as she awakes in a strange place with no memory of her past. She sets off on a mission to discover all that she can about her stolen former life and to find a way to protect herself and her loved ones from those who would seek to destroy them, testing the limits of “otherness” and questioning what it means to be human.
4. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
Frankenstein in Baghdad is a surreal and visceral wartime retelling of the classic gothic novel by Mary Shelley. Set in US-occupied Baghdad, Iraqi writer, poet, and filmmaker Ahmed Saadawi tell the tale of Hadi; a local café worker who begins collecting and stitching together human body parts in order to make the government recognize the scattered limbs as a person and give them a proper burial. When the corpse he’s created goes missing and a string of brutal murders unfold, rumors begin to spread of a grotesque and seemingly bulletproof criminal stalking the city’s streets and feeding on human flesh. Chock-full of black humor and bone-chilling horror, Saadawi masterfully weaves the traditional gothic story with a striking depiction of the surreal reality of present-day Iraq.
5. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez
Last but not least is my personal favorite, the first of Argentinian author Mariana Enriquez’s works to be translated into English, her short story collection The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Politically loaded and macabre as they come, Enriquez, twelve stories weave horror together with urban realism and turn contemporary Argentina into an eerie landscape ripe with the unspoken darkness of human behavior, fetish, illness, and decay. In “Angelita Unearthed,” the rotting corpse of a baby crawls out of the dirt to seek solace among the living, while “Our Lady of the Quarry,” sees a group of young girls stumble across an evil omen. Enriquez writes the characters in each of her stories with sympathy and tenderness that make their fates all the more shocking and dives unflinchingly into the heart of true darkness and brutality: pain, loss, and fear.