BOOK REVIEW: Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due

"No one warned her about summers in Gracetown..."

I feel like I’m on a roll this year with the books I’ve been choosing to read over the summer. As someone who’s never read any kind of horror fiction by a black female author, I found GHOST SUMMER to be exceptional! Still, the fact that no work by a black female author with a love for the macabre has ever made its way onto my shelves until now is very sad. It’s like when you’re asked what age you were when you had your first black teacher. Where has Tananarive Due been all my young black life?

"Swamp leeches are different. It's just a name Mama used to call them by.  You could call them lots of things. Mostly people just call them demons."

Ghost Summer is a collection of short stories ranging from genres like horror to science fiction to apocalyptic. Starting in the middle of July, I read one short story a day and it became something I looked forward to! There was honestly not a single story in this collection I disliked, but my favorites were: Patient Zero, The Lake, and The Knowing. Also, as someone who is genuinely terrified of the apocalypse genre narrowed specifically on pandemics, Part 3 of Due’s book both stressed, scared, and haunted me. I found many of Due’s characters (ranging from women of color, to the elderly, to young children) to be strong, relatable, raw, and very real. I especially loved her author’s notes at the end of each story, explaining her motivations and inspirations for her characters, their emotions, and their experiences.

If you’re still on the fence about a good book to help you survive your quarantined summer, PLEASE give this wonderful short story collection by Tananarive Due a try.

(5/5⭐)


                                                                        xo Nina