by Bethany and Sarah

Although Black authors have long written across the wide literary spectrum, they often don’t get enough credit for their valuable contributions to genre literature (fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller, romance, and science-fiction). In honor of Black History Month, we have compiled a list of some standout reads in each category to showcase the wide range of talent and voices, all available from your city library!

Fantasy

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

Clark has created a beautifully-rendered world in which a steampunk version of Cairo run by djinn has become one of the world’s foremost cities. In Clark’s world, djinn have been allowed to pass through into the human world and now not only live in cities around the world as citizens but also design incredible infrastructure like flying tram cars. The problem is that one of these tram cars is now haunted, which makes this a job for the agents of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. I don't want to give away too much about this amazing novella because part of the fun is discovering the people and world yourself. If you love this story, the good news is that there are two follow-up works: the short story “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” and the upcoming novel, A Master of Djinn to be published in May 2021. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 was a finalist for best novella for both the 2019 Nebula Awards and the 2020 Hugo Awards.

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

Fantasy giant and multiple Hugo Award-winning author, N. K. Jemisin, is back with a new book that will become the first in the Great Cities series. The City We Became explores a reality in which New York City has both souls and human representations of those souls. In Jemisin’s reality, the souls of the city work hard to hold the city together the best they can. Jemisin creates a quasi-familiar setting with complex and enjoyable characters throughout the course of this fantastic urban fantasy novel that will have you hooked from the first page and leave you wanting more.

Horror

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Immanuelle Moore isn't like the rest of the young women in Bethel. She's mixed-race and being raised by her grandmother. Not to mention the fact that her mother consorted with witches. When Immanuelle wanders too far into the menacing woods surrounding the town one day, she encounters one of these witches who hands over a journal written by Immanuelle's mother. As Immanuelle learns more about her heritage and past, a series of plagues descends on Bethel. With the help of unlikely ally Elijah, next in line to become religious leader of Bethel, Immanuelle does everything she can to save the village that has never quite accepted her and the family that has always treated her differently. This fast-paced, well-plotted horror novel is endlessly enjoyable and its impressive heroine and unlikely hero, who join forces to make changes to their society, are complex and interesting characters, sure to keep you on the edge of your seat until the final pages.

Ring Shout by P Djeli Clark

At the beginning of the 20^th century, Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow Ku Klux hunters track down and eliminate the supernatural monsters that inhabit the Ku Klux Klan with weapons both conventional and supernatural. Unfortunately, their small group comes up against something that they might not be able to defeat when a group of especially nasty monsters plan to summon something unspeakably evil during a showing of The Birth of a Nation in Macon, Georgia. This wonderful horror novella weaves a fascinating tale of a world filled with literal monsters both original and drawn from folklore. Maryse and her band of fighters are wonderfully developed characters that will keep you cheering for them throughout their fight as they travel between worlds and speak with supernatural entities in order to thwart the evil plot of the Ku Kluxes. Ring Shout is soon to be adapted for television by Skydance TV.

Mystery/Thriller

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules – a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up Black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. But when his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders have stirred up a hornet’s nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes before Lark’s long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. A rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas, Bluebird, Bluebird is an exhilarating, timely novel about the collision of race and justice in America. Winner of both the 2018 Edgar Award and 2018 Anthony Award for best novel.

Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley

When Paris Minton meets a beautiful new woman, before he knows it, he gets beaten up, slept with, shot at, robbed, and his bookstore burned to the ground. He's in so much trouble he has no choice but to get his friend, Fearless Jones, out of jail to help him. Set in 1950s Los Angeles, this crime-buster classic features Mosley’s fantastic writing on race in America and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.

Romance

How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole

An arranged marriage leads to unexpected desire in the first book of Alyssa Cole’s Runaway Royals series. When Shanti Mohapi weds the king of Njaza, her dream of becoming a queen finally comes true. But it’s nothing like she imagined. Shanti and her husband may share an immediate and powerful attraction, but her subjects see her as an outsider, and everything she was taught about being the perfect wife to newly crowned King Sanyu goes disastrously wrong. By day, they lead separate lives. By night, she wears the crown, and he bows to her demands in matters of politics and passion. When turmoil erupts in their kingdom and their marriage, Shanti goes on the run, and Sanyu must learn whether he has what it takes both to lead his people and to catch his queen.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. She’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life,” and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. But it’s not going to be easy to finish her list. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job. Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day. But when Chloe enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns more about him than she ever thought. Like why he never shows his art to anyone and what really lies beneath his rough exterior. Chloe’s sisters share their own heartwarming and hilarious journeys to finding love in Take a Hint, Dani Brown and Act Your Age, Eve Brown (out March 9).

Science Fiction

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Society has changed. Rampant inflation and massive climate change have split society into clearly-defined segments based on socioeconomic class. Lauren Olamina’s family has dealt with the change by joining together with others in their walled neighborhood for protection and attempting to be as self-sufficient as possible. Lauren also has a special gift. She feels extreme empathy for other humans especially when they are injured or hurt. When Lauren’s neighborhood is destroyed by thieves, she sets out on a journey gathering others with her and preaching her gospel of self-sufficiency, empathy, and collective action. This Octavia Butler classic was written in 1993 as a contemporary commentary but feels all too at home in 2021. Butler is one of the foremost voices in speculative and science fiction, and she does not disappoint in this compelling novel. Parable of the Sower, a 1995 nominee for the Nebula award for best novel, is the first part of the Earthseed duology.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti, a member of the Himba people, has been offered a glittering opportunity: the chance to attend the best school in the galaxy, Oomza University. But in order to take this opportunity, Binti must leave her family, friends, and all she loves behind. Binti’s journey to the university is fraught with peril and alien enemies, and she needs to use every skill she has ever learned in order to survive. She also must decide whether the price she will pay for the knowledge she so desires is worth it or if it’s too much to give. Binti won the 2015 Hugo Award for best novella, and the trilogy’s story continues in Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade.

Looking for more? Check out our shelves on cloudLibrary for more great genre reads by Black authors!