Book Review: "Friday Black" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

“Even the apocalypse isn't the end. That, you could only know when you're standing before a light so bright it obliterates you. And if you are alone, posed like a dancer, when it comes, you feel silly and scared. And if you are with your family, or anyone at all, when it comes, you feel silly and scared, but at least not alone.”

I love reading short story anthologies, especially those of which I have never heard of. I cam across this on my Amazon recommendations and I have never heard of it nor its author - it therefore counts as my one random book a week. For those of you who do not know, this means I read one book from someone I do not know of which I have never heard of each week. I have to be honest, this happens a little more frequently than per week but, on the whole, I like including books on there once I have read them. This book proves to be one of the ones I wish to include.

A book which is a cross between Black Mirror and a Jordan Peele movie, it tells of the horrors faced by the Black community in America. The stories are less absolute terror and more critiques of society through horror and horrific events. The first story is by far one of the most shocking and provides an excellent hook for the rest of the book - proving good curation skills have been given to this wonderful and dark anthology of grief and sadness. Honestly, I have not read something like this in a long time. It is both sad and thought-provoking, it is both frightening and darkly comedic against the American judicial systems. It is both well-written in a poetic style and quite blunt and modern.

One of the best stories from the anthology as I have stated previously, is the opening one entitled The Finkelstein 5. Raw and horrifying it tells of the trial of a middle-class white man who brutally murdered five Black children who were standing outside a library. Stating he was protecting his own children from these 'monsters' we find out that not only were the children not doing anything at all, but one was found a far distance away from the others and without her head. It was a gruesome and horrific murder scene in which the judicial system attempts to turn the tide so that the middle class white man may look like the victim instead. When all are against the children, there are still people out there fighting for them. It is a transformative tale that tells us about the injustice of the days gone by in the not too distant past, teaching us lessons we cannot forget and providing us with social critiques that though I won't tell you about here, they are strong and their messages ring loud and clear.

Another story I liked though it was really short was called Things My Mother Said. It is about a man who looks back on his mother telling him that they are not friends and treating him weirdly even though he is her only child. They are poor and more often than not, there is no food at home for the boy to eat after arriving back from school. Hungry and desolate, he learns the important lesson of how his mother will never let him go hungry, how she will always provide for him even though that meant doing more work and sacrificing not only her free time but also spending the little money she had on something. It is one of those tales that starts off wonky but ends in a strange style. I have not exactly told you the ending, as there is yet another realisation.

All in all, I thought this book was a classic case of New Black Sci-Fi/Horror. A book like Jordan Peele's curated Out There Screaming and another book with a trilogy entitled Rosewater. This is a brand new genre that is becoming more and more prevalent in the 21st century, especially the 2020s and honestly, I have to say that I am really enjoying this and looking for to more publications.