The White Guy Dies First

Benton-Walker (Blood Justice) crafts a trope-bending horror anthology, collecting 13 loosely linked tales by authors such as Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Chloe Gong, and Mark Oshiro. Centering protagonists of various body types, genders, and racial and ethnic backgrounds, each story dismantles racist tropes and casts “the white guy” as the first kill. Kendare Blake addresses East Asian stereotypes in “The Golden Dragon,” which centers a Chinese-restaurant-owning Korean American family and a Japanese ghost that avenges rape survivors. Meanwhile, “Gray Grove” by Alexis Henderson grapples with monstrous malevolence on a former slave plantation. Contributions showcase powerful storytelling through unreliable narrators (as in Tiffany Jackson’s “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”) and skilled foreshadowing (in Lamar Giles’s “The Protégé”). Scares are plentiful but always impactful: cannibalism becomes a metaphor for cultural appropriation in H.E. Edgmon’s “Best Served Cold,” told by a two-spirit narrator, and “Break Through Our Skin” by Naseem Jamnia conceptualizes the transgender experience through depictions of body horror. Pair this intense, riveting collection with The Black Girl Survives in This One and The Blonde Dies First for a deep dive into subversive contemporary horror. Ages 13–up. Agent: Patricia Caldwell, New Leaf Literary. (July)