The Wishing Pool and Other Stories

Tananarive Due is such a good writer. I still think of the places she took me with My Soul to Keep, and all her strengths there are on display here. I'm more of a pure horror girl than a scifi girl, and that's reflected in my personal favorites in this anthology, but I think readers who are the opposite of me will be just as pleased. 

I think the story I'll remember the most is Haint in the Window. I don't want to say too much, but the sense of inevitability and foreshadowing in the story lead to an ending that fulfilled it's promise while offering social commentary and food for thought. 

Incident at Bear Creek Lodge was instantly amazing to me, and the more I think about it the more amazing it gets, especially with an understanding of “Classic Hollywood,” and what was asked of Black performers in order to make a living. And also some generational trauma. 

We have at least one Monkey's Paw story. For me, this is a story that takes place amidst deep loss, and asks the reader to question what they would do, risk, to reverse the loss. The reader knows, at a distance, the right thing but knows grief doesn't operate at a distance. 

Highly recommended, and I will be recommending it a lot, to anyone who will listen to me.