ARC, 320 pages
Release Date: July 16, 2024
Published by: Tor Teen
Read from: July 1-10, 2024
Anthology
Source: From the Publisher (I received a copy of this ARC from the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Death, Gore, Murder, Cannibalism, Bullying, Racism, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, Stalking
For Readers Interested In: Horror, Anthologies, YA, POC MC, POC Authors, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, 2sLGBTQ13 SCARY STORIES. 13 AUTHORS OF COLOR.
13 TIMES WE SURVIVED THE FIRST KILL.
The White Guy Dies Firs t is a powerful and entertaining collection for YA readers featuring thirteen scary stories in which the white guy dies first.
Edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker, including stories from bestselling and critically acclaimed Adiba Jaigirdar, Alexis Henderson, Chloe Gong, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, H. E. Edgmon, Kalynn Bayron, Karen Strong, Kendare Blake, Lamar Giles, Mark Oshiro, Naseem Jamnia, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Terry J. Benton-Walker.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Anthologies are always so hard to review and rate because they’re all short stories. So lately I’ve been rating each individual story and then taking the average. For the most part it turns out to be accurate enough for me. As for reviewing, I just tell you a bit about those that I liked and those that I didn’t. That way you get an accurate look at the whole book.
This one starts off with a bang! And no I don’t mean the first story, I mean the message board that brings the anthology together. I’ve told y’all time and time again that I’m a sucker for books with text messages or social media, so this was no different. Add on to the fact that we see every genre of horror depicted in this, I was too excited! I was ready for this to wow me. And some of the stories definitely did! (Fair warning, they do get more gruesome and more gorey as the anthology goes on!)
The stories I liked were so damn good I had to sit with them for a minute. Like the one by Tiffany D. Jackson. (Of course I loved that one lol) I was a bit confused on where it was going, but when I got to the end, I was staring at the wall. In true TDJ fashion I was shook. I also loved the one by H.E. Edgmon. Yo, I stayed up a little longer to read the next story after that because that one kinda freaked me out. I am not scared of a lot of horror, but the subject of that one always freaks me out lol And of course I loved the one by Chloe Gong. I’ve never read anything by her, but this was my favorite sub-genre of horror and I LOVED it. It is gorey tho so tread carefully. But I mean, when isn’t a book/movie in one of those? And the one by Karen Strong and T.J. Benton-Walker were also good af. And I don’t usually like those sub-genres. I also really liked Alexis Henderson’s. I’ve never read anything by her before, so this was my wake-up call to do so! But my favorite of ALL of them? Definitely Kendare Blake’s. I called it and everything, but it was so good!
But as usual, there were also some I wasn’t a fan of. The one by Abida Jaigirdar was just weird. I wanted so much more from that one. I thought maybe it was just me because I’m not a huge fan of that sub-genre, but someone else who read it said they didn’t care for it either. The one by Lamar Giles and Mark Oshiro and Naseem Jamnia were all good, but not necessarily memorable. And in an anthology with all these big names, you gotta be more than just good. Because the others didn’t come to play! Kalynn Bayron and Faridah’s wasn’t bad, but I just didn’t feel like they were scary.
This was an interesting book and I really loved the way they pulled everything together. Definitely hoping there’s another one in the future because this one was fun. Some of them were weird, but some of them were really good! I hope y’all pick this up!
Overall, I give this
The average was 3.65 so I just rounded up!