You may not know it, but you owe a lot of your creative taste to Black Speculative Fiction artists. Regardless of the medium you enjoy most, the art that we use to express ourselves, reflect our society and challenge the world to grow draws inspiration from the foundational work of Black speculative artists. Literature, cinema, global culture--Black artists have helped to shape all of it.

When we come together to celebrate Black Speculative Fiction every October, it is important to recognize the global significance of the art we are looking at.

Black Spec artists are not just important to our own community. They are foundational to modern culture and art as a whole. Black Speculative Fiction Month exists to highlight and honor that foundational contribution.

I missed posting on Day 1 because I was unbelievably busy, but I am going to make up for that with plenty of content this month about books and authors you need to read! Starting with Kalynn Bayron.

I have been familiar with Kalynn as a person for a little over a year now. I follow her on social media and enjoy interacting with her quite a bit. But I just finally dove into her work recently and I have to say, I am a massive fan. I started with her newest release, Tell The Ghosts I'm Gone, which is about a group of supernaturally powered teenagers on a quest to prove their power can be as useful as it is dangerous, only to end up entangled in an apocalypse level threat after being hired to investigate a haunted mansion. It was such an incredible time and I fell so deeply in love with those characters and the conversation this story was having that I immediately went to dive into the rest of her catologue.

So far, I have also read Make Me A Monster and Cinderella is Dead. Both of which delivered just as devastating and important of a story in my opinion. Obviously, there are some shared themes and conversations happening across books, but they each manage to be incredibly unique and compelling stories, while diving into their own conversations about identity, life and navigating the world we live in, with all of its joys and... challenges.

Make Me A Monster is a reimagined Frankenstein set in today's world. It follows a girl named Meka, who, like many teenagers, is caught between the freedom of adolescence and the pressure of a quickly approaching future she is not quite prepared for. And on top of all of the normal pressures that come with being a teenager, Meka is also employed in her family's mortuary, where she is positioned to confront death on a regular basis as she helps to prepare the bodies of her neighbors and community members for their final goodbyes. Which you would think would prepare her to embrace it when she finally has to face it herself. But after a horrific tragedy, Meka discovers that she is no more prepared than anyone else when it's time to say goodbye to the people she loves. A problem that only gets worse as she slowly realizes that death is just as incapable of letting her go. Someone--something-is stalking her. And it is becoming increasingly clearer to Meka that the line between alive and dead is not as firm as she once believed it was.

The way this book had my heart in a vice grip. The way Kalynn expertly navigates concepts like young love, family responsibility, the weight of being an only child, grief and loss, all while managing to give an entire group of characters autonomy, depth and individuality needs to be studied. This book was a masterpiece. I came to intimately understand every single character, and their role in not only Meka's world, but the community they lived in. I felt the way her work with the dead impacted her social life and the love her friends demonstrated in refusing to let her isolate herself. I saw both the struggle and promise that Meka found in the arms of her boyfriend, and the way their relationship shaped her dreams and feelings about her family responsibilities. I could taste the pride she took in her work, and the love she poured into her community by using her gift with a makeup brush and a few tools to give their loved ones back their personhood for one final goodbye. But I could also taste her uncertainty regarding whether this was the future she wanted for herself.

And when it comes to grief, every page came with a new layer to explore. I felt her horror at looking into a future that looked different than it had the day before. I could see the way her grief isolated her, and hurt with her as she pushed some people away and clung greedily to others. And felt her confusion and grief as the world unraveled around her, shifting in unimaginable ways. As reality itself rewrote itself, becoming something she didn't even know was possible. Not only did Meka grieve actual loss in her life, but she was also forced to grieve as she realized that people she loves--and she herself--were not who she thought they were.

I don't know what kind of magic Kalynn Bayron is working with, but I hope she never loses it. This book was everything. And it broke my spirit. That's all I have to say there.

With that said, the one that really fucked me up was Cinderella is Dead.! Equally as well written, equally as complicated and developed, and equally as traumatizing for my mental health. So, naturally, I highly recommend it.

Cinderella has been dead for 200 years and her story has been used to subjugate the women of Lille. Like every other girl her age, Sophia has to choose between going to the annual ball in the hope of winning the affection of a potential husband, or give up her life. However, what no one expected was that she would find a secret third option. Escape. Or better yet...rebellion.

Here is what you need to know about Sophia: She is brilliant, she is strong and she is unafraid. She has spent her childhood watching as the women around her are subjected to patriarchal standards, and suffer when they refuse to meet them. She recognizes the abusive nature of their society and refuses to play her part, even if it would keep her a little safer. Partially because she believes the world can be better. And partially because she has already found real love. In her best friend, Erin--a love that can never be lived out in Lille.

It's important to note that this is not a story about a young woman trying to find herself. Sophia knows exactly who she is. This is a story about a young woman refusing to allow an oppressive society to shape her into something she isn't. This is not so much about Sophia's growth as it is about Lille's deconstruction.

After initially going to the ball in order to appease her father's fear for her safety, she flees, unable to let herself be damned to a future of being abused and unloved. And while on the run, she happens upon Constance, the last descendant of Cinderella. Together, the two of them work toward challenging the King, redeeming Cinderella's story and freeing the women being held hostage by a story that was never even true.

I have not had a chance to dive into the rest of Kalynn's backlist yet, but rest assured, I will. And I hope that you join me. Kalynn is using her voice to highlight conversations that matter. Conversations about identity, Blackness, queerness, systemic injustice, and the journey of becoming. And to be quite frank, she is writing to the audience who needs these stories most. We NEED more writers like Kalynn Bayron, telling the stories that our children need. Stories that help them wrestle with themselves and the world they live in as they race toward having to face it all for themselves.

I could not be more thrilled to read and talk about her work.

If you plan to buy any of the books I referenced, please use my storefront links:

Tell the Ghosts I'm Gone: https://bookshop.org/a/87137/9781547615896

Make me a Monster: https://bookshop.org/a/87137/9781547615865

Cinderella is Dead: https://bookshop.org/a/87137/9781547606641

Thank you for being here and reading what I have to say. I appreciate you. And if you are not already, please consider subscribing to this community for $5, $12 or $25 a month. That money not only supports me as a creator, but directly helps to build the budget of my publishing imprint, Left Unread, where I publish Black and brown stories that need to be told.