“There was a story we don’t tell that needed to be shared before the last of us died and no one remained to remember.”

I have yet to read an anthology that utterly captured me like “Out There Screaming.” This is the crest, the template atop a pedestal that I will compare future collections to, fairly or not. Every single story hit. I’ll say it again: every, single, one. I began to dread the next story, as if it would somehow end a perfect streak. I’ll spoil it for you: that never happened. These stories flipped, twirled, shape-shifted in the air, leaving audiences breathless for the sound of their feet thundering on the mat, sticking the landing. I am the awestruck judge holding the “10” placard. Every, single, one.

It would be negligent to think I could narrow down what is truly an all star line up, but if I had to, “Reckless Eyeballing” by N. K. Jemisin, “The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World” by Nalo Hopkinson, and Nicole D. Sconiers’ “A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree” nursed a ravenous monster inside me.

5/5 Jordan Peele strikes again.