Uncle Tom's Children

Written by: Richard Wright

Firstline: My first lesson in how to live as a Negro came when I was quite small.

Why you should read this book: This collection features five short stories and one biographical essay written early in the author's career. These pieces all describe the inherent terror of the Jim Crow south and the way it victimized Black people in twentieth century America, with violence and murder featuring prominently among the arsenal of tools used by segregationists to enforce social control. These are dangerous, frightening stories about a zero-sum game that is always fixed in favor of the house, wonderfully written with deep insight and wisdom, but difficult to read in terms of the suffering of the characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There aren't really any happy endings and four of the stories have absolutely brutal endings. 

If UR Stabby

Written by: Kaz Windness

First line: Once upon a time, there was a murderous unicorn...

Why you should read this book: If you are angry teen who also likes rainbows, or if you simply have the mentality of an angry teen who likes rainbows, you may enjoy this eclectic collection of 1- and 2-page comics about a murderous unicorn. Stabby lampoons various cultural touchstones including numerous tarot cards, and experiences disappointment in interpersonal interactions. Kind of goth, kind of emo, kind of fun. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I was hoping for a bit more of a cohesive narrative. 

V for Vendetta

Written by: Alan Moore and David Lloyd

First line: Good evening, London. It's 9 o'clock and this is the voice of Fate broadcasting on 275 and 285 in the medium wave. 

Why you should read this book, in a dismal post-World War III future, England has fallen under the sway of brutal fascism, with an Orwellian cameras in every crevice and party propaganda broadcast from every corner. A shadowy anarchist known only as V wages a rather effective one-man war against the symbols of the government and the men and women who run it, while teaching a young woman named Evey his philosophy of self-rule and death to tyrants. With every resource of the country devoted to his death, V carries out an elaborate plan to hand power back to the people before his enemies catch up with him.

Why you shouldn't read this book: While I'm obviously very opposed to fascism and in support of anything that opposes fascism, reading this book 35 years after its original publication and maybe 25 years after the first time I read it, it feels kind of overblown, like an child's fantasy about Batman saving the world.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Written by: Frederick Douglas

First line: I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot County Maryland.

Why you should read this book: In language that is eloquent and evocative, yet straightforward and blunt, Douglas details the horrors of slavery through the eyes of his own childhood. Never stinting in his description of the brutality, cruelty, and hypocrisy, Douglass explains, clearly, that there can be no moral foundation to the unconscionable idea that human beings can possess other humans beings, and that the practice degrades everyone involved. I first read this book when I was little girl, when it seemed pretty obvious to most people that slavery was wrong and horrible and indefensible, but these days some people apparently need to have this concept spelled out for them, in which case, this book is a good resource.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Bad things happen.

The Last Black Unicorn

Written by: Tiffany Haddish

First line: School was hard for me, for lots of reasons.

Why you should read this book: Pretty much everything that happens in the first three-quarters of this memoir is truly heartbreaking, but Haddish's comedic tendencies have a way of glossing over most of the horror of her life and forcing you to laugh at the worst things that have ever happened to her. Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are running themes in her story, and she still manages to report the events in such a way that the reader can't help but smile. From her mother's accident and subsequent brain injury, to her experience in foster care and her terrible relationship history, the story proceeds to build upon itself until Haddish's success as a professional comedian and actress seems not only well-deserved, but also inevitable.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've had sex with Tiffany Haddish.

The Shape of Water

Written by: Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

First line: Richard Strickland reads the brief from General Hoyt.

Why you should read this book: I guess it's a novelization of the popular movie, written after the fact, perhaps to fill in details that couldn't fit in the film version. Basically, if you loved the movie about the mute janitor who falls in love with a kidnapped swamp creature so much that you need to know what every single character (including the swamp creature) is thinking as the narrative unfolds, this is the story for you. It's crisply and engagingly written with ample descriptions and layered, nuanced, believable characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The movie is better, so help me.

It

Written by: Stephen King

First line: The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years—if it ever did end—began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.

Why you should read this book: I first read it when I was twelve years old, which I mention by way of defense as I go on to explain that I just finished reading this enduring novel to my fourteen-year-old stepdaughter (by her request) (and also add that, prior to becoming fascinated with King's work at that age of twelve, I was afraid of everything, and this book and other novels of his I read that year, taught me to overcome, at least for the next twelve years, the free-floating terror of my existence). My stepdaughter said, "This is the longest novel we've ever read," to which I replied, "It's the longest novel most people have ever read," but the story of seven kids defeating an ancient evil that lives under their city, enjoys dressing like a clown, makes everyone a little crazy, and eats kids' fear (and other parts) continues to hold a prominent place in the collective conscious by virtue of its unrelenting examination of terror—virtually every trope of terror known to humans in the '80s manages to hit the page. There's something to scare everyone, whether or not you suffer from coulrophobia, including the truly terrifying concepts of racism, sexism and homophobia, in a gripping tale told from multiple points of view.

Why you shouldn't read this book: First, the racism, sexism, and homophobia is pretty extreme, and while King is clearly using it to denote bad characters with bad morality and bad motivations, if you don't personally remember the '80s, you will likely find yourself astonished at the casual use of now-taboo language. Second, like virtually all of King's work, it's ridiculously overwritten and would probably be a better novel with a couple hundred pages edited out.

Bad Gateway

Written by: Simon Hanselman

First line: This place seems cheap and is OK.

Why you should read this book: It will break your heart, in a good way. It's about a drug-addicted, welfare-cheating witch named Megg; her drug addicted, trust-fund hippie boyfriend cat named Mogg; and the assorted other creatures who flit in and out of their drug haze. Megg's life is bleak, and she is determined to hang on to the bleakness, seeming to put as much effort into staying in a bad place as it would take to get her to a better place, but the volume ends with her going back home to see her mother and, presumably, examine the path that brought her to this bleak place.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Sex, drugs, violence, often all at the same time.

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery: The Authorized Graphic Adaptation

Written by: Miles Hyman

First line: Evenin' Joe.

Why you should read this book: If you thought Shirley Jackson's short story about the banality of evil was brutal in text form, just wait until you see it in full color illustration, lovingly transformed into a visual work by the author's grandson. In a small, simple town, people gather for a ritual, one so old that they have more or less lost sight of why they even perform it, although most of the old timers are certain that not repeating the horrific actions in just the way their ancestors performed them will lead to certain ruin. This graphic adaptation drives home the author's ideas about community, individualism, and the tyranny of the group.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You always go with the flow.

Parable of the Sower

Written by: Octavia E. Butler

First line: All that you touch/You change.

Why you should read this book: Published in 1993 but set in 2024-27, this speculative fiction novel presents a chilling, but plausible, picture of a near future in which human life has lost much of its value, corporations hold most of the power, and only a dwindling few people are able to band together to protect their version of civilization in walled communities under constant siege by a brutal, impoverished outside world. Lauren Olamina is one of the fortunate ones, a teenager protected by the walls of her small neighborhood, whose father is still employed, and who lives in relative comfort, despite her nagging belief that things outside the walls are getting worse and worse, and that no matter how they defend their borders, they will not be able to hold out indefinitely. Lauren begins exploring her own perception of reality, discovering a new religion she calls Earthseed, which addresses the types of change she anticipates, and preparing for the inevitable collapse of civilization, which is scheduled to take place even sooner than than she anticipates.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would totally take a drug that turned you into pyromaniac with no regard for human life, and/or you think debtor's prisons and indentured servitude are valid options for addressing poverty.

Octavia E. Butler's Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Adapted by: Damian Duffy and John Jennings

First line: The trouble began long before June 9, 1976...but June 9 is the day I remember.

Why you should read this book: While it's categorized as science fiction, this absolutely brutal time travel story reads more like a work of horror. Dana, a young black author married to a young white author, finds herself mysteriously whisked back and forth from her own time and place—southern California in the 1970s—to antebellum Maryland, where she must repeatedly save Rufus, the white slave owner who will eventually/has already (depending on your orientation in time) become her ancestor after sexually assaulting a slave. With the knowledge that her own existence depends on Rufus's survival, Dana feels compelled to save his life over and over, despite him becoming increasingly irredeemable, but the truly terrifying aspects of this story are Dana's experience of American slavery.

Why you shouldn't read this book: This is a graphic novel adaptation, and while it's very, very good for what it is, you may get more out of the original text-based work. I had to check Wikipedia to understand a major plot point at the end of the story.

Tinfoil Butterfly

Written by: Rachel Eve Moulton

First line: I swing my body up to the front seat of the van and put my feet on the dashboard.

Why you should read this book: Emma is on the run from the pain of her past, en route to a planned suicide (second attempt) when she gets sidetracked by a would-be rapist and his sweet van, which eventually leaves her stranded in a strange ghost town inhabited by a strange little boy, Earl, his stranger father, and possibly his most strange mother. Emma's own demons include addiction, regret, and uncomfortable family relationships, but Earl's demons are much more immediate, and suddenly Emma finds that she doesn't want to die all that badly, at least not in this cold and confusing place. As Emma struggles to make sense of her current situation, she must also work through the confusion of her previous life and her growing maternal feelings for the wounded child in the tinfoil butterfly mask.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Bad things happen.

Warriors 6: The Darkest Hour

Written by: Erin Hunter

First line: Rain fell steadily, drumming on the hard black Thunderpath that led between unending rows of stone Twoleg Nests.

Why you should read this book: If you've made it this far, you might as well go all the way to watch as Firestar takes his rightful place as head of Thunderclan and begins plotting to protect his warriors from the machinations of the evil psychopath Tigerstar. Except, it turns out that Tigerstar isn't even the worst cat in the forest. How will Firestar ever prevail?

Why you shouldn't read this book: I don't think there's really any suspense regarding whether Firestar will prevail.

Warriors 2: Fire and Ice

Written by: Erin Hunter

First line: Orange flames lapped at the cold air, throwing sparks up into the night sky.

Why you should read this book: To rectify the imbalance of losing one of the four clans, newly promoted warriors Fireheart and Graystripe are sent on a quest to find the Windclan and return them to their ancestral hunting grounds. The story sprawls about after that, with cats getting sick or injured, cats questioning other cats' loyalties. Fireheart doesn't know who to trust, but Thunderclan must band together or find itself at the mercy of the other cats in the forest.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Meh.

Educated

Written by: Tara Westover

First line: My strongest memory is not a memory.

Why you should read this book: This powerhouse of a memoir follows Westover from her early childhood, growing up in a fringe Mormon family where she was not allowed to attend school or receive medical care, but was required to work in her father's salvage yard without the benefit of OSHA regulations or any type of safety precaution. Westover's brilliant prose allows the reader to enter into the mindset of the little girl who is constantly hoping to please her difficult father and older brother, while the reader gradually becomes aware that these two men are both abusive and mentally ill, and nothing the author can do will ever protect her from their behavior. As Westover escapes her family's mindset and begins learning about the world outside her small mountain stronghold, she comes to inescapable conclusions about herself and her upbringing, illuminating an America that is all too common and yet so far from the range of the ordinary experience that had this story been presented as fiction, it would most likely be rejected for being too unbelievable.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have just begun working through the trauma of your own physical and spiritual abuse with a qualified therapist and you don't want to derail that process with unexpected PTSD symptoms that might arise from learning about other people's abuse.

The Water Cure

Written by: Sophie Mackintosh

First line: Once we had a father, but our father dies without us noticing.

Why you should read this book: Three sisters live with their mother and father on an isolated island, where, their parents promise them, they will be protected from the toxic influence of men that pervades the mainland, provided they participate in numerous healing rituals that read like old-school torture. When their father disappears without warning and three strangers—two men and a boy—appear on their shore their belief in their own beloved mythology is sorely tested. A dreamy, mythic story with multiple narrators who are unreliable not because they seek to deceive the reader or themselves, but because they have only a limited database from which to draw their understanding of reality.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Not the kind of story where everything is explained in the end.

Patternmaster

Written by: Octavia Butler

First line: Rayal had his lead wife, Jansee, with him on that last night.

Why you should read this book: I just realized that the final novel in this story arc was the first book that Butler wrote and published, that none of the other books in the series were written in the chronological order that they were presented, and that there's actually a fifth book that sort of goes with the others but is also wholly unrelated, which Butler never allowed to be reprinted because she wasn't proud of it, but from a creative writing perspective, this is the last story in the Patternist series, about a young man who doesn't think he has any desire for power, but is forced to gather it in retaliation against an older brother who will destroy him to keep the power for himself. Teray values his freedom above all else and has carefully arranged his life to ensure that he doesn't end up in the sort of mental bondage that is all-too-common among moderately strong psychics in his extremely hierarchical world. His jealous brother, Coransee, refuses to take Teray's word that his will not stand in Coransee's way, beginning a power struggle that forces the younger, less experienced man to grow up very quickly.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Some of the casual human bondage stuff is kind of disturbing; no one in this book has any rights.

Sabre

Written by: Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy

First line: Come out of the sunlight—rise from the burning dawn—stride into the watching noon—hide in the midnight shadows.

Why you should read this book: For historical purposes: this is the first work ever marketed as a "graphic novel" thus disproving the idea that comics were only for semi-literate mouth breathers and five-year-olds. It works really hard to feel generate a sense of edginess and righteousness as it draws a world of the future in which violence and technology has stripped some degree of humanity from the human race. Enter Sabre, a consummate gunslinging anachronism accompanied by a nearly naked, nubile, and naughty companion, and his mcguffin-esque quest to help some people who we never see and whose destiny is not addressed in the context of the story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Really overwritten, really inexplicable, really hard to plow through.

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

Written by: Adeline Yen Mah

First line: As soon as I got home from school, Aunt Baba noticed the silver medal dangling from the left breast pocket of my uniform.

Why you should read this book: Considered unlucky due to the proximity of her mother's death to her own birth, Jun-ling, known to her family is Fifth Daughter, suffers the discrimination of her young, powerful, and probably insane stepmother, under whose influence the entire family follows suit. While her half-siblings receive the best of everything and her older siblings band together, Jun-ling is psychologically tortured throughout her entire childhood; at one point in the story her parents literally take her to a war zone and leave her in a convent school even as the other girls are pulled from the school and taken away to safer places by parents who care whether they live or die. Jun-ling's only shred of hope in life is her academic prowess, which gives her a prayer of a better future as well as a world to escape to in the present.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Wow, this family is seriously messed up.

Tsotsi

Written by: Athol Fugard

First line: There had been a silence, as always happened at about the same time, a long silence when none of them moved except maybe to lift a glass and hold it high above their heads for the dregs to drip into their open mouths, or to yawn and stretch and slump back into their chairs, when one of them might scratch himself, another consider the voice of the woman in the backyard, the old woman who was scolding, rattling her words like stones in a tin, and all of them in their own time looking at the street outside, and the shadows, wondering if they were not yet long enough.

Why you should read this book: Set in South Africa during apartheid, this novel details a moment of revelation in the life of Tsotsi (literally"gangster"), a boy without a past or a future, a young man living in the moment of drinking and stealing and killing, feeling no remorse, feeling nothing whatsoever, until the night one of his gang members calls him out for his lack of feeling. Tsotsi beats the accuser into unconsciousness, runs into the night, and ends up in possession of a helpless infant, whose presence helps Tsotsi comprehend empathy, recall the trauma of his past, and begin to care for something beside the next job. In addition to its excellent writing and exquisite description of the human psyche, this novel also provides a detailed understanding of the everyday horrors of apartheid and the casual dehumanization of black people in South Africa in the late seventies and early eighties.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's not happy. Nothing happy happens. The ending is enlightening, but not uplifting.