This book has gone on and off my list many times. Originally published in 2020, it won both the Locus and Nebula awards for best novella, so I added to my list. But when I thought about actually reading it, it didn’t appeal and came off. I finally read it as the podcast Writing Excuses used it in their “Close Reading” series discussing tension. The way they talked about it, finally got me to read it. I listened to the audiobook on my travels as a soccer referee.

The narrator tells of her adventures fighting monsters that look like human members of the Ku Klux Klan. These are the same monsters that caused her trauma as a young girl. Now she takes her revenge hunting and killing them. But something seems a little different when a new kind of Klan monster shows up. And they seem to have a plan for her she knows nothing about.

This is a supernatural horror about the terror of racism and its effects. There is a bit of gore, but the horrors are more visceral and emotional. I think the author is trying to bring home to the read the tangible feelings of fear and hopelessness for these victims of hate and discrimination. It succeeds well.

My rating: 4/5