Five Books About the Horrors of Surviving in America

Kicking off the list, we begin with the America depicted in Adjei-Brenyah’s near-future dystopian. In a time that doesn’t feel too distant from our own, incarcerated people can volunteer to fight in televised death matches for their freedom. The story is a kaleidoscope of intersecting narratives as it explores themes of systemic racism, carceral punishment within capitalism, and the commodification of human suffering. It’s brutal and bloody, but it’s also an important meditation on the necessity of abolition, and envisioning a world without the for-profit prison systems of today.

You can see the evils of small town America so clearly in Adams’ novel. The fictional Pennsylvania town depicted in the story is rife with the visceral struggles that continue to haunt this country since its inception. There is an ancient evil at work, but the true horrors here are that of deeply entrenched racism and classism, and a community’s ability to look the other way as young black girls go missing each year. We see our main character, Liz, race to uncover the mystery behind the girls’ disappearances. And what she discovers, despite being supernatural in origin, feels all too real and devastating.

While this upcoming novel is a satire of influencer culture, it is also a clever look at identity and class mobility within America. Two Chinese-American twins are separated at the age of four: Chloe is adopted into a wealthy white family, and Julie is taken in by her resentful aunt. Only one of them works as a grocery store cashier at 24. Chloe is found dead early in the novel, and Julie takes over her life as an influencer, experiencing a level of privilege and power she’s never had before. 

But this newfound wealth and proximity to the upper echelons comes at a considerable cost, both morally and beyond. (I won’t spoil anything, but the narrative veers into a bit of a cult horror towards the end.) And what we see play out is a surreal, darkly comedic, and incisive take on the lengths one will go, not only to survive in this country, but thrive. 

Ecological horror meets Vietnamese folklore in Tran’s lush, eerie novel set in coastal Louisiana. After a hurricane devastates the town of Mercy, a red algae bloom threatens to overtake the water, mutating and reshaping the very fabric of the coast and its inhabitants. Our main character, Noon, is barely getting by with their mother in the aftermath of the hurricane, and now they must capture the creature that’s drowning locals, or potentially lose their boat and their livelihood.  Told through rich atmosphere and an imaginative, moving use of body horror, we go on a transformative journey with Noon as they navigate familial grief, queerness, gender identity, and the complexities of the immigrant experience in America.

The plight and generational struggles of the rural poor are seen in razor-sharp focus in White’s queer Appalachian thriller. Set in 2017, with glimpses into the past, we’re shown the long-standing class feud that plagues a rural West Virginia town, and it’s gruesome. Miles, a trans autistic teen, finds himself pulled into a battle between the exploited lower class and the corrupt forces that profit from their suffering. What follows is a brutal and deeply necessary story, exploring the nuanced history of Appalachia, and the systems working to prevent the region from achieving radical change.