The Everlasting: Black Spec Fic in the Gullah Islands

For October, Black Speculative Fiction Month to the unaware, I decided to leave the Afrofuture and read some Halloween-appropriate fiction — the yet-unpublished The Everlasting by Rasheedah Prioleau. I received a complimentary advanced readers copy, but it will be available for purchase at the end of this month through Amazon.  

The Everlasting falls into the horror/suspense end of Black Spec Fic – there’s a mystery, there’s a murder, there’s a restless spirit, there’s a lot of blood. I’m not going to tell you a whole lot about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it. The suspense that Prioleau builds up in this short book was a real driver for me. I desperately wanted to know who was doing what to whom and why. Only some of those questions were answered, setting us up for a continuing series in this setting. Which brings me to the setting – the greatest strength and weakness of the book.

The Everlasting is set on a fictional “Gullah” island off the coast of South Carolina. I love South Carolina in the way only a wayward daughter can, so I was ready to relive some of those summer days spent on the coast with the fam, sweating and swatting bugs. Only this book would include monsters and ghosts instead of my family. Unfortunately, the setting doesn’t really show up for this novel. This part of the country is gorgeous — lush, swampy, sandy – and it just oozes history. It is everything you’d want for a horror tale, but it just isn’t used to the utmost. Most of the acti…