Urban Fiction African American Fantasy

Asia's mother went missing 18 years ago and since then, Asia has feared the one thing she always dreamt of working with. The ocean. So instead, she's been living life as a lab tech. She doesn't exactly love her job, but it pays the bills and she has money to spend on nights out with her girls. However, her most recent night out ends up with her gaining markings on her skin and losing body parts....

In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award-winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural 21st-century America. An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing journeys through Mississippi's past and present, examining the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power - and limitations - of family bonds.

Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women help keep the order. To those from Away, Nola might seem strange. To Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. Perry knows Nola’s rhythm as intimately as his own heartbeat. So when the city’s Great Magician starts appearing in odd places and essential songs are forgotten, Perry knows trouble is afoot.

N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.

Held captive by a dark, seductive vampire with an unworldly hunger, the beautiful Claire Stroughton fears her life as a lawyer has irrevocably taken a turn for the worse. But when this deeply sensual-and highly dangerous-vampire convinces Claire that his desire for her is stronger than his lust for blood, she is compelled to give everything up to him, body and soul...in The Story of Son.

Nestled between Little St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island, Salix Pointe is not a place that many people know of. Part of the Golden Isles of Georgia, all the weeping willows that grow there have led the surrounding town’s folk to call it the Island of Death. Elisa and Tasmin may not want to put too much stock into the folklore of Salix Pointe, but there is a reason that the universe has brought the two women together.

In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry that has found a welcome home there. Yes, the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present challenges.

Is love really the only thing O'Asia needs to save the waters? Or, is that just the tip of the iceberg? O'Asia and Zale need to fall in love, but they're currently surrounded by angry guards ready to uphold the law. Can Odessa succeed in protecting them both? With Emperor Seera now back in open waters, they quickly become more dangerous for one merm in particular, and O'Asia soon realizes that the prince and his love aren't the only things she needs to protect. She has to protect them all.

The Witch Sphere is in turmoil. In the years since a stunning betrayal sent shockwaves through society, the Sphere was hit with another crisis: witches are giving birth to more typics (non-witches) and their numbers are diminishing. Nadia is determined to help but finds hers efforts at the Witch Health Organization entangled with the political machinations of her powerful mother.

Auben Mutze has more vices than he can deal with - six to be exact - each branded down his arm for the world to see. They mark him as a lesser twin in society, as inferior, but there’s no way he’ll let that define him. Intelligent and outgoing, Auben’s spirited antics make him popular among the other students at his underprivileged high school. So what if he’s envious of his twin Kasim, whose single vice brand is a ticket to a better life, one that likely won’t involve Auben. Then Auben starts hearing voices that speak to his dangerous side - encouraging him to perform evil deeds....

"We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. Abby and I were fused, you see. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't." Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father. Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life.

There is a vampire war brewing in the underworld and at the center of it all is Damali Richards, spoken word artist and Vampire Huntress. But she is not just any Vampire Huntress, she is the millenium Neteru: a woman so potentially powerful that the vampire world is about to invoke a bloody battle that threatens to spill over onto her streets in order to possess her. It's just a matter of who will get to her first.

When she entered school at a recently integrated college in North Carolina, Adirah Messa was looking forward to a bright future. Then she met a man of another kind who turned her world upside down. After being turned into a blood-sucking being and then giving birth to a child fathered by the King of Vampires, Adirah thinks that life can't get any stranger. But when her ancient past becomes a part of the present, she learns that her son has a destiny that is out of her control. The only way to protect him is for old enemies to put their differences behind them....

The head of US public relations at Kobayashi Motors, the largest automaker in Japan, is Cadence St. James that is, until she's forced to take on the dangerous new role of corporate whistleblower. Cadence's twin sister, Cushmeer Kincaid, is a human rights statistician who suffers from a fear of public speaking. When Kobayashi cars start spontaneously accelerating and the death toll rises, Toshio Nakamura, a company executive, heads due north to Minneapolis, Minnesota and pulls Cushmeer into the treacherous fray.

As usual, death will always bring family back together. And with death, there are almost always secrets. Anika and Ebony find themselves on a journey that takes them from mourning to discovering that it’s “their time” with an ensemble of family and friends: a loving, sweet Geechee grandma, frenemies, and a not-so-endearing family. From Ravenwood’s own King of Rap and his wifey the Mouth of the South to a love that will never die, Bloodstone’s Jinx will have you questioning your own existence.

Now that Tasmin Pettiford and Elisa Hunte have discovered they are witches, one would think life would be smoother for them. Unfortunately, it’s never that easy. After nearly perishing at the hands of Archangel Michael and his equally powerful wife, they soon realize that an even bigger threat is in Salix Pointe…one that seeks to destroy them by any means necessary. The witches also have to grapple with the realization that Octavian’s parents killed so many people close to them. Not to mention that Aunt Noreen was betrayed by one of their own coven members.

A dark story of love, paradise, and hell. This is the life of Mala’ik. An angel who was outcast from paradise for his love for a mortal. He has wandered the earth for centuries searching for the reborn soul of the women he had condemned to hellfire. This is his story. His life as an immortal imprisoned among humanity.

It is the end of days. A nuclear strike hits New York. Alfie, a young black male, survives but with no memory of what has happened. The only thing he can remember with any clarity is how to play his guitar and a few snatches of old blues and folk songs. Another survivor, Meg, has taken refuge in the hills of Vermont, and she, too, is the victim of near absolute amnesia. Her only hope is to survive these darkest of days.

As the oldest of three girls, Renee at a young age knew she was born into a special family of women. These women are blessed with unique gifts from God but others may disagree. Although Renee, Leah, and Tiffany were born in Georgia, their family roots were planted in New Orleans where the Creole cuisine fills your soul, the swamps run deep with blood and voodoo is a religion to some. At the age of 13, Renee’s life is forever changed as well as her sister’s.

At 72, Johnny Ribkins shouldn't have such problems: he's got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it's curtains. What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African American family that has been gifted with superpowers that are a bit, well, odd. Okay, very odd. For example, Johnny's father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he's been there or not.