Mazywood

Mazywood (publication day September 22, 2026) by Tananarive Due scared me so much one evening I had to stop reading it until daytime! With two timelines–beginning in the Golden Age of Hollywood, it follows Mazelle Washington, a child star when films were still silent, through her lifetime, and alternates with a present day timeline following Mazelle’s grandson Johnny, a filmmaker in his own right, and his family, as they visit Mazelle’s mountain lodge near Mount Shasta in Northern California for the first time since Johnny was a child.

Mazelle’s family were performers traveling from town to town in the South. As the youngest, she couldn’t sing like her older sisters, who told her she had no talent. One day she went off in the woods, looking for the wishing pool, and wished for a friend “forever” that she could do an act with. When no one appeared, she returned home disappointed, but instead a muddy dog met her in the road. He was very friendly to her, wanting to play and seeming to do whatever she thought in her head. She named him Scout, and their friendship began an improvement in the family’s fortune, including moving to Los Angeles.

In the present day, Johnny Washington, writer and director of a horror franchise that resulted in several movies a couple decades ago, is at a big studio to hear from the management about his latest project, but he hears the same old thing–that a “black” film isn’t something the public is ready for, even after the success of “Get Out.” With two teenage daughters and another kid on the way, at nearly sixty, Johnny needs a win. He decides to take his family to his grandmother’s lodge in Northern California for a long weekend so he and his wife, Tasha, can finally tell the girls about the pregnancy. It was the site of some difficult times in his childhood, but he’s been working to restore it with the help of a local property manager because at least he can rent it out as an AirBnb and it can make them some money.

As time goes on, Mazelle struggles with the roles the studio executives give her, and with the abuse of her mother’s aunt who has moved in with them to help out. Scout though, is always by her side, until, after one horrible night, Scout disappears. Mazelle later has to go to public school when she grows out of portraying children. She is out of the business for several years, but then, as a young adult, she meets Hattie McDaniel on the set of Gone With the Wind, who becomes her mentor. Her brand of physical comedy is combined with roles as a maid, and she’s back in the game and able to support her parents. Although the studios keep dangling interesting parts in front of her, they never materialize, and she has to deal with the misogynoir present in Hollywood until she can escape to the lodge she has built at Mount Shasta as a refuge for her family and friends.

In the present day, Johnny’s family is thrilled to be at Great Bear Lodge, what Mazelle called the resort after her initial naming of it as Mazywood. There’s no wifi or even cell reception, and it has a ski slope in the backyard so the girls, Imani and Sharise, can practice their snowboarding. Johnny isn’t so sure. His memories keep intruding, and strange things keep happening, including a possible sighting of the strange thing he saw leaving his grandmother’s bedroom when she was dying. Therapy has convinced him he had dissociated and the thing was his imagination, but . . . .

I can’t say anymore to avoid spoilers–but it was superb! I loved that Imani–Johnny and Tasha’s younger daughter–was neurodiverse and that it was her superpower. She was probably my favorite character in the novel. If you like thrillers, monsters, historical Hollywood, and wilderness survival, don’t miss Mazywood. It will be an award winner. There was some minor anti-fat bias when discussing another actresses’ body size compared to Mazelle’s, but otherwise was weight-neutral.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.