Edited by Damon Barrett Roe and Cassandra L. Thompson
Available from Quill & Crow Publishing, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
4 out of 5 stars
This collection of dark Gothic horror tales will make your skin creep off your flesh and slither under the door to hide somewhere – in a GOOD way.
The Utburd, Robyn Dabney – A disgraced nature photographer is out in the Arctic wilderness trying to gain a shot of a huge, albino reindeer. But something else also waits for him in the woods…
The mood and description of the Arctic night in a Lapland forest was absorbing and engaged all the senses, and I also loved the usage of Finnish words and myths. I also learned a new word (berm) and the use of the camera as a light source with which to view the source of Jaska’s creeping terror was a fantastic storytelling device.
The Forest’s Call, Aliya Bree Hall – A Red Riding Hood retelling in which the forest is described as a character in its own right, almost the archetype of spring in contrast to the separate nature character, Father Winter. I also liked the author’s way of describing emotions as if they were animated and affecting certain body parts.
Don’t Say a Word, K.R. Wieland – A story that plucks the heartstrings, told alongside the lyrics to a well-known song. Trigger Warning: involves labour / birth and difficulties in childbirth along with some gory medical stuff.
Where Ghosts Walk, Trevor James Zaple – A story set in the Great War during times of rationing, when a put-upon housewife caring for an abusive father and her children notices strange footprints in the snow around their home. The tale introduced me to a beautiful saying, “Where ghosts walk, there is loving or thieving.”
All Her Little Bones, R.A. Busby – Written as a log for future readers to find, this story has a tone that put us in mind of Dean Koontz. It concerns a very weird shelter on a hiking trail which does disturbing things to time and space, and some gory ghostly apparitions. In spite of the terror, the ending was touching in a weird way.
Fading, Sarah Hozumi – What is a man to a tidal wave? If only we could know… A man suffers disturbing hallucinations (are they hallucinations?) after witnessing his wife’s sudden and painful death in a winter filled with violent strangers, a decaying world and societal collapse. I liked the author’s unique turns of phrase and how she showed the derailment of the narrator’s mind by subtle degrees.
Relke of the Russet Hair, KB Willson – I enjoyed the worldbuilding and winter ritual in this story, as well as its almost ancient, archetypal quality. It put me in mind of something Ursula Le Guin would write.
The New Moon Through Glass, E.M. Linden – They say it’s bad luck to first view the new moon through glass. In this story of two evacuees billeting with a childless couple, there are some weird qualities to the evacuee named Georgie, and his presence nags at Rose’s memory of a distant disaster, in the end making her know herself for the person she never thought she would be.
The Prisoner and the Robe, Amelia Mangan – I loved the author’s voice and vocabulary in this story, and the gory but beautiful Mervyn Peake-style world she has created. It also put me in mind of Gene Wolfe. (This story is NSFW, trigger warning: self-harm, sadomasochism, BDSM, torture, murder.)
Arno, Mason McDonald – A fascinating story about an ancient house and barn in a landscape that holds Giants prisoner, a bereaved woman seeking shelter from the winter weather with her frostbitten children, and a disturbing, neglected child who is a monster. This story reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft.
Nightwalks 