Horror Library Volume 7 Edited by by Eric J. Guignard

 

The +Horror Library+ anthologies are internationally praised as a groundbreaking source of contemporary horror short fiction stories—relevant to the moment and stunning in impact—from leading authors of the macabre and darkly imaginative.

Filled with Fears and Fantasy. Death and Dark Dreams. Monsters and Mayhem. Literary Vision and Wonder. Each volume of the +Horror Library+ series is packed with heart-pounding thrills and creepy contemplations as to what truly lurks among the shadows of the world(s) we live in.

Containing 30 all-original stories, read Volume 7 in this ongoing anthology series, and then continue with the other volumes.

Shamble no longer through the banal humdrum of normalcy, but ENTER THE HORROR LIBRARY!

Included within Volume 7:

• In "Hand of Glory," a despairing prison inmate studies astral projection in order to escape his cell.

• In "The Key to Mabella," a cemetery groundskeeper discovers a mysterious vault key held by his predecessor and investigates what it unlocks.

• In "Abandon," a tour guide takes friends to visit his home village, long-since deserted and languishing under superstition.

• . . . and more!

• Also including a special guest-artist's gallery of Allen Koszowski!

I have had a love of short horror stories for as long as I can remember. Going all the way back to my childhood when my weekends were spent reading horror comics. Sometimes, in talking to people about horror I come across those who say they just don't care for short stories period. To each their own I suppose, but I often wonder if the reason they don't care for them is because they just haven't come across any that are especially well written. Its not easy to write short stories that have engaging characters and satisfying conclusions. Sometimes writers seem to skimp on the endings. There will be a dramatic buildup but then they don't leave enough time for an adequate ending. Just as you begin to enjoy it, poof it's over and you wonder why you bothered. I have read some of those too! But this is not that! 

Having read some, but not all, of the previous volumes I can say that Horror Library Volume 7 is my favorite so far. I enjoyed the artwork, and all 30 stories are deliciously dark, with satisfying conclusions. That is not to say the stories all end well for our unsuspecting characters, these are definitely not your happily ever after type of tales, but they are well written, down to the last word.

Among my many favorites were Never Better by Michael Harris Cohen which begins with restaurant workers getting revenge on obnoxious customers, before it heads down an even darker path.

The Kid In The Ambulance by Suki Litchfield about an unexpected and unsettling encounter with a long lost friend.

Discovery of Blanks by Darren O. Godfrey about the fate of one man who believes not all people are real, and of his friend who finds out the truth.

Holder City by Garick Cooke   In which man escorts a mysterious woman home after avoiding a collision on the road.

In The Valley by Bentley Little is a tough one to describe so I'll just say it's about the mother of us all.

I'm going to stop at this point because I've caught myself just going in order of the table of contents naming every story as one of my favorites. I don't think there was a bad tale in the bunch. There is mighty fine writing here.

I am going to recommend this to all horror fans, and lovers of dark fiction, including those who say they don't like short stories. This may be the book to change your mind.

5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy under no obligation to write a review.

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Future Tense: Tales of Apocalyptic Vision by Michaelbrent Collings

 

Worldwide bestseller and master of terror Michaelbrent Collings invites you to peer into the future, to uncover things long hidden, and to experience worlds of a Future Tense…

A world where suicide is illegal – unless you agree to kill yourself over and over again...

A place where childhood games turn back the clock – and bring with them monsters long forgotten...

A home where secrets abound – until the killing begins...

A reality where a writer's dreams can make her rich – if she's willing to sacrifice the universe...

All these, and more: stories of darkness and of light.
Stories of despair, and lingering hope.

Stories of a future unknown, where ignorance feeds our souls, and where the only hope that remains in a world gone dim… resides in Tales of Apocalyptic Vision!

Future Tense is a sci-fi/horror collection of nine short stories and one novella all set in the future, although not necessarily the distant future.

Not all of the stories were a big hit with me, but the ones that were, totally knocked it out of the park.

Among these were, The Floor Is Lava in which old friends reunite... one final time.

Lucid Dreams, about an agoraphobic woman who starts a new medication regimen and suddenly begins to live a full life even though she still can't leave home, and I Can Do This All Night about a man who often claims it's a woman's world but never meant it or believed it, until now.

In my opinion the author saved the best for last with a twisty psychological thriller novella The Stranger Inside which finds a perfect family in their perfect home as they are about to commemorate the anniversary of a tragic loss. What they don't know is that a stranger has been plotting to interrupt these plans in a most horrific way.

Recommended to anyone who enjoys the unexpected, the unusual, and the downright strange. This is a most entertaining collection.

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy

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About the author

Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear by Ronald Kelly

 

Down below the Mason-Dixon Line, deep in the shadowy hills and hollows of Tennessee, lives a teller of terrifying tales and a spinner of dark yarns unlike any you have ever heard before. Stories to chill your bones and pepper your flesh with goose bumps. What his true name may be, no one knows for sure. But, if you listen closely, you can hear his voice ringing through the dead of night!

Pull up a tombstone and join your host, The Old Storyteller, as he shares nine tales of ghostly horror that will run a shiver down your spine! Tour a backwoods graveyard, neglected and forgotten…a cemetery haunted by restless spirits and wayward souls. Some are earthbound by sorrow and remorse…others by an unearthly hunger for vengeance!

Now enter…the Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear! 

Well I say it a lot but it bears repeating. I love short horror stories and Ronald Kelly is one of my all time favorite horror writers. As a kid, I also had a huge collection of horror comics. From the time that I was about 8 years old, most Saturday afternoons would find me tagging along with my mother to various flea markets and used book stores. She would be on the hunt for horror novels she hadn't already read, and I would be on the look out for horror comics not yet in my collection. The rest of the weekend would be spent reveling in my purchases that she never would have let me read if she had ever looked inside of one. So this collection of stories totally sends me to my happy place. In the style of those glorious comics of yester-year there is an illustration to go with each story.

In these pages you will meet a ghost hunting family, A woman who has an unusual anniversary, the ghosts of dead children, and more. There are spirits who want only to complete their unfinished business, those who simply don't realize they have passed away, and there are those who are far angrier and seek revenge. If you are in the mood for a ghastly good time you will find it here in Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear.

My thanks to Silver Shamrock Publishing for the review copy.

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Shadow Flicker by Gregory Bastianelli

 

Investigator Oscar Basaran travels to Kidney Island off the coast of Maine to document the negative effects of shadow flicker from wind turbines on residents living near the windmills, but is unprepared for what he encounters from the islanders.

Oscar’s research shows that sleep deprivation, light deficiency and ringing headaches brought on by the noise and constant strobe-like effect of the sun filtered through the spinning blades of the turbines brings on hallucinatory episodes for the closest neighbors to the machines.

Melody Larson’s elderly father nearly chokes to death after stuffing dandelion heads into his mouth. The Granberrys' pregnant cow repeatedly runs headlong into a fence post. Tatum Gallagher mourns her young son who vanished more than a year ago, presumed swept out to sea by a wave while fishing on the rocky shore, but several people claim to see him appear only in the glimmer of the shadow flicker.

Aerosource, the energy corporation that owns the turbines, hired Oscar to investigate the neighbors’ claims, but the insurance agent shows no allegiance to the conglomerate, especially after learning a previous employee sent to the island a year before has disappeared without a trace.

When Oscar meets former island school science teacher Norris Squires, fired for teaching his students about the harmful effects of shadow flicker, he learns a theory regarding Aerosource that sounds too preposterous to believe.

While it seems the shadow flicker effect has driven some of the island’s animals crazy, is it possible it’s caused an even worse mental breakdown among the human inhabitants? Or is something more nefarious at work on the island?

As Oscar’s investigation deepens, he discovers the turbines create an unexpected phenomena kept secret by a select group of people on Kidney Island who have made a scientific breakthrough and attempt to harness its dark power.

Life has not been kind to some of the residents living on a small island off the coast of Maine. If they had not been struggling under a burden of debt they probably would never have chosen to sell off parcels of their land when Aerosource wanted to put up wind turbines and build an access road.

What's done is done and now those who live closest to the turbines suffer the consequences. Aside from the headaches, lack of sleep, and strange effects on the animals, there is something much worse than these bothersome symptoms that will occur when the blades of those turbines begin to spin backwards. 

Now, a few of the residents have filed a claim against the company and an outsider has arrived to investigate. He doesn't believe much of what he is told at first, until it's too late.

Shadow Flicker is an intriguing, character driven story with one foot in Eco Horror and the other in Sci-Fi. I loved the descriptions of the island and getting to know it's residents. It is a story of love and desperation and well as greed and fear. The horror creeps up slowly until suddenly it comes crashing in like high tide nearer the end.

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy.

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Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror

 

Dark Stars, edited by John F.D. Taff, is a tribute to horror’s longstanding short fiction legacy, featuring 12 terrifying original stories from today's most noteworthy authors, with an introduction by bestselling author Josh Malerman and an afterword by Ramsey Campbell.

Created as an homage to the 1980 classic horror anthology, Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley, this collection contains 12 original novelettes showcasing today’s top horror talent. Dark Stars features all-new stories from award-winning authors and up-and-coming voices like Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Usman T. Malik, Caroline Kepnes, and Alma Katsu, with seasoned author John F.D. Taff at the helm. An afterword from original Dark Forces contributor Ramsey Campbell is a poignant finale to this bone-chilling collection.
Within these pages you’ll find tales of dead men walking, an insidious secret summer fling, an island harboring unspeakable power, and a dark hallway that beckons. You’ll encounter terrible monsters—both human and supernatural—and be forever changed. The stories in Dark Stars run the gamut from traditional to modern, from dark fantasy to neo-noir, from explorations of beloved horror tropes to the unknown—possibly unknowable—threats.

It’s all in here because it’s all out there, now, in horror.

Dark Stars is an eclectic mix of slower paced thrills with quick bursts of chills. There's more meat on it's bones than I expected, as the tales are more fully fleshed out than typical short stories.

I was hooked from the opening lines of Caroline Kepnes The Attentionist, a chilling psychological thriller about two sisters, that pulled me in with it's leisurely start before hitting like a freight train at the end. Another of my favorites was A Life In Nightmares by Ramsey Campbell in which it's hard to tell where reality begins and dreams end with one young man's fear of not being able to understand others, or of not being understood.

Swim in the Blood of a Curious Dream by John F.D. Taff encompasses so many things that I love in a good story. Grief, a road trip, weird weather, supernatural events. I won't say more so as not to spoil it for you I will only say...WOW!

Enough for Hunger and Enough for Hate by John Langan was another favorite even though I could not quite figure out at first why a woman would have such a strange way of approaching someone she believes has murdered her brother. But oh my goodness the beginning makes perfect sense at the end.

I enjoyed all of the stories but these were my favorites.

Recommended for all who love dark fiction whether you are looking for anything from vampires to ghosts to psychological thrillers there is something in here for you.

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy.

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The Eater of Gods by Dan Franklin

 

Nothing really dies if it's remembered, his wife had told him.

In the dying village of Al Tarfuk, lost among the war-stained dunes of eastern Libya, professor Norman Haas learns the location of the tomb that had been his wife's life pursuit. The final resting place of Kiya, the lost queen of Akhenaten, whose history had been etched from the stone analogues of history for her heresies against the long absent pantheon of Egyptian gods.

He never expected to discover that the tomb was the final resting place to more than the dead. And as his team of researchers find themselves trapped inside the ancient tomb, Norman realizes all too soon that his wife was right-

Nothing really dies if it's remembered...

But some things are best forgotten.

Dan Franklin's debut supernatural thriller is a tale of grief, of loneliness, and of an ageless, hungry fury that waits with ready tooth and claw beneath the sand.

This is a fairly quick read at just 150 pages.

Norman was never that interested in expeditions half a world away. But it was his wife's dream to find and enter the tomb of Kiya, queen of Akhenaten. Sadly, the cancer took her before she could accomplish this, and it is out of respect for her wishes and grief at her passing that Norman now finds himself in this dangerous desert land, seeking out the man who wouldn't help his wife find the tomb.

Norman and his small team have more luck than his deceased wife in locating the tomb, but is that good luck or bad? Should they really enter this sacred space that is said to be cursed and best left forgotten?

The Eater of Gods is a story that is ripe with grief and heavy with longing for things that could have been, and should never be. At the start it feels more like a thriller than a horror, but that will change when our team finds the tomb as their excitement turns to fear.

There is a bit of gore but not what I would consider overly graphic, still I think it's only fair to warn you. 

My thanks to Cemetery Dance for the advance copy.

About the author

Dan Franklin wrote his first attempt at a horror novel when he was seven. It was terrible. He has, since, improved. The winner of several local awards for short stories and an occasional poem, Dan Franklin lives in Maryland with his extremely understanding wife, his cosmically radiant daughter, and a socially crippling obsession with things that creep. The Eater of Gods is his first published novel. He can be contacted at DanFranklinAuthor.com

Limbs by Tim Meyer

 I am not a monster.

Ray Bridges, a professional electronics salesman, is looking for love in all the strange places. He spends most nights sneaking into support group meetings for the disabled in order to satisfy his deepest, darkest desires—to hook up with unfortunate, down-on-their-luck women who’ve recently lost a limb. There's a name for Ray’s preference; it’s called acrotomophilia, a paraphilia involving amputees.

Conflicted, Ray wishes he could change. But he can’t. His body won’t let him. Nor will his mind. He’s destined to live this life, forever. That is . . . until he meets the perfect girl. Falls in love with her. Only problem: her arms and legs are attached.

Unable to find her attractive, Ray embarks on a dark, twisted journey of self-discovery, one that will force him to make an impossible choice: abandon his pursuit of true love or find a way to make it work, even if that means getting the girl of his dreams to shed an appendage.

Ray has never told anyone about his weird kink (or is it a fetish?) of only being attracted to amputees, or the sleazy way he goes about finding women to satisfy his odd desires. After his best friend and co worker tells him about the Hacketstown Hacker, the name given to an unknown perpetrator of brutal assaults on women, he discovers his latest conquest was a victim, and he considers finding the hacker, not to bring him to justice but to have him hack a limb off the new girl at work who he has fallen for. Kayla feels the same way about Ray, but would she accept the truth about him? Can Ray find a way to overlook that she's not missing any body parts or will it take the Hacker to help them live happily ever after?

The cover describes this novella as weird, comedic, and raunchy.  I would tend to agree. I'd also like to add suspenseful, entertaining, well written, and downright crazy. If you normally stay away from conventional romance you may delight in this kooky love story.

4 out of 5 stars

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About the author

Tim Meyer dwells in a dark cave near the Jersey Shore. He's an author, husband, father, podcast host, blogger, coffee connoisseur, beer enthusiast, and explorer of worlds. He writes horror, mysteries, science fiction, and thrillers, although he prefers to blur genres and let the story fall where it may.

You can follow Tim at https://timmeyerwrites.com

Identicals by William Brennan Knight

 

In the year and a half since Jack Clausen lost his five-year-old daughter, RosaMarie, his life has fallen apart. Depressed and despondent, he steps off a platform into an oncoming train. Just before impact, a strong hand pulls him away. A strange, small person offers Jack a way to bring his daughter back, but there is a high price to pay. After Jacks’ child is returned to him, he refuses to pay his debt, and events spiral out of control. Revisiting multiple past realities, Jack searches for a solution to a problem that only worsens as he confronts his inner demons and the deep issues that destroyed his family.

Sometimes a loss brings families closer together. In the Clausen family, it has torn them apart. The loss of his five year old daughter has Jack Clausen wallowing in a year and a half of despair. He spends more time in a bottle than with his remaining children. He has lost his job, ruined his marriage, neglected his sons and contemplated suicide.

It is on one of his lowest days, as he is about to step in front of a train, that he first makes contact with an Identical. A strange little being who promises to return his daughter. There is a steep price to pay but Jack is not told what this will be, until it's much too late.

It's much more complicated than a deal with the devil, where you could live happily every after until an agreed upon time when you relinquish your soul. The terms of this deal are less clear and the consequences are more immediate. The harder Jack tries to set things right, the worse off he and his family become.

This is a dark and disturbing story that straddles the line between horror and fantasy. I cared about the family and wanted things to work out for them.

The Identicals. What are they? Where do they come from? Why do they promise to save some people in return for murdering others?  How do they choose their victims? These are things I wish I knew, and which were not answered for me in this book.

3.5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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