The Withering Hours: Dark Folk Horror by Morgan Sylvia

In The Withering Hours, Morgan Sylvia takes readers through the depths of ancient woods, troubled minds, and gruesome retreats. Folklore and myth breathe life into these tales of a haunted world and its imperfect inhabitants. Sylvia’s work is rich with atmosphere and each story is imbued with a sense of magic and dread.

In these pages you will find restless spirits, creatures who defy death, and twisted sadists. You will meet witches with deep connections to the land and innocents with a taste for blood. The minds of the mad will be yours to explore, just like the dark forests of New England.

This brilliant collection is a perfect read for fans of cosmic and folk horror, but it is also steeped in rich elements of gothic horror and psychological dread.

Sylvia invokes the aura of bygone ages, while writing in a fluid, modern style, seamlessly merging past and present. With this volume, Sylvia continues to prove herself to be an important voice in horror and weird fiction. 

I had read one of these stories previously in an anthology from the New England Horror Writers, but most of them were new to me. As a New Englander myself, I do get a kick out of stories that take place in my little corner of the world.

I love folk horror, so some of my favorite stories featured hikes to cursed ground, restless spirits, supernatural beings in the woods, and witches, both modern-day and those from centuries past.

The author is adept at creating suspense and spine-tingling chills with clever endings that sometimes tricked me into mislaying my sympathies on the wrong character. 

The Withering Hours overflows with dark tales wrapped in legends and cloaked in fear. Superstitions come to life deep in the woods, and in what we believe is the safety of our own brightly lit neighborhoods. I would recommend it for all fans of dark fiction and folk horror.

My thanks to Weird House Press for the eBook.

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