Horror Library, Volume 6 Eric J. Guignard (Editor)

The multiple Bram Stoker Award® nominated Horror Library anthology series is back!

Authors - Garrett Quinn, Jackson Kuhl, Stephanie Bedwell Grime, Connor De Bruler, Tom Johnstone, Bentley Little, Kathryn E. McGee, Josh Rountree, Jeffrey Ford, John M. Floyd, Raymond Little, Rebecca J. Allred, Darren O. Godfrey, Sean Eads, David Tallerman, Marc E. Fitch, Vitor Abdala, JG Faherty, Dean H. Wild, Jayani C. Senanayake, Lucas Pederson, C. Michael Cook, Thomas P. Balázs, Jay Caselberg, Ahna Wayne Aposhian, Edward M. Erdelac, Carole Johnstone

Shepherded by new editor Eric J. Guignard -- himself a past Stoker winner -- Horror Library Volume 6 is imbued with a new level of literary energy and purpose. It features 27 brand new horror short stories, written by 27 different authors, including well-known pros and up-and-coming new talents.

As always, if you'd like a snapshot of where modern literary horror fiction is headed, you've found the right book.

Don't miss Horror Library Volume 6! The Librarian is waiting for YOU.


I love short horror stories so this was a huge treat for me. It was a great way to discover some new authors and also read some of my all time favorites. (My heart skipped a beat when I saw Bentley Little.)
This book contains 27 dark and delicious stories sure to fill you with dread. Now a few of them did end too abruptly for my taste and I would have preferred a more definitive ending. I am not against leaving things to the readers imagination or leaving an end that could be open to interpretation but a non-ending is just not my favorite way to leave a story.
All were good but my absolute favorites (in no particular order) were "The Plumber" by Bentley Little, probably because he is just so good at taking a mundane every day normal occurrence and turning it into something terrifying. Or perhaps because my shower is actually dripping as I write this yet I think I will just live with it a while rather than have to call someone to fix it.

"We Were Monsters" by Lucas Pederson was quite clever but it's hard for me to say too much without giving it away.

"The Creek Keepers' Lodge" by Kathryn E. McGee reminded me of that old saying you can't go home again. Or maybe it's that you just plain shouldn't go back if you managed to escape.

"The Night Crier" by C. Michael Cook was simply brilliant. I had never heard of this author before but this story just blew me away.

"Kalu Kumaraya" by Jayani C Senanayake  was another excellent story. If you have ever had a child or grandchild who spoke to an imaginary friend this one will give you chills.

"Five Pointed Spell" by Jeffrey Ford was spectacular. This was my first time reading anything by this author but I think I need to keep an eye out for anything else he writes from now on.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

White Fur A Novel by Jardine Libaire

Description

A stunning star-crossed love story set against the glitz and grit of 1980s New York City

When Elise Perez meets Jamey Hyde on a desolate winter afternoon, fate implodes, and neither of their lives will ever be the same. Although they are next-door neighbors in New Haven, they come from different worlds. Elise grew up in a housing project without a father and didn’t graduate from high school; Jamey is a junior at Yale, heir to a private investment bank fortune and beholden to high family expectations. Nevertheless, the attraction is instant, and what starts out as sexual obsession turns into something greater, stranger, and impossible to ignore.

The unlikely couple moves to Manhattan in hopes of forging an adult life together, but Jamey’s family intervenes in desperation, and the consequences of staying together are suddenly severe. And when a night out with old friends takes a shocking turn, Jamey and Elise find themselves fighting not just for their love, but also for their lives.

White Fur follows these indelible characters on their wild race through Newport mansions and downtown NYC nightspots, SoHo bars and WASP-establishment yacht clubs, through bedrooms and hospital rooms, as they explore, love, play, and suffer. Jardine Libaire combines the electricity of Less Than Zero with the timeless intensity of Romeo and Juliet in this searing, gorgeously written novel that perfectly captures the ferocity of young love.

 

I loved that this book starts off with a sneak peek of what is happening near the end. It made it all the more intriguing and I couldn't wait to find out how and why Jamey and Elise had gotten to that point. If the ceiling had fell on my head I doubt I would have been able to stop reading.

This was not your usual love story. It was gritty, raw, almost painful at times. Jamey Hyde was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, where as  Elise Perez grew up where spoons were something people used to cook their drugs on before shooting up. To say they were opposites is an understatement. Jamey has had everything handed to him and Elise has had nothing. When they first meet Jamey is embarrassed for her, and later when he starts dating her (if you could call hiding away for hours at a time having sex "dating") he is embarrassed by her. Yet somehow they are just meant to be.

 

I received an advance copy for review

Penance by Kanae Minato, Philip Gabriel (Translator)

Description

The tense, chilling story of four women haunted by a childhood trauma.

When they were children, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into separating from their friend Emily by a mysterious stranger. Then the unthinkable occurs: Emili is found murdered hours later.

Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko weren't able to accurately describe the stranger's appearance to the police after the Emili's body was discovered. Asako, Emily's mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will pay for her daughter's murder.

Like Confessions, Kanae Minato's award-winning, internationally bestselling debut novel, PENANCE is a dark and voice-driven tale of revenge and psychological trauma that will leave readers breathless.

 

 

Penance. A punishment. Something done to repent a sin. How does someone atone for something that was never their fault?  Five young girls went out to play but only four ever made it home. Those four girls did not witness the murder, but they did see the murderer, and the body, and have to live with the trauma. As if that were not enough, the killer was not caught, and the mother of the victim blamed them. In the course of that single event, the lives of these four girls was forever changed, and affected every aspect of their lives as they grew from happy children to the troubled young women that they were never meant to be. 4 out of 5 stars

 

I received a complimentary copy for review.

 

The Fear by Rae Louise

Description
Fear is all in the mind ...

But Mia’s nightmares become a reality when she and her troubled sister, Jamie, inherit their deceased uncle’s house and experience phenomena that extends way beyond a typical haunting. Only Mia’s infant daughter is aware of the sinister presence of a man that roams freely about the house, but it’s Jamie who has become the subject of the entity’s torment.

No one’s secrets stay buried for long, and the psychological abuse that the family are forced to endure soon turns physical, with the demon’s attachment to Jamie taking on a sexually violent nature. When the evil spreads beyond the boundaries of the house and wreaks chaos in the lives of those closest to Mia, she knows that she must uncover the house’s past, along with the identity of its ghostly inhabitant, in order to sever his hold on anyone who enters.

This was a hair raising haunted house tale.
After a fire, Mia and her younger sister Jaimie move into their deceased Uncle Billy's house along with Mia's young daughter Louisa, and their family dog. Right away the dog starts behaving strangely and Louisa begins to see "The Shadow Man" in her room. At first Mia puts this down to stress from the fire, the move, not seeing her father enough, and grandma having to be put into care due to dementia. Unfortunately for Mia, none of these circumstances are the cause of the evil that is infesting the house. There is something unearthly there, and it knows what you are afraid of and how to use it against you.
4 out of 5 stars from me.

I received a complimentary copy for review