This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances by Eric LaRocca

 

A brand-new collection of four intense, claustrophobic and terrifying horror tales from the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.
Four devastating tales from a master of modern horror…
This Skin Was Once Mine
When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Jillian Finch finds herself grieving the man she idolized while struggling to feel comfortable in the childhood home she was sent away from nearly twenty years ago by her venomous mother. Then Jillian discovers a dark secret in her family's past--a secret that will threaten to undo everything she has ever known to be true about her beloved father and, more importantly, herself. It's only natural to hurt the things we love the most...
Seedling
A young man's father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed away. He arrives home to find his mother's body still in the house. Struggling to process what has happened he notices a small black wound appear on his wrist—the inside of the wound as black as onyx and as seemingly limitless as the cosmos. He is even more unsettled when he discovers his father is cursed with the same affliction. The young man becomes obsessed with his father's new wounds, exploring the boundless insides and tethering himself to the black threads that curl from inside his poor father...
Prickle
Two old men revive a cruel game with devastating consequences...
All the Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn
Enoch Leadbetter goes to buy a knife for his husband to use at a forthcoming dinner party. He encounters a strange shopkeeper who draws him into an intoxicating new obsession and sets him on a path towards mutilation and destruction..

The dark side of human nature mixes with the bizarre and uncanny in these disturbing stories. 

A beloved father passes away and a neglected daughter returns home to the mother who hasn't bothered with her in decades.

The death of his mother leads a young man to a strange new connection with his father.

A one-upmanship of cruelty goes way too far. 

A cutlery purchase turns into a shocking tale of body horror.

Heed the trigger warnings at the beginning of this book.

If I were a writer I might have the skill to describe for you the depravity and suffering you will find in these tales. Every story begins with what seems to be a normal situation but don't be lulled into a false sense of security because there is much ugliness festering below the surface waiting to appear. Sometimes the worst monsters are just people.

Eric LaRocca has created some spectacularly revolting characters for this book. The stories are unique and sickening. I couldn't look away if I tried.

My thanks to Titan Books.

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Myrrh by Polly Hall

Myrrh has a goblin inside her, a voice in her head that tells her all the things she's done wrong, that berates her and drags her down. Desperately searching for her birth-parents across dilapidated seaside towns in the South coast of England, she finds herself silenced and cut off at every step.

Cayenne is trapped in a loveless marriage, the distance between her and her husband growing further and further each day. Longing for a child, she has visions promising her a baby.

As Myrrh's frustrations grow, the goblin in her grows louder and louder, threatening to tear apart the few relationships she holds dear and destroy everything around her. When Cayenne finds her husband growing closer to his daughter, Cayenne's stepdaughter, pushing her further out of his life, she makes a decision that sends her into a terrible spiral.

The stories of these women will unlock a past filled with dark secrets, strange connections; all leading to an unforgettable, horrific climax.

To be honest this book almost landed in my DNF pile. The synopsis was intriguing, and the blurb comparing it to one of my favorite authors compelled me to read it, but once I started it was a slog to get through. It felt much longer than its 128 pages and I kept checking to see how much longer I had to go. 

I really wanted to love this but I can't. It's not horror. It's confusing what one character has to do with the other until you realize how it's forced to be connected, and it just doesn't work for me at all. Learning what the "goblin" is left me feeling cheated.

You may enjoy it more than I did but it's not one I can recommend.

My thanks to Titan Books.

The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

 Catherine's last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a top TV network saw her fired and forced to leave London, but she was determined to get her life back. A new job and a few therapists later, things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself -- to catalogue the late M. H. Mason's wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Rarest of all, she'll get to examine his elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting bloody scenes from the Great War. Catherine can't believe her luck when Mason's elderly niece invites her to stay at Red House itself, where she maintains the collection until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle's "Art." Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but Mason's damaged visions begin to raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she'd hoped therapy had finally erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge and some truths seem too terrible to be real... in The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill.

An emotionally fragile woman heads to an old mansion, to catalog an enormous collection of antique dolls and hoards of creepy puppets. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters she is expected to stay in the house until the job is complete. The owner's appearance is unnerving to say the least. She and her maid are rude and sullen, There is no phone service, and the job will take longer than planned since the owner seems weirdly intent on dragging it out.

 The main character Catherine has suffered multiple traumatic incidents and after years of therapy and learning how to deal with what she is told is her "paranoia" she does not always trust her own judgement.  

There is a pervasive atmosphere of wrongness in the house that would have had me saying take this job and shove it, but sadly Catherine ignores her gut feelings.

This was a deeply disturbing gothic horror, slightly reminiscent of "Burnt Offerings."

4 out of 5 stars.

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The Last Slaughter BY Douglas Ford

 As the land withers under a changing climate and resources grow scarce, a hungry family confronts a dark legacy. An old storehouse holds an ancient an imprisoned girl who can bestow bounties of food and prosperity. But in return she requires sacrifices.Her ancient power contains the truth they must face. You can deny family, but you can’t deny blood.

John grew up never knowing his dad, but knowing who he is and resenting him all the same. His mother Laura has told the story many times. How her "date" with a rich boy led to having to run home beaten and bloody, and soon to be a single mom.

This resentment festers into hatred because John and his mother struggle to make ends meet, while his father has wealth and property that John will never inherit.

An act of vandalism leads John to a shocking discovery and his life will never be the same.

The Last Slaughter is a riveting folk horror where sins of the past come home to roost. It's a quick read so I can't say much else about the plot without spoiling it so I'm just going to say this was an awesomely entertaining read full of unnerving surprises.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Douglas Ford

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