BLOODY HELL: An Anthology of UK Indie Horror Edited by Sarah Jules

 

The United Kingdom is known for its breath-taking beauty, but even the most idyllic of places can harbour dark secrets. Experience twenty-seven brand new horror stories from British indie authors, each set in a unique location throughout the British Isles. Grab a cup of tea, a scone, and remember… they’re only stories.

This fully illustrated anthology is brought to you by indie horror author Sarah Jules, and illustrator Rachael Rose, and features veteran, and debut, British indie horror authors,

"Twenty-seven stories from some of the best the UK has to offer. In this anthology, you’ll find a little something of creepy ghosts, mythical monsters, and deadly killers, all guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine. Grab yourself a cuppa, make yourself comfortable, and check your doors are locked… You might regret it otherwise.” - Justin Boote, author of Soul Searchers.

Vengeful ghosts, Folk horror, strange creatures, and psycho killers leaped from the pages and pulled me into the tales. I was a willing victim, happily spellbound from start to finish. 

Just a few of my favorites were Hungry Is The Bodach by Stuart Knott in which a woman has an ulterior motive for getting her lunkheaded husband up to the family cabin.

The Syn-Eater of Lancaster by MJ Mars is about a sin eater who has finally found a way to turn a good-sized profit for his work but at a terrible cost.

To Be A Man Of Man by J C Michael A new love is not all it's cracked up to be in this twisty surprising tale.

The God Botherers by Ashley Little follows two men on their way to do the Lord's work or at least their interpretation of it.

In Wrong Lane by Stephen Barnard a driver sets out to teach others the consequences of aggressive driving but ends up learning their own lesson.

Pergyl by C S Jones A family arrives at a cabin in the midst of a terrible storm, but there is more to fear than the weather.

Sand by David Watkins is a story worth remembering any time you're on the beach. Especially a lovely secluded beach that you seem to have all to yourself.

The Joke by Tom Carter left me stunned! I don't even know what to say about this one without giving anything away. I'm just going to say it was brilliant.

Brompton Road by Elizabeth Brown is where a content creator sets out to film one of those creepy abandoned place videos but it doesn't go as planned.

I could go on but at this point, I'd be listing the whole table of contents if I named every story that I enjoyed.

This is a huge collection of 27 stories that were much darker than expected and left me saying Bloody Hell that was a good book!

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Authors include:

Stephen Barnard

Marie Sinadjan

Mark MJ Green

Benjamin Langley

Brad Thomas

Elijah Frost

Lee Allen

William Long

Bethany Russo

David K Slater

Dr Stuart Knott

Elizabeth J Brown

Jessica Huntley

MJ Mars

M.L. Rayner

Ashley Lister

Jim Ody

Alexandra Nisneru

EC Samuels

Philip Alexander Baker

Tom Carter

CS Jones

JC Michael

Tim Stephens

David Watkins

And, a bonus Irish story from Leigh Kenny.

The Taste of Tiny Bones by Vincent Heselwood

 

No one knows where he came from...He's what lingers in the shadows behind you when you turn off the lights and race up the stairs...The darkness beneath the bed that keeps your feet tucked tightly under the covers...The Bogeyman...

But Evie "Creepy" Morenson has unknowingly found a way to make him something more than what he was, something much more vicious, something much more hungry...

A simple blog post causes new nightmares to start, new fears that give him new life, and now, something is very, very wrong.

She's lost control of the monster she created, and children are starting to die.

Will she and Detective Ezra Dean find a way to stop him before he goes viral?

You thought you were afraid of the Boogeyman before...Just wait...

Alfie Turner is the first but he will not be the last that the Tat O' Rag Man visits in the dark of night. An insidious presence made of fear and belief that devours its victims as they shriek in terror has come to life.

"What do you want?" he whispered. "To eat you," came the reply.

It spreads like a virus. To see it is to believe in it and to become its target. It's up to one woman, who has lived in fear most of her life to find the strength to stop it. I loved Evie "Creepy" Morenson and her love for books and the written word in general. She reminded me a bit of Stephen King's Holly in her mannerisms and her hyper focused ability to work on a problem.

If you were ever afraid of the dark as a child, if you ever had an unkind babysitter who told you the boogeyman would get you, or a sibling who teased you that something was in the closet, be prepared for those forgotten childhood fears to come roaring back.

The author succeeds in turning the unbelievable into the possible.

My thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

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Behind by Bentley Little

 When he was a little boy, there was a house behind Alex Lowry's house. Except he was the only one who could see it. Only he could hear the woman singing from within.

Decades later, after the pandemic costs Alex his corporate job, he picks up work delivering specialty items to homebound clientele and, against all odds, he realizes he enjoys his new life. His world is simpler. Quieter. Until he once more hears the tuneless, wordless song of the woman from the house behind. Until the cracks in the façade of his simple, quiet life begin to yawn, and a past he thought he had outrun begins to gain on him.

Until he finds himself slipping into the world behind.

Alex is a happily married man who tries not to think much about the past. He has never told anyone what he saw as a child, not even his wife Jennifer. He has given her the impression that he had a normal childhood. He may even have convinced himself that it's true. He never talks about the church, and only says that his parents passed away when he was young.

When Alex loses his job due to the pandemic, Jennifer thinks her father or his connections could be of some help. He's never gotten along well with his Father-in-law but complies with Jennifer's request to visit her parents. It is on this visit that the past catches up to him. There it stands. A house behind his in-laws' house. A house that should not be there in their suddenly too-big backyard. A house that's just a little bit wrong, with doors in the wrong place and not enough windows. The house where "she awaits." 

I don't want to say anything else about the plot and spoil it for you. I will just say that if you have read Bentley Little before you know that his book titles that begin with "The" as in The Store, The Mailman, The Resort, etc tend to follow his usual formula. While those without, such as Dispatch, His Father's Son, Gloria, etc. tend to stray from that usual formula. Behind was not just my most anticipated read of the year, it is now among my favorites of all his books. I savored it slowly over the course of a week because I didn't want it to end.

Behind is delightfully dark and disturbing. The pervasive atmosphere of "wrongness" grew heavier with every page I turned. It takes a lot to scare me but this succeeded in appearing my nightmares. 

My thanks to Dan Franklin and Cemetery Dance Publications.

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The Damage Done by Tony Tremblay

 Lured by a prank phone call to a local park, Choi Lee, a Korean high school student living in New Hampshire, is unwittingly pushed to her breaking point. Since she was little, Choi’s parents have instilled in her a need to check her emotions, emphasizing that the damage done if she lost control would be catastrophic. With that phone call, Choi, her boyfriend, and her classmates will discover just how catastrophic after Choi is provoked to the point of no return.

Everyone in the park—the guilty, the innocent, the bystanders—they all die.

Inspecting the bodies littering the grass, Captain Pendleton, new to the Goffstown Police Force, walks the grounds of Barnard Park. His men are calling this event a microburst, but Pendleton had never seen a microburst decapitate, flatten, or twist a body inside out such as this. While at the park, he receives more unsettling news. There is a fatal incident at the local tavern with several people unconscious and at least two dead. Arriving at the tavern, Pendleton wonders if things could get any worse. It turns out they can. His men discover more bodies in a house next door to the tavern that a Korean family owns. The only survivor – a young girl named Choi, who has been shot in the head.

In the coming days, the gruesome deaths pile up.

Captain Pendleton’s investigation leads him to the owner of a local pawnshop. Together, they attempt to piece together Choi’s involvement with the deaths in the park, her home, and at the restaurant. However, Pendleton and the pawnshop owner are dealing with unfamiliar forces, and Choi’s ties to the supernatural and Korean folklore test the resolve and sanity of both men. It was Choi who initiated the events that led to the death of so many townspeople, and she is the key to stopping more.

The thing is, Choi is technically alive, but her brain is dead.

Choi and her parents were whisked to the US under mysterious circumstances.

They have settled in New Hampshire where Choi is attending high school and trying to fit in. But she is not like the other kids and it is not because she is Korean.

Too bad the "mean girls" didn't know that before they decided to pick on her.

Terrible things happen any time Choi is angry or frightened. This time, a cruel prank has pushed her too far.

Characters I recognized from a previous novel "The Moore House" will reunite in an attempt to stop the death toll from climbing, but even they are not immune to the supernatural influence that can turn even the kindest people into sadistic monsters.

The Damage Done combines Korean folklore with gruesome body horror in a fast-paced read that pulled me in from the brutal opening to the heart-wrenching climax. I feel as if the author tied me to a pendulum where I swung nervously back and forth, one minute being afraid for the characters and the next being afraid of them.

5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy courtesy of the author.

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