I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I love a good ghost story. Lately, I have especially been enjoying discovering the works of many of the talented female authors who flourished during the golden age of ghost stories but have since gone largely unrecognized. Which is why I was devastated to learn that the small publisher who introduced me to many of these authors will be shutting their doors: Handheld Press, the small UK house who brought us Women’s Weird volumes I and II, The Outcast and the Rite, From the Abyss, The Unknown, Strange Relics, and so much more have announced that they are done publishing as of this summer. But they made sure to go out with a bang. One of their last titles was The House of Silence: Ghost Stories 1887–1920 by E. Nesbit, with an introduction by Melissa Edmundson, which came out in May. Nesbit’s stories were among my favorites that I first encountered in Women’s Weird and in my sporadic reading since, so I was thrilled when Handheld announced they’d be doing an entire collection of her ghost stories. And I was not disappointed! Continue reading Review of The House of Silence—E. Nesbit’s Ghost Stories
Tag: anthology
Review of Sunless Solstice—Christmas Ghost Stories
As my various posts over the years about Christmas ghost stories might suggest, I’m on a bit of a mission to bring this spooky seasonal activity back into fashion. But I’m not alone in my quest! The British Library has started publishing annual collections of haunting Christmas tales as part of their Tales of the Weird series. Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights, edited by Lucy Evans and Tanya Kirk, is the third such collection, released in December 2022. If you, like me, would like to start spending your Christmases telling scary stories around a fire, I cannot recommend these collections enough! Continue reading Review of Sunless Solstice—Christmas Ghost Stories
Review of Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror
Jordan Peele is one of my absolute favorite directors and I think his horror films are some of the cleverest and most thoughtful contributions to the horror genre in recent years. So when I saw his name on an anthology of short horror fiction, I knew I needed to pick it up. Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams, came out last month, right on the heels of another great horror anthology centering marginalized voices: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. Judging by the quality of tales in these two collections, this diversity of voices is definitely here to stay in the horror genre! Continue reading Review of Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror
Review of Never Whistle at Night—Indiginous Horror
From “wendigos” to “Indian burial grounds,” the folklore and tragic history of North America’s indigenous populations has frequently been mined for inspiration and twisted to suit the purposes of horror authors writing outside of their own cultures. In recent years, however, we’ve seen a real rise in the number of indigenous voices within the horror scene telling their own stories. A new collection of short horror stories celebrates this surge of Native American writers: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. This anthology, which contains twenty-six stories plus a foreword by Stephen Graham Jones, came out just last week, in plenty of time for spooky season. Continue reading Review of Never Whistle at Night—Indiginous Horror
Review of The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror
It’s perhaps one of the earliest forms of horror fiction: the local legends of monsters, dark magic, or cursed places that are told in whispers, passed down from one generation to the next in every society. But, as with most things in the Gothic, everything old is new again. With the success of films like The Witch and Midsommar, folk horror is definitely having a moment, and here to ride that wave is The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror, edited by Tori Bovalino, which came out in September. Continue reading Review of The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror
Review of An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales
Vampire stories were some of my first reading loves, and I still have a soft spot for them today. Which is why I can never turn down a new anthology of vampire tales—especially when it includes some of my favorite authors! An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales, edited by Cliff Biggers and Charles R. Rutledge, came out back in 2021 and I’ve been sitting on it for a while, waiting for the right moment to sink my teeth in. I’m quite happy it turned out to be my first finished read of 2023, as it makes a great start to my reading year. Continue reading Review of An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales
Review of Strange Relics—Haunted Archeology
There is an allure to the ruins of past civilizations, but perhaps some things are better left buried…. Archeologists Amara Thornton and Katy Soar explore this notion in a new collection, Strange Relics: Stories of Archeology and the Supernatural, 1895-1954, which came out from Handheld Press last month. Y’all know I love a themed anthology, and I’ve been particularly enjoying the collections of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century weird/horror/ghost stories from this publisher, which so far have also included Women’s Weird (volumes one and two), The Outcast and the Rite, and From the Abyss. If you’re a fan of ancient civilizations or the people who study them, this collection provides some fascinating insight into how the boom in archeology influenced our horror literature. Continue reading Review of Strange Relics—Haunted Archeology
Review of Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous
If you’ve been a long-time follower of this blog, you’ve probably noticed by now how much I love anthologies—especially anything edited by the inimitable Ellen Datlow. So of course I had to pick up her latest horror collection, Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, which came out back in June. If you love monsters, this book has quite the selection! Continue reading Review of Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous
Review of Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror
Horror has really been having a moment lately! This was part of the thought 
process of editor John F. D. Taff when he decided to compile the short story anthology that became Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror. This collection, which came out last month, was created in the spirit of the seminal 1980s horror anthology Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley, and is meant to do for our current moment of horror what Dark Forces did in the ’80s. Continue reading Review of Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror
Review of Vampires Never Get Old—Giving the Genre New Life
“Vampires are dead.” People have been saying this ever since the overwhelming popularity of the Twilight series led to an explosion of young adult paranormal fantasy in the mid-2000s that saturated the market. But as a life-long vampire fan, I’ve always felt that these denizens of the undead still have more to teach us. There is something universally appealing about the vampire that isn’t going away anytime soon, and there are still infinite new angles from which the topic can be approached. Instead of telling everyone that the genre has been done to death already, why not open it up to a diversity of fresh new voices that haven’t yet had the chance to tell their story? That’s exactly what Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker do in their new anthology Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite, which came out back in September. Continue reading Review of Vampires Never Get Old—Giving the Genre New Life