Fresh Blood: New Canadian Gothic Fiction

by Eric Henderson (Editor), Madeline Sonik (Editor)

Canadian Gothic? From the land of the polite and the national obsession with curling? You bet! Although there have been American and British collections in New Gothic writing, this is the first collection with Canadian writers only. The term "New Gothic" refers to tales told in the context of our modern world. These tales will often take characters, complacent in how their world works, and throw them a curve so things are not as they seem.

Genres: Horror

202 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1998

Reviews

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read several of these stories and all managed to develop a decent sense of dread and general unease whether the tale is dealing with paranormal elements or just flat out human evil.

I didn't care for "Cerberus" or the story that followed it "The Beautiful Children" can't really pinpoint the reason. They just didn't grab me, I guess. "These Are Ghost Stories" with its dreamlike style couldn't hold me long enough and I ended up skimming most of it. I'm sure I missed something good but my attention span is pretty pathetic. "The Last Ferry" kept me anxiously turning the pages wondering exactly where the protagonist was headed and for what reason. The ending threw me for a loop and haunted me in a way few stories do. "Letters" was another one I enjoyed. Was the letter writer simply mad or living a bizarre, surreal existence? Whatever the answer the story was a nice blend of bland realism and weirdness.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a grudging three stars. I found some of the stories incomprehensible, and others uninteresting, a few were good – good enough to get this book a three star rating. Some of the more decent stories include The Last Ferry, an abstract tale of a strange type of assisted suicide set on a pier, – it had some elements of a satire. Aspirations was a short, chilling story about a strange hitchhiker. Instructions for Navigating the Labyrinth tells the story of a new bride who finds the bodies of seven women in the basement where her husband told her never to go. It has an unexpected ending.. Torch was the story of genesis and development of an arsonist. Hounds was a scary little tale about a rural family and their strange dogs.

All of the stories were interesting, but none of them really stood out, and the other stories were very dull or completely incomprehensible. Three stars really is generous for this book