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THE BOROUGH PRESS Of the Flesh 18 Stories of Modern Horror.
Fear never dies…
These stories from eighteen master storytellers will curdle your blood, haunt your dreams and redefine terror.
An exploited child worker in the silver mines of Bolivia finds an ally – but at what cost? A young woman's workplace affair has terrifying repercussions when her lover's wife dies. A sailor's wife takes her communion with nature a little too far…
From a hungry young woman who is not what she seems, to a boy who has taken his mother's advice a little too seriously; from disfigured girls willing to pay any price to fit in, to an immigrant who cannot escape his tormentor; from a new home with a sinister secret, to the discovery that a long-dead parent’s corpse is perfectly preserved decades later; this collection plumbs the depths of the psyche and dredges up some very modern horrors.
These stories from eighteen master storytellers will curdle your blood, haunt your dreams and redefine terror.
An exploited child worker in the silver mines of Bolivia finds an ally – but at what cost? A young woman's workplace affair has terrifying repercussions when her lover's wife dies. A sailor's wife takes her communion with nature a little too far…
From a hungry young woman who is not what she seems, to a boy who has taken his mother's advice a little too seriously; from disfigured girls willing to pay any price to fit in, to an immigrant who cannot escape his tormentor; from a new home with a sinister secret, to the discovery that a long-dead parent’s corpse is perfectly preserved decades later; this collection plumbs the depths of the psyche and dredges up some very modern horrors.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2024
213 people are currently reading
6914 people want to read
About the author
Susan Barker
5 books336 followersSusan Barker (born 1978) is a British novelist. She has an English father and a Chinese-Malaysian mother and grew up in East London. She is the author of the novel Sayonara Bar, which Time magazine called "a cocktail of astringent cultural observations, genres stirred and shaken, subplots served with a twist" and The Orientalist and the Ghost, both published by Doubleday (UK) and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
Her third novel The Incarnations (Doubleday UK, July 2014) is about a taxi driver in contemporary Beijing and interwoven with tales from the Tang dynasty, the invasion of Genghis Khan, the Ming dynasty, the Opium War, and the Cultural Revolution. While writing The Incarnations she spent several years living in Beijing, researching modern and imperial China.
Her third novel The Incarnations (Doubleday UK, July 2014) is about a taxi driver in contemporary Beijing and interwoven with tales from the Tang dynasty, the invasion of Genghis Khan, the Ming dynasty, the Opium War, and the Cultural Revolution. While writing The Incarnations she spent several years living in Beijing, researching modern and imperial China.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
October 14, 2024
Listened to the audiobook and don't remeber what the stories I like the most was called or by who. But some I really enjoyed and found very impactfull but as often in a collection/anthology there where a few I didn't like as much
August 14, 2025
3.19✨
Fight, Flight, Freeze- 4.5✨
Flight 2212 - 3.3✨
The Fruiting Body - 3.8✨
Daisies -2.5✨
The Broccoli Eel- 2.8✨
Apples - 4✨
Waffle Thomas- 2✨
Shade-2✨
The Smiling African Uncle - 1.5✨
Rosheen -4.8✨
Carcinisation -5✨
Going Large -2.8✨
Bob-a-Job -2.5✨
Fairies - 3✨
Ghost Kitchen -3✨
The Old Lion - 2.5✨
Mouse - 2.5✨
SKETCHY -5✨
Fight, Flight, Freeze- 4.5✨
Flight 2212 - 3.3✨
The Fruiting Body - 3.8✨
Daisies -2.5✨
The Broccoli Eel- 2.8✨
Apples - 4✨
Waffle Thomas- 2✨
Shade-2✨
The Smiling African Uncle - 1.5✨
Rosheen -4.8✨
Carcinisation -5✨
Going Large -2.8✨
Bob-a-Job -2.5✨
Fairies - 3✨
Ghost Kitchen -3✨
The Old Lion - 2.5✨
Mouse - 2.5✨
SKETCHY -5✨
October 27, 2024
Of the Flesh is an extremely accessible collection of horror stories, which contains just about something for everybody.
The stories within cover a huge range of themes, from the opening story being a tale of creeping retribution, then on to themes such as dystopian worlds where people switch bodies and then on to what we would call more conventional horror. There is even a short graphic novel/comic within the varied pages.
The only drawback with this publication is that the quality can highly differ from story to story, this seems quite common when reading collections such as this, this alone is my reason for downgrading the rating from four to three stars.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read from cover to cover.
The stories within cover a huge range of themes, from the opening story being a tale of creeping retribution, then on to themes such as dystopian worlds where people switch bodies and then on to what we would call more conventional horror. There is even a short graphic novel/comic within the varied pages.
The only drawback with this publication is that the quality can highly differ from story to story, this seems quite common when reading collections such as this, this alone is my reason for downgrading the rating from four to three stars.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read from cover to cover.
November 26, 2025
A haunting collection of short stories.
A great anthology for those who enjoy stories that delve into the supernatural, macabre, or occult.
A great anthology for those who enjoy stories that delve into the supernatural, macabre, or occult.
August 21, 2024
Horror is not a genre I read regularly, so I didn't know what to expect when venturing into this collection. I really enjoyed reading through these stories. There is a good mix and something for everyone. Some of them are on the more creepy side, and some are a bit more macabre.
I did prefer some more than others, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy them all.
The stand-out stories for me were;
Apples by Emilia Hart
Carcinisation by Lucy Rose
Fairies by Lavie Tidhar
The Fruiting Body by Bridget Collins.
There were others I also enjoyed, too. It all depends on what type of horror you like. There are a few authors for me to also check out their other books.
Overall. It is a weird and occasionally bizarre collection of compelling and thought-provoking stories.
Thanks to The Borough Press for my ARC, my opinions are my own.
I did prefer some more than others, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy them all.
The stand-out stories for me were;
Apples by Emilia Hart
Carcinisation by Lucy Rose
Fairies by Lavie Tidhar
The Fruiting Body by Bridget Collins.
There were others I also enjoyed, too. It all depends on what type of horror you like. There are a few authors for me to also check out their other books.
Overall. It is a weird and occasionally bizarre collection of compelling and thought-provoking stories.
Thanks to The Borough Press for my ARC, my opinions are my own.
November 10, 2025
3.5/5
I listed all the short stories in this volume from most to least favorite and rated each story individually. There’s several stellar standouts that make this collection worth the read.
1. Carsonization, Lucy Rose 5.0/5
2. Apples, Emilia Hart 5.0/5
3. The Fruiting Body, Bridget Collins 4.5/5
4. The Broccoli Eel, Michel Faber 3.5/5
5. Going Large, Lionel Shriver 3.5/5
6. Mouse, Louisa Young 3.25/5
7. Waffle Thomas, Ainslie Hogarth 3.25/5
8. Shade, Robert Lautner 3.0/5
9. Flight 2212, J.K. Chukwu 3.0/5
10. Bubba Job- James Smythe 2.75/5
11. Fight, Flight, Freeze, Susan Barker 2.5/5
12. Roshine, Irenosen Okojie 2.5/5
13. Fairies, Lavie Tidhar 2.25/5
14. The Smiling African Uncle,
Adorah Nworah 2.25/5
15. Daisies, Mariana Enriquez 2.0/5
16. Ghost Kitchen, Francine Toon 2.0/5
17. The Old Line, Evie Wyld 2.0/5
I listed all the short stories in this volume from most to least favorite and rated each story individually. There’s several stellar standouts that make this collection worth the read.
1. Carsonization, Lucy Rose 5.0/5
2. Apples, Emilia Hart 5.0/5
3. The Fruiting Body, Bridget Collins 4.5/5
4. The Broccoli Eel, Michel Faber 3.5/5
5. Going Large, Lionel Shriver 3.5/5
6. Mouse, Louisa Young 3.25/5
7. Waffle Thomas, Ainslie Hogarth 3.25/5
8. Shade, Robert Lautner 3.0/5
9. Flight 2212, J.K. Chukwu 3.0/5
10. Bubba Job- James Smythe 2.75/5
11. Fight, Flight, Freeze, Susan Barker 2.5/5
12. Roshine, Irenosen Okojie 2.5/5
13. Fairies, Lavie Tidhar 2.25/5
14. The Smiling African Uncle,
Adorah Nworah 2.25/5
15. Daisies, Mariana Enriquez 2.0/5
16. Ghost Kitchen, Francine Toon 2.0/5
17. The Old Line, Evie Wyld 2.0/5
June 27, 2024
Of The Flesh is a remarkably consistent collection of horror short stories. It's difficult to maintain this standard across a multi-author collection, and I feel that the editor/s deserve a lot of credit here... except that they aren't named. What is with this trend? Anyway, I enjoyed the variety and diversity of styles here, including one graphic short from Lewis Hancox, 'Sketchy', which was one of my favourite contributions. In fact, it would be easier to tell you about the stories that didn't work for me than the ones that did, as there really were only a couple I didn't vibe with: Ainslie Hogarth's 'Waffle Thomas' was too experimental for my tastes, and Louisa Young's 'Mouse' a bit obvious. I already knew that I don't click with Irenosen Okojie's writing, so I wasn't surprised not to love 'Rosheen' - though it is more straightforwardly told than the bulk of the other short fiction I've read from her, which made it stronger for me. But that's it! And on the other hand, there are some real standouts here. Susan Barker's haunting 'Fight, Flight, Freeze', about a woman pursued across the globe by another woman she wronged, has made me even more excited about her forthcoming horror novel Old Soul. JK Chukwu's 'Flight 2212' packs such a big world into such a small space. Domestic horrors especially hit home: Bridget Collins's 'The Fruiting Body' and Evie Wyld's 'The Old Lion' were both intensely creepy, as was Emilia Hart's 'Apples', which both presented a beautiful moral dilemma and reminded me of the terrifying fruit in Chuck Wendig's
Black River Orchard.
It's so satisfying to turn to the next story in an anthology like this and be pretty confident it's going to be a banger, so bravo, Borough Press.
I received a free proof copy of this collection from the publisher for review.
I received a free proof copy of this collection from the publisher for review.
January 8, 2025
18 stories in a creepy modern horror mood written through an unsettling, grotesque and psychological unease premise; bit eerie and supernaturally related with mostly revolved around one’s personal terror, of body horror, on fear, familial or relationship distress as well societal and cultural tragics.
I enjoyed Apples (Emilia Hart) the most for its chilling and surreal feminist narrative of a newly divorced mom who moves to a new house with an apple tree on its garden, of which after consuming the apples would grant her an ability to hear the unsettling men’s thoughts. The Fruiting Body (Bridget Collins) spooked me with its gloomy run-down house backdrop and the gripping toxic relationship premise while Going Large (Lionel Shriver) was so entertainingly twisty with its fatphobia and exploration on one’s morality and fitness obsession. Loved both The Broccoli Eel (Michel Faber) and Fairies (Lavie Tidhar) for having a child POV that highlighted on broken families, of abuse, deaths and school bullying.
Few fusing in bizarre and psycho tweak or being too mystic and unhinged in execution like Fight, Flight, Freeze (Susan Barker), Daisies (Mariana Enriquez), Mouse (Louisa Young) and Sketchy (Lewis Hancox) also loved that unique horror element in Carcinisation (Lucy Rose) for its peculiar arc on a bond of a human and a crab as well Bob-A-Job (James Smythe) with its blend of corporate and tech intense.
Fairly enjoyable all in all for its diversed interpretation and observation on modern horror; nothing that jump scared to me but its sense of lingered mystery making it quite haunting and worth to read collection.
(review copy courtesy of TimesReads)
I enjoyed Apples (Emilia Hart) the most for its chilling and surreal feminist narrative of a newly divorced mom who moves to a new house with an apple tree on its garden, of which after consuming the apples would grant her an ability to hear the unsettling men’s thoughts. The Fruiting Body (Bridget Collins) spooked me with its gloomy run-down house backdrop and the gripping toxic relationship premise while Going Large (Lionel Shriver) was so entertainingly twisty with its fatphobia and exploration on one’s morality and fitness obsession. Loved both The Broccoli Eel (Michel Faber) and Fairies (Lavie Tidhar) for having a child POV that highlighted on broken families, of abuse, deaths and school bullying.
Few fusing in bizarre and psycho tweak or being too mystic and unhinged in execution like Fight, Flight, Freeze (Susan Barker), Daisies (Mariana Enriquez), Mouse (Louisa Young) and Sketchy (Lewis Hancox) also loved that unique horror element in Carcinisation (Lucy Rose) for its peculiar arc on a bond of a human and a crab as well Bob-A-Job (James Smythe) with its blend of corporate and tech intense.
Fairly enjoyable all in all for its diversed interpretation and observation on modern horror; nothing that jump scared to me but its sense of lingered mystery making it quite haunting and worth to read collection.
(review copy courtesy of TimesReads)
March 10, 2025
There really wasn't any story that stuck with as the next story started.. it was just a below average collection.
October 7, 2025
well... The horror storys are for all types and "tastes"! Different... This diversity made the "pack" interesting! For fans of the genre!
October 27, 2025
Like most anthologies it had some good stories and some bad. Overall I did like it enough
April 8, 2025
A Horror Anthology featuring the works of eighteen "master storytellers"
Really? "Master storytellers?" I don’t think we read the same book! And as for the horror part, I think "supernatural" would be a better term to describe these stories.
Like most anthologies, this was a mix of good and yawn.
Let’s start with the good:
'The Fruiting Body' by Bridget Collins
The highlight of this collection! It set out to explore two things - domestic violence and an unnerving supernatural force. It accomplished both!
The story was fast-paced, had a real emotional punch and a great story at its heart - exactly what a short story should be.
Other worthwhile reads: 'Fight, Flight, Freeze' by Susan Barker (my fear of being locked in a walk in-freezer has returned), 'Apples' by Emilia Hart, and 'BobAJob' by James Smythe (Catfish but darker).
The yawn:
And now what a short story should not be.
'Daisies' - Mariana Enríquez
I’m torn on this story. I both loved and hated it. But that ending… It wasn’t even an ending!
The story: a son must decide what to do after his mother’s corpse is exhumed and found intact.
The questions: Can it be explained by science? Is she a deity? A vampire? Is she stuck between life and death, there and not there? Should he let the world worship his mother’s body? What will our protagonist do?
Who knows? The author doesn’t spend much time pondering, never mind answering, these questions. The ending felt more like the mid-point of the story, the call to action for our protagonist, what should he do?
Other Stories that weren’t for me: 'The Old Lion' by Evie Wyld (great suspense, but I couldn’t have told you what the story was about even if you'd asked me a minute after I'd read it), 'Flight 2212' by J K. Chukwu, 'The Smiling African Uncle' by Adorah Nworah.
The stories were okay but nothing special.
All of the writers are good storytellers but I’d say only two or three were masters.
V.S. Pritchett once said that 'the short story tells us only one thing, and that, intensely'. Admittedly, I’ve never read any of his short stories but I think he was on to something when he said that. And they named a writing competition after him so he must be right.
If you’re looking for a supernatural (I refuse to call it horror) anthology 'Of The Flesh' is worth a read. But!!
If you’re looking for a horror anthology, check out, 'She’s Always Hungry' by Eliza Clark or one of the 'Hot Blood' anthologies, edited by Jeff Gelb. The standard in these anthologies is very high and each one has stories that feel unique, unnerving and unlike anything else you’ve ever read.
I did enjoy reading it (I read it in a day if that says anything) but it isn’t an anthology I’d recommend in a hurry.
Rating: 3/5.
Really? "Master storytellers?" I don’t think we read the same book! And as for the horror part, I think "supernatural" would be a better term to describe these stories.
Like most anthologies, this was a mix of good and yawn.
Let’s start with the good:
'The Fruiting Body' by Bridget Collins
The highlight of this collection! It set out to explore two things - domestic violence and an unnerving supernatural force. It accomplished both!
The story was fast-paced, had a real emotional punch and a great story at its heart - exactly what a short story should be.
Other worthwhile reads: 'Fight, Flight, Freeze' by Susan Barker (my fear of being locked in a walk in-freezer has returned), 'Apples' by Emilia Hart, and 'BobAJob' by James Smythe (Catfish but darker).
The yawn:
And now what a short story should not be.
'Daisies' - Mariana Enríquez
I’m torn on this story. I both loved and hated it. But that ending… It wasn’t even an ending!
The story: a son must decide what to do after his mother’s corpse is exhumed and found intact.
The questions: Can it be explained by science? Is she a deity? A vampire? Is she stuck between life and death, there and not there? Should he let the world worship his mother’s body? What will our protagonist do?
Who knows? The author doesn’t spend much time pondering, never mind answering, these questions. The ending felt more like the mid-point of the story, the call to action for our protagonist, what should he do?
Other Stories that weren’t for me: 'The Old Lion' by Evie Wyld (great suspense, but I couldn’t have told you what the story was about even if you'd asked me a minute after I'd read it), 'Flight 2212' by J K. Chukwu, 'The Smiling African Uncle' by Adorah Nworah.
The stories were okay but nothing special.
All of the writers are good storytellers but I’d say only two or three were masters.
V.S. Pritchett once said that 'the short story tells us only one thing, and that, intensely'. Admittedly, I’ve never read any of his short stories but I think he was on to something when he said that. And they named a writing competition after him so he must be right.
If you’re looking for a supernatural (I refuse to call it horror) anthology 'Of The Flesh' is worth a read. But!!
If you’re looking for a horror anthology, check out, 'She’s Always Hungry' by Eliza Clark or one of the 'Hot Blood' anthologies, edited by Jeff Gelb. The standard in these anthologies is very high and each one has stories that feel unique, unnerving and unlike anything else you’ve ever read.
I did enjoy reading it (I read it in a day if that says anything) but it isn’t an anthology I’d recommend in a hurry.
Rating: 3/5.
October 26, 2025
As with any collection of stories, it’s almost impossible to fairly rate it as a collective. So I’m going to do mini reviews of each book below. May do a longer more in depth one at a later date.
Fight, Flight, Freeze: Can’t relate with these characters and everyone is just horrible. 2.5/5.0
Flight 2212: A hunz 💅🏼horror. 3.0/5.0
The Fruiting Body: A very uncomfortable story about mould and mildew rotting a home from the inside. 3.5/5.0
Daisies: Dysfunctional and controlling family. 2.0/5.0
The Broccoli Eel: A story of an abusive relationship and a child caught in the middle, who has an Eel residing in his belly - who has a penchant for broccoli. 3.0/5.0
Sketchy: A comic book style story. Loved this so much. The ending was chef’s kiss. 4.5/5.0
Apples: The only thing that kept sticking in my brain was the incorrect reference to IKEA not helping you bring boxes inside when they deliver. 4.0/5.0
Waffle Thomas: Waffle is right. 3.0/5.0
Shade: It felt unnecessarily complicated and randomly mixed a few things together that didn’t seem to mesh that great. 2.0/5.0
The Smiley African Uncle: Horribly uncomfortable but sadly all the more real feeling in today’s political climate. 3.0/5.0
Rosheen: A smarter more supernatural story than some others, but not a bad ending at all. 4.0/5.0
Carcinisation: Yo what the fuck. Crabs. Marriage. This one is my fave. But also I hate it? 5.0/5.0
Going Large: Another uncomfortable flight story. Essentially shallow Hal. 3.0/5.0
Bob-a-job: A surreal, black mirror esque story of consumption in modern society and the morals of having too much greed. 3.0/5.0
Fairies: A child’s perspective of getting bullied and the world seemingly being against you. Her parents are a bit shit let’s be honest. 2.5/5.0
Ghost Kitchen: This was all over the place and the ending just felt utterly thrown in out of nowhere. 1.5/5.0
The Old Lion: Absolutely no clue what was happening here. Either it went over my head or…just wasn’t good. 1.0/5.0
Mouse: A story of resentment in a marriage where one of the couple is overly reliant on the other. Also mice. 4.0/5.0
Fight, Flight, Freeze: Can’t relate with these characters and everyone is just horrible. 2.5/5.0
Flight 2212: A hunz 💅🏼horror. 3.0/5.0
The Fruiting Body: A very uncomfortable story about mould and mildew rotting a home from the inside. 3.5/5.0
Daisies: Dysfunctional and controlling family. 2.0/5.0
The Broccoli Eel: A story of an abusive relationship and a child caught in the middle, who has an Eel residing in his belly - who has a penchant for broccoli. 3.0/5.0
Sketchy: A comic book style story. Loved this so much. The ending was chef’s kiss. 4.5/5.0
Apples: The only thing that kept sticking in my brain was the incorrect reference to IKEA not helping you bring boxes inside when they deliver. 4.0/5.0
Waffle Thomas: Waffle is right. 3.0/5.0
Shade: It felt unnecessarily complicated and randomly mixed a few things together that didn’t seem to mesh that great. 2.0/5.0
The Smiley African Uncle: Horribly uncomfortable but sadly all the more real feeling in today’s political climate. 3.0/5.0
Rosheen: A smarter more supernatural story than some others, but not a bad ending at all. 4.0/5.0
Carcinisation: Yo what the fuck. Crabs. Marriage. This one is my fave. But also I hate it? 5.0/5.0
Going Large: Another uncomfortable flight story. Essentially shallow Hal. 3.0/5.0
Bob-a-job: A surreal, black mirror esque story of consumption in modern society and the morals of having too much greed. 3.0/5.0
Fairies: A child’s perspective of getting bullied and the world seemingly being against you. Her parents are a bit shit let’s be honest. 2.5/5.0
Ghost Kitchen: This was all over the place and the ending just felt utterly thrown in out of nowhere. 1.5/5.0
The Old Lion: Absolutely no clue what was happening here. Either it went over my head or…just wasn’t good. 1.0/5.0
Mouse: A story of resentment in a marriage where one of the couple is overly reliant on the other. Also mice. 4.0/5.0
October 27, 2024
Overall rating: 3/5 stars
Although (horror) anthologies aren’t usually my favourite format, with a star-cast like this and a cover to match, there was no way I was going to pass it up. There were hits and misses, as to be expected with a collection, but I really loved the selection of fruit this cornucopia of human horrors had to offer.
Standout works for me were by Susan Barker (I might need to keep an eye on her 2025 release Old Soul), Lucy Rose (her 2025 debut The Lamb was already on my list), Michel Faber (obviously I was going to love this authors work), and Louisa Young.
Individual ratings and synopses below.
1. Susan Barker – Fight, Flight, Freeze
5/5 stars. A melancholically tale drenched in guilt, grief and terror about a woman who finds herself haunted by the distorted, cancer-ravaged ghost of her lovers wife. This was amazing! Wonderful imagery and a surprisingly layered tale for such a short one on guilt, caregiving and adultery.
2. J K Chukwu - Flight 2212
2/5. In a world where no one has fingers and toes but limbs that end in bone, a woman flies abroad for risky surgery to have digits fitted. I get what it was going for with its messaging on class- and racial-disparity, but I the execution was a bit clunky and forced…
3. The Fruiting Body - Bridget Collins
4/5. A pervasive fungal rot drives a wedge between a young couples, soon after they move into their new fixer-upper-house. You know I love a domestic-rot metaphor in horror…
4. Mariana Enríquez – Daisies
3/5. A son must rebury his mother only to find out his mother’s remains are “incorruptible” (haven’t decayed even though years have passed). His family members react in different ways. Bit forgettable, could’ve done more with the theme.
5. Michel Faber - The Broccoli Eel
5/5. This one is going to divide readers: visceral and disturbing, but I loved it for what it did. A young boy grows up in an abusive household (partner violence towards each other, in front of the child). He channels his trauma into believing in a story his mom used to scare him about an eel living within his insides. Things turn gut-churning…
6. Emilia Hart – Apples
2/5. Eating the fruit of an apple tree gives a mother the ability to hear the thoughts of men around her. Things escalate when her daughter brings her new boyfriend home.
I’m personally just over the “all-men-are-evil”-subgenre of horror…
7. Ainslie Hogarth- Waffle Thomas
3/5. 2 strangers meet in the woods and share campfire-stories about an urban legend names Waffle Thomas: a shapeshifting serial killer who is said to roam these camping-grounds.
A fun take on the saying “what are the odds that 2 serial killers meet”.
8. Robert Lautner – Shade
3.5/5. An 11-year old child-laborer in a Bolivian mine erects an underground alter to the devil that rules the mines. Very atmospheric, strangely cozy, but the ending felt a bit underwhelming.
9. Adorah Nworah - The Smiling African Uncle
1/5. Not so much horror-fiction as a sad reality of true-to-life racism. I feel bad for rating it low, but it lacked the originality and magical realism-lens of the other stories.
10. Irenosen Okojie – Rosheen
1/5 stars. See above, only more forgettable…
11. Lucy Rose – Carcinization
4/5. A fishermen’s wife’s strange entanglement with one of the crustations her husband dredges up from the deep one day. This one was very effective for me. An intense exploration of bodily autonomy and ownership with a maritime twist.
12. Lionel Shriver - Going Large
1/5. A take on the new and emerging genre of “fatfobia-horror” we’ve seen in feminist fiction in recent years, by Lionel Shriver. I’m not going to lie: I don’t like this subgenre, I don’t like this author and I especially don’t like the combination of the two.
13. James Smythe- BobAJob
4/5. A very strange one that somehow worked for me, about a man who starts a new job at a sort of “online dating service”, posing as various women online for costumers. Soon, he and his coworkers start to notice changes in themselves too… A good mix of corporate-horror, e-horror and something else I won’t spoil…
14. Lavie Tidhar – Fairies
2/5. A young girl fears fairies only she can see. Many people mention this as one of their favourites, but didn’t really do anything for me.
15. Francine Toon - Ghost Kitchen
4/5. A displaced woman orders takeaway. This didn’t go for the “gross-out” horror I was expecting it to based on the premise, but took a more psychological turn. All I want to say is: Francine Toon knows how to reflect the subtle dread in every-day life…
16. Evie Wyld – The Old Lion
1/5. A woman takes a trip home to visit her widowed father. Meanwhile girls and animals are going missing. Absolutely 0 emotional reaction from me.
17. Louisa Young – Mouse
5/5. A woman, caring for her sick and ungrateful husband in a high-rise flat, discovers she has an unwelcome house guest. This one got under my skin a bit; well written and effective in its metaphor.
Although (horror) anthologies aren’t usually my favourite format, with a star-cast like this and a cover to match, there was no way I was going to pass it up. There were hits and misses, as to be expected with a collection, but I really loved the selection of fruit this cornucopia of human horrors had to offer.
Standout works for me were by Susan Barker (I might need to keep an eye on her 2025 release Old Soul), Lucy Rose (her 2025 debut The Lamb was already on my list), Michel Faber (obviously I was going to love this authors work), and Louisa Young.
Individual ratings and synopses below.
1. Susan Barker – Fight, Flight, Freeze
5/5 stars. A melancholically tale drenched in guilt, grief and terror about a woman who finds herself haunted by the distorted, cancer-ravaged ghost of her lovers wife. This was amazing! Wonderful imagery and a surprisingly layered tale for such a short one on guilt, caregiving and adultery.
2. J K Chukwu - Flight 2212
2/5. In a world where no one has fingers and toes but limbs that end in bone, a woman flies abroad for risky surgery to have digits fitted. I get what it was going for with its messaging on class- and racial-disparity, but I the execution was a bit clunky and forced…
3. The Fruiting Body - Bridget Collins
4/5. A pervasive fungal rot drives a wedge between a young couples, soon after they move into their new fixer-upper-house. You know I love a domestic-rot metaphor in horror…
4. Mariana Enríquez – Daisies
3/5. A son must rebury his mother only to find out his mother’s remains are “incorruptible” (haven’t decayed even though years have passed). His family members react in different ways. Bit forgettable, could’ve done more with the theme.
5. Michel Faber - The Broccoli Eel
5/5. This one is going to divide readers: visceral and disturbing, but I loved it for what it did. A young boy grows up in an abusive household (partner violence towards each other, in front of the child). He channels his trauma into believing in a story his mom used to scare him about an eel living within his insides. Things turn gut-churning…
6. Emilia Hart – Apples
2/5. Eating the fruit of an apple tree gives a mother the ability to hear the thoughts of men around her. Things escalate when her daughter brings her new boyfriend home.
I’m personally just over the “all-men-are-evil”-subgenre of horror…
7. Ainslie Hogarth- Waffle Thomas
3/5. 2 strangers meet in the woods and share campfire-stories about an urban legend names Waffle Thomas: a shapeshifting serial killer who is said to roam these camping-grounds.
A fun take on the saying “what are the odds that 2 serial killers meet”.
8. Robert Lautner – Shade
3.5/5. An 11-year old child-laborer in a Bolivian mine erects an underground alter to the devil that rules the mines. Very atmospheric, strangely cozy, but the ending felt a bit underwhelming.
9. Adorah Nworah - The Smiling African Uncle
1/5. Not so much horror-fiction as a sad reality of true-to-life racism. I feel bad for rating it low, but it lacked the originality and magical realism-lens of the other stories.
10. Irenosen Okojie – Rosheen
1/5 stars. See above, only more forgettable…
11. Lucy Rose – Carcinization
4/5. A fishermen’s wife’s strange entanglement with one of the crustations her husband dredges up from the deep one day. This one was very effective for me. An intense exploration of bodily autonomy and ownership with a maritime twist.
12. Lionel Shriver - Going Large
1/5. A take on the new and emerging genre of “fatfobia-horror” we’ve seen in feminist fiction in recent years, by Lionel Shriver. I’m not going to lie: I don’t like this subgenre, I don’t like this author and I especially don’t like the combination of the two.
13. James Smythe- BobAJob
4/5. A very strange one that somehow worked for me, about a man who starts a new job at a sort of “online dating service”, posing as various women online for costumers. Soon, he and his coworkers start to notice changes in themselves too… A good mix of corporate-horror, e-horror and something else I won’t spoil…
14. Lavie Tidhar – Fairies
2/5. A young girl fears fairies only she can see. Many people mention this as one of their favourites, but didn’t really do anything for me.
15. Francine Toon - Ghost Kitchen
4/5. A displaced woman orders takeaway. This didn’t go for the “gross-out” horror I was expecting it to based on the premise, but took a more psychological turn. All I want to say is: Francine Toon knows how to reflect the subtle dread in every-day life…
16. Evie Wyld – The Old Lion
1/5. A woman takes a trip home to visit her widowed father. Meanwhile girls and animals are going missing. Absolutely 0 emotional reaction from me.
17. Louisa Young – Mouse
5/5. A woman, caring for her sick and ungrateful husband in a high-rise flat, discovers she has an unwelcome house guest. This one got under my skin a bit; well written and effective in its metaphor.
Read
May 30, 2025A few good stories but overall wasn’t super impressed by this collection. (I’m usually not when it comes to short stories)
February 1, 2025
How do you define the term horror? Is it only something of the unknown, unseen and can't be touched? Or is it a strong feeling of disgust and terror that you've witnessed that can send tremors through your whole body?
This collection of short stories at first to me was marketed as such; the kinds of horror of the supernatural - the fear of the unknown. And when I went into some of these stories, it felt lacking at first, mostly because (1) I think I'm pretty desensitised, so there's a certain level of disgust that will be needed for me to actually 'feel' something and (2) I went in this book with the wrong mindset.
But when I started to ask myself back again, what does the horror entail, and I look back at the title of the collection and only then it clicked to me. These stories are not just a collection of supernatural beings coming to haunt us. Its a collection of terror, inflicted by various entities - be it a person, a community or even your own self - of the horrors that one human can face. And it is mostly resulted not by supernatural beings, but by humans themselves.
Not to say that all of the stories here fit my fancy. Some were really disappointing at best, mostly I feel is to act as fillers to just fill in the curation. With authors that had made a name for themselves like Mariana Enriquez and Bridget Collins their stories were spectacular, and if not , lived up to their name. And I loved that I have found new authors - POC at that - to explore. Its a mix that might not go with everyone, but for me, as a collective, it fits the title of the book.
The stories range from the ghost of the wife of the guy you've cheated on coming on to you for vengeance, to body horror, slavery, lore, abuse of women and even racism. They've also included one graphic short story in here, Sketchy (Lewis Hancox) which questions how humans can enact acts of terror to someone but when inflicted back to them, its frowned upon. This one in particular was one that I loved very much. Other stories like Daisies (Mariana Enriquez) , The Fruiting Body (Bridget Collins) , Apples (Emilia Hart) , The Smiling African Uncle (Adorah Nworah) and Carcinisation (Lucy Rose) was among the stories that simply checked and ticked every aspect that I love in a story. The mix of realism with body horror and just the whole story in itself makes them such memorable ones.
Others like Mouse (Louisa Young), Waffle Thomas (Ainslie Hogarth) and Bob-a-Job (James Smythe) are some that I would love if its given a slight more few pages, then the story would be whole.
If you're looking for a collection to try out, especially with authors that you're not too familiar with, try this one out. I would say, its best suited for those who wants to venture into the 'weird-unhinged-books' but didn't want for it to be too hardcore, then this book is a perfect entry and start for you.
4🌟 overall!
Thank you to Times Reads for the copy :)
This collection of short stories at first to me was marketed as such; the kinds of horror of the supernatural - the fear of the unknown. And when I went into some of these stories, it felt lacking at first, mostly because (1) I think I'm pretty desensitised, so there's a certain level of disgust that will be needed for me to actually 'feel' something and (2) I went in this book with the wrong mindset.
But when I started to ask myself back again, what does the horror entail, and I look back at the title of the collection and only then it clicked to me. These stories are not just a collection of supernatural beings coming to haunt us. Its a collection of terror, inflicted by various entities - be it a person, a community or even your own self - of the horrors that one human can face. And it is mostly resulted not by supernatural beings, but by humans themselves.
Not to say that all of the stories here fit my fancy. Some were really disappointing at best, mostly I feel is to act as fillers to just fill in the curation. With authors that had made a name for themselves like Mariana Enriquez and Bridget Collins their stories were spectacular, and if not , lived up to their name. And I loved that I have found new authors - POC at that - to explore. Its a mix that might not go with everyone, but for me, as a collective, it fits the title of the book.
The stories range from the ghost of the wife of the guy you've cheated on coming on to you for vengeance, to body horror, slavery, lore, abuse of women and even racism. They've also included one graphic short story in here, Sketchy (Lewis Hancox) which questions how humans can enact acts of terror to someone but when inflicted back to them, its frowned upon. This one in particular was one that I loved very much. Other stories like Daisies (Mariana Enriquez) , The Fruiting Body (Bridget Collins) , Apples (Emilia Hart) , The Smiling African Uncle (Adorah Nworah) and Carcinisation (Lucy Rose) was among the stories that simply checked and ticked every aspect that I love in a story. The mix of realism with body horror and just the whole story in itself makes them such memorable ones.
Others like Mouse (Louisa Young), Waffle Thomas (Ainslie Hogarth) and Bob-a-Job (James Smythe) are some that I would love if its given a slight more few pages, then the story would be whole.
If you're looking for a collection to try out, especially with authors that you're not too familiar with, try this one out. I would say, its best suited for those who wants to venture into the 'weird-unhinged-books' but didn't want for it to be too hardcore, then this book is a perfect entry and start for you.
4🌟 overall!
Thank you to Times Reads for the copy :)
October 26, 2024
This is a really easy book to read. 18 short stories and one of them is a comic style story at the end.
It was a really mixed bag of stories. There were some stories that I found I couldn't connect with (Apples, Waffle Thomas) and then some stories really had me hooked (The fruiting body, flight 2212) and some were just super bizarre (The Broccoli eel)
I'm really glad I got the opportunity to read this as now I would like to venture out and explore some of the authors I've discovered.
Really enjoyed this
Thanks Netgally and Harper Collins for my copy
It was a really mixed bag of stories. There were some stories that I found I couldn't connect with (Apples, Waffle Thomas) and then some stories really had me hooked (The fruiting body, flight 2212) and some were just super bizarre (The Broccoli eel)
I'm really glad I got the opportunity to read this as now I would like to venture out and explore some of the authors I've discovered.
Really enjoyed this
Thanks Netgally and Harper Collins for my copy
October 25, 2025
I received an ARC from netgalley in *checks* 2024, and then I didn't get around to reading it. until now! I borrowed a copy from the library, though, so I read the final published edition. Nevertheless: thank you to netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.
18 short stories of horror centering around the theme of the body or the flesh. Many of them very good, bite sized pieces of horror, like a perfect moody snack on a foggy October commute. And then I'm sorry to say but not all succeed. Some have written fantastic horror stories but where I struggle to see how the theme comes in. Some have written great stories but maybe they should be in a different anthology. Maybe I'm missing a foreword from the editor? (am I too much of an academic to be expecting a foreword from the editor discussing briefly each text in the anthology?)
Having been involved in anthology making there is one cardinal rule I believe anthologies should follow, which is: best story at the front, second best at the back, third best in the middle, and the rest evenly dispersed throughout. I think this anthology more or less suceeeded on that front (depending on how you feel about comics, as the last story in this anthology is a comic), except the anthology is a bit... frontloaded with good stuff. YMMV of course.
anyway, 18 short stories, my opinions on each below.
Fight, Flight, Freeze by Susan Barker
this set the bar high for the rest of the anthology - chilling. I love a good asshole protagonist and how it was slowly revealed just what she did to deserve her haunting (spoiler: had an affair with a colleague whose wife was dying of cancer, and kept him from her when she was actively dying, the dead wife then coming back to haunt her), and yet I couldn't help but cheer when at the (ambiguous end) she fought back, perhaps successfully. this is what horror should be like, in my opinion: deeply personal.
Flight 2212 by J K Chukwu
incredible. I almost wish this were longer because I want to know more about the world this takes place in, but no - this format, this length, is perfect to tell the story it is actually telling. This was horrifying on multiple levels - the personal, the protagonist being pressured into undergoing severe body modification surgeries to align to the mainstream (oppressive) culture despite the serious risks of complications (incl. death), and the systemic. this isn't a black opression *allegory* so much as existing systemic issues writ large: this is how black people are expected to behave and change themselves to fit into a white culture where white aestethic norms are the standards of beauty. the truly horrifying part in this story was the rich black woman who'd bought the most expensive version of the surgery, the one that wasn't supposed to fail on account of the cost, but who was literally rotting apart and dying while using her last breaths to proclaim how happy she was she'd gotten the surgery, how perfect it was - how she'd completely succumbed to the system and was now dying for it, horrifically. incredible.
The Fruiting Body by Bridget Collins
this one blends the horror of an abusive gaslighting husband with the horror of creeping mould infection. I half expected this story to end with the protagonist giving birth to a mass of black mould, but somehow it's worse: we get the sense that the mould has become symbiotic with her. and yet, it's a kind of freedom? her husband tried to kill her, she defended herself, and the mould might have helped? she might be grateful? accepting? ready to give in to the mould and her new reality as (possibly, still) be carrying a mould baby? chilling.
Daisies by Mariana Enríques translated by Megan McDowell
this one I don't get what is doing in this anthology. the protagonist's mother, who died 30 years previous when he was a child, has to be moved from her spot in the cemetary for Money Reasons, and it turns out the body has mummified. the community is religious catholic and instantly there are rumours she's a saint. I'm struggling to see the horror - unless maybe it is the horror of disinterring people for financial reasons, because plots can expire? I can get that. maybe I am just too atheist to get this, I don't know. I found the family dynamics (and dysfunctions?) compelling, but the story seemed to be building towards something, and then ended without a resolution. this felt more like an excerpt from a novel than a complete short story.
The Broccoli Eel by Michael Faber
child POV, which I was a bit hmm about, but it really worked here. this could have been a thematic sequel to The Fruiting Body - abusive relationship, but seen from the child's eyes. we don't know for sure if the 'car accident' was an accident or murder, we don't know if the mother really is in hospital or if she's dead, and the father just lied about it, we don't get a real sense of how much time has passed since the accident and the end of the story - days? weeks? months? could the mother be still in hospital, about to wake up from a coma or something to find out that her child ripped his father's throat out with his teeth?
Apples by Emilia Hart
this had me bump the author's novel Weyward up my TBR. I loved this, not from a horror perspective, but because this was a story about a middle aged woman who divorced her husband because he was cheating on her, and who is trying to start over - here, by moving into the house she bought for the settlement money and getting furniture delivered and going to local grocery stores and getting to know her new neighbourhood...and then discovering she can hear men's thoughts. because she ate apples from a mysterious tree in her new garden. it comes across quite "all men are disgusting evil jerks" and "only women are good people" which is a dichotomy I am not a fan of - it's very TERF-y - but the reason this story still works for me is how she gave her daughter apples too, and helped her daughter cover up the murder of her murderous (serial killer) boyfriend, and it's implied that the woman who owned the house before her was herself a serial killer of men. it's implied that the protagonist steps into those shoes and becomes the next serial killer of men. that's the kind of unhinged behaviour I'd like to see and celebrate in (fictional) women.
Waffle Thomas by Ainslie Hogarth
another unhinged female protagonist! This one delighted me even though I spent probably a solid half of it puzzled: she divorced her husband because he was kind? she went on a find yourself walk because she willingly divorced her husband because he was a good man??? oh she murdered her husband because he was good and kind?? now this is getting interesting... truly unhinged behaviour. the waffle thomas myth came kind of out of nowhere but I wonder if this woman was just unhinged enough she was hallucinating that entire part - so nothing supernatural at play - but honestly it doesn't matter either way, whether she gives in to her hallucination at the end or gives in to the ghost killer...same difference.
Shade by Robert Lautner
I am here for devil shrines and devil protection. I'm struggling to say more about it because, yeah, that's what it boils down to, but also this is a story about an exploited mining community where children are kidnapped to work as slaves or child soldiers or drug mules or whatnot, in a part of the world where nobody outside the community (and even people inside the community - like the traffickers) care. this is a story about the people who mine the metals and minerals that go into our first world comforts. and they pray to devil incarnations, and sometimes, the devil answers.
The Smiling African Uncle by Adorah Nworah
the moment this turned from a generic horrible read to making me want to throw up was when it was revealed, at the end, that this was a horrible 'how I met your mother' type story. the whole time, you think you're reading a terrible story about how (african, non white) immigrants are terrorised by local white people, you think it's going to end badly for the uncle, that he's going to be killed or deported, despite his efforts to keep up the friendly, smiling facade. and then you realise the narrator isn't a brother or sister of this uncle, it's the white woman who was terrorising him, that she, an immigration officer with the power to deport him, practically coerced him into marriage, that she psycopathically wanted to study him like an object, that he's been living his whole adult life up until that point (implied at least a decade, if not more) with this woman wearing a neverending fake smile in order to stay in the country. and she knows it. she revels in it. I want to kill her and set him free.
Rosheen by Irenosen Okojie
I've read this story before in another anthology (Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold) but I have to admit I had ZERO memory of it and only realised because I recognised the author name and thought 'oh, I've read another story by her' and when I went to check out that review - realised it's the same story. well, my opionion hasn't changed much - it's not my favourite story in this anthology either - but maybe this story worked better in the other anthology. not that this wasn't a horror story.
Carcinisation by Lucy Rose
this had a folklore retelling flavour to it, and I was half expecting to find out the wife was a selkie. I don't think she was, I think she was a perfectly normal human, except for being an unhinged woman when it comes down to it. also she changed into a crab after taking a creature-wife (kind of eating a crab). that's not really a spoiler, the clue is in the title. I suppose if one thinks body horror is, well, horror, the carcinisation is the horror part, but for me it was. well. the long marriage where the husband thinks she's getting too old and ugly, as if he is not also getting old and ugly - and the wife responds by changing herself. and then because she still loves him so much, there's a cannibalistic vibe to it, like she ate the crab and changed, she eats the husband and they melt together. makes me shudder.
Going Large by Lionel Shriver
No. just no. This isn't a horror story. this is just plain fatphobia. The disgusting and horrible thing about this story is that it exists in the first place - and the inclusion of this story in this anthology is why I'm only giving it 4 stars. if this weren't a library copy I would have cut out this section and burnt it. or stuffed it in an envelope and sent it to the publisher saying 'take this vile drivel back and give me back the 1/18th of the money I paid for this book.
I don't want to waste too much of my energy on this worthless pile of shit so I'll make this short. this story is about a thin stuck up woman who is rude to a fat woman on a plane (while also thinking all sorts of mean fatphobic things about her) and following this encounter, the thin stuck up woman starts gaining weight. she becomes obese. the less she eats the fatter she gets. she becomes gross and disgusting, a sweaty greasy blob of a slow and fat person - literally leaving trails of grease everywhere. she kind of (not really) stops seeing fatness as a personal failure. then decides that she's fat and disgusting anyway, she may as well live up to the stereotype, and starts gorging herself on food. and then, the more she eats, the more weight she loses, until she's back to her normal size. (with no hint of loose skin or anything? she's just back to her normal skinny self?) and then, she goes on another trip, encounters another fat woman on the plane, and this time she's not rude, she's kind to the fat woman.
I'm sorry I'm not sorry, but fuck all the way off a cliff. fatness is not a punishment for being a shitty person, and thinness is not a reward for unlearning that shittiness. fatness is not inherently gross. you should all fucking do better.
Bob-a-Job by James Smythe
I am disturbed and intrigued? there is absolutely some horrifying shit going on here with the protagonist and other people in his situation being literally forcibly changed into other people, but what I want to interrogate is the system around it - private corporations? running some kind of debt collection business that somehow deems it profitable to include layers of catfishing, the expense of housing and feeding (soylent green?) to people, kidnap the originals (and take them where?) and put the copies in their place....all to recover debts? like yes, I know debt collection can be inhuman to the point of taking the shirt off your back, but this? what on earth
Fairies by Lavie Tidhar
child POV. this child is being bullied at school and not being listened to by the authority figures (parents and teachers) in their life. I know exactly how that feels. that situation where a bully made up something and gave the protagonist the blame? happened to me all the fucking time, and the fury and powerlessness the protagonist felt when the adults refused to believe her because she was a 'troublemaker' anyway - wow, fuck all that. I did not need to be punched in the gut like that. all that to say, I wish *I* had had fairies doing my dirty work for me when that was me. I could have! I knew where the fairies lived! but I was, perhaps unfortunately, all too aware of their capricious nature and didn't dare. and the horror in this story - besides the child's situation - is exactly that: you can't control the fairies. they are capricious. and vicious. and you don't know what they'll take in payment if they decide your meager gifts aren't enough.
Ghost Kitchen by Francine Toon
I don't think I liked this story. and it's not because it wasn't well written or anything like that, I'm just not a fan of "werewolf" type stories where the protagonist doesn't know they're a werewolf - the monster in this story is unspecified. I'm also not a fan of rich people who think they're quirky because they have green hair and are keeping the original Victorian tiles in their recently purchased London home. what I would like to know more about is the fictional Scottish island (Haar - a Scottish word for fog, not a real place) the protagonist is from, the family lore (hinted at here), and what that means in the local community.
The Old Lion by Evie Wyld
I'm really sorry but I am struggling to say anything other about this story than 'okay'. It was fine. missing girls and missing animals all turning up dead, or rather, only their spines and maybe a few other body parts, in the hedges - sure, that's horrible. the kind of sort of hint at the end that maybe the protagonist's dad is responsible? okay. I guess.
Mouse by Louisa Young
no. this is up there with the fatphobia story - I cannot with stories where the protagonist is resentful of taking care of a disabled person (in this case her husband), fantasising about the various diseases he could be infected with from the mouse that turns up, and then straight up kills him at the end? fuck off. I don't care if he's a dick. divorce him then. leave his ass. maybe this is supposed to be the horror, but knowing how much neglect and abuse (and murder!!) disabled people face from their caregivers makes it very difficult for me to see this is anything else but - I mean, if you want to make a statement? you need to do more than just regurgitate the existing attitudes 1:1. to put it bluntly, other authors represented in this collection did it better: J K Chukwu, Adorah Nworah
Sketchy by Lewis Hancox
a surprise comic! I like a story that is uniquely suited to its medium, and this is that. the protagonist draws and makes things happen through drawing (or unhappen through erasing the drawing). That's a story that can be told through words, of course, but the visual of it on page is delightful. what I loved about this is the implication that the protagonist might never have been a real person, but conjured from her mother's drawing - how else can she erase herself from existence by erasing a drawing her mother had made of her? fascinating stuff.
18 short stories of horror centering around the theme of the body or the flesh. Many of them very good, bite sized pieces of horror, like a perfect moody snack on a foggy October commute. And then I'm sorry to say but not all succeed. Some have written fantastic horror stories but where I struggle to see how the theme comes in. Some have written great stories but maybe they should be in a different anthology. Maybe I'm missing a foreword from the editor? (am I too much of an academic to be expecting a foreword from the editor discussing briefly each text in the anthology?)
Having been involved in anthology making there is one cardinal rule I believe anthologies should follow, which is: best story at the front, second best at the back, third best in the middle, and the rest evenly dispersed throughout. I think this anthology more or less suceeeded on that front (depending on how you feel about comics, as the last story in this anthology is a comic), except the anthology is a bit... frontloaded with good stuff. YMMV of course.
anyway, 18 short stories, my opinions on each below.
Fight, Flight, Freeze by Susan Barker
this set the bar high for the rest of the anthology - chilling. I love a good asshole protagonist and how it was slowly revealed just what she did to deserve her haunting (spoiler: had an affair with a colleague whose wife was dying of cancer, and kept him from her when she was actively dying, the dead wife then coming back to haunt her), and yet I couldn't help but cheer when at the (ambiguous end) she fought back, perhaps successfully. this is what horror should be like, in my opinion: deeply personal.
Flight 2212 by J K Chukwu
incredible. I almost wish this were longer because I want to know more about the world this takes place in, but no - this format, this length, is perfect to tell the story it is actually telling. This was horrifying on multiple levels - the personal, the protagonist being pressured into undergoing severe body modification surgeries to align to the mainstream (oppressive) culture despite the serious risks of complications (incl. death), and the systemic. this isn't a black opression *allegory* so much as existing systemic issues writ large: this is how black people are expected to behave and change themselves to fit into a white culture where white aestethic norms are the standards of beauty. the truly horrifying part in this story was the rich black woman who'd bought the most expensive version of the surgery, the one that wasn't supposed to fail on account of the cost, but who was literally rotting apart and dying while using her last breaths to proclaim how happy she was she'd gotten the surgery, how perfect it was - how she'd completely succumbed to the system and was now dying for it, horrifically. incredible.
The Fruiting Body by Bridget Collins
this one blends the horror of an abusive gaslighting husband with the horror of creeping mould infection. I half expected this story to end with the protagonist giving birth to a mass of black mould, but somehow it's worse: we get the sense that the mould has become symbiotic with her. and yet, it's a kind of freedom? her husband tried to kill her, she defended herself, and the mould might have helped? she might be grateful? accepting? ready to give in to the mould and her new reality as (possibly, still) be carrying a mould baby? chilling.
Daisies by Mariana Enríques translated by Megan McDowell
this one I don't get what is doing in this anthology. the protagonist's mother, who died 30 years previous when he was a child, has to be moved from her spot in the cemetary for Money Reasons, and it turns out the body has mummified. the community is religious catholic and instantly there are rumours she's a saint. I'm struggling to see the horror - unless maybe it is the horror of disinterring people for financial reasons, because plots can expire? I can get that. maybe I am just too atheist to get this, I don't know. I found the family dynamics (and dysfunctions?) compelling, but the story seemed to be building towards something, and then ended without a resolution. this felt more like an excerpt from a novel than a complete short story.
The Broccoli Eel by Michael Faber
child POV, which I was a bit hmm about, but it really worked here. this could have been a thematic sequel to The Fruiting Body - abusive relationship, but seen from the child's eyes. we don't know for sure if the 'car accident' was an accident or murder, we don't know if the mother really is in hospital or if she's dead, and the father just lied about it, we don't get a real sense of how much time has passed since the accident and the end of the story - days? weeks? months? could the mother be still in hospital, about to wake up from a coma or something to find out that her child ripped his father's throat out with his teeth?
Apples by Emilia Hart
this had me bump the author's novel Weyward up my TBR. I loved this, not from a horror perspective, but because this was a story about a middle aged woman who divorced her husband because he was cheating on her, and who is trying to start over - here, by moving into the house she bought for the settlement money and getting furniture delivered and going to local grocery stores and getting to know her new neighbourhood...and then discovering she can hear men's thoughts. because she ate apples from a mysterious tree in her new garden. it comes across quite "all men are disgusting evil jerks" and "only women are good people" which is a dichotomy I am not a fan of - it's very TERF-y - but the reason this story still works for me is how she gave her daughter apples too, and helped her daughter cover up the murder of her murderous (serial killer) boyfriend, and it's implied that the woman who owned the house before her was herself a serial killer of men. it's implied that the protagonist steps into those shoes and becomes the next serial killer of men. that's the kind of unhinged behaviour I'd like to see and celebrate in (fictional) women.
Waffle Thomas by Ainslie Hogarth
another unhinged female protagonist! This one delighted me even though I spent probably a solid half of it puzzled: she divorced her husband because he was kind? she went on a find yourself walk because she willingly divorced her husband because he was a good man??? oh she murdered her husband because he was good and kind?? now this is getting interesting... truly unhinged behaviour. the waffle thomas myth came kind of out of nowhere but I wonder if this woman was just unhinged enough she was hallucinating that entire part - so nothing supernatural at play - but honestly it doesn't matter either way, whether she gives in to her hallucination at the end or gives in to the ghost killer...same difference.
Shade by Robert Lautner
I am here for devil shrines and devil protection. I'm struggling to say more about it because, yeah, that's what it boils down to, but also this is a story about an exploited mining community where children are kidnapped to work as slaves or child soldiers or drug mules or whatnot, in a part of the world where nobody outside the community (and even people inside the community - like the traffickers) care. this is a story about the people who mine the metals and minerals that go into our first world comforts. and they pray to devil incarnations, and sometimes, the devil answers.
The Smiling African Uncle by Adorah Nworah
the moment this turned from a generic horrible read to making me want to throw up was when it was revealed, at the end, that this was a horrible 'how I met your mother' type story. the whole time, you think you're reading a terrible story about how (african, non white) immigrants are terrorised by local white people, you think it's going to end badly for the uncle, that he's going to be killed or deported, despite his efforts to keep up the friendly, smiling facade. and then you realise the narrator isn't a brother or sister of this uncle, it's the white woman who was terrorising him, that she, an immigration officer with the power to deport him, practically coerced him into marriage, that she psycopathically wanted to study him like an object, that he's been living his whole adult life up until that point (implied at least a decade, if not more) with this woman wearing a neverending fake smile in order to stay in the country. and she knows it. she revels in it. I want to kill her and set him free.
Rosheen by Irenosen Okojie
I've read this story before in another anthology (Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold) but I have to admit I had ZERO memory of it and only realised because I recognised the author name and thought 'oh, I've read another story by her' and when I went to check out that review - realised it's the same story. well, my opionion hasn't changed much - it's not my favourite story in this anthology either - but maybe this story worked better in the other anthology. not that this wasn't a horror story.
Carcinisation by Lucy Rose
this had a folklore retelling flavour to it, and I was half expecting to find out the wife was a selkie. I don't think she was, I think she was a perfectly normal human, except for being an unhinged woman when it comes down to it. also she changed into a crab after taking a creature-wife (kind of eating a crab). that's not really a spoiler, the clue is in the title. I suppose if one thinks body horror is, well, horror, the carcinisation is the horror part, but for me it was. well. the long marriage where the husband thinks she's getting too old and ugly, as if he is not also getting old and ugly - and the wife responds by changing herself. and then because she still loves him so much, there's a cannibalistic vibe to it, like she ate the crab and changed, she eats the husband and they melt together. makes me shudder.
Going Large by Lionel Shriver
No. just no. This isn't a horror story. this is just plain fatphobia. The disgusting and horrible thing about this story is that it exists in the first place - and the inclusion of this story in this anthology is why I'm only giving it 4 stars. if this weren't a library copy I would have cut out this section and burnt it. or stuffed it in an envelope and sent it to the publisher saying 'take this vile drivel back and give me back the 1/18th of the money I paid for this book.
I don't want to waste too much of my energy on this worthless pile of shit so I'll make this short. this story is about a thin stuck up woman who is rude to a fat woman on a plane (while also thinking all sorts of mean fatphobic things about her) and following this encounter, the thin stuck up woman starts gaining weight. she becomes obese. the less she eats the fatter she gets. she becomes gross and disgusting, a sweaty greasy blob of a slow and fat person - literally leaving trails of grease everywhere. she kind of (not really) stops seeing fatness as a personal failure. then decides that she's fat and disgusting anyway, she may as well live up to the stereotype, and starts gorging herself on food. and then, the more she eats, the more weight she loses, until she's back to her normal size. (with no hint of loose skin or anything? she's just back to her normal skinny self?) and then, she goes on another trip, encounters another fat woman on the plane, and this time she's not rude, she's kind to the fat woman.
I'm sorry I'm not sorry, but fuck all the way off a cliff. fatness is not a punishment for being a shitty person, and thinness is not a reward for unlearning that shittiness. fatness is not inherently gross. you should all fucking do better.
Bob-a-Job by James Smythe
I am disturbed and intrigued? there is absolutely some horrifying shit going on here with the protagonist and other people in his situation being literally forcibly changed into other people, but what I want to interrogate is the system around it - private corporations? running some kind of debt collection business that somehow deems it profitable to include layers of catfishing, the expense of housing and feeding (soylent green?) to people, kidnap the originals (and take them where?) and put the copies in their place....all to recover debts? like yes, I know debt collection can be inhuman to the point of taking the shirt off your back, but this? what on earth
Fairies by Lavie Tidhar
child POV. this child is being bullied at school and not being listened to by the authority figures (parents and teachers) in their life. I know exactly how that feels. that situation where a bully made up something and gave the protagonist the blame? happened to me all the fucking time, and the fury and powerlessness the protagonist felt when the adults refused to believe her because she was a 'troublemaker' anyway - wow, fuck all that. I did not need to be punched in the gut like that. all that to say, I wish *I* had had fairies doing my dirty work for me when that was me. I could have! I knew where the fairies lived! but I was, perhaps unfortunately, all too aware of their capricious nature and didn't dare. and the horror in this story - besides the child's situation - is exactly that: you can't control the fairies. they are capricious. and vicious. and you don't know what they'll take in payment if they decide your meager gifts aren't enough.
Ghost Kitchen by Francine Toon
I don't think I liked this story. and it's not because it wasn't well written or anything like that, I'm just not a fan of "werewolf" type stories where the protagonist doesn't know they're a werewolf - the monster in this story is unspecified. I'm also not a fan of rich people who think they're quirky because they have green hair and are keeping the original Victorian tiles in their recently purchased London home. what I would like to know more about is the fictional Scottish island (Haar - a Scottish word for fog, not a real place) the protagonist is from, the family lore (hinted at here), and what that means in the local community.
The Old Lion by Evie Wyld
I'm really sorry but I am struggling to say anything other about this story than 'okay'. It was fine. missing girls and missing animals all turning up dead, or rather, only their spines and maybe a few other body parts, in the hedges - sure, that's horrible. the kind of sort of hint at the end that maybe the protagonist's dad is responsible? okay. I guess.
Mouse by Louisa Young
no. this is up there with the fatphobia story - I cannot with stories where the protagonist is resentful of taking care of a disabled person (in this case her husband), fantasising about the various diseases he could be infected with from the mouse that turns up, and then straight up kills him at the end? fuck off. I don't care if he's a dick. divorce him then. leave his ass. maybe this is supposed to be the horror, but knowing how much neglect and abuse (and murder!!) disabled people face from their caregivers makes it very difficult for me to see this is anything else but - I mean, if you want to make a statement? you need to do more than just regurgitate the existing attitudes 1:1. to put it bluntly, other authors represented in this collection did it better: J K Chukwu, Adorah Nworah
Sketchy by Lewis Hancox
a surprise comic! I like a story that is uniquely suited to its medium, and this is that. the protagonist draws and makes things happen through drawing (or unhappen through erasing the drawing). That's a story that can be told through words, of course, but the visual of it on page is delightful. what I loved about this is the implication that the protagonist might never have been a real person, but conjured from her mother's drawing - how else can she erase herself from existence by erasing a drawing her mother had made of her? fascinating stuff.
December 15, 2024
Of the Flesh is a haunting anthology of horror stories crafted by 18 different authors varied from paranormal, psychological, body horrors & disturbing ghosts from the past. From revenge of her lover's dead wife haunted her to her trip to Malaysia, the body disfiguration to achieve perfection, a preserved corpse of a long dead mother, a rotting fruit body in a house a couple bought, a boy who ate brocollli because his mother told him to feed the brocolli eels in his stomach, sketches that came true as grotesqueness, apples eaten from the yard that let a woman hear the ugly thoughts & saw hideous images from men, a dark trek in the jungle proven to be fatal, a boy worked in gold mines befriend a malevolent spirit, an immigrant tormented by a weird follower, a wife unexpected transformation into a creature, a woman's troublesome relationship with foods and eating and many more. Each of these stories had their own horror & truths about them that will make you either squirm out of your seat or disturb you with its goriness.
I enjoyed half of the stories in here while some of them left me feeling a bit bored & confused. The stories are meant to tickle your brain with its horridness & gruesome nature, some also left me feeling saddened by the reality of it especially on the Smiling African Uncle which got me in the guts for how immigrants were treated. My favourites from here would be Smilling African uncle, Daisies, Apples, Sketchy, The Fruiting Body. Be warned of how graphic some of these stories are, there were violence, domestic abuse, racism, some of the scenes left me uncomfortable on how dark they were.
Overall, if you like some of the big names in here, you will probably enjoyed this but do expect of not all stories will satisfy your taste in horror if you are a fan of this genre
Thank you to Times Reads for the review copy
I enjoyed half of the stories in here while some of them left me feeling a bit bored & confused. The stories are meant to tickle your brain with its horridness & gruesome nature, some also left me feeling saddened by the reality of it especially on the Smiling African Uncle which got me in the guts for how immigrants were treated. My favourites from here would be Smilling African uncle, Daisies, Apples, Sketchy, The Fruiting Body. Be warned of how graphic some of these stories are, there were violence, domestic abuse, racism, some of the scenes left me uncomfortable on how dark they were.
Overall, if you like some of the big names in here, you will probably enjoyed this but do expect of not all stories will satisfy your taste in horror if you are a fan of this genre
Thank you to Times Reads for the review copy
October 3, 2025
The cover is what drew me in for this one but sadly the stories contained inside didn’t capture my interest anywhere near as much. I didn’t love any of them but I didn’t hate any either so I guess that kind of leaves us right in the middle. A day after finishing I can barely remember any of the stories, nothing really left its mark on me with this collection.
November 1, 2024
Horror is a very personal genre and an anthology with a variety of different writers is always going to have stories that work and those that don't but this had far more hits than misses for me as most stories dealt with the 'creeping dread' aspect of horror which is my bag.
November 1, 2025
top 3 are as follows:
- Shade by Robert Lautner
- Bob-a-Job by James Smythe
- The Old Lion by Evie Wyld
and to be so fair, these three were the only actual scary stories in the whole collection and not just virtue signalling..
- Shade by Robert Lautner
- Bob-a-Job by James Smythe
- The Old Lion by Evie Wyld
and to be so fair, these three were the only actual scary stories in the whole collection and not just virtue signalling..
February 19, 2025
3.5 ✨
a diverse and intriguing horror collection with hits and misses.
a diverse and intriguing horror collection with hits and misses.
Read
August 8, 2025Has the honour of being my first ever audiobook but was otherwise completely unremarkable
October 24, 2025
Utterly brilliant
November 29, 2024
4.5 ⭐️ loved it
October 27, 2024
I enjoy short story collections as a little sideline, to dip in and out alongside the reading of other books. This collection has kept me entertained, quite appropriately, through the month of October. As the nights have grown shorter I’ve delved further into this collection of what has been classed as modern horror.
There are some great tales in here, often unusual, always unique. There’s even a comic strip story included (that was actually one of my favourites). I also loved Apples (reading minds can be dangerous) and Fight, Flight, Freeze (don’t mess with a wronged wife, even when she’s dead).
Featuring stories by Bridget Collins, Louisa Young, Francine Toon and Lionel Shriver to name just a few, this really is a wildly eclectic cornucopia of horror. Perfect for the season!
There are some great tales in here, often unusual, always unique. There’s even a comic strip story included (that was actually one of my favourites). I also loved Apples (reading minds can be dangerous) and Fight, Flight, Freeze (don’t mess with a wronged wife, even when she’s dead).
Featuring stories by Bridget Collins, Louisa Young, Francine Toon and Lionel Shriver to name just a few, this really is a wildly eclectic cornucopia of horror. Perfect for the season!
November 12, 2024
As always, I will begin by thanking the authors, all 18 of them, as well as the team at The Borough Press for an advanced reading copy, in exchange for an honest review.
This collection immediately caught my eye, both the cover and the title, and I am always looking for new horror authors to enjoy and recommend, so what better way than a book of short stories?
I read one a day or two a day, and have compiled my thoughts on each below, so this will be a slightly longer review than usual:
1. ‘Fight, Flight, Freeze’ by Susan Barker – 2/5 Stars
• Hadn’t read anything by this author before, but knew of some of their titles.
• My dad is currently struggling with Cancer, so this was super triggering for me.
• Not a huge reader of ‘cheating spouses’ tropes. I don’t think this will change.
• I am not in on the whole, lack of speech marks, thing. Grammar is good.
2. ‘Flight 2212’ by J.K. Chukwu – 4/5 Stars
• A new author to me, but I really enjoyed this. I have added ‘The Unfortunates’ to my TBR.
• Such a big impact in such a few short pages.
• Matters like class, race and wealth commentaries all expertly woven into the story
• The setting was super claustrophobic, and one I have never experienced before: the inside of a plane that’s not taken off yet.
3. ‘The Fruiting Body’ by Bridget Collins – 1/5 Stars
• ‘The Binding’ is my all-time favourite book, to the point that I have a tattoo for the book, but I have not enjoyed anything else she has written.
• I still did not enjoy this story – it reads like poor FanFiction.
• I couldn’t tell if the repetition of words and phrases was done for emphasis or was just poor editing.
• Colleen Hoover writes better domestic violence stories.
4. ‘Daisies’ by Mariana Enriquez (translated by Megan McDowell) - 4/5 Stars
• Knew of the author from the popularity of ‘The Dangers of Smoking in Bed’ which has been on my TBR forever and since reading this, has jumped to the top.
• Very clever, a very close family with a dark past is always something I will enjoy.
• Had to Google some of the worshipped characters but man – what an interesting topic!
• The sun-baked setting gives an intense, close feel on top of the impending horror – one of the best of the bunch.
5. ‘The Broccoli Eel’ by Michael Faber – 5/5 Stars
• I will never eat broccoli again. Or anything green for that matter. I might just stop eating altogether. Thank you for the nightmares.
• Not much is given away and the brain finds the darkest places to fill in the gaps, I love an author who can do that!
• I come from a background in childcare and education so understood the view of the child’s imagination from the start.
• Have added some of his backlist to my TBR. Would read anything of his.
6. ‘Sketchy’ by Lewis Hancox – 4/5 Stars
• I have read Lewis’ autobiographical novels and knew his comedy sketches from The Internets, so was excited to see something new and very different!
• Even the style of illustration had changed, adding a new edge to his work. More grungy, Junji Ito-style sketches. Nowhere near as much gore but less polished that Hancox’s usual style – if this is making any sense?
• Liked the premise, was a nice change of pace for the collection – more graphic novels in story collections, please!
7. ‘Apples’ by Emilia Hart – 3/5 Stars
• Knew of this author from the popularity of ‘Weyward’ and the upcoming ‘The Sirens’
• Storyline quite predictable but fun nonetheless.
• I grew up with an apple tree in my garden too, so this took me way back and got me thinking about what lay under it…
• I think I would like to read some of her other stuff, I feel like she may be better at a fuller story?
8. ‘Waffle Thomas’ by Ainslie Hogarth – 2/5 Stars
• Amazing title for a story. No notes. Became a new nickname for my partner, who is a Thomas. He was unimpressed.
• Loved the premise, was hooked on the ‘camping in the woods to find myself’ vibes. Yes, go to the woods. We love a good slasher-in-the-woods story...
• I thought I knew where this was going: I did not.
• Ruined by the Tarantino-esque twist - I think I missed something.
9. ‘Shade’ by Robert Lautner – 4/5 Stars
• Another South American setting and I loved this one, it was slightly longer than others
• Like Liz Hyder’s ‘Bearmouth’, really close setting being in the mines makes you feel super claustrophobic
• Written from a child’s perspective again, but very different from ‘The Broccoli Eel’ in that this child is a miner and also friends with Satan.
10. ‘The Smiling African Uncle’ by Adorah Nworah – 4/5 Stars
• Written in 2nd person – which took some getting used to but very original and different
• Makes you uncomfortable but in a more real-world way – in terms of race and class
• The use of the word ‘alien’ made me cringe, which is what I think they were going for
• Felt a little like the ‘Smile’ films, which I wasn’t mad at
11. ‘Rosheen’ by Irenosen Okojie – 3/5 Stars
• Beautifully written and genuinely evokes Norfolk, where I grew up so it was nostalgic for me
• Loved being suspended in time, it was never pinpointed at an exact time or date, just ‘post-war’ and with telephones but it works so well.
• A little slow in the middle, could have done with a little more in the way of action. Found I was skipping over sentences to get on with the book, which ruined it for me a little.
12. ‘Carcinisation’ by Lucy Rose – 4/5 Stars
• I was excited to get stuck into a new author and have since been gifted an ARC of ‘The Lamb’ which I am very excited for!
• This was fun, ‘The Mercies’ meets the Goddess Calypso from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
• Enjoyed the shift from singular to plural as the two creatures became one
• Not a fan of tooth-related horror but that was all that brought it down for me
13. ‘Going Large’ by Lionel Schriver - DNF
• Another author I have an issue with, as she is a massive transphobe, but I’d never tried any of her stuff. I won’t be in future, either.
• In this day and age, there is no need for such fat-shaming. As someone who is plus-sized and identifies as non-binary, this story had nothing positive about it for me.
• The author truly shows her colours in this – I genuinely have nothing nice to say.
14. ‘Bob-a-Job’ by James Smythe – 4/5 Stars
• Another cracking title!
• One of my favourites – super cinematic and another that lets your mind wander.
• Think ‘1984’ meets ‘Tender is the Flesh’ – both of which I loved for different reasons.
• Creepy and an overall sense of unease makes this a great story – have added more by this author onto my TBR
15. ‘Fairies’ by Lavie Tidhar – 3/5 Stars
• I was hoping for so much more from this – it started great, another from the child’s POV but it fell flat compared to some of the others in this collections
• I feel bad in saying that it wasn’t all that tense and was quite predictable
16. ‘Ghost Kitchen’ by Francine Toon – 3/5 Stars
• I think I missed something… I wasn’t too sure what was happening and then it ended.
• Another short story written in 2nd person, which I enjoyed previously in this collection but I just got lost.
• ‘Pine’ was such a hit that I was super excited to read more but this was nothing like that.
17. ‘The Old Lion’ by Evie Wyld – 2/5 Stars
• I need an adult to tell me what happened at the end of this? Again, I feel like this title went nowhere – what does the bottle of blond mean? Did she do it? Was it a ghost?
• I loved the start but the end was a flop for me, as I genuinely didn’t get the ending.
• I might try other stuff by the same author to see if they do better in a longer format?
18. ‘Mouse’ by Louisa Young – 3/5 Stars
• The last book in the collection is always a tricky spot, as you expect them to end it with a bang – which was not the case for this one.
• It was, for want of a better term, mousy, but not in the cute way – it was meek and forgettable.
• I found I was comparing it to ‘The Graveyard Shift’ by M.L. Rio which I just finished and found way better for filling the rodent-hole in my horror.
All in all I was a little disappointed by this collection, I am sorry to say. I had my favourites but a lot of the others were just… Middle of the road or downright terrible.
This collection immediately caught my eye, both the cover and the title, and I am always looking for new horror authors to enjoy and recommend, so what better way than a book of short stories?
I read one a day or two a day, and have compiled my thoughts on each below, so this will be a slightly longer review than usual:
1. ‘Fight, Flight, Freeze’ by Susan Barker – 2/5 Stars
• Hadn’t read anything by this author before, but knew of some of their titles.
• My dad is currently struggling with Cancer, so this was super triggering for me.
• Not a huge reader of ‘cheating spouses’ tropes. I don’t think this will change.
• I am not in on the whole, lack of speech marks, thing. Grammar is good.
2. ‘Flight 2212’ by J.K. Chukwu – 4/5 Stars
• A new author to me, but I really enjoyed this. I have added ‘The Unfortunates’ to my TBR.
• Such a big impact in such a few short pages.
• Matters like class, race and wealth commentaries all expertly woven into the story
• The setting was super claustrophobic, and one I have never experienced before: the inside of a plane that’s not taken off yet.
3. ‘The Fruiting Body’ by Bridget Collins – 1/5 Stars
• ‘The Binding’ is my all-time favourite book, to the point that I have a tattoo for the book, but I have not enjoyed anything else she has written.
• I still did not enjoy this story – it reads like poor FanFiction.
• I couldn’t tell if the repetition of words and phrases was done for emphasis or was just poor editing.
• Colleen Hoover writes better domestic violence stories.
4. ‘Daisies’ by Mariana Enriquez (translated by Megan McDowell) - 4/5 Stars
• Knew of the author from the popularity of ‘The Dangers of Smoking in Bed’ which has been on my TBR forever and since reading this, has jumped to the top.
• Very clever, a very close family with a dark past is always something I will enjoy.
• Had to Google some of the worshipped characters but man – what an interesting topic!
• The sun-baked setting gives an intense, close feel on top of the impending horror – one of the best of the bunch.
5. ‘The Broccoli Eel’ by Michael Faber – 5/5 Stars
• I will never eat broccoli again. Or anything green for that matter. I might just stop eating altogether. Thank you for the nightmares.
• Not much is given away and the brain finds the darkest places to fill in the gaps, I love an author who can do that!
• I come from a background in childcare and education so understood the view of the child’s imagination from the start.
• Have added some of his backlist to my TBR. Would read anything of his.
6. ‘Sketchy’ by Lewis Hancox – 4/5 Stars
• I have read Lewis’ autobiographical novels and knew his comedy sketches from The Internets, so was excited to see something new and very different!
• Even the style of illustration had changed, adding a new edge to his work. More grungy, Junji Ito-style sketches. Nowhere near as much gore but less polished that Hancox’s usual style – if this is making any sense?
• Liked the premise, was a nice change of pace for the collection – more graphic novels in story collections, please!
7. ‘Apples’ by Emilia Hart – 3/5 Stars
• Knew of this author from the popularity of ‘Weyward’ and the upcoming ‘The Sirens’
• Storyline quite predictable but fun nonetheless.
• I grew up with an apple tree in my garden too, so this took me way back and got me thinking about what lay under it…
• I think I would like to read some of her other stuff, I feel like she may be better at a fuller story?
8. ‘Waffle Thomas’ by Ainslie Hogarth – 2/5 Stars
• Amazing title for a story. No notes. Became a new nickname for my partner, who is a Thomas. He was unimpressed.
• Loved the premise, was hooked on the ‘camping in the woods to find myself’ vibes. Yes, go to the woods. We love a good slasher-in-the-woods story...
• I thought I knew where this was going: I did not.
• Ruined by the Tarantino-esque twist - I think I missed something.
9. ‘Shade’ by Robert Lautner – 4/5 Stars
• Another South American setting and I loved this one, it was slightly longer than others
• Like Liz Hyder’s ‘Bearmouth’, really close setting being in the mines makes you feel super claustrophobic
• Written from a child’s perspective again, but very different from ‘The Broccoli Eel’ in that this child is a miner and also friends with Satan.
10. ‘The Smiling African Uncle’ by Adorah Nworah – 4/5 Stars
• Written in 2nd person – which took some getting used to but very original and different
• Makes you uncomfortable but in a more real-world way – in terms of race and class
• The use of the word ‘alien’ made me cringe, which is what I think they were going for
• Felt a little like the ‘Smile’ films, which I wasn’t mad at
11. ‘Rosheen’ by Irenosen Okojie – 3/5 Stars
• Beautifully written and genuinely evokes Norfolk, where I grew up so it was nostalgic for me
• Loved being suspended in time, it was never pinpointed at an exact time or date, just ‘post-war’ and with telephones but it works so well.
• A little slow in the middle, could have done with a little more in the way of action. Found I was skipping over sentences to get on with the book, which ruined it for me a little.
12. ‘Carcinisation’ by Lucy Rose – 4/5 Stars
• I was excited to get stuck into a new author and have since been gifted an ARC of ‘The Lamb’ which I am very excited for!
• This was fun, ‘The Mercies’ meets the Goddess Calypso from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
• Enjoyed the shift from singular to plural as the two creatures became one
• Not a fan of tooth-related horror but that was all that brought it down for me
13. ‘Going Large’ by Lionel Schriver - DNF
• Another author I have an issue with, as she is a massive transphobe, but I’d never tried any of her stuff. I won’t be in future, either.
• In this day and age, there is no need for such fat-shaming. As someone who is plus-sized and identifies as non-binary, this story had nothing positive about it for me.
• The author truly shows her colours in this – I genuinely have nothing nice to say.
14. ‘Bob-a-Job’ by James Smythe – 4/5 Stars
• Another cracking title!
• One of my favourites – super cinematic and another that lets your mind wander.
• Think ‘1984’ meets ‘Tender is the Flesh’ – both of which I loved for different reasons.
• Creepy and an overall sense of unease makes this a great story – have added more by this author onto my TBR
15. ‘Fairies’ by Lavie Tidhar – 3/5 Stars
• I was hoping for so much more from this – it started great, another from the child’s POV but it fell flat compared to some of the others in this collections
• I feel bad in saying that it wasn’t all that tense and was quite predictable
16. ‘Ghost Kitchen’ by Francine Toon – 3/5 Stars
• I think I missed something… I wasn’t too sure what was happening and then it ended.
• Another short story written in 2nd person, which I enjoyed previously in this collection but I just got lost.
• ‘Pine’ was such a hit that I was super excited to read more but this was nothing like that.
17. ‘The Old Lion’ by Evie Wyld – 2/5 Stars
• I need an adult to tell me what happened at the end of this? Again, I feel like this title went nowhere – what does the bottle of blond mean? Did she do it? Was it a ghost?
• I loved the start but the end was a flop for me, as I genuinely didn’t get the ending.
• I might try other stuff by the same author to see if they do better in a longer format?
18. ‘Mouse’ by Louisa Young – 3/5 Stars
• The last book in the collection is always a tricky spot, as you expect them to end it with a bang – which was not the case for this one.
• It was, for want of a better term, mousy, but not in the cute way – it was meek and forgettable.
• I found I was comparing it to ‘The Graveyard Shift’ by M.L. Rio which I just finished and found way better for filling the rodent-hole in my horror.
All in all I was a little disappointed by this collection, I am sorry to say. I had my favourites but a lot of the others were just… Middle of the road or downright terrible.
October 21, 2025
7- (3 stars) I was sligthly disappointed by this collection. The cover was fantastic and suggested disturbing horror and the title added to it with the idea that these stories would illustrate the modern development of the genre. The writing style was certainly modern, with a literary sensibility and the themes of divorce, domestic violence, racism and displacement being modern concerns also. But reading the stories, I was not often scared or disturbed. Some stories were more 'psychological horror' and did manage to build to a sense of dread. Some of these however were not scary at all - like 'Going Large' by Lionel Shriver, which was only disturbing for phatphobic readers. Other stories, while containing a supernatural element, did not have the effect I hoped for. As another review on here notes 'supernatural' would be a better term to describe these stories, so more 'dark fantasy' than horror. This is certainly true for 'Shade' by Robert Lautner (where the supernatural entity while scary, was beneficial for the protagonist) or 'Fairies' by Lavie Tidhar - in which the protagonist is never in danger (but one could argue she is in a moral danger?). Some other stories explored the darker sides of human nature, our fear response and our violence, but without instilling dread. As I think stories having an emotional effect on the reader is essential for horror literature, I thought these failed as horror stories. However, they may read as horriffic to other readers -responses may vary. Thus my review is a personal one.
Still, there were a couple stories in here that I thought were very, very good and scary (and made me think at the same time, the best combination). 'Bob-A-Job' by James Smythe was a creative combination of dystopian SF and body horror, that managed to contain some surprises and some stomach churning descriptions. With a fun, ironic denouement. Opening story 'Fight, Flight, Freeze' by Susan Barker gave me high expectations of the collection, with a very tense story, with a good use of flashbacks, that made me doubt whether I should sympathise with the protagonist. Well written too. 'The Fruiting Body' by Bridget Collins had a central metaphor that was maybe too obvious, but the descriptions of the mold were effective and the ending suggestive. I liked 'Sketchy' by Lewis Hancox, a short comic, that could only work in comic format and that used its format very well. 'Apples' by Emilia Hart didn't read as a horror story but as a supernatural thriller, but I liked it. The apple tree was a sinister presence. I was not scared by 'Waffle Thomas' by Ainslie Hogarth, but I liked the ironic writing style. The title of 'Carcinisation' by Lucy Rose suggested body horror and that was what I got! 'Mouse' by Louisa Young managed to convey a cloying sense of suffocation and control, even if I didn't think the ending was very good, the atmosphere in this story was excellent.
So, worth reading if you like horror short stories, but don't expect every story to be scary.
Still, there were a couple stories in here that I thought were very, very good and scary (and made me think at the same time, the best combination). 'Bob-A-Job' by James Smythe was a creative combination of dystopian SF and body horror, that managed to contain some surprises and some stomach churning descriptions. With a fun, ironic denouement. Opening story 'Fight, Flight, Freeze' by Susan Barker gave me high expectations of the collection, with a very tense story, with a good use of flashbacks, that made me doubt whether I should sympathise with the protagonist. Well written too. 'The Fruiting Body' by Bridget Collins had a central metaphor that was maybe too obvious, but the descriptions of the mold were effective and the ending suggestive. I liked 'Sketchy' by Lewis Hancox, a short comic, that could only work in comic format and that used its format very well. 'Apples' by Emilia Hart didn't read as a horror story but as a supernatural thriller, but I liked it. The apple tree was a sinister presence. I was not scared by 'Waffle Thomas' by Ainslie Hogarth, but I liked the ironic writing style. The title of 'Carcinisation' by Lucy Rose suggested body horror and that was what I got! 'Mouse' by Louisa Young managed to convey a cloying sense of suffocation and control, even if I didn't think the ending was very good, the atmosphere in this story was excellent.
So, worth reading if you like horror short stories, but don't expect every story to be scary.
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