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Shadow Lab, Volume Two: A Blackstone Publishing Anthology
Just in time for Halloween 2025, it’s Shadow Lab, Volume Two!
In Gibbett Hill by Faith Merino, Virginia has moved with her husband to the town of Gibbet Hill, where they plan to raise their three-month-old daughter. But as a Gold Rush reenactment festival begins to blur the line between real and imaginary, Virginia finds herself the target of the town’s strange hanging ritual.
In Forty Weeks by Adam Godfrey, Sarah is transformed into a vampire after her husband’s research team finds a dormant virus buried in the arctic permafrost. When her husband is killed by his employers, Sarah flees in search of someone else who’s infected, operating on the rumor that their death would trigger an antibody surge that could save not only her, but her unborn child …
In The Retreat by Gemma Amor, a troubled military veteran tries to get her life back in order by taking an office job, and soon finds herself on the fast track to success. But when she’s invited to a corporate retreat in the middle of the wilderness, she encounters dark and mysterious forces at work, and she must use all of her skills to survive.
Find these and more horrifying tales in the second Shadow Lab anthology from Blackstone Publishing.
In Gibbett Hill by Faith Merino, Virginia has moved with her husband to the town of Gibbet Hill, where they plan to raise their three-month-old daughter. But as a Gold Rush reenactment festival begins to blur the line between real and imaginary, Virginia finds herself the target of the town’s strange hanging ritual.
In Forty Weeks by Adam Godfrey, Sarah is transformed into a vampire after her husband’s research team finds a dormant virus buried in the arctic permafrost. When her husband is killed by his employers, Sarah flees in search of someone else who’s infected, operating on the rumor that their death would trigger an antibody surge that could save not only her, but her unborn child …
In The Retreat by Gemma Amor, a troubled military veteran tries to get her life back in order by taking an office job, and soon finds herself on the fast track to success. But when she’s invited to a corporate retreat in the middle of the wilderness, she encounters dark and mysterious forces at work, and she must use all of her skills to survive.
Find these and more horrifying tales in the second Shadow Lab anthology from Blackstone Publishing.
- GenresHorror
347 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 30, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 12, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy for review.
Shadow Lab is filled with some great horror short stories. A lot of new to me authors. Vampires, demons, awkward work retreats….a little bit of everything.
My favorite was The Retreat by Gemma Amore. Veteran, Laura, is just lucky to have a job coming out of the military. But this boring office job is getting to her. Until a disgruntled employee brings a gun to work and Laura’s military training kicks in. She’s invited to a very exclusive work retreat with the hope of a promotion and more money, but finds the company worships more than the all mighty dollar.
Shadow Lab is filled with some great horror short stories. A lot of new to me authors. Vampires, demons, awkward work retreats….a little bit of everything.
My favorite was The Retreat by Gemma Amore. Veteran, Laura, is just lucky to have a job coming out of the military. But this boring office job is getting to her. Until a disgruntled employee brings a gun to work and Laura’s military training kicks in. She’s invited to a very exclusive work retreat with the hope of a promotion and more money, but finds the company worships more than the all mighty dollar.
December 14, 2025
I will always have a soft spot for a collection of stories.
4.5 ⭐️
4.5 ⭐️
July 13, 2026
Whenever I read an anthology, I think back to the immortal words of Forrest Gump, comparing life to a box of chocolates. Anthologies are similar to Forrest’s box of chocolates. Readers never know what they’re going to get next. That’s especially the case with Blackstone Publishing’s “Shadow Lab” anthologies. Their first anthology was one of the better science fiction story collections I’ve read recently. Now, they’ve published a second anthology, appropriately titled “Shadow Labs Volume II.” Brendan Deneen edited both anthologies, but this current one is dedicated to horror stories. The better stories here are quite good. Unfortunately, “Volume II” has a few more duds than the first collection.
“Shadow Lab Volume II” comprises ten stories from different authors, none of whom I’d heard of. Neither the book nor the individual stories have an introduction. The only afterword is a series of one-paragraph biographies of each author at the end of the book. All the stories have occult or paranormal elements, but little else in common. However, the most common storyline involves protagonists being chased by various menaces.
My favorite story in “Volume II” was “Red is the Color of Salvation” by Nic James. It has some similarities to the classic film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” but extrapolates the film’s premise. The protagonist is Gritt, sheriff of the Western town of Holden, population 56. One day, the town is invaded by duplicates of some of its residents. These creatures aren’t quite right, and Gritt and the townspeople dispose of them when they attack. Gritt then goes into the desert to search for the creatures’ origin and discovers other Holdens and creatures along the way. The atmosphere here is surreally spooky. The eventual payoff isn’t hard to guess, but it is a fittingly unsettling conclusion to a most unsettling story.
The creatures in the oddly titled “Chopknuckle,” by Noah Pohl also call to mind “Body Snatchers.” These creatures are what’s left of a group of miners who were trapped underground in an earthquake in the town of, you guessed it, Chopknuckle, 90 years earlier. Not only were the miners buried, but the mansion of the town’s richest man collapsed into the rift on top of the tunnels. The narrator’s girlfriend enters the mansion, looking for something supposedly hidden inside. When she doesn’t emerge, he goes down into the mansion looking for her. Despite the story’s supernatural trappings, it’s more of an exciting adventure tale, especially when the creatures chase after him.
Another oddly named story is “Hachishakusama” by Kylee Shimomura. The title means “eight feet tall” and refers to a modern-day urban legend about a woman that size with claws for hands who abducts children. Jennifer, the story’s protagonist, returns to her native Japan for the first time in decades for her mother’s funeral. She begins seeing the tall woman, who gets progressively closer each time Jennifer spots her. Eventually, dead bodies turn up. This story blends Japanese culture (and the urban legend) and a creepy horror setting.
“The Uninvited” by David Moody is another story that’s more of an adventure than a work of sheer horror. A group of “in-crowd” high schoolers holds a rave on the top floor of an abandoned office building one night. Several nerds crash the party, and one of them unleashes a rat that contains the spirit of a dead Satanist. The now-loosed Satanist goes from body to body, killing and dismembering teenagers. This one requires a healthy suspension of disbelief to accept some of the teens’ thought processes, but it was a lot of fun for those who enjoy this type of horror.
The longest story in “Shadow Lab Volume II” is “The Retreat” by Gemma Amor. It’s a tale of corporate culture gone off the deep end. Laura, a former Army noncom who left the service under suspicious circumstances, gets a job as a secretary at a major firm. She saved the life of the company’s CEO when he was attacked by a deranged former employee. As a reward, Laura is invited to the company’s annual retreat, supposedly a team-building exercise and a celebration for top-performing employees. The experience goes off the rails quickly. I thought this story had the greatest potential of any tale in “Volume II” for a film adaptation.
Although the stories I’ve described are quite good, “Shadow Lab Volume II” has almost as many duds as quality stories. “Forty Weeks” by Adam Godfrey describes a woman who becomes a quasi-vampire after being infected by a virus that escaped from a top-secret government project. The only cure requires her to drink the blood of another infected person. The story’s title gives away the somewhat confusing ending. The protagonist of “Insatiable” by Diana Olney is the high-school-aged daughter of a succubus who fears she may have inherited her mother’s worst trait: a taste for human flesh. The author tries to juggle about five different storylines in a 40-page-story and fails at all of them. “Gibbet Hill” by Faith Merino is the name of the town where the protagonist and her husband live with their four-month-old daughter. The hill was the location of the town’s former gallows, which played host to its most infamous resident, a witch who allegedly still haunts the nearby woods, abducting and eating babies. As with the other mediocre stories, pages of confusing material led to a very predictable and poorly staged ending.
I don’t know how the author arranged the stories in “Volume II,” because they aren’t organized in any logical order. This is especially unfortunate for readers, since the two most confusing stories, “Gibbet Hill” and “Insatiable,” are the first two in the anthology. The stories improve considerably after that, with some real standouts. “Red Is the Color of Salvation” gives me the creeps every time I think about it, and “The Retreat” is a biting satire combined with a lot of blood. “Shadow Lab Volume II” is a considerable step down from its predecessor, but the quality of its best stories is enough for me to give the book a three-star rating and a marginal recommendation.
NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.
“Shadow Lab Volume II” comprises ten stories from different authors, none of whom I’d heard of. Neither the book nor the individual stories have an introduction. The only afterword is a series of one-paragraph biographies of each author at the end of the book. All the stories have occult or paranormal elements, but little else in common. However, the most common storyline involves protagonists being chased by various menaces.
My favorite story in “Volume II” was “Red is the Color of Salvation” by Nic James. It has some similarities to the classic film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” but extrapolates the film’s premise. The protagonist is Gritt, sheriff of the Western town of Holden, population 56. One day, the town is invaded by duplicates of some of its residents. These creatures aren’t quite right, and Gritt and the townspeople dispose of them when they attack. Gritt then goes into the desert to search for the creatures’ origin and discovers other Holdens and creatures along the way. The atmosphere here is surreally spooky. The eventual payoff isn’t hard to guess, but it is a fittingly unsettling conclusion to a most unsettling story.
The creatures in the oddly titled “Chopknuckle,” by Noah Pohl also call to mind “Body Snatchers.” These creatures are what’s left of a group of miners who were trapped underground in an earthquake in the town of, you guessed it, Chopknuckle, 90 years earlier. Not only were the miners buried, but the mansion of the town’s richest man collapsed into the rift on top of the tunnels. The narrator’s girlfriend enters the mansion, looking for something supposedly hidden inside. When she doesn’t emerge, he goes down into the mansion looking for her. Despite the story’s supernatural trappings, it’s more of an exciting adventure tale, especially when the creatures chase after him.
Another oddly named story is “Hachishakusama” by Kylee Shimomura. The title means “eight feet tall” and refers to a modern-day urban legend about a woman that size with claws for hands who abducts children. Jennifer, the story’s protagonist, returns to her native Japan for the first time in decades for her mother’s funeral. She begins seeing the tall woman, who gets progressively closer each time Jennifer spots her. Eventually, dead bodies turn up. This story blends Japanese culture (and the urban legend) and a creepy horror setting.
“The Uninvited” by David Moody is another story that’s more of an adventure than a work of sheer horror. A group of “in-crowd” high schoolers holds a rave on the top floor of an abandoned office building one night. Several nerds crash the party, and one of them unleashes a rat that contains the spirit of a dead Satanist. The now-loosed Satanist goes from body to body, killing and dismembering teenagers. This one requires a healthy suspension of disbelief to accept some of the teens’ thought processes, but it was a lot of fun for those who enjoy this type of horror.
The longest story in “Shadow Lab Volume II” is “The Retreat” by Gemma Amor. It’s a tale of corporate culture gone off the deep end. Laura, a former Army noncom who left the service under suspicious circumstances, gets a job as a secretary at a major firm. She saved the life of the company’s CEO when he was attacked by a deranged former employee. As a reward, Laura is invited to the company’s annual retreat, supposedly a team-building exercise and a celebration for top-performing employees. The experience goes off the rails quickly. I thought this story had the greatest potential of any tale in “Volume II” for a film adaptation.
Although the stories I’ve described are quite good, “Shadow Lab Volume II” has almost as many duds as quality stories. “Forty Weeks” by Adam Godfrey describes a woman who becomes a quasi-vampire after being infected by a virus that escaped from a top-secret government project. The only cure requires her to drink the blood of another infected person. The story’s title gives away the somewhat confusing ending. The protagonist of “Insatiable” by Diana Olney is the high-school-aged daughter of a succubus who fears she may have inherited her mother’s worst trait: a taste for human flesh. The author tries to juggle about five different storylines in a 40-page-story and fails at all of them. “Gibbet Hill” by Faith Merino is the name of the town where the protagonist and her husband live with their four-month-old daughter. The hill was the location of the town’s former gallows, which played host to its most infamous resident, a witch who allegedly still haunts the nearby woods, abducting and eating babies. As with the other mediocre stories, pages of confusing material led to a very predictable and poorly staged ending.
I don’t know how the author arranged the stories in “Volume II,” because they aren’t organized in any logical order. This is especially unfortunate for readers, since the two most confusing stories, “Gibbet Hill” and “Insatiable,” are the first two in the anthology. The stories improve considerably after that, with some real standouts. “Red Is the Color of Salvation” gives me the creeps every time I think about it, and “The Retreat” is a biting satire combined with a lot of blood. “Shadow Lab Volume II” is a considerable step down from its predecessor, but the quality of its best stories is enough for me to give the book a three-star rating and a marginal recommendation.
NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.
February 1, 2026
Initially, I was going to rate this a 3 (maybe a 3.5 if Goodreads allowed it), but the last story was so strong that I’m bumping it up to a 4. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as good as the first. I felt the stories generally weren’t as gripping. That’s not to say they weren’t good — they definitely were — just not as good. In my opinion, the strongest stories in this book are “The Uninvited,” “The Retreat,” and “Deadlanders.”
September 3, 2025
This collection of short to medium length (in my opinion) horror stories suck you right into their atmosphere. They all had their own "thing" or variety...they all were unique and were about their own thing, whether you want a monster or creature, something more psychological, or a thriller, etc. The stories were all very descriptive...the characters, for the most part were pretty well developed with their own motives and internal/ external struggles. Their feelings or fears were shown...or whatever the emotion of the story they were in was...they mostly matched the vibe of the story. The writing style was to me clear for the most part.
I do admit with some stories, I had to read things all over again, but I think it depended on my interest in the story more than anything. If you are in the mood for a good collection of stories for Halloween, I would recommend this collection. What stood out most to me was Chopknuckle by Noah Pohl. It was a longer story in this collection and this took me 2 or 3 sessions to read and I am a pretty fast reader, but hey, it did keep my interest, it was easy to break into sections due to the divisions or transitions between the scenes, and it was very descriptive.
I do admit with some stories, I had to read things all over again, but I think it depended on my interest in the story more than anything. If you are in the mood for a good collection of stories for Halloween, I would recommend this collection. What stood out most to me was Chopknuckle by Noah Pohl. It was a longer story in this collection and this took me 2 or 3 sessions to read and I am a pretty fast reader, but hey, it did keep my interest, it was easy to break into sections due to the divisions or transitions between the scenes, and it was very descriptive.
October 6, 2025
An anthology of horror short stories sure to set your hair on end every time you hear a creaking floorboard. I love antholgies. I discover new-to-me authors and stretch my genre preferences. "Different" is easy to discover when you sample an author's skillful ability to scare you in fewer pages than most chapters in a novel. As always, some of the stories are better than others, but all of these are winners.
February 11, 2026
While I'm still reading all the stories in this book, I'm giving a special shout out to Diana Olney's Insatiable.
This short story takes you on a quick jaunt into the life of Vivian, a seventeen year old girl who is only half human. It's got a nice slow build up to what is inevitable, and her coming-of-age party is a rip-raging good time. In the aftermath, she embarks on a new journey, one that leaves you "insatiable' for more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This short story takes you on a quick jaunt into the life of Vivian, a seventeen year old girl who is only half human. It's got a nice slow build up to what is inevitable, and her coming-of-age party is a rip-raging good time. In the aftermath, she embarks on a new journey, one that leaves you "insatiable' for more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews