Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void

by Erik McHatton

All of us, at one time or another, have heard the call of the Void. For some, it is a song; for others a shriek; for others still, the faintest of echoes. Most of us live our lives trying to ignore it, pretending it isn’t there. But it has always been there, watching, waiting, hungering, and above all else, patient. The Void knows that, sooner or later, we will find our way back to it—and, once we do, our sanity will buckle and break at the chaos and terror within.

Erik McHatton, however, is not one to turn from such monstrosity. This, his first collection of work, is not for those who seek comfort—indeed, STRAW WORLD has been meticulously built for those who are, in fact, uncomfortable by that which too easily offers succor and surcease from existential distress. From the baroque stylings of Clark Ashton Smith to the bleak nihilism of Thomas Ligotti, these fifteen stories investigate the darker, more unsettling corners of philosophical argument, calling out to those who hunger and question, yes, but also to those who simply delight in a hideous tale told with relish. Be invited to a disturbingly familial art installation; witness a mother’s desperate grief; be party to a doctor’s late-night appointment with eternity; journey through a world of Boschian madness; and finally, read the pages of a cursed book containing worlds within worlds (within worlds).

Turn your eyes to Erik McHatton’s STRAW WORLD…and also, to the Void beyond.

After all, it has ever had its eye on you.

Genres: Horror

217 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[Alex Wolfgang · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a creepy, creative, and diverse debut collection, and so well written. I've read a handful of these before, as I've known and followed Erik for a few years now, but seeing the stories I've enjoyed mixed in with new stories puts his talent on full display. We've got everything from classic cosmic horror, "Demodorum," "The Last Case of Jonah Wexley Abbot," to Ligottian melancholia "The Man Who Collected Ligotti," "On the Night Bus," to some shocking modern weird "Station 42", "We Must be Rabbits" to something close to more traditional horror, "Timmy Thomersons Turn."

For me, though, the crown jewel of this collection is the opening story "Straw World," which sucks you into an incredibly strange interactive journey before breaking the fourth wall in the most unsettling way imaginable. I can see why it became the overarching meta-narrative of the book.

Highly recommended.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re like me and spend every waking hour scouring the internet in search of antisocial Weird Horror authors who will scratch that Ligotti itch, then have I got the book for you! You’ll never look at a pile of meat the same way again.

[Christopher O'Halloran · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Straw World, Erik McHatton builds a winding road made of oddly shaped bricks.

"This one looks like Lovecraft!"
"This looks like Poe!
"Tell me this isn't a Ligotti brick."

It's a road the carries you into the air, so subtly that by the time you notice the incline, you're hundreds of feet up.

Don't worry, though; there's a fresh pile of sentient meat at the bottom of your fall.

I'm not usually one for existential dread, but McHatton blends it so well in his fiction. You're not reading about stuffy intellectuals experiencing the unknown and driven mad by it; you're reading about the working class being beaten down and driven further into the ground. Hitting rock bottom and drilling deeper into bedrock.

Why? Because something's down there. And it won't stop whispering.

Definitely give this one a read if you're into the surreal and the bleak!

Favourites: Station 42, Timmy Tommerson's Turn, Something's Off About Wizzle, Knocks

[Todd S · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The man with the television for a head showed up in the middle of the night, and left purpose at my door."

"We are being driven by a car made of meat down a road composed of squashed marigolds and the eyes of rabbits."

"In the gray wastes that lay between death and the waiting Void, deep beneath the necropolis of Dessecai, on a profane altar, The Whispering Book, Demodorum, lies."

Those are the first lines of some of my favorite stories in Erik McHatton's new weird horror collection. There is diversity amongst the stories themselves in how they feel, with some of the stories being straightforward Ligottian horrors a la "Station 42" and "The Man Who Collected Ligotti," versus the surreal dreamlike nightmares of "Where We Are, Where We Were, Where We Will Always Be" and the fantastically oppressive closing story "Demodorum," the latter of which reads like a slimy, bleeding cover of a fantasy heavy metal album and was probably my favorite story in the entire collection.

The most interesting story to me, however, was the titular opening story "Straw World" which did something I've never seen in fiction before in how it involves the reader, effectively inviting the reader's emotions and experiences up to the stage as an uncomfortable assistant. It invoked uncomfortable emotions I can't quite describe, and I'd go so far as to call this one mandatory reading for fans of weird horror. This, and a few others (looking at you, Demodorum), I am already planning on rereading to study and experience these fantastic nightmares a second time.

I *thoroughly* enjoyed this collection, and am thankful to the editor for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Frances Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC of Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void. First, I would like to admit to my bias for Erik because I’ve read his work before and have always thoroughly enjoyed his stories. His creativity and skill are refined to a sharp blade. Erik is a master of the craft and I think you would agree with me if you read his work.

Also, Erik is a fantastic person and he deserves to have his work known.

Anyway, let’s get to the review itself!

This book is a collection of short stories which includes the titular “Straw World.” It is the first story in the collection and it establishes the tone for the entire collection. “Straw World” guides readers with its inviting prose into cutting imagery that stabs your heart. I’ve read a lot of horror and have become desensitized but this story still clawed its way under my skin. “Straw World” is the very definition of haunting. It will never leave you.

While “Straw World” prepares readers for the darkness that lurks between pages, Erik also has perfected the art of subtle horror. It’s easy to dismiss monsters beyond human comprehension but the real terrors threaded into life are everlasting. Stories like “The Success of Dover’s Glen: A Study of Four People” and “Little Dirt Boy” are perfect examples of this.

Then, there are surreal pieces that linger in your mind with their outrageous concepts while still maintaining that air of sickening horror such as “We Must Be Rabbits”, “Where We Are, Where We Were, Where We Will Always Be”, and “The Man Who Collected Ligotti”. Yet, Erik shows restraint in implementing the strange. He somehow maintains a balance between the weird and real. Even when I was questioning the humanity of some of the characters, I understood them.

Erik is able to write eldritch horror (“The Last Case of Dr. Jonah Wexley Abbott”), hauntings (“Timmy Thomerson’s Turn”), horror comedy (“Something’s Off About Wizzle”) hellish torture (“Demodorum”) and something completely alien (“In Carnality”). There is a talent in being so versatile with different literary techniques while maintaining a consistent author’s voice.

Straw World and Other Echoes of the Void is a stunning novel debut. For fans of horror, I know you’ll find something to love in this collection. Furthermore, Thomas Ligotti fans need to get this book. “The Man Who Collected Ligotti” is absolutely a love letter to Ligotti’s work and it was cleverly crafted.

So, if you’re interested in reading some of the most creative and dark fiction out there, then you need to add this book to your collection.

Welcome to Straw World : )

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a debut collection of high quality literary horror, with intentionally very strong Ligotti vibes, full of metaphysical ambiguity, philosophical mystery, and existential questioning, meant to provoke dread, experiential panic, and speculative angst. For the most part, the stories do fulfill their purpose, drawing on nihilism, bleak cosmological imagery, and the very real possibility of human purposelessness. Admittedly, sometimes the author overdoes it: there were a couple of stories that confused and mystified me with their difficult to parse writing. Overall, however, the collection deserves wide attention not only for its sense of the human as lacking cosmic or existential significance, ominously living under the whims of entities ontologically far higher and stronger than man, but also for its atmospheric writing, richly original concepts and unsettling imagery.

Almost all of the stories within (one is totally original to the collection) I'd read before in their original publication, but even on a second reading they maintain a disquieting coherence despite their wide range and differentiated approaches to terror. Be it cosmic, weird or survival horror, tales breaking the fourth wall, Lovecraftian pastiche or straightforwardly supernatural stories, a feeling of disorientation and mysterious, collective loss, persists throughout.

I especially liked "We Must be Rabbits"; so many horror tropes in the service of a tale which is always just one step ahead of the reader! "Timmy Thomerson’s Turn" was another favorite, a Halloween story far closer to familiar horror than any other in the book. Finally, the opening story, the titular "Straw World," was simply a marvelous tale of such incredible subtlety, it should be mandatory for one to dive in blindly and read it in one sitting!

Beautifully balanced between the ordinary and the uncanny, Erik McHatton's debut collection delivers a wealth of gripping narratives always flirting with the creepiest aspects of urban and suburban life, in various settings, time periods and contexts. It's a collection easy to recommend to experienced horror fans who enjoy intelligent premises and extraordinary writing.

[ScarlettAnomalyReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a new to me author and a debut collection from them, so thank you for letting me check it out!
I love a collection from any author, old or new to get a good feel of what they are about and write like, and I liked what I saw.

I feel super basic picking this one as my favorite, because, come on the one the book is basically named after?
Okay but it was so so good, Straw World still has me thinking about it a bit, and I may or may not have went back and read that one a few more times, it was weird and uncomfortable and wild. As you basically went along through the art installment, it some how got more weird, than it already was, which I don't know how, because it was giving me the creeps just reading.

I want to say more about it, but I really do not want to steal the chance from you to read it for the first time like I did, it was an experience that I physically felt.

My second pick was probably Station 42, it was just so unhinged, and I have a thing about TV horror left over from when I was a kid, looking at you Poltergeist.

This is just such a interesting and crazy collection, I will be looking forward to more from Erik, with a mind like this, the stories are only going to get better.

[Pierce King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erik McHatton's Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void will make you feel like nothing matters and everything is awful, but in a good way! The stories in this collection prove that Erik McHatton knows how weird fiction works.

Each story felt special, and none of them felt repetitive. The ideas were unique, and I loved how Erik switched each story's writing style. From the opening story, Straw World, the book forced me to process the characters' emotions and think about Erik's view of the world.

Some stand-out favorites of mine from the collection are Little Dirt Boy, We Must Be Rabbits, and Knocks. I just realized that those were the first couple of stories, but they hooked me so hard.

I recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys weird fiction. Especially those who are passionate about supporting modern authors and seeing where the genre will grow. I plan on revisiting this collection soon.

I made this review by reading an ARC copy from the author. This review embodies my own opinion about the book.

[The Blog Without a Face · Rating 5 out of 5]

BWAF Score: 10/10

Welcome back, you twisted fucks. This time around, we’re here to dissect Straw World and Other Echoes From the Void by Erik McHatton. It’s a fever dream that’ll leave you gasping, grinning, and questioning your own sanity. This book doesn’t just push boundaries but chews them up and spits them out like rancid gristle. If you’re one of my cult readers who craves horror that’s raw, weird, and unapologetically literary, this is your holy grail. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to corner a stranger in a dive bar and slur, “You gotta read this, you spineless fuck!”

My first exposure to McHatton was his standout entry in Tenebrous Press‘s Brave New Weird Volume 3 from earlier this year entitled “The Man Who Collected Ligotti.” Straw World is a plunge into a psychic swamp where every step squelches with dread and wonder. This debut collection is a jagged mosaic of rural surrealism, existential horror, and grotesque folk fables that defies easy labels. It’s like stumbling into a cornfield where the scarecrows are stitched from your own regrets, whispering your failures back to you. McHatton doesn’t write stories; he conjures rituals, each one a descent into a world where grief, decay, and the Void itself are the only constants.

The title story, “Straw World,” sets the tone with a vengeance. It’s a guided tour through an art installation of straw figures (families, lovers, dogs) frozen in moments of quiet horror. The narrator forces you to project your own loved ones onto these effigies, turning personal loss into a universal wound. Lines like “Her heart, still beating, exploded out onto her chest” hit like a sledgehammer, blending visceral imagery with a haunting meditation on impermanence. It’s a story you survive, and it’s worth every scar.

The rest of the collection keeps the pedal down. “Knocks” traps you in a house with Evie, a girl tormented by relentless pounding from an unseen entity, building an atmosphere so claustrophobic you’ll check your own locks. “Little Dirt Boy” is a gut-wrenching tale of a mother, Agnes, sculpting a grotesque effigy of her lost child from dirt, balancing tenderness and horror in a way that’ll leave you raw. “We Must Be Rabbits” is a psychological gut-punch, with characters reduced to animalistic roles under a sinister “Father,” exploring control and dehumanization with a cruelty that lingers.

“The Success of Dover’s Glen: A Study in Four People” paints a dying town through four broken souls, each fragment a shard of despair. “Station 42” introduces a television-headed man delivering a cursed Quine Model TV, spiraling into rage and liberation. “Timmy Thamerson’s Turn” turns Halloween into a cosmic revenge tale, with a ghostly kid in a flowery sheet stealing your breath. “The Face Dealer” is a gruesome fairy tale about vanity, while “The Last Case of Dr. Jonah Wexley Abbott” dives into occult horror with a doomed doctor facing a Lovecraftian beast. “On the Night Bus” is an anxiety-soaked journal of a man unraveling on a cursed commute, and “Something’s Off About Wizzle” is a bizarre, almost absurd encounter with a Muppet-like monster.

“Where We Are, Where We Were, Where We Will Always Be” is a surreal nightmare involving a meat-car and a puppet named Zilch, blending body horror with existential absurdity. “In Carnality” is a brief, meditative piece about a sentient mound of flesh, oddly serene for its grotesque premise. “The Man Who Collected Ligotti” is a four-part love letter to cosmic horror, channeling Thomas Ligotti’s nihilism through a performer, a paranoiac, a dreamer, and a collector. Finally, “Demodorum” closes with a mythic tale of a malevolent book in a necropolis, weaving gore and despair into a cosmic tapestry.

McHatton’s prose is a goddamn revelation. It’s electric, poetic, and obsessive, like a backwoods preacher high on moonshine and existential dread. He carves sentences, each one dripping with imagery that’s equal parts gorgeous and grotesque. Take this from “Straw World”: “The air strings its exposed straw, cruelly.” It’s the kind of line that makes you pause, reread, and wonder if you’re still human. The prose dances on the edge of pretension but always lands in something raw, whether it’s grief, rage, or the cold pull of the Void. It’s recursive, circling back to motifs like straw, dirt, and voids, creating a cohesive atmosphere of decay that binds the stories without ever feeling forced.

The structure is just as bold. McHatton laughs in the face of three-act structures and predictable arcs. These stories are conceptual whirlwinds, where narrative logic bends to serve theme and mood. It’s not weird for weird’s sake. It’s a deliberate rebellion against cookie-cutter storytelling. The result is a collection that feels alive, pulsing with a warped heartbeat that echoes House of Leaves, The Wicker Man, and Ligotti’s cosmic despair, with a nod to Carson Winter’s knack for blending the mundane with the horrific. Winter’s introduction, by the way, is a perfect primer, raw and sincere, setting the stage for the madness to come.

Straw World is a meditation on grief, memory, and the fragility of identity. These stories dig into how we cope with loss, whether it’s a mother crafting a dirt child or a town crumbling under its own delusions. There’s a strong thread of ecological entropy—fields rot, landscapes choke, and characters are consumed by the land as much as their own minds. The Void isn’t just a boogeyman; it’s the inevitable pull of impermanence, the thing we all face when our stories unravel.

But there’s a strange ecstasy here, too. Even at their most broken, McHatton’s characters reach for connection, redemption, or just a fleeting moment of clarity. This tension between despair and defiance gives the collection its soul. It doesn’t preach or moralize. It haunts, leaving you to sift through the wreckage.

Some readers may choke on Straw World‘s dense, recursive prose or get lost in its labyrinthine structure. Stories like “In Carnality” are so abstract they might leave you squinting in confusion. But for my tastes, these aren’t bugs, they’re the whole fucking point. This isn’t for people who want jump scares or neat resolutions. It’s for those who crave horror that’s bold, strange, and unapologetically literary. Best of all, it’s unfilmable. No Hollywood suit could turn this into a popcorn flick without gutting its essence. It’s horror as art, not commerce. It’s the kind of book I’m here to scream about: weird, fearless, and dripping with atmosphere. It’s a highlight of 2025.

TL;DR: Straw World and Other Echoes From the Void is a deranged, lyrical triumph. It doesn’t ask if it works, but rather dares you to keep up. For you freaks who live for the strange and the brutal, this is your new obsession. Read it, weep, and send me a thank-you note.

Recommended for: The emotionally disturbed, the aesthetically cursed, and the spiritually composted.

Not recommended for: Anyone who flinched at the phrase sentient mound of flesh and didn’t immediately want to know more.

[Horror Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stellar collection of horror stories ranging from the freaky, to the creepy, and the brilliantly weird. Sometimes all three at once!

I always find picking favorites in a collection where every story captures your attention difficult. But some of these had that undescribable something extra which is different for every person. But right away, with the titular story, you know you're in good hands with the author. And what follows are all based on that story and the houses in it (you'll understand once you read it).

Stories like Knocks, Little Dirt Boy, and We Must Be Rabbits leave your mind reeling and gives you chills. The author leaves enough OUT of the stories to let your imagination fill in the voids and that's an excellent thing as it draws you deeper into these incredible worlds.

Station 42 is a creepy as hell tale about a strange old tv set. On The Night Bus and The Man Who Collected Ligotti are so vividly weird with a sense of impending dread laced throughout. The Success Of Dovers Glen takes four diverse characters going about their jobs in a city with seemingly no other people and ties them together with a man...but you'll have to read to see how that happens.

There are many more stories in here. You'll find ghostly kids on Halloween, cosmic horror monstrosities, and some psychological horror as well. They're extremely well written and immersive and I very highly recommend this collection.

I received a copy of this book from the author. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.

[Kyle Nowak · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void, McHatton joins Ligotti and Padgett on my list of all-time favorite authors. What an absolutely incredible debut collection!

McHatton is a true master of horror with an unnatural ability to curate certain realities and make them your own. He isn't afraid to drag you through some of the darkest regions of the human condition, but always does so with utmost respect to both you, the reader, and the characters in your mind.

Equally impressive is McHatton's apparent understanding of various mental health experiences, which he always treats in a way that feels just as validating as it does horrifying, never relying on the experience as some sort of cheap plot device. If anything, the stories here are likely to make you feel ‘heard,’ especially if you are someone like me who finds comfort in the works of Ligotti and Padgett. If you know what I am talking about, this pertains to you; and you will undoubtedly love Straw World!

The level of passion and care McHatton (and others involved) put into this work is beyond evident; such an impressive display in versatility and diverse knowledge of the craft. I am really glad to have Straw World in my collection – where it will rightfully rest beside Ligotti and Padgett, along with a twisted army of Vastarien issues standing guard.

The Void lingers in the shadows of reality… Read this while you have the chance.

Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void is an amazing collection!

[R.B. Shifman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's clear from start to finish why this collection has been submitted to be considered for a Shirley Jackson Award. I greedily devoured every bite in this meaty set of stories, which are brilliantly composed, with superior writing, vibrant and haunting images, and some exquisitely captivating first lines. Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void represents a masterful collection of mainly existential horror, the stories becoming increasingly surreal toward the latter part of the book, as if the fantastic stories are inching the reader closer to the Void...or to the Demodorum. I loved all the stories, but I was most delighted (and disturbed) by "Station 42," "Where We Are, Where We Were, Where We Will Always Be," and "Demodorum," a fitting ending to the horrors within. There are flavors of other legendary horror authors evident in this fresh, distinctive collection. For instance, the mundane horror elements in "Little Dirt Boy" (townsfolk) and "We Must Be Rabbits" reminded me of Shirley Jackson, while the stories became more bizarre and 'Ligotti-like' as they slithered their way toward Infinite nothingness, carrying me with them. And in the end, they're simply really great, enjoyable horror stories, leaving the reader short of breath and peeking around corners to catch a glimpse of what might lie beyond. Strongly recommend.

[Emma E. Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void is everything Weird Horror aims to be. Unsettling, profound, and full of terrifying puppets, this is one of the most unique collections I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. McHatton is truly a master of the strange and uncanny. These stories toss you into the Void, and you’ll come back forever changed.