Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh

by Justin A. Burnett (Editor), Jon Padgett, Michael Wehunt

From the back cover:Welcome to Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh, an anthology celebrating the uncanny realm of the living inanimate. Featuring tales of dolls, mannequins, statues, and other varieties of humanoid horror, Mannequin explores the intersection between artificiality and life through a stunning variety of writers both established and new. This highly-anticipated debut anthology from Silent Motorist Media is certain leave readers of horror and weird fiction more than satisfied.
Ramsey Campbell
Michael Wehunt
Christine Morgan
Richard Gavin
Kristine Ong Muslim
Nicholas Day
Austin James
William Tea
Duane Pesice
S. L. Edwards
Matthew M. Bartlett
S. E. Casey
Justin A. Burnett
Daulton Dickey
C. P. Dunphey
Jon Padgett
Introduction by Christopher Slatsky

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2019

About the author

Justin A. Burnett is the author of The Puppet King and Other Atonements. He’s also the Executive Editor of Silent Motorist Media, a weird fiction press responsible for the publication of the anthologies Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh, which was named best horror anthology of 2019 by Rue Morgue magazine, The Nightside Codex, and Hymns of Abomination, a tribute to the work of Matthew M. Bartlett. He currently lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 Stars
I absolutely love horror stories that revolve around dolls, puppets and other humanoid objects so I was eager to check out this themed horror anthology. Like in almost every short story collection, I ended up liking some stories more than others. Anthologies are particularly hard to rate and review because each story is written by a different author with a very style. The odds of liking every story equally are pretty unlikely.  In this case, I loved two of the stories in the collection, but the other ones either fell flat or missed the mark for me. 

My favourite stories were:

Balladyna by Michael Wehunt
This story was so fantastically dark. I don't want to spoil the twist so I'll just say that the author played with one of my favourite topics in this harrowing tale.

Window Dressing by Christine Morgan
It takes a talented author to make a store mannequin so creepy. The story was perhaps a bit predictable, but I still loved every minute of it. Fashion horror should get it’s own subgenre.

Anthologies offer a fantastic opportunity to find new authors and after finishing this collection, I am very eager to check out more stories by both Wehunt & Morgan.

While I did not connect with the majority of the stories, I really enjoyed those two stories.  Since horror is such a personal genre, I would still encourage readers to check it out for themselves if they also love creepy dolls and puppets. 

Disclaimer: I received a digital copy from the editor.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am terrified of dolls, dummies, and mannequins, so naturally I wanted to read all about them coming to life and being malevolent! With Halloween around the corner, I thought this would be an excellently timed pick, and that cover is haunting. While the theme was there, I found the substance to be a bit lacking for many of the stories.

The introduction by Christopher Slatzky was stellar. It was terrifying all on its own, and it made me eager to dive into the stories to follow. I also immediately purchased two books by Slatzky based on this introduction alone, so that's saying something.

The stories I deemed to be outstanding were:

"Cyril" by Ramsey Campbell - A lonely woman entertains a man in her home and he brings her a doll who she names Cyril. Disturbing.

"Window Dressing" by Christine Morgan - A lady finds herself the subject of ridicule on public transit and regularly notices that a mannequin in a storefront window is always wearing the same clothes as her. Very creepy.

"The Part that Dies" by Nicholas Day - A housekeeper's employer dies and his twin brother is left. She discovers a statue within the home as it undergoes a special transformation. The imagery will stay with me from this one. It would have been a perfect "Night Gallery" episode.

"Kuklalar" by Matthew M. Bartlett - A company decides marionettes will become managers to save money and increase efficiency. An alarming concept.

"To a Puppet, From a Dummy" by Jon Padgett - This story seems to be autobiographical. It is both disturbing and hopeful in its explanation of Padgett's fear and then love for automatons. This was my favourite in the book because of its ability to make me less afraid of ventriloquist dummies, but more afraid of myself. Padgett is incomparable when he's in his element, and this is it.

I believe the above were the best stories, and they add up to five out of a total of sixteen stories. To me, that means I can only fairly give this a 3/5. However, it is a high 3 because the good ones were really good.

[Danielle (Danni) Vinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this gem during one of my bookish jaunts on the internet.
Mannequin: Tales Of Wood Made Flesh, is a fantastic, and terrifying anthology of stories about...
well...wooden things that come to life. Every tale was excellent but some of them blew me away.

~Into the Fugue by Austin James
Horrifying.
~Balladyna by Michael Wehunt
It's Wehunt.
~Window Dressing by Christine Morgan.
Brilliant.
~Dance Of the Marionettes by C.P. Dunphy
~The Part That Dies by Nicholas Day

My favourite piece in this book is written by Jon Padgett.
To A Puppet, From A Dummy
It's autobiographical, and given that I know Jon, and have spoken to him, it made the story that much more special. It gutted me, quelled the pain, then healed the wound.

This anthology is very highly recommended.

The cover art is by Don Noble.
The publisher is Silent Motorist Media.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up, I skipped a couple stories but if you have Kindle Unlimited and dig Weird Lit, it's worth checking out.

[Hannah]

Maybe I’ll pick this one back up and finish it another time, maybe I won’t. Out of the ten stories I read, I only really liked Nicholas Day’s, and I liked it a lot, but that’s still not a great ratio.

[erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy subject, poor follow-through. The stories in this one were hit or miss for me, mostly miss.