What do you think?
Rate this book
Nightside : Tales of Outre Noir
Nightside: Tales of Outre Noir is a collection of stories that hash together the Bizarre and the Noir. With authors who are on top of their game, this book is filled with tense prose and horrifying scenes that lovers of dark fiction will appreciate.
There are screenplays mixing Lovecraftian horror and Biblical tales, and stories of detectives solving gruesome murders. It's a sub-genre cocktail, shaken and shared with murderous crazies that could very well be your friends or family members.
There are screenplays mixing Lovecraftian horror and Biblical tales, and stories of detectives solving gruesome murders. It's a sub-genre cocktail, shaken and shared with murderous crazies that could very well be your friends or family members.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2020
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 30, 2020
Good collection reads well
Personal favorites were Death Answers by Kimberly Godwin, found this one a bit Lovercraftian which made it right for me
Buthcher Baby by Jason Norton again a nice one Mafia and Lovecraft what could be better
alll the others were good reads but those to were the standouts for me
all in all good and worth the money will read again at some point
Personal favorites were Death Answers by Kimberly Godwin, found this one a bit Lovercraftian which made it right for me
Buthcher Baby by Jason Norton again a nice one Mafia and Lovecraft what could be better
alll the others were good reads but those to were the standouts for me
all in all good and worth the money will read again at some point
August 29, 2020
This noir collection reads fast at 188 pages. Holly Rae Garcia's story is my favorite.
September 9, 2020
I'm giving this a 2.5/5.
The concepts present in this anthology were interesting and definitely of the noir variety. I was surprised and intrigued by the different types of stories told, but some felt a little contrived and there were a few that didn't engage me, and some that I just didn't get at all. I'd say the main reason that I took away a few stars is because the editing is quite poor on a few of the stories; a lot of grammatical errors (extra words or words that should have been taken out ex. "a the man left" type issues, even a header quote on a story had "Dead Kennedy" instead of "Dead Kennedys" when referring to the band). I find these mistakes unnecessarily distracting and they detract from the content for me.
I very much enjoyed the first story, "The Many Indiscretions of Agent 592," by Holly Rae Garcia, as it plays on the idea of someone getting hired to be a spy and just sucking at it hugely. I have always wondered what happens to those kinds of people who fail at being CIA agents so miserably, and this one sums it up for me hilariously. From that moment, I was quite engaged and powered through the rest of the book.
I had a good time with "Butcher Baby" by Jason Norton because it kept me enthralled and felt like good writing. It made me think of an episode of The Sopranos, told from the perspective of a butcher, and with some cult-like qualities tossed into it.
There was more than one story about furries, which I found kind of fun and new, and one of my favourite stories in the anthology was "Wolf in Wolf's Clothing" by Michael Martin Garrett. It was fun and cute and the puns made me chuckle on more than one occasion. One that was furry-esque was "Teddy Bear! Kill! Kill" by Phil Thomas, but it ended up leaning towards an illness that could change someone into a teddy bear, taking the cuteness and comfort of teddy bears and turning it into something to be feared.
I also enjoyed "Voyeur" by Kimberly Godwin (although the title is spelled "Voyuer" and I don't know if that was another spelling error or on purpose). This had some flair to it. The creepiness of an otherworldly shadow torturing a couple was amusing.
However, the rest of the stories fell a bit short for me and I did not like the ones that were written as scripts - just not a style that I like to read. I think many of the authors here have good form and potential, so I would by no means boycott any of them, and would even look forward to the future work of some of them.
A thank you to Close to the Bone and Mark Slade for the ARC!
The concepts present in this anthology were interesting and definitely of the noir variety. I was surprised and intrigued by the different types of stories told, but some felt a little contrived and there were a few that didn't engage me, and some that I just didn't get at all. I'd say the main reason that I took away a few stars is because the editing is quite poor on a few of the stories; a lot of grammatical errors (extra words or words that should have been taken out ex. "a the man left" type issues, even a header quote on a story had "Dead Kennedy" instead of "Dead Kennedys" when referring to the band). I find these mistakes unnecessarily distracting and they detract from the content for me.
I very much enjoyed the first story, "The Many Indiscretions of Agent 592," by Holly Rae Garcia, as it plays on the idea of someone getting hired to be a spy and just sucking at it hugely. I have always wondered what happens to those kinds of people who fail at being CIA agents so miserably, and this one sums it up for me hilariously. From that moment, I was quite engaged and powered through the rest of the book.
I had a good time with "Butcher Baby" by Jason Norton because it kept me enthralled and felt like good writing. It made me think of an episode of The Sopranos, told from the perspective of a butcher, and with some cult-like qualities tossed into it.
There was more than one story about furries, which I found kind of fun and new, and one of my favourite stories in the anthology was "Wolf in Wolf's Clothing" by Michael Martin Garrett. It was fun and cute and the puns made me chuckle on more than one occasion. One that was furry-esque was "Teddy Bear! Kill! Kill" by Phil Thomas, but it ended up leaning towards an illness that could change someone into a teddy bear, taking the cuteness and comfort of teddy bears and turning it into something to be feared.
I also enjoyed "Voyeur" by Kimberly Godwin (although the title is spelled "Voyuer" and I don't know if that was another spelling error or on purpose). This had some flair to it. The creepiness of an otherworldly shadow torturing a couple was amusing.
However, the rest of the stories fell a bit short for me and I did not like the ones that were written as scripts - just not a style that I like to read. I think many of the authors here have good form and potential, so I would by no means boycott any of them, and would even look forward to the future work of some of them.
A thank you to Close to the Bone and Mark Slade for the ARC!
September 22, 2020
'Nightside : Tales of Outre Noir' is a collection of dark and unusual stories, mixing horror and comedy in a highly successful manner. There are a total of 15 stories which range from plays to an email exchange. Each being completely different - not just in writing style not also in subject matter - as can be expected when there is a range of authors. One of the best aspects of an anthology of this type is that it serves as an introduction of a variety of new authors and I've certainly come across some authors that I'll be following online as a result. Definitely a positive result from reading 'Nightside : Tales of Outre Noir'.
The collection is also a fairly short read at under 200 pages and easy to get started into reading. The first story of "The Many Indiscretions of Agent 592," by Holly Rae Garcia, works well as the introduction as it is both hilarious (always a good sign, when a story makes me laugh out loud on public transport), with a slightly dark twist and from there we proceed to "Drunk on the Moon" by Paul D. Brazill, leading us into the darker and more twisted territory with zombies and werewolves galore.
Definitely worth a read. Don't miss out.
The collection is also a fairly short read at under 200 pages and easy to get started into reading. The first story of "The Many Indiscretions of Agent 592," by Holly Rae Garcia, works well as the introduction as it is both hilarious (always a good sign, when a story makes me laugh out loud on public transport), with a slightly dark twist and from there we proceed to "Drunk on the Moon" by Paul D. Brazill, leading us into the darker and more twisted territory with zombies and werewolves galore.
Definitely worth a read. Don't miss out.
November 26, 2020
This anthology is a dark collection of tales ranging from undead detectives to killer stuffed animals, with the pages in between filled with stories featuring demons, vampires, werewolves, and damsels in distress. It's an eclectic mix of tales told in a variety of styles, and while there were a couple of stories I didn't care for, it was an entertaining read overall with a few memorable standouts like Drunk on the Moon, Butcher Baby, and Dracula, Private Eye and the Demon Skull of Badakari. If you're into the dark and the weird, it's worth checking out!
November 1, 2025
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I delved into this short anthology. Man I was in for a pleasant surprise. This book is filled with crime and comedy, in the form of short stories, scripts and the bizarre. I mostly enjoyed the crime stories for example the opening tale in emails only. Brilliant. What a way to open.
What follows is often a collection of tales filled with surprises. “Company Man” has the best opening ever.
A few of my favorites are:
The many indiscretions of Agent 592 by Holly Rae Garcia
Skin Flicks by Hesse Rawlins
Company Man by Tom Pitts
A few negatives:
Some of the humor seemed slapstick, but a lot didn’t hit the mark.
Some of the stories are written with passive passages mixed with active. A few tales seemed over the top in police brutality–might have worked in the ’80s, but not these days.
The negatives are only a few and don’t distract from the positives.
This collection (as a whole) is excellent. I really enjoyed it. If you like dark noir and bizarre tales, then this is the anthology for you.
PS: Might want to correct the misspelling on the Kindle page
What follows is often a collection of tales filled with surprises. “Company Man” has the best opening ever.
A few of my favorites are:
The many indiscretions of Agent 592 by Holly Rae Garcia
Skin Flicks by Hesse Rawlins
Company Man by Tom Pitts
A few negatives:
Some of the humor seemed slapstick, but a lot didn’t hit the mark.
Some of the stories are written with passive passages mixed with active. A few tales seemed over the top in police brutality–might have worked in the ’80s, but not these days.
The negatives are only a few and don’t distract from the positives.
This collection (as a whole) is excellent. I really enjoyed it. If you like dark noir and bizarre tales, then this is the anthology for you.
PS: Might want to correct the misspelling on the Kindle page
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews