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The Fiends in the Furrows #2
The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror
The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror is a collection of short stories of Folk Horror, honoring its rich and atmospheric traditions. Fans of Folk Horror will find herein more terrifying tales of rural isolation, urban alienation, suburban superstition, pastoral paranoia, as well as mindless and monstrous ritual that epitomize the atmospheric dread of this fascinating and developing subgenre.
Featuring: Alys Hobbs, 'Yan'; Coy Hall, 'Hour of the Cat’s Eye'; Elizabeth Twist, 'The Complete Compleat Gardener'; Neil McRobert, 'A Well-Fed Man'; Shawn Wallace, 'The Binding Tide'; Jack Lothian, 'A Deed Without a Name'; Hazel King, 'The Hanging Tree and The Old Tom Pit'; Sara Century, 'The Death of a Drop of Water'; Kristi DeMeester, 'A Ritual for Pleasure and Atonement'; Tim Major, 'The Slow King'; Tracy Fahey, 'Dearg-an-Daol'.
Featuring: Alys Hobbs, 'Yan'; Coy Hall, 'Hour of the Cat’s Eye'; Elizabeth Twist, 'The Complete Compleat Gardener'; Neil McRobert, 'A Well-Fed Man'; Shawn Wallace, 'The Binding Tide'; Jack Lothian, 'A Deed Without a Name'; Hazel King, 'The Hanging Tree and The Old Tom Pit'; Sara Century, 'The Death of a Drop of Water'; Kristi DeMeester, 'A Ritual for Pleasure and Atonement'; Tim Major, 'The Slow King'; Tracy Fahey, 'Dearg-an-Daol'.
189 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
September 15, 2025
3 stars
short review for busy readers:
Not nearly as good as Volume 1. Many of the selections are not actual folk horror, but cousins or have the most forced of connections.
It may be that folk horror doesn't have set boundaries and new ideas can trickle in, as the introduction puts forward, but we all know a folk horror story when we read it...and under half in this anthology qualify. In fact, two are clearly of a completely different genre entirely!
In general, however, the writing quality is high, even if some of the stories were not as carefully edited as they should have been. The wider variety of settings -- including Canada, Germany and Ukraine - make for a pleasant change to only UK or US settings.
in detail:
Short summaries and opinions...
Yan (4 stars) A hermit shepherdess witnesses a murder...will she report it? More a traditional ghost story than folk horror, but well-crafted and structured.
Hour of the Cat's Eye (1.5) An awkwardly plotted and ultimately silly tale about a mercenary in the 30 Years War being used for a village ritual. Historical fantasy, not folk horror.
The Compleat Complete Gardener (3.5) A feminist revenge tale set in a futuristic Canada suffering terribly from the climate crisis. Spends far too much time detailing dance steps, but has a strong narrative voice and good rural ties.
A Well-Fed Man (5 stars) During the Soviet-made Ukrainian famine of 1932, a young boy is almost killed uncovering a horrible local secret. More general horror than folk horror, but extremely well done.
The Binding Tide (2) A company wants to develop a New England seaside town with a rare set of standing stones. The townies are very against the plans. Great on the New England vibes and corporate in-fighting, but laughably subpar on everything else. A number of glaring factual errors, re: history and mythology.
A Deed Without A Name (5) Best of Show! A different angle on the 3 witches in Shakespeare's MacBeth. Stylistically interesting and symbolically very tight. Classic lit as historical folk horror. Superb!
The Hanging Tree and the Old Tom Pit (4) A vicar's daughter blames him for the death of her mother and in revenge, sabotages a yearly village ritual. Interesting folk horror that uses coal mining (the harvesting of coal) in lieu of the normal agricultural setting.
The Death of a Drop of Water (2.5) Bone white, drippy women from the local pond are coming to claim a woman slowly losing her mind since her mother died. Typical "insanity or the paranormal?" story and thus fairly ho-hum. Very hard to parse in parts.
A Ritual for Pleasure and Atonement (1) Self-hating, suicidal gay man hallucinates witches in the back garden, possibly because religion doesn't like gays and his boyfriend doesn't think he's sexy enough any more. Annoyingly "poetic" and terribly cliche.
The Slow King (3) Young Campbell is chosen to play the part of a magical boy in a film...but what if the film and reality are the same? A time travel story, not folk horror. Difficult to really understand what is going on towards the end, but the dialogue is very good.
Dearg-An-Daol (4.5) Uncle Sean is dying and his nephew comes down to assist with his final wishes and arrange the wake. Little does he know that Uncle has been fighting a battle with forest spirits in the shape of beetles for decades! A well done, very Gaelic folk horror piece with all the trimmings.
Thank you, Barbara K, for another lovely buddy read!
short review for busy readers:
Not nearly as good as Volume 1. Many of the selections are not actual folk horror, but cousins or have the most forced of connections.
It may be that folk horror doesn't have set boundaries and new ideas can trickle in, as the introduction puts forward, but we all know a folk horror story when we read it...and under half in this anthology qualify. In fact, two are clearly of a completely different genre entirely!
In general, however, the writing quality is high, even if some of the stories were not as carefully edited as they should have been. The wider variety of settings -- including Canada, Germany and Ukraine - make for a pleasant change to only UK or US settings.
in detail:
Short summaries and opinions...
Yan (4 stars) A hermit shepherdess witnesses a murder...will she report it? More a traditional ghost story than folk horror, but well-crafted and structured.
Hour of the Cat's Eye (1.5) An awkwardly plotted and ultimately silly tale about a mercenary in the 30 Years War being used for a village ritual. Historical fantasy, not folk horror.
The Compleat Complete Gardener (3.5) A feminist revenge tale set in a futuristic Canada suffering terribly from the climate crisis. Spends far too much time detailing dance steps, but has a strong narrative voice and good rural ties.
A Well-Fed Man (5 stars) During the Soviet-made Ukrainian famine of 1932, a young boy is almost killed uncovering a horrible local secret. More general horror than folk horror, but extremely well done.
The Binding Tide (2) A company wants to develop a New England seaside town with a rare set of standing stones. The townies are very against the plans. Great on the New England vibes and corporate in-fighting, but laughably subpar on everything else. A number of glaring factual errors, re: history and mythology.
A Deed Without A Name (5) Best of Show! A different angle on the 3 witches in Shakespeare's MacBeth. Stylistically interesting and symbolically very tight. Classic lit as historical folk horror. Superb!
The Hanging Tree and the Old Tom Pit (4) A vicar's daughter blames him for the death of her mother and in revenge, sabotages a yearly village ritual. Interesting folk horror that uses coal mining (the harvesting of coal) in lieu of the normal agricultural setting.
The Death of a Drop of Water (2.5) Bone white, drippy women from the local pond are coming to claim a woman slowly losing her mind since her mother died. Typical "insanity or the paranormal?" story and thus fairly ho-hum. Very hard to parse in parts.
A Ritual for Pleasure and Atonement (1) Self-hating, suicidal gay man hallucinates witches in the back garden, possibly because religion doesn't like gays and his boyfriend doesn't think he's sexy enough any more. Annoyingly "poetic" and terribly cliche.
The Slow King (3) Young Campbell is chosen to play the part of a magical boy in a film...but what if the film and reality are the same? A time travel story, not folk horror. Difficult to really understand what is going on towards the end, but the dialogue is very good.
Dearg-An-Daol (4.5) Uncle Sean is dying and his nephew comes down to assist with his final wishes and arrange the wake. Little does he know that Uncle has been fighting a battle with forest spirits in the shape of beetles for decades! A well done, very Gaelic folk horror piece with all the trimmings.
Thank you, Barbara K, for another lovely buddy read!
June 8, 2024
”The thump of the Earth’s heart came up through my bare feet, scratched and bleeding from contact with the rocks, with the thistles, with the long years of ache and pain, with the slow, churning need to throw off the scab of humanity, to find renewal again, to burst forth with new life. I was the Gardener the land needed; I would guard.”
The quote above is taken from “The Compleat Complete Gardner” by Elizabeth Twist, probably my favorite of several five-star reads I found in the excellent The Fiend in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror. While I enjoyed most of the stories in the first volume of this series, the second collection blew it out of the water in terms of what I personally find equally enthralling and chilling in folk horror. In fact, there was only a single story was below a four-star rating for me, and the rating on that particular story “A Well-Fed Man” speaks more to my personal tastes in horror than in any fault with the writing.
The only author I was familiar with going into this book was Kristi DeMeester, and from the biographies included in the appendix it looks as though, at least at the time of publication, many of these authors hadn’t published much at all, which kind of blows my mind. These stories are just so good.
Andrew Michael Hurley is, of course, a well-known author and while he does not have a story in the collection, the book more than makes up for this with his excellent discourse on what folk horror is and why it resonates today in his foreword. There were so many excellent insights, quotable lines and references to obscure works of folk horror media from past decades (before the “folk horror” label became part of the modern lexicon) that I pretty much highlighted Hurley’s entire contribution. I definitely plan on trying to track down some of the films and old tv programs he mentions, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for more work by the authors included in this book.
I’ll end this review with a quote from the foreword that is one of many that gets to the heart of the nebulous subgenre that is folk horror, as defined by what is probably the most well-known example, the 1973 film The Wicker Man:
”Summerisle is a Utopia, in fact, until the harvest fails. And it’s at moments of crisis like this, at the precarious junctures of a community’s history, where we see the methods the inhabitants must employ in response and the “horror” of Folk Horror ensues.”
The quote above is taken from “The Compleat Complete Gardner” by Elizabeth Twist, probably my favorite of several five-star reads I found in the excellent The Fiend in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror. While I enjoyed most of the stories in the first volume of this series, the second collection blew it out of the water in terms of what I personally find equally enthralling and chilling in folk horror. In fact, there was only a single story was below a four-star rating for me, and the rating on that particular story “A Well-Fed Man” speaks more to my personal tastes in horror than in any fault with the writing.
The only author I was familiar with going into this book was Kristi DeMeester, and from the biographies included in the appendix it looks as though, at least at the time of publication, many of these authors hadn’t published much at all, which kind of blows my mind. These stories are just so good.
Andrew Michael Hurley is, of course, a well-known author and while he does not have a story in the collection, the book more than makes up for this with his excellent discourse on what folk horror is and why it resonates today in his foreword. There were so many excellent insights, quotable lines and references to obscure works of folk horror media from past decades (before the “folk horror” label became part of the modern lexicon) that I pretty much highlighted Hurley’s entire contribution. I definitely plan on trying to track down some of the films and old tv programs he mentions, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for more work by the authors included in this book.
I’ll end this review with a quote from the foreword that is one of many that gets to the heart of the nebulous subgenre that is folk horror, as defined by what is probably the most well-known example, the 1973 film The Wicker Man:
”Summerisle is a Utopia, in fact, until the harvest fails. And it’s at moments of crisis like this, at the precarious junctures of a community’s history, where we see the methods the inhabitants must employ in response and the “horror” of Folk Horror ensues.”
September 15, 2025
I’ve noticed that stories or books that are classed as horror often don’t strike me that way. Too often they are predictable, or disgusting rather than frightening, or even just dull.
Berengaria obligingly did a buddy read of this book of short stories. I hoped the process would help me better understand what scares me, and it did. It’s the tension induced by the unknown. It really doesn’t matter what is the nature of the “scary thing”, it’s the wondering about whether it will come to pass. The outcome has to be undetermined but there has to be the potential for it to be godawful. And it can’t fit a trope, because how could it be scary if you know the author’s intentions? Oh, one last thing: it must be imaginable. If it’s too preposterous, again, how can it be scary?*
Overall the stories in this book worked out to a 3.3 rating for me. Three of the stories were 2-⭐️, 4 were 3-⭐️, 2 were 4-⭐️, and 2 were 5-⭐️. The best was “A Well Fed Man” by Neil McRobert.
Many thanks, as always, to Berengaria for sharing her thoughts during our buddy read!
*Of course, context has to be taken into account. The scariest movie I’ve ever seen was Alien, in which the horror isn’t exactly “imaginable” - unless you happen to be on a space ship.
Berengaria obligingly did a buddy read of this book of short stories. I hoped the process would help me better understand what scares me, and it did. It’s the tension induced by the unknown. It really doesn’t matter what is the nature of the “scary thing”, it’s the wondering about whether it will come to pass. The outcome has to be undetermined but there has to be the potential for it to be godawful. And it can’t fit a trope, because how could it be scary if you know the author’s intentions? Oh, one last thing: it must be imaginable. If it’s too preposterous, again, how can it be scary?*
Overall the stories in this book worked out to a 3.3 rating for me. Three of the stories were 2-⭐️, 4 were 3-⭐️, 2 were 4-⭐️, and 2 were 5-⭐️. The best was “A Well Fed Man” by Neil McRobert.
Many thanks, as always, to Berengaria for sharing her thoughts during our buddy read!
*Of course, context has to be taken into account. The scariest movie I’ve ever seen was Alien, in which the horror isn’t exactly “imaginable” - unless you happen to be on a space ship.
November 14, 2021
Unsettling
A disturbing and unsettling collection of folk horror reinforcing the tradition of story telling which focusses on the place of man in the landscape and his (or her) uneasy relationship with it. Here is horror defined by ritual and belief, whether set in the past or present. They are stories which chill because we just know that hidden somewhere out there are folk traditions which remain very much alive and in today's rudderless society, they could so easily return.
Every single story deserved its place in this collection and it is a book I know I will return to.
A disturbing and unsettling collection of folk horror reinforcing the tradition of story telling which focusses on the place of man in the landscape and his (or her) uneasy relationship with it. Here is horror defined by ritual and belief, whether set in the past or present. They are stories which chill because we just know that hidden somewhere out there are folk traditions which remain very much alive and in today's rudderless society, they could so easily return.
Every single story deserved its place in this collection and it is a book I know I will return to.
September 4, 2020
This anthology dances with those shadows in the Wild and helps ensure that we don’t forget what came before. “The Hanging Tree and the Old Tom Pit” by Hazel King follows a delightful and morbid New Year’s tradition of hanging dolls on a communal tree for protection from Old Tom. This story perfectly inhabits the theme of folk horror with unusual traditions of small towns that border on the Wild, and the reasons that we believe the traditions must be kept. “The Slow King” by Tim Major does a nice job of exploring the boom of folk horror films and leaves us unsettled. I particularly respect how Major made the exposition sections feel particularly organic.
“The Complete Compleat Gardener” by Elizabeth Twist was witchy fun. It could have abandoned all the worldbuilding and projection into the deep future for a more nebulous near future. It almost robs the story of some of its immediacy and threat. “A Deed Without A Name” by Jack Lothian is an unsettling story that we hope is about the creation of a witch escaping to claim her power, but is probably about mental disturbances and disassociation. “Dearg-an-Daol” by Tracy Fahey is the perfect closer to this anthology with a cleansing fire to protect those that come after.
I also appreciate the note at the end of the typesetting. It adds an extra little something that this book -- about the things that came before and how they haunt us -- uses a revival font from the mid-1700s.
“The Complete Compleat Gardener” by Elizabeth Twist was witchy fun. It could have abandoned all the worldbuilding and projection into the deep future for a more nebulous near future. It almost robs the story of some of its immediacy and threat. “A Deed Without A Name” by Jack Lothian is an unsettling story that we hope is about the creation of a witch escaping to claim her power, but is probably about mental disturbances and disassociation. “Dearg-an-Daol” by Tracy Fahey is the perfect closer to this anthology with a cleansing fire to protect those that come after.
I also appreciate the note at the end of the typesetting. It adds an extra little something that this book -- about the things that came before and how they haunt us -- uses a revival font from the mid-1700s.
May 8, 2023
overall spoooooooky tales, only unintentionally undercut once when an american character was waxing lyrical about "feeling the weight of history" in a pub that dated all the way back to the prehistoric time of... 1860.
November 10, 2023
These themed anthologies are very moreish, and I'm going to have to get my hands on the third instalment soon. I was greedy, I read I and II back to back. Folk horror has a few things to say about greed, but I'll pretend that I didn't notice. So, Nosetouch Press has got editors Neal and Scott to gather together a motley collection of creepy stories, and has also scored an introduction from folk horror star Andrew Michael Hurley. It's also got a closing story from my anthology sister, the talented and terrifying Tracey Fahey. I am developing a theory that a Tracey Fahey story is a great way to end a themed set of stories, she has a knack of writing tales that linger, and her 'Dearg-an-Daol' deals with love, duty, family and superstition with her usual deftness.
With any themed anthology, the variation in voices risks a few stories missing the mark with any individual reader, and I confess that not every tale in this book hit the spot for me, but I am but one glutton with an endless supply of stories at my disposal, your opinions may well vary. Speaking of gluttony, one recurrent theme of this book is the environmental apocalypse that prompts people to turn back to the old ways of the land in a desperate attempt to survive. However, one of my favourite stories in the book is set a thousand years ago, far from our current mess. Jack Lothian's 'A Deed Without A Name' was rightly included in Datlow's Best Horror 13 and is a genuinely brainchurning side trip from a very well known tale.
With any themed anthology, the variation in voices risks a few stories missing the mark with any individual reader, and I confess that not every tale in this book hit the spot for me, but I am but one glutton with an endless supply of stories at my disposal, your opinions may well vary. Speaking of gluttony, one recurrent theme of this book is the environmental apocalypse that prompts people to turn back to the old ways of the land in a desperate attempt to survive. However, one of my favourite stories in the book is set a thousand years ago, far from our current mess. Jack Lothian's 'A Deed Without A Name' was rightly included in Datlow's Best Horror 13 and is a genuinely brainchurning side trip from a very well known tale.
April 10, 2022
Better than the first, in my humble opinion. This collection was more varied and dark I think. And I can't remember the last time I was "jolted" at a certain part of a story, but one of these accomplished that! And it was largely in the way it was written moreso than the action itself!
Read
July 15, 2021Good collection of stories!
October 12, 2023
Favorite story - A Deed Without a Name by Jack Lothian
May 6, 2023
An excellent collection of creepy folk horror themed short stories.
September 16, 2023
I love that this anthology includes a quite a few stories by first-time published authors. More of that all around, please. Ed Christine M Scott's design is great, too.
As for the works, there are a couple of instances of grammatical errors slipping through (e.g. some punctuation problems, as well as a 'to' instead of 'too' in Jack Lothian's piece. Pedants will find this hard to forgive, but with Alys Hobbs's gem 'Yan' taking its rightful place at the beginning of the collection, I'm willing to forgive and forget. I also really enjoyed Sara Century's 'The Death of a Drop of Water'. These two stories, for me, best capture the unease and darkness of folk horror, while a few others only hint at that connection or make their way into cliché territory*. That's unavoidable, I suppose. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the third volume. :)
*This reader could do with less animal death. Folk horror is more than that.
As for the works, there are a couple of instances of grammatical errors slipping through (e.g. some punctuation problems, as well as a 'to' instead of 'too' in Jack Lothian's piece. Pedants will find this hard to forgive, but with Alys Hobbs's gem 'Yan' taking its rightful place at the beginning of the collection, I'm willing to forgive and forget. I also really enjoyed Sara Century's 'The Death of a Drop of Water'. These two stories, for me, best capture the unease and darkness of folk horror, while a few others only hint at that connection or make their way into cliché territory*. That's unavoidable, I suppose. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the third volume. :)
*This reader could do with less animal death. Folk horror is more than that.
July 24, 2024
Oh my word what an anthology! The second edition of The Fiends in the Furrows easily tops it's predecessor. I was hooked from the very first story, with each take getting weirder and creepier than the last. My favourites were "Yan", "The Hanging Tree and The Old Tom Pit", and "Dearg-An-Daol" but the whole collection had me hooked. Folk horror is definitely alive and kicking in these takes and it sets a strong precedent for the third installment. For now though I need to rest my nerves haha.
September 23, 2022
This is a wonderful short story sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of folk horror short stories. They were quick reads and I liked each and every one. Folk horror is one of my favorite sub genres of horror and it can be somewhat difficult to find but this small collection gave me all the folk horror vibes I could want. Folk horror often has its roots in folklore so this seemed like the perfect book to match the p
September 11, 2022
Mot anywhere near as good as the first. There were a few decent stories (“The Complete Compleat Gardener,” “Dear-an-Daol,” and “The Slow King”), but even these weren’t great. Very little suspense and tension building anywhere. The folk horror is minimal and nowhere in some stories. Most of these would’ve been better in a different horror genre book.
October 8, 2023
MARATÓN HALLOWEENESCO 2023
Parte 3
THE FIENDS IN THE FURROWS II
More Tales Of Folk Horror
Editado por David T. Neal y Christine M. Scott
** 3.37 **
11 Cuentos
1- Yan
Alys Hobbs ---------------> 3.0
2- Hour of the Cat's Eye
Coy Hall ---------------> 3.7
3- The Complete Compleat Gardener
Elizabeth Twist ---------------> 3.5
4- A Well-Fed Man
Neil McRobert ---------------> 3.4
5- The Binding Tide
Shawn Wallace ---------------> 3.3
6- A Deed Without A Name
Jack Lothian ---------------> 3.4
7- The Hanging Tree And The Old Tom Pit
Hazel King ---------------> 3.5
8- The Death Of A Drop Of Water
Sara Century ---------------> 3.2
9- A Ritual For Pleasure And Atonement
Kristi DeMeester ---------------> 3.3
10- The Slow King
Tim Major ---------------> 3.4
11- Dearg-An-Daol
Tracey Fahey ---------------> 3.4
Aquí las calabazas:
🎃🎃🎃
October 25, 2023
Quite enjoyable series of short stories. None of them were particularly scary, but definitely spooky and good for Halloween. Some of the stories were almost funny, so I have a hard time including this as "horror"—if you're really looking for something terrifying. The stories range across a variety of times and locations, which was both good and bad (not good if you wanted a consistent experience across the whole book, but good if you wanted a bunch of different story types to choose from).
January 21, 2023
Another Five stars for part II. Both of these books were everything I could want in folk horror anthologies. I started following several of the authors on social media after this and bought their other work because I enjoyed their story so much. Fabulous sequel. I cannot wait for part III to come out this year. I will be pre-ordering it immediately.
March 4, 2023
Several good ones including good Foreward:
Yan
Hour of the Cat's Eye
A Well-fed man
The binding Tide
Deed without a name
The hanging tree and the old tom pit
The slow king(not quite good really but some good ideas that don't really add up)
If scratches the itch for folk horror. Kind of loses it by the end though.
Yan
Hour of the Cat's Eye
A Well-fed man
The binding Tide
Deed without a name
The hanging tree and the old tom pit
The slow king(not quite good really but some good ideas that don't really add up)
If scratches the itch for folk horror. Kind of loses it by the end though.
January 28, 2023
Read this in one sitting as I was getting tattooed. Great continuation in the anthology. Loved the repeated themes/images used to create very different stories: hunger, witches, effigies, women in white, culty religion. The Macbeth inspired story spoke to my little Shakespeare loving heart.
December 14, 2020
the first 2/3 I was hooked, but with the last few stories I sort of lost the thread. still a fine collection overall.
December 2, 2021
Folk horror fest
A splendid collection to guarantee days of brooding and rumination after you read each story. Great authors, almost no weak stories. Strong great stuff.
A splendid collection to guarantee days of brooding and rumination after you read each story. Great authors, almost no weak stories. Strong great stuff.
April 18, 2022
Favorites:
The Binding Tide
A Well Fed Man
A Deed Without a Name
The Binding Tide
A Well Fed Man
A Deed Without a Name
August 4, 2022
This one didn't have a lot of stories that made my skin crawl, but it was still a good read
March 21, 2023
2.5 stars. I liked the first one better; although this one wasn't bad - just much slower-paced and more psychological horror than folk horror.
April 14, 2024
3.5 Most stories were still good, but sometimes a bit presictable. The first story was also the strongest imo
October 14, 2024
It's Okay
Some of the stories are folk horror, but not all. The folk horror stories are great! The others are okay.
Some of the stories are folk horror, but not all. The folk horror stories are great! The others are okay.
November 20, 2024
A great selection of stories that work well for the colder months, a worthy successor to the first book in the series. I shall be reading the last one soon.
March 30, 2025
Sorry I have more to say about what I didn't like than what I did, it is what it is.
Liked:
Dearg-an-Daol - Wow. The one story that really made this anthology worthwhile.
The Hanging Tree... - Yes.
Yan - Nice isolation vibes. Appreciate the poor old woman POV.
Almost liked:
Hour of the Cat's Eye - Decently creepy, but the protagonist is such an annoying Man™ that I didn't even care to watch him suffer.
The Binding Tide - Liked the sea village aesthetic, though an Edwardian could have painted the picture better; the attempt at social commentary made me cringe like a "Glass Onion" type film.
The Slow King - The concept could have been the sort of thing I was looking for, but the execution wasn't nearly atmospheric enough. Plus, I don't know if I just don't get it, or if it really didn't make much sense.
A Well-Fed Man - Reading through it felt like a chore, but the concept revealed at the end is cool.
The Complete Compleat Gardener - Just okay. Rather lackluster in the mood-setting, but okay.
Didn't like:
A Deed Without a Name - If "The VVitch" were bad and fit for r/menwritingwomen.
The Death of a Drop of Water - Not really folk horror; there just is a spooky forest, but it reads like a creepy pasta. It's such a told-not-shown rush that there's no time to either sit and truly feel the eeriness of the atmosphere, or care about the psychological/emotional side, but then because I wasn't hooked, I also can't say I wish it were any longer.
A Ritual... - Interesting, quality writing, arguably folk horror, but not really what I was looking for.
Liked:
Dearg-an-Daol - Wow. The one story that really made this anthology worthwhile.
The Hanging Tree... - Yes.
Yan - Nice isolation vibes. Appreciate the poor old woman POV.
Almost liked:
Hour of the Cat's Eye - Decently creepy, but the protagonist is such an annoying Man™ that I didn't even care to watch him suffer.
The Binding Tide - Liked the sea village aesthetic, though an Edwardian could have painted the picture better; the attempt at social commentary made me cringe like a "Glass Onion" type film.
The Slow King - The concept could have been the sort of thing I was looking for, but the execution wasn't nearly atmospheric enough. Plus, I don't know if I just don't get it, or if it really didn't make much sense.
A Well-Fed Man - Reading through it felt like a chore, but the concept revealed at the end is cool.
The Complete Compleat Gardener - Just okay. Rather lackluster in the mood-setting, but okay.
Didn't like:
A Deed Without a Name - If "The VVitch" were bad and fit for r/menwritingwomen.
The Death of a Drop of Water - Not really folk horror; there just is a spooky forest, but it reads like a creepy pasta. It's such a told-not-shown rush that there's no time to either sit and truly feel the eeriness of the atmosphere, or care about the psychological/emotional side, but then because I wasn't hooked, I also can't say I wish it were any longer.
A Ritual... - Interesting, quality writing, arguably folk horror, but not really what I was looking for.
Want to read
September 8, 2024"Yan" by Alys Hobbs
rating: tbd/5
"Hour of the Cat's Eye" by Coy Hall
rating: tbd/5
"The Complete Compleat Gardener" by Elizabeth Twist
rating: tbd/5
"A Well-Fed Man" by Neil McRobert
rating: tbd/5
"The Binding Tide" by Shawn Wallace
rating: tbd/5
"A Deed Without a Name" by Jack Lothian
rating: tbd/5
"The Hanging Tree and the Old Tom Pit" by Hazel King
rating: tbd/5
"The Death of a Drop of Water" by Sara Century
rating: tbd/5
"A Ritual for Pleasure and Atonement" by Kristi DeMeester
rating: tbd/5
"The Slow King" by Tim Major
rating: tbd/5
"Dearg-an-Daol" by Tracey Fahey
rating: tbd/5
rating: tbd/5
"Hour of the Cat's Eye" by Coy Hall
rating: tbd/5
"The Complete Compleat Gardener" by Elizabeth Twist
rating: tbd/5
"A Well-Fed Man" by Neil McRobert
rating: tbd/5
"The Binding Tide" by Shawn Wallace
rating: tbd/5
"A Deed Without a Name" by Jack Lothian
rating: tbd/5
"The Hanging Tree and the Old Tom Pit" by Hazel King
rating: tbd/5
"The Death of a Drop of Water" by Sara Century
rating: tbd/5
"A Ritual for Pleasure and Atonement" by Kristi DeMeester
rating: tbd/5
"The Slow King" by Tim Major
rating: tbd/5
"Dearg-an-Daol" by Tracey Fahey
rating: tbd/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews