Local Haunts: A HorrorTube Anthology

by R. Saint Claire

Nineteen twisted tales from a vibrant, online community of horror enthusiasts!

What’s HorrorTube? A creepy, new carnival ride combining a water slide park with a haunted funhouse? Not quite, although that sounds like a blast.

A subset of BookTube, HorrorTube is an online community of horror enthusiasts who regularly post YouTube videos about horror-related topics, including books, films, and fiction writing.

Some of the writers included in this anthology cover horror exclusively. You’ll find them posting creepy photos on Instagram or waxing poetic about the seventies drive-in flick that kept them up all night. Some read widely, only delving into the horror genre occasionally. All are passionate about books and writing.

Joined together by this vibrant, online community of readers and writers, these nineteen authors bring you scary stories from all parts of the globe, proving that fear is universal.

Local Haunts has taken the horror BookTube community’s global influence and shrunk it down into one village of horror and mayhem you’ll not soon forget. Inside these pages are frightening stories from around the globe, telling tales of haunts, monsters, and other terrible things local to each author’s place of residence. Within these pages you’ll find terrifying tales from North America, my own included, joined by terrible happenings in the Australian bushlands, ghosts haunting an old Greek mansion, an abandoned Vietnamese hospital, and a creepy museum, among many other eldritch encounters. From the foreword by Jason White

A Stone’s Throw by Dane Cobain
The Gentleman by Ryan Stroud
The Salt Hag by CJ Wright
Crowthorne by Andrew Lyall
Mount Gilead by R. Saint Claire
Screen Eight by Michael Taylor
Drive Like Hell by Ken Poirier
The Mount of Death by Kevin David Anderson
The Drifter by James Flynn
The Blocked Cellar by Mihalis Georgostathis
The Night Watchman by Marie McWilliams
Alone Among the Gum Trees by Cam Wolfe
Highway to Hell by Nicholas Gray
The Room Within by D.L. Tillery
Fading Applause in Quintland by Lydia Peever
A Full Moon Over Black Star Canyon by Matt Wall
Long Buried by E.D. Lewis
Darkness Descends by Jason White
At the End of the Rope by Cameron Chaney

Cover art by Cameron Roubique

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Ebooks, Anthologies, Amazon, Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2020

About the author

Regina writes adult and young adult fiction, but always with a dark flair. Writing honors include a Watty Award for best horror novel and multiple screenwriting awards, including a Webby Honoree. Regina is also the contributing editor of the bestselling Local Haunts: A HorrorTube Anthology. Find Regina, and her alter-ego Batilda, at her BookTube channel, Regina's Haunted Library, and on her blog RSaintClaire.com.

Reviews

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange)]

This was such a fun collection to read! As a fellow Horror Booktuber, I really enjoyed reading stories by fellow reviewers and content creators. While I am always honest in my reviews, I must acknowledge that I am undoubtedly biased when it comes to reading stories written by friends. As a result, I have decided not to give a star rating or provide a critical review, but instead highlight my favourite stories in the collection. These stories were:

The Night Watchman by Marie McWilliams 
Darkness Descends by Jason White
At the End of the Rope by Cameron Chaney 

Disclaimer: I received a copy from the editor who compiled this collection.

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Local Haunts is a collection of 19 stories "a HorrorTube Anthology". Presented by the YouTube community of horror creators and edited by R. Saint Claire the stories contained are far from horror in any sense of the word (at least for me).
While the cover of the book plainly implies some sense of horror the stories are other wise, but to be fair the cover illustration is cool on several levels.
A collection of stories purported to be "urban legends" from around the world and some supposedly true accounts. Seen from this perspective the stories are interesting as well as intriguing. While I personally had never heard of any of these "urban legends", the stories do read as if they may have happened and or were perceived to have happened. I do have a favorite written by James Flynn and is called "The Drifter". A well written story that leads you down the garden path and then suddenly does a 360 turn in the story "twice". I enjoyed this story and for a supposed horror story had me feeling a couple of unexpected emotions.
I must be honest and say that 224 pages into the book and with roughly 60 pages to go I came to a solid stand still and just lost all interest in going any future. Maybe 19 stories may have been to many short stories to hold my interest or maybe after not finding enough substantial horror I just became bored with the book. I really can't say.
The back of the book includes a collection of all the writers of the anthology, their websites and YouTube (Horror) channels.
Once again I must be honest, this book is certainly a read and should be read by fans of strange and surprising stories of a light kind. There is enough good material to keep fans of light hearted scares reading and enjoying.

[Kay Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I must say, before reading this anthology, I had no idea about BookTube and you can bet I'm going to dive in as soon as I submit this review. I really enjoyed most of these stories; there is some glimmering talent between these pages. They weren't just scary stories, many of them pulled me to a whole other place, another time and I love that. This is certainly a lodge podge of creative tales, each spooky in its own way. This is a perfect Halloween read.

[Cam Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if it's ethical for me to give this 5 stars ... because one of the stories is mine hahaha.
Anyway, all of the other stories are really good, I promise!

[Jeremy Fee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watch the Youtube channels of several of the authors in this anthology. The stories are a lot of fun and, since it's for charity, I think it deserves a 5-star rating.

If you're looking for an interesting collection of horror stories from a bunch of entertaining up and coming writers and Youtube creators, then this is a collection for you!

[madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

overall, a really good collection! i enjoyed the amount of creature horror in here! definitely going to seek out more work by some of these authors.

a stones throw by dane cobain ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- i loved the gothic feel of this one! can’t beat a creepy ghost story.

the gentleman by ryan stroud ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- this is an excellent start to a story, but i’d love for it to be more fleshed out

the salt hag by cj wright ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- kind of weird comment about a woman’s looks in this one 👀

crowthorne by andrew lyall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- yes i love this creepy little story

mount gilead by r. saint claire ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- like if ray bradbury wrote about young girls instead of young boys. the atmosphere was so cozy and familiar, but i wanted more from the ending

screen eight by michael taylor ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

drive like hell by ken poirier ⭐️⭐️⭐️

the mount of death by kevin david anderson DNF

the drifter by james flynn ⭐️⭐️⭐️

the blocked cellar by mihalis georgostathis ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

the night watchman by marie mcwilliams ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- i’m a simple lady. you say spooky titanic story i say gimme

alone among the gum trees by cam wolfe ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

highway to hell by nicholas gray ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
- this read like a goosebumps book in the best way

the room within by d.l. tillery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- i swear 2020 is the year of the vampire comeback and im here for it

fading to applause in quintland by lydia peever ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

a full moon over black star canyon by matt wall ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
- i loved all of the urban legend type stories the boys told each other.

long buried by e.d. lewis ⭐️⭐️

darkness descends by jason white ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ancient creatures that just want to kill everyone? more of this please

at the end of the rope by cameron chaney (cw child abuse) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- loved the autumncrow callback. this was deliciously spooky and hit all my horror buttons

[Pete Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

perfect for spoooooooooky season

[Spyros Egkarchos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great horror stories anthology. I learned about this book via Booktube and at once I knew I wanted to buy this book, but what made me pre-order it, was the good cause of the money earned. As for the stories, there are good stories but also bad ones. My favourite stories were "A Stone's Throw" (I loved the writing style by Dane and I enjoyed the whole story from the beginning until the end) and "At the End of the Rope" (which is, to my opinion, a coming-of-age drama, which depicts the drama of a child and I simply couldn't but sympathise with the girl, Cameron did an excellen job there in character building). I also like the stories "The Blocked Cellar" (especially its mysterious atmosphere), "The Night Watchman" (pure horror story), "Darkness Dscends" (nice story with an unforgettable ending) and "Screen Eight" (nice idea, I did not like the ending though).
I would recommend this book to horror lovers due to the variety of ideas and writing styles. I came to learn some interesting authors.

[zydecope♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I normally don’t enjoy collections of short stories. However, I spend an absurd amount of my free time watching a variety of book tubers give their recommendations and opinions on what to read so I bought Local Haunts as soon as I realized it was out. Some of my personal favorites were A Stone’s Throw, The Salt Hag, The Drifter, and Alone Among the Gum Trees. I honestly enjoyed different aspects from all of the stories and look forward to reading more of these authors’ books in the future and checking out their content on YouTube. Over all it was a solid read. (:

[Horror Sickness · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5-4*

Truly enjoyed discovering these stories told from our Horror Booktuber Friends. There is really a wider variety of stories that go from 1700s legends, ghosts, museums, clinics, a forest and even a hellhound.

A great compilation of short horror stories. Definitely recommend

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of stories that mix horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and even humour into various tales that are both entertaining and disturbing. There were a small number I didn't enjoy so much, largely as they seemed to loose a bit of their suspense once the source of the horror was revealed, but I did still enjoy these. But I really enjoyed The Salt Hag, which reminded me of some of the stories we told each other as kids about some of the deserted places, Crowthorne, as I did not see that ending coming at all, Screen Eight, which made me swear out loud at the end, The Night Watchman, as it combined heartbreak with horror in the best way, and Fading Applause in Quintland, which again combined raw human emotion with horror in an oddly sympathetic way. My absolute favourite though was the last story, At the End of the Rope, which was utterly superb and hit exactly the right horror spot in my brain with so many layers of darkness and cruelty, I just loved it.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great start to my October reading.

The following stories particularly scratched my spooky itch:

Crowthorne, The Salt Hag, Screen Eight, The Drifter, The Night Watchman, Fading Applause in Quintland and, At the End of the Rope.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This bundle of scares from Horrortubers was perfect for my bedtime read. It's a real mix of horror, from the quaint spooky tales to horrifying gore, though nothing I'd consider extreme.
I especially liked the chilling murder tale based on a real-life case, more disturbing as told from a young girl's the point of view. The urban legend pursuit thriller, told by one of those strange old characters you often meet out in the sticks, has a whip from his wry sense of humour at the end. I loved the twist to the tale of a Slender Man type ghost. with it's time travelling alien . The desolation of the roadside attraction where two teenage ghost-hunters get what they are seeking was literally haunting. Always a fan of a Weird Tale, I enjoyed the disturbing story on what happens when you hunt down the neighbourhood ghoul.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ratings for the stories inside!!

1. A stones throw- Dane Cobain(4 stars)
2. The gentleman-Ryan Stroud(3 stars)
3. The salt hag-C. J. Wright(4 stars)
4. Crowthrone-Andrew Lyall(5 stars)
5. Mount Gilead-R. Saint Claire(3 stars)
6. Screen Eight-Michael Taylor(5 stars)
7. Drive like hell-Ken Poirier(4 stars)
8. The mount of death-Kevin David Anderson(5 stars)
9. The drifter-James Flynn(3 stars)
10. The blocked cellar-Mihalis Georgostathis(2 stars)
11. The night watchman-Marie McWilliams(3 stars)
12. Alone among the gum trees-Cam Wolfe(3 stars)
13. Highway to hell-Nicholas Gray(3 stars)
14. The room within-D.L. Tillery(3 stars)
15. Fading applause in quintland-Lydia Peever(3 stars)
16. A full moon over black star canyon-Matt Wall(3 stars)
17. Long buried-E. D. Lewis(3 stars)
18. Darkness Descends-Jason White(2 stars)
19. At the end of the rope-Cameron Chaney(4 stars)

[Lydia Peever · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I am in this fine little collection, it’s odd to give a review ~ but I do talk about it on my YouTube series. Fitting, as it is a collaboration among booktube hosts. Enjoyable, creepy, haunting; as it ought to be!

[Joshua Hair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, one of my short stories is featured in this collection.

Building on from the disclaimer, I suppose the first thing that I should mention is that my review is only valid for the other stories in the collection, because obviously I can’t exactly review a story that I wrote myself. Although for what it’s worth, I do think it’s one of the best short stories that I’ve ever written.

The stories here are all be different horror BookTubers, and the theme is that they’re stories from our own “local haunts”, i.e. places that are near to where we live. That means that there’s a huge amount of diversity here, and I think that Regina did a great job of corralling all of the authors together and successfully getting them to participate and meet deadlines.

I will say that I noticed the odd typo here and there, and I’m also not sure why some stories use single quotation marks and some use double, especially considering I originally used doubles and in the book it has singles. But they’re minor things and they don’t detract from the overall enjoyment, at least for me.

Overall, my favourite thing about picking up this book was the fact that I’m already pretty familiar with a bunch of the authors here and so I was looking forward to getting to them anyway. I enjoyed some stories more than others of course, but that’s always the case with short stories and so I’m not too surprised about that. I’d recommend giving it a go, and not just because my story is in there, especially if you’re into indie horror.

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of stories from authors around the world, each one inspired by a 'local haunt'. I really like the concept for this anthology which made for a great variety of styles and themes, and there are definitely some talented writers here. While there were some stories I didn't enjoy as much as others overall it was a really enjoyable read! There were two stories in particular that stood out to me as my favourites:

Crowthorne by Andrew Lyall
Mount Gilead by R. Saint Claire
I loved both of these stories. Excellently written, atmospheric, evocative and compelling.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[MISS H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of short Horror stories around the theme of local haunts is well worth a read.

I will admit I read the first story and was disappointed as I didn't feel this was a strong start to the anthology, but stick with them as there are some really good short stories in this collection.

Alone Among the Gum Trees I really enjoyed as a good, fun, (yet at the same time dealing with quite a hard hitting subject of abuse) horror story.

Drive Like Hell also provided some light Horror humour. The ending especially made me chuckle.

Screen Eight I really enjoyed and liked the revelation at the end.

The Salt Hag entirely creeped me out. Good job to the author! I regularly open water swim (although not in canals, more rivers and sea) and this story partially encapsulates my worst fear! (I won't give away any spoilers, just read it).

The Drifter I also particularly enjoyed. I thought it was well written and quite a stand out piece of writing in relation to the other short stories in this collection... it kinda gave me some sort of weird Moulder and Scully/Queen of the damned vibes but thats just me. Again, read it and make your own opinion up.

Overall, its definitely worth buying and reading.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was like short films playing in my head. There was so many stories that i loved very few weren't for me, but i still enjoy them, but I could tell you what my fave were there are so many of these stories that i just got drawn into. With that said tho a lot of them feel like they end out of the blue and left me wondering what in the world happen or what in the world did i read. Now this is a horror book so something might be to much for people but for me i could read even before bed they were creepy but I wasn't kept up because i was too scared, but i was kept up wanting to finish a story before i fall asleep.

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories.

[Ruth Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating keeps flipping for this book. As with all anthology books, there are some awesome stories and some total duds. I watch these guys on YouTube so I’m not going to go into detail for each story because I respect these guys and what they have done and achieved. But honestly, some of these stories are leaps and bounds above the rest.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories from around the world, giving us a glimpse at some of their local eerie places. Great writing, a diverse set of authors and themes in this book. Highly recommend.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Multi-author anthologies are always a mixed bag for me, as I find there are always stories and authors I connect with more than others. This collection of stories written all by booktubers is a great, fun idea. However, for me, personally, the stories were rather hit-or-miss. But three stories I really enjoyed were:

Crowthorne by Andrew Lyall - the story of a woman who returns to the small village where she grew up, and begins remembering her childhood friend, who disappeared. A twisty tale which dangles different possibilities - some supernatural, some mundane - and leaves you guessing until the very end. I loved it!

Darkness Descends by Jason White - I loved this creepy story about a small town with a creepy old man, whom everyone suspects of being responsible for the children who have gone missing over the years. With no definitive proof, the small village’s lone police officer recruits a couple of local ne’er do wells to break in, but what they discover is a weird supernatural nightmare. Tons of fun.

At the End of the Rope by Cameron Chaney - a young girl grieves the deaths of her beloved dog and brother, taking solace in the forest where a strange dog house mysteriously stands. She sees fairies there, but gets frightened away when other children claim the dog house belongs to a hellhound. But a few years later, as a teenager suffering abuse at the hands of her father, she finds her way back into the woods...

[Montana · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Actual rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars)

First heard about this book during a video from Cameron Chaney's Youtube channel and finally bought myself a copy earlier this month.

I initially found the first 1/3 of the book rather slow to get into, but I'm glad I pushed through with it because it ended up being fantastic. There were a few small typos scattered throughout the book but nothing too bad that it distracted from the stories told.

Screen Eight, Drive Like Hell, and Night Watchman were a few of my favorites in this anthology as well as Cameron's own entry At the End of the Rope

Overall, a decent horror anthology novel to add to my collection :)

[Ollie Ander · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, it's hard to grade anthologies. You can find my thoughts on each individual story in my updates while reading this book to get the general sense of what to really expect (except the one I thought was best which I will spotlight here).

"Local Haunts" was not entirely what I had hoped for in its theme. Some stories felt like general horror short stories that didn't apply to anything specific, whereas I wanted personal accounts (or, local haunts as it were). Perhaps some of the writers recruited didn't have anything special in their past to draw from but choosing something else singularly rural would have been enough. Maybe I just had too specific an idea what I'd be reading, who knows?

The writing quality was average with some stand outs. It was apparent in some later stories that not as much care was put into them as others, or the skill level of the writers were not equal. "Jumping away in surprise, I drop my flashlight, which I quickly retrieve," is an example I wish hadn't made it into the final book.

"Alone Among the Gum Trees" by Cam Wolfe was by far the best story in the collection. It gave me a lasting feeling of uneasy, supplied my expectation of area specific horror (Australia), and was well written. I will be thinking about it for some time to come.

Since this anthology is so cheap and its proceeds go to charity, it is had to say I don't recommend buying it. If not for the few good stories among them, then for the good cause alone.

[Tatum · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great read! For complete transparency, I am a fan of horrortube and many of the authors in this anthology. I also was introduced to new horrortubers as well. You definitely don’t need to have previously known about horrortube for this to be a highly enjoyable read. The stories were all spooky in their own way and sometimes even transported you to an otherworldly adventure. This is a perfect read for cozying up on the couch on a chilly fall day with a coffee or hot beverage of your choice.

[ZenWhisperReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crowthorne by Andrew Lyall Happened to be my favorite story. Nothing else is creeper than kids and dolls. A lot of these stories were fair but i did appreciate that they were short and for the most part easy to get through.

[Christine Dunne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to read

I really enjoyed these stories and hope too see more of then. I love horror and creature stories thanks to all of you for your time imagination and effort to pur these stories down and then give them to me. Tell you what you keep writing them and ill keep reading them sincerely Christine Dunne Harlingen Texas