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Far From Home
A dangerous climb in the moonlight. A couple's trek through uncharted wilderness to save their child. A sinister painting that holds unimaginable power. Sixteen horror authors share thrilling tales of terrifying adventures in Far From Home: an Anthology of Adventure Horror.
Sixteen chilling tales of adventure horror from acclaimed horror authors, including Ali Seay, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, Stephanie Ellis, Lenn Woolston, Michael Patrick Hicks, Ed Kurtz, Beverley Lee, Villimey Mist, Mitch Sebourn, Ross Jeffery, A.K. Dennis, Audrey WIlliams, A.A. Medina, Carmen Baca, and Vaughn A. Jackson.
Sixteen chilling tales of adventure horror from acclaimed horror authors, including Ali Seay, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, Stephanie Ellis, Lenn Woolston, Michael Patrick Hicks, Ed Kurtz, Beverley Lee, Villimey Mist, Mitch Sebourn, Ross Jeffery, A.K. Dennis, Audrey WIlliams, A.A. Medina, Carmen Baca, and Vaughn A. Jackson.
194 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2021
9 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
About the author
Samantha Kolesnik
15 books452 followersSamantha Kolesnik is a retired author, filmmaker, and artist. She is best known for her books Waif (2021) and True Crime (2020).
She is also the author of the YA novella Elogona (Weirdpunk Books) and the short fiction collection Tales From Between Presents: Samantha Kolesnik’s Lonesome Haunts.
Her short films have screened at festivals internationally. Her directorial debut, Mama's Boy, premiered at the Telluride Horror Show.
After enduring significant trauma and focusing on recovery from PTSD, Kolesnik has chosen to step away from writing and publishing.
She is also the author of the YA novella Elogona (Weirdpunk Books) and the short fiction collection Tales From Between Presents: Samantha Kolesnik’s Lonesome Haunts.
Her short films have screened at festivals internationally. Her directorial debut, Mama's Boy, premiered at the Telluride Horror Show.
After enduring significant trauma and focusing on recovery from PTSD, Kolesnik has chosen to step away from writing and publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 23, 2021
I raced through this. Not because it was short or anything, but because it was so good. It's one of those books you can't put down.
Every single story was very clever and full of imagination. Unique too. A whole book of multiple worlds and situations to jump into. Chilling and very creepy too. Absolutely loved this. There isn't one story that falls short.
Every single story was very clever and full of imagination. Unique too. A whole book of multiple worlds and situations to jump into. Chilling and very creepy too. Absolutely loved this. There isn't one story that falls short.
August 12, 2021
Samantha Kolesnik edited this anthology of short, adventure- and travel-themed horror stories, Far From Home: an Anthology of Adventure Horror. Like many anthologies, I think that people will find the overall quality solidly good, but of course not every story will resonate with every reader.
Some stories really hit the spot for me. Hailey Piper’s “Crepuscular” was tormented and bleak, a story about a girl who’s having increasingly dangerous fits, and the two mothers who will do anything to save her. Lenn Woolston’s “Hungry,” about a high school couple who goes off into the woods to take photographs before leaving for different colleges, is enrapturing–it captures the hungry emotions of its characters perfectly.
Ali Seay’s “Descending” is a riveting and unusual look at a sociopath (psychopath?) who’s desperate to feel something, anything. Stephanie Ellis’s “Penance” is a beautiful story about two women who seem like they’ve taken a wrong turn, and their husbands who are having mid-life crises. Ross Jeffery’s “Towing the Chum Line” is a shudder-inducing story about a couple of newlyweds who want to see as many major varieties of sharks as they can. A.K. Dennis’s “Those Who Wander” introduces us to Derek, who apparently got lost in the woods after his girlfriend, Sarah, broke up with him. When he finds a smug, possibly threatening man by a fire, he has to weigh the desire to warm up and dry off with his distrust of the man.
Villimey Mist’s “Hell of a Ride,” about a woman who’s still grieving for her dead foster child, is one of those stories that can be interesting and engaging despite being predictable (really, many horror stories work because they use classic horror tropes). A.A. Medina’s “An Open Casket Adrift,” in which Delilah finds herself adrift in a boat with her father’s corpse, is a great look into the mind of someone who’s going a touch mad.
I enjoyed Vaughn A. Jackson’s “The Thing at the Top of the Mountain.” Nix Rhodes, history student, wants to find some ruins to spice up her thesis with. Antonella, her guide, seems awfully nervous. Cynthia Pelayo’s “The Light Blinds,” about a couple who’ve been chasing stories of mysterious lights in the skies, was good but not really my thing. Michael Patrick Hicks wrote “A Song of the Earth,” a story of four people who go hiking and what they find. I couldn’t understand how a group of people would think it was a good idea to take someone who’s never hiked before on a hundred-mile(!) hike for funsies, but the ending was intriguing. Beverley Lee’s “Little Girl Lost” was very good (a woman going on a treasure hunt by horseback gets lost in the snow), but I was more intrigued by the abandoned original plotline than I was by the eventual conclusion.
Some of the stories just struck me as… kind of odd. Good, but I couldn’t connect with them in some way. The events in these stories felt a little random. Ed Kurtz’s “Lay Low” with its unlucky prospector, Charlie Lee Landry, was one of those. Mitch Sebourn’s “The Apostle” is about a lawyer who did some embezzling, and the weird mural in her new home that won’t go away. The story was good, but the ending didn’t really work for me. Audrey Williams’s “I Never Want to Go Back” felt oddly random, as though the story was a kind of free association exercise, which didn’t really work for me; the tone was also very matter-of-fact. It’s a tale of a woman who finds herself going through a mirror into a dark world beyond. Carmen Baca’s “Deavale’s Design” sees grad student Nate inheriting a cursed trunk. I couldn’t understand why his and his professor’s reaction to reading an outlandish account of two-foot-tall natives and a cursed trunk led to immediate unflinching belief and resignation.
Content note–this is not an anthology of “extreme” horror, but still has its moments. Expect a bit of body horror, blood and gore, deaths, murder, one detailed instance of animal harm/death (in Ross Jeffery’s story), and a touch of cannibalism.
Original review posted on my blog: https://www.errantdreams.com/2021/08/...
Some stories really hit the spot for me. Hailey Piper’s “Crepuscular” was tormented and bleak, a story about a girl who’s having increasingly dangerous fits, and the two mothers who will do anything to save her. Lenn Woolston’s “Hungry,” about a high school couple who goes off into the woods to take photographs before leaving for different colleges, is enrapturing–it captures the hungry emotions of its characters perfectly.
Ali Seay’s “Descending” is a riveting and unusual look at a sociopath (psychopath?) who’s desperate to feel something, anything. Stephanie Ellis’s “Penance” is a beautiful story about two women who seem like they’ve taken a wrong turn, and their husbands who are having mid-life crises. Ross Jeffery’s “Towing the Chum Line” is a shudder-inducing story about a couple of newlyweds who want to see as many major varieties of sharks as they can. A.K. Dennis’s “Those Who Wander” introduces us to Derek, who apparently got lost in the woods after his girlfriend, Sarah, broke up with him. When he finds a smug, possibly threatening man by a fire, he has to weigh the desire to warm up and dry off with his distrust of the man.
Villimey Mist’s “Hell of a Ride,” about a woman who’s still grieving for her dead foster child, is one of those stories that can be interesting and engaging despite being predictable (really, many horror stories work because they use classic horror tropes). A.A. Medina’s “An Open Casket Adrift,” in which Delilah finds herself adrift in a boat with her father’s corpse, is a great look into the mind of someone who’s going a touch mad.
I enjoyed Vaughn A. Jackson’s “The Thing at the Top of the Mountain.” Nix Rhodes, history student, wants to find some ruins to spice up her thesis with. Antonella, her guide, seems awfully nervous. Cynthia Pelayo’s “The Light Blinds,” about a couple who’ve been chasing stories of mysterious lights in the skies, was good but not really my thing. Michael Patrick Hicks wrote “A Song of the Earth,” a story of four people who go hiking and what they find. I couldn’t understand how a group of people would think it was a good idea to take someone who’s never hiked before on a hundred-mile(!) hike for funsies, but the ending was intriguing. Beverley Lee’s “Little Girl Lost” was very good (a woman going on a treasure hunt by horseback gets lost in the snow), but I was more intrigued by the abandoned original plotline than I was by the eventual conclusion.
Some of the stories just struck me as… kind of odd. Good, but I couldn’t connect with them in some way. The events in these stories felt a little random. Ed Kurtz’s “Lay Low” with its unlucky prospector, Charlie Lee Landry, was one of those. Mitch Sebourn’s “The Apostle” is about a lawyer who did some embezzling, and the weird mural in her new home that won’t go away. The story was good, but the ending didn’t really work for me. Audrey Williams’s “I Never Want to Go Back” felt oddly random, as though the story was a kind of free association exercise, which didn’t really work for me; the tone was also very matter-of-fact. It’s a tale of a woman who finds herself going through a mirror into a dark world beyond. Carmen Baca’s “Deavale’s Design” sees grad student Nate inheriting a cursed trunk. I couldn’t understand why his and his professor’s reaction to reading an outlandish account of two-foot-tall natives and a cursed trunk led to immediate unflinching belief and resignation.
Content note–this is not an anthology of “extreme” horror, but still has its moments. Expect a bit of body horror, blood and gore, deaths, murder, one detailed instance of animal harm/death (in Ross Jeffery’s story), and a touch of cannibalism.
Original review posted on my blog: https://www.errantdreams.com/2021/08/...
October 20, 2021
Far From Home edited by Samantha Kolesnik is an anthology of adventure horror. I previously read Worst Laid Plans, an anthology of vacation horror from the same editor, which I found largely unimpressive albeit with a few stand outs. This anthology is largely the same, although it might be a bit stronger as a whole. After averaging my ratings for all the stories I came to 3.4. Stories ranged from mediocre to good, with a few approaching what I might consider excellence. This is a light, easy, and (despite my criticism) fun reading which immerses the reader in many different locations. My favorite stories in the collection are: Crepuscular by Hailey Piper, The Thing at the Top of the Mountain by Vaughn A. Jackson, The Apostle by Mitch Sebourn, Hell of a Ride by Villimey Mist, and Those Who Wander by A.K. Dennis. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
September 15, 2021
Solid collection.
October 20, 2021
3/5 stars.
So this one took me a few months to get through. I would pick up a story or two here and there to mix up my lengthier reads. It was a struggle to decide between 2.5 or 3 stars. The stories were all well edited and well written. Maybe part of my struggle with the enjoyment was because I read these tales over a few months. Or maybe it was because I just don’t dig adventure horror.
Either way, Off Limits Press only puts out quality so if you enjoy adventure horror this anthology will be your jam.
The standouts for me were:
Ed Kurtz’s Lay Low - a claustrophobic nightmare.
Cina Pelayo’s out of this world creep-fest The Light Blinds.
Michael Patrick’s Hicks A Song of the Earth - gave me vibes of Devil’s Creek by Todd Keisling but this is Hick’s tale through and through.
Finally, my favorite of the bunch was the grisly Towing the Chum Line by Ross Jeffrey in perhaps the most realistic story in this anthology.
Always looking forward to the next OLP offering.
So this one took me a few months to get through. I would pick up a story or two here and there to mix up my lengthier reads. It was a struggle to decide between 2.5 or 3 stars. The stories were all well edited and well written. Maybe part of my struggle with the enjoyment was because I read these tales over a few months. Or maybe it was because I just don’t dig adventure horror.
Either way, Off Limits Press only puts out quality so if you enjoy adventure horror this anthology will be your jam.
The standouts for me were:
Ed Kurtz’s Lay Low - a claustrophobic nightmare.
Cina Pelayo’s out of this world creep-fest The Light Blinds.
Michael Patrick’s Hicks A Song of the Earth - gave me vibes of Devil’s Creek by Todd Keisling but this is Hick’s tale through and through.
Finally, my favorite of the bunch was the grisly Towing the Chum Line by Ross Jeffrey in perhaps the most realistic story in this anthology.
Always looking forward to the next OLP offering.
July 20, 2021
Some of the stories worked but most of them missed a mark for me. Too many siren song stories. Some folk stories that were too folk and not enough horror. I think I counted 16 stories total, out of which 6 were successful (3.75+) for me.
August 1, 2021
Probably more like 2.5 stars. Most stories just didn’t hold my attention. I was intrigued by this book after reading the Vacation Horror anthology, this is the lesser of the two…by far.
November 14, 2023
A lot of very predictable, long winded stories that fell into the usual tropes. Was really hoping for something interesting in this collection. Worst Laid Plans did it better.
August 22, 2023
Chills in the hills. Fear in the forests. Vacation damnation. Also a shark story that left me wide eyed and grimacing.
3/5 💀💀💀
3/5 💀💀💀
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews