Weird Horror Short Stories

by Mike Ashley (Foreword), Algernon Blackwood, Anastasia Garcia

With stories from modern writers, and the founding fathers of horror fiction, weird or cosmic horror combines the dark brooding shadows of the night with the presence of elder gods at the edges of our world. Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft and Ramsey Campbell sit alongside new tales by new writers from open submissions.

New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: Ramsey Campbell, Daniel Carpenter, Micah Castle, Kevin M. Folliard, Anastasia Garcia, Timothy Granville, Steve Hanson, Maria Haskins, Nyx Kain, Shona Kinsella, Lena Ng, Reggie Oliver, Jason Parent, Bonnie Quinn, Eric Reitan, Cody Schroeder, Lucy A. Snyder, Richard Thomas, Chris Wheatley, and Maria Wolfe. These appear alongside classic stories by Louisa May Alcott, Robert Bloch, William Hope Hodgson, Fritz Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith and more.

Contents:
- Foreword by Mike Ashley
- Lost in a Pyramid by Louisa May Alcott
- The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton
- Negotium Perambulans by E.F. Benson
- The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
- The Secret in the Tomb by Robert Bloch
- The Place of Revelation by Ramsey Campbell
- Flotsam by Daniel Carpenter
- The Things from the Woods by Micah Castle
- The Mask by Robert W. Chambers
- The New Mother by Lucy Clifford
- The Terror of Blue John Gap by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Next Heir by H.D. Everett
- The Distortion out fo Space by Francis Flagg
- White Noise by Kevin M. Folliard
- Dark Skies by Anastasia Garcia
- The Crimson Weaver by R. Murray Gilchrist
- The Animal King by Timothy Granville
- Isle of the Dead by Steve Hanson
- The Brightest Lights of Heaven by Maria Haskins
- Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Hog by William Hope Hodgson
- Mive by Carl Jacobi
- The Diary of Mr. Poynter by M.R. James
- He Led by Nyx Kain
- The Call of El Tunche by Shona Kinsella
- The Hill and the Hole by Fritz Leiber
- The Whisperer in Darkness by H.P. Lovecraft
- Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen
- Lola by Lena Ng
- The Black Ship by Reggie Oliver
- The Moon-Slave by Barry Pain
- Agon by Jason Parent
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Stones Move at Night by Bonnie Quinn
- The Blessed Affliction by Eric Reitan
- Stray by Cody Schroeder
- The House of Sounds by M.P. Shiel
- The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis by Clark Ashton Smith
- While the Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder
- The Moonstone Mass by Harriet Prescott Spofford
- From Within by Richard Thomas
- The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham by H.G. Wells
- Eternal Visions by Chris Wheatley
- Exogenous Cephalus Syndrome: A Case Report and Review of the Literature by Maria Wolfe

Flame Tree Gothic & Fantasy, as well as Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections, bring together the entire range of myth, folklore, epic literature and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Weird Fiction, Gothic

432 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2022

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Zaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good collection of short horror stories. A couple were boring to me and hard to get through, but I enjoyed most, and will probably keep thinking about some of them for a while

[Jenni V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the look of the books from Flame Tree Publishing and they're the only ones I buy for appearance over content and will keep on my shelf whether I liked them or not.

There were 44 stories ranging from new to the oldest first published in 1868. I felt like the stories were overall shorter than in other collections.

Horror stories appear to be more timeless than other genres; without style clues it was much harder to tell whether a story was old or new based on content.

I rated it 2 stars because there did seem to be more "mehs" or misses than hits.

My favorite was The Brightest Lights of Heaven and I'll include a small recap of each story below.

Lost in a Pyramid
I didn't know Louisa May Alcott wrote horror stories and this was a good one. It had a good arc and wrapped up neatly.
Unrelated to the horror aspect, I would've known this was an older story even without the author recognition because "lover", "bride", and "cousin" were all used interchangeably to describe the same person.

The Striding Place
Very short but also very wordy. Didn't have much impact because everything happened in the last paragraph and then ended abruptly.

Negotium Perambulans
The bones of the story were good but it felt long for the eventual outcome. Tightening it up could've given a bigger jolt.

The Willows
I'm torn because on one hand it felt longer and wordier than it needed to be but on the other hand the length and wordiness added to the story because it was falling into layers.
The end was a copout though which made the story feel pointless.

The Secret in the Tomb
It was too short to have such an anticlimactic answer. This guy survived when so many others before him died just because he looked a different direction?

The Place of Revelation
I didn't really connect with this story. The method of telling it like a "bedtime" story created a layer between the characters and the reader that took the emotional creepy feeling out of it. I'm not sure how to rectify that in a short story but that's my assessment of it.

Flotsam
This was the right kind of story for a horror book. It was creepy and mysterious.

The Things from the Woods
The small intro and how Kelly found the journal felt natural, not contrived. I like that it ended immediately after the birth without a revisit to/from the woods.

The Mask
It was wordy in the way older stories are but still short. I don't see the horror in it but it did have a surprise ending that felt uplifting in a way.

The New Mother
Meh. A long and fairly uninteresting way to weave a lesson about respecting your parents.

The Terror of Blue John Gap
I guessed it was an older story by the style (I missed that the author was Arthur Conan Doyle which would've confirmed it) as I was reading but when it referenced "advancing years" at the age of thirty-five, I knew it for sure.
This story didn't hold my interest because it was all told after the fact through dry journal entries.

The Next Heir
It's not a good sign that I stopped reading a 20 page short story at least 3 times because I was spacing off.
The stories appear to be in alphabetical order by author so it's an unfortunate coincidence the last few stories have all been duds.

The Distortion out of Space
I'm surprised it was written in 1934. Apparently our theories/images of alien life haven't changed much. Since the narrator was retelling the story I knew he survived which took some of the tension out of it.

White Noise
Very creepy ending.

Dark Skies
The premise of writing a letter to a family member was a good way to convey the information after the fact while still keeping emotion involved (since she was trying to convince him she was telling the truth).
It's a small detail but jumped out at me - saying they were often together because their last names are so close when their last names were Gutierrez and Raskova was an unnecessary oversight.

The Crimson Weaver
It was too short to stir many emotions but the ending was a surprise.

The Animal King
This story had a good "the end???" cliffhanger ending. It was plausible in that annoying way that the kids would bring it into the house; you want to yell through the pages that it's not going to end well.

Isle of the Dead
It was on the short side of a short story. I really liked it but the ending also felt abrupt; adding a night or two could've added to the anticipation and absorption.

The Brightest Lights of Heaven
That was wonderful! Definitely my favorite so far.

Rappaccini's Daughter
I admit it, I skimmed. So no opinion other than to say it I wasn't even tempted to do more than glance through it.

The Hog
Both long and uninteresting, a deadly combo.
I could picture this as a radio program because it had the cadence of a old-time production.

Mive
Strange name, strange setting, strange story.

The Diary of Mr. Poynter
I didn't get it but also didn't care enough to reread it and try again.

He Led
There was a beauty that was unusual to read in a horror story.

The Call of El Tunche
Not whistling back sounds so simple but the compulsion to do was written so well and the story painted a full picture.

The Hill and the Hole
A sparse setting but with 4 different characters the author was able to convey the story while keeping the characters themselves in the dark since they each had small pieces of the full puzzle.

The Whisperer in Darkness
I skimmed. When a short story has chapter breaks I know a) it's an older one and b) it's going to push the limits of how long something can be and still be a "short" story.

Novel of the White Powder
I didn't really understand it. There were germs of a horror story in there but they were dampened by all the extra scientific stuff and dragging out of the story. Was this all one big lesson against the use of cocaine?

Lola
It seemed very similar to the plot of Little Shop of Horrors.

The Black Ship
What a great line of "A fart of my arse for your Old Ones!" as he walked away.

The Moon-Slave
It was the creepy in the way she lost control a little more each time she went.

Agon
For some reason, the small amount of time he spent sinking in mud made me feel way more uncomfortable than all the time he spent in the water.

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
It was so wordy that any creepiness was diluted by having to wade through every sentence. One sentence, for example: "Through the desire for all parties concerned, to keep the affair from the public, endeavors to effect this - a garbled or exaggerated account made its way into society, and became the source of many unpleasant misrepresentations, and, very naturally, of a great deal of disbelief."

The Stones Move at Night
That had a good arc.

The Blessed Affliction
That fully kept my interest. It was a nice change to have the necessity be something out of love, not destruction.

Stray
Wow, that was visceral. I also would've been tempted to help an animal but luckily I will never find myself in that position because I don't run or go into nature if I can avoid it.

The House of Sounds
Less than 20 pages but felt like I was reading 100 (not in a good way).

The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis
" 'By Jove! this is a real find!' ejaculated Octave, as he thrust his torch into the mummified face..." is not a sentence I'm mature enough to read without giggling even though there was absolutely no innuendo implied.
As for the story, it was fine.

While the Black Stars Burn
Unexpected. While it was short and to the point it evoked emotion and painted quite a picture.

The Moonstone Mass
Floating away on a broken piece of ice would be a horrible way to go.

From Within
I think the bleakness was the scariest part. I had to stop and visualize them measuring the height, width, and depth of the boys...how do you measure the depth of a human?

The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham
A surprising twist at the end. Feeling trapped inside a body and nobody believing you is a horrible way to live.

Eternal Visions
I liked the progression of the story through time via different communication methods. I would've liked a firmer grasp on what the vision was but the little glimpses I got were creepy.

Exogenous Cephalus Syndrome: A Case Report and Review of the Literature
Having the story in the form of a medical case report was unique and conveyed info in a concise fashion but it also detached me from the horror of the mass.

Find all my reviews at: https://readingatrandom.blogspot.com

[Dee Dee · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 30% very long winded stories - I couldnt get through it. Alot of lore but no action. Monsters were meh.

[Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm... very vague title. Feels like Flame Tree should've called this Creatures & Curses. "Weird" can mean anything, really, but in this anthology's case, it's heavy on the cosmic horror (Think wannabe Lovecraft with religious overtones Seriously, the amount of religious imagery and bizarrely enough a "trees/nature are not to be trusted" vibe happened so often, I created a bingo board). And yet despite that, there were a few I really liked/thought ran the gambit (fertility issues remedied with a witchy potion, a princess falling prey to a cloven hoofed dance partner on the eve of her wedding, a pet-parent truly going above and beyond for her... "fur" baby, just to name a few). As always, here are those aforementioned likes (but with an old favorite tossed into the mix... my MVP short story, no matter how many times I've read it/disregarding my extreme dislike for the author's novels):

*"Lost in a Pyramid"-Louisa May Alcott
*"The Striding Place"-Gertrude Atherton
*"Negotium Perambulans"-E.F. Benson
*"The Secret in the Tomb"-Robert Bloch
*"The Things from the Woods"-Micah Castle
*"The New Mother"-Lucy Clifford
*"White Noise"-Kevin M. Folliard
*"The Brightest Lights of Heaven"-Maria Haskins
*Rappaccini's Daughter"-Nathaniel Hawthorne (This is that MVP, BTW)
*"He Led"-Nyx Kain
*"The Hill and the Hole"-Fritz Leiber
*"Lola"-Lena Ng
*"The Moon-Slave"-Barry Pain
*"The Stones Move at Midnight"-Bonnie Quinn
*"The Blessed Affliction'-Eric Reitan
*"From Within"-Richard Thomas

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew, finished it at last! So many stories, some good, some ok and some just damn weird. Having said that, I did enjoy most of the stories in this compilation, hence my generous rating. I may add thoughts on individual stories in due course.

[Vic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a fun collection marred by some odd selections. A star was removed fully because I question the editor’s judgment in including some of these—whether because they weren’t all that weird, even for the time of publishing, or because the truly heinous racism completely outshone any historical merit. The Black Ship was particularly egregious on the latter count.

I think this book would be better appreciated by someone better versed in the tropes of 18/19th century gothic literature. I think I was missing something simply because I don’t have the context. All in all, I’m very glad to have read some of the stories in this book because I think they’ll point me to some fun authors, but no matter how pretty the cover I don’t want to keep it on my shelves.

[Kick Stals · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book filled with amazing, chilling short stories of weird horror. Definitely a recommendation to fans of Lovecraft and Poe (which also occupy a few pages in this book).

Great selection of old and new stories, differing in length and depth. Some of the stories even let me experience a fear of the dark I had not felt in a long time, while others had me wondering about what hides behind the stars or in the deep crevices of our world (or the minds of the people around me).

Some stories are more interesting than others, a few are a bit hard to get through. While others are an easy read.

All in all, my favourite book this year.

[Sammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took my approximately 9 months to read and it was a 3.9.

There were some stories that I just didn’t like. Also the language switched from old English language to current language. Some stories gave me nightmares haha.

My favorite one was Rappaccini’s Daughter!

[Daniel Facchin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting. I know the series is gothic fantasy, so I was expecting older pieces of writing, but most of them did not hit the mark and were barley in the horror genre.

[Melia Foote · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this collection! Wonderful mix across horror genres, new and old, classic and contemporary, all quirky and dark. Unlike most anthologies, there were very few stories that I didn't enjoy!