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A Small Light & Other Stories
A mysterious woman stalks a seaside town. An isolated couple inhabit a house full of tropical birds. A rowboat floats down a river toward a witch's cave. Death wanders an unnamed city during the plague. Sara Century's debut short story collection carries with it surreal visions inspired by pulp paperbacks, art house films, comic books of all flavors, and classic queer villains. A Small Light & Other Stories gathers tales that hinge on troubled characters with nothing left to lose encountering existential horrors, where everyday problems escalate into insurmountable monsters, and we find ourselves unable to escape dreams long since transformed into nightmares.
117 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 13, 2023
A Small Light & Other Stories is an eerie, melancholy collection of sapphic horror and haunting stories focusing on the characters and an always present slow creeping dread. I can easily recommend this collection to fans of this type of horror story.
I liked all of the stories but these were my favorites. I won’t say too much about them because short stories like these waste no time getting to the point and should be experienced by reading them instead of reading too much about them.
Slipping But Not Falling
This is an eerie tale of a recent break-up, and the resulting road trip that leads to some very strange places. I LOVE stories like this. So strange but yet you’re able to clearly see it all happening and you have no idea where it’s going. Be careful out there, lol!
The Hollow Bones
There is a house by the sea that is filled with birds. Hundreds of exotic birds. And I will not tell you the reason. This is such a weird story. I wanted to move into that house - until I didn’t! Ultimately it’s about the harm one can do to the ones they love the most when they hold on too tight. It truly reads like a nightmare which is why I adored it so very much.
A Small Light
This one was the creepiest for me. A couple takes off for a camping vacation in the wilderness. Already a horror scenario, if you ask me. One of them heads out to collect firewood and things immediately start to get weird.
Red Lips In A Blue Light
This was a weird one about an “It” girl whose life doesn’t seem to be her own. It gave me some Severance/ Black Mirror vibes and I love me some Severance/Black Mirror vibes!
Many of the stories deal with grief and unresolved emotions that manifest as hauntings and together the collection is very cohesive and filled with imperfect characters. I’d love to read a novella from this writer someday.
I liked all of the stories but these were my favorites. I won’t say too much about them because short stories like these waste no time getting to the point and should be experienced by reading them instead of reading too much about them.
Slipping But Not Falling
This is an eerie tale of a recent break-up, and the resulting road trip that leads to some very strange places. I LOVE stories like this. So strange but yet you’re able to clearly see it all happening and you have no idea where it’s going. Be careful out there, lol!
The Hollow Bones
There is a house by the sea that is filled with birds. Hundreds of exotic birds. And I will not tell you the reason. This is such a weird story. I wanted to move into that house - until I didn’t! Ultimately it’s about the harm one can do to the ones they love the most when they hold on too tight. It truly reads like a nightmare which is why I adored it so very much.
A Small Light
This one was the creepiest for me. A couple takes off for a camping vacation in the wilderness. Already a horror scenario, if you ask me. One of them heads out to collect firewood and things immediately start to get weird.
Red Lips In A Blue Light
This was a weird one about an “It” girl whose life doesn’t seem to be her own. It gave me some Severance/ Black Mirror vibes and I love me some Severance/Black Mirror vibes!
Many of the stories deal with grief and unresolved emotions that manifest as hauntings and together the collection is very cohesive and filled with imperfect characters. I’d love to read a novella from this writer someday.
March 29, 2023
This is a wonderful collection featuring several eerie, ethereal and unsettling stories. There is a strong focus on female characters and various kinds of relationships between women. I loved the extra details from the author at the end of the book talking about inspiration for the stories. Definitely another author to keep an eye out for more work by!
January 17, 2023
A very eerie and dreamlike sapphic horror short story collection that spans foggy and mystical seaside vibes, dark woods, and even a little bit of David Cronenberg's The Brood in one of the stories. Century excels at portraying old, forgotten, and dilapidated settings that mirror the characters' fractured psyches. Manages to be both visceral and abstract.
My favorites from this collection:
"Slipping but Not Falling": Effectively tense nautical horror. Loved the chill nonbinary bartender.
"The Hollow Bones": Another seaside one! Gave me mythological Circe vibes.
"A Small Light": Great woodsy horror.
"Red Lips in a Blue Light": Weird body horror "The Brood" vibes gave me chills.
"The Little Things That Come and Go": Probably my favorite one because of this inexplicable horror and a sense of decay. Great use of the imagery of ants slowly eating everything alive. Reminds me of horror anthologies I read as a kid where the horror was ambiguous, but the main character was just helpless and resigned to their moldering environment and encroaching death. Sort of reminds me of some Joyce Carol Oates horror short stories, like "Where is Here?" and "Thanksgiving." The latter especially deals with a fractured relationship between a daughter and her abusive father who's stressed about his sick wife, and the grocery store they enter is old and disgusting with a melted frozen aisle littered with roaches. There's no great monster, just an overall sense of wrongness and discomfort.
This is what "The Little Things" evoked, and I loved it. Another comparison for a lot of these stories I would make is Truman Capote, especially his ambiguous story "Miriam." And also, Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties. I appreciated that the stories weren't afraid to portray flawed and immoral queer women.
Overall, I recommend this collection.
My favorites from this collection:
"Slipping but Not Falling": Effectively tense nautical horror. Loved the chill nonbinary bartender.
"The Hollow Bones": Another seaside one! Gave me mythological Circe vibes.
"A Small Light": Great woodsy horror.
"Red Lips in a Blue Light": Weird body horror "The Brood" vibes gave me chills.
"The Little Things That Come and Go": Probably my favorite one because of this inexplicable horror and a sense of decay. Great use of the imagery of ants slowly eating everything alive. Reminds me of horror anthologies I read as a kid where the horror was ambiguous, but the main character was just helpless and resigned to their moldering environment and encroaching death. Sort of reminds me of some Joyce Carol Oates horror short stories, like "Where is Here?" and "Thanksgiving." The latter especially deals with a fractured relationship between a daughter and her abusive father who's stressed about his sick wife, and the grocery store they enter is old and disgusting with a melted frozen aisle littered with roaches. There's no great monster, just an overall sense of wrongness and discomfort.
This is what "The Little Things" evoked, and I loved it. Another comparison for a lot of these stories I would make is Truman Capote, especially his ambiguous story "Miriam." And also, Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties. I appreciated that the stories weren't afraid to portray flawed and immoral queer women.
Overall, I recommend this collection.
January 5, 2023
“Every love story is a ghost story.” - David Foster Wallace
I could not stop thinking about this line from David Foster Wallace while reading the nine stories in Sara Century’s debut short story collection, A Small Light and Other Stories. Every single one of these stories exemplifies this quote. Each story is the interpersonal relationship between women, whether it be mother and daughter, sisters, or, as in most of these stories, girlfriends and wives. The ghosts float through all of these stories. Ghosts of loss. Ghosts of desire. Ghosts of hope. I cannot help but think that the real horror in this collection is the horror of sadness, grief, and longing. This type of horror is the horror that readers always feel deeper than any story about a monster or a serial killer.
The first few stories did not do much for me. I was not instantly hooked into this collection, but by the time that I read the title story, “A Small Light”, I was starting to understand the theme of the collection and how everything fit together. “A Small Light” is about Ashley and Sandra, spouses who have decided to go on a camping trip. Of course things do not work out as planned. This reads like it can be turned into one of those cool little indie horror movies that are exclusive releases on Shudder, where the horror is slow and methodical but definitely being a menace in the woods. The next story, “Red Lips in a Blue Light” was first published in The New Flesh, the David Cronenberg inspired anthology, and this was when the hooks of this collection really grabbed me. I love how different this is from the rest of the collection, yet it fits into the themes perfectly. The rest of the collection breezes by, each story being as good as the next, and I decided to reread the beginning now that I knew the themes of these stories. I liked the stories the second time better than the first.
A Small Light and Other Stories has a group of stories that really fit into a nice collection that has some really standout stories. Many of these can be turned into very cool films, and I would be excited to watch every one of them. I will come back to some of these stories, particularly "A Small Light", "The Hollow Bones" and "Red Lips in a Blue Light" because they are just so good.
I could not stop thinking about this line from David Foster Wallace while reading the nine stories in Sara Century’s debut short story collection, A Small Light and Other Stories. Every single one of these stories exemplifies this quote. Each story is the interpersonal relationship between women, whether it be mother and daughter, sisters, or, as in most of these stories, girlfriends and wives. The ghosts float through all of these stories. Ghosts of loss. Ghosts of desire. Ghosts of hope. I cannot help but think that the real horror in this collection is the horror of sadness, grief, and longing. This type of horror is the horror that readers always feel deeper than any story about a monster or a serial killer.
The first few stories did not do much for me. I was not instantly hooked into this collection, but by the time that I read the title story, “A Small Light”, I was starting to understand the theme of the collection and how everything fit together. “A Small Light” is about Ashley and Sandra, spouses who have decided to go on a camping trip. Of course things do not work out as planned. This reads like it can be turned into one of those cool little indie horror movies that are exclusive releases on Shudder, where the horror is slow and methodical but definitely being a menace in the woods. The next story, “Red Lips in a Blue Light” was first published in The New Flesh, the David Cronenberg inspired anthology, and this was when the hooks of this collection really grabbed me. I love how different this is from the rest of the collection, yet it fits into the themes perfectly. The rest of the collection breezes by, each story being as good as the next, and I decided to reread the beginning now that I knew the themes of these stories. I liked the stories the second time better than the first.
A Small Light and Other Stories has a group of stories that really fit into a nice collection that has some really standout stories. Many of these can be turned into very cool films, and I would be excited to watch every one of them. I will come back to some of these stories, particularly "A Small Light", "The Hollow Bones" and "Red Lips in a Blue Light" because they are just so good.
December 7, 2025
very solid short story collection, shirley jackson-esque!minus a star because my last name was in it and they spelled it with an H. THERES NO H IN WORCESTER
March 8, 2023
Looking at "A Small Light & Other Stories", Weirdpunk Books publisher needs to give his graphic designer, Ira Rat, a raise. The font used for the title of is quite eyecatching, and I loved the black and white photo used for the cover. It makes this short story collection stand out in a group of other books.
It goes without saying that the author of these tales, Sara Century, earned her advance. The collection starts strong, with Slipping But Not Falling, a cinematic piece of short fiction that unspooled in my imagination like a slow burn horror film directed by Ti West. The book also sticks the landing with the last story, The Little Things That Come and Go, and I was surprised to learn when I was reading the afterword that it had been rejected by "every horror anthology in existence".
That afterword written by Century was a nice surprise at the end of the book. I've always loved reading the inside baseball written by authors in introductions or afterwords, and a "Small Light and Other Stories" was no exception. It was nice to know when my intuition was correct (Last Days of the Plague was inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic) and when it was flat out wrong (David Cronenberg as an influence, not Shirley Jackson! Of course! How could I have missed that after reading Red Lips in a Blue Light).
Shudder exclusives directed by the Soska Sisters are all well and good, but don't wait for the inevitable film adaptations: the cool kids were reading The Naked Lunch before and after David Cronenberg filmed his version of it, and A Small Light and Other Stories is worth reading because it stands on its own two legs as a short horror fiction collection.
It goes without saying that the author of these tales, Sara Century, earned her advance. The collection starts strong, with Slipping But Not Falling, a cinematic piece of short fiction that unspooled in my imagination like a slow burn horror film directed by Ti West. The book also sticks the landing with the last story, The Little Things That Come and Go, and I was surprised to learn when I was reading the afterword that it had been rejected by "every horror anthology in existence".
That afterword written by Century was a nice surprise at the end of the book. I've always loved reading the inside baseball written by authors in introductions or afterwords, and a "Small Light and Other Stories" was no exception. It was nice to know when my intuition was correct (Last Days of the Plague was inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic) and when it was flat out wrong (David Cronenberg as an influence, not Shirley Jackson! Of course! How could I have missed that after reading Red Lips in a Blue Light).
Shudder exclusives directed by the Soska Sisters are all well and good, but don't wait for the inevitable film adaptations: the cool kids were reading The Naked Lunch before and after David Cronenberg filmed his version of it, and A Small Light and Other Stories is worth reading because it stands on its own two legs as a short horror fiction collection.
January 26, 2023
A journey through humanity, it’s vulnerability, it’s terror, poetic and ethereal, these stories linger long after you close the book. I especially loved A Small Light, a story of lost but not forgotten love, the disintegration of a relationship showing the desperation to hold on all with the backdrop of the witch in the woods who steals them away, breathtaking. The Hollow Bones, using the metaphor and literal cast of hundreds of birds to show disconnection and change. Sara is an incredible storyteller and these are macabre twisted tales but beautifully written.
I was kindly sent a selection of books from Weird Punk to read and review, they are the best in splatterpunk and weird horror, my twisted mind loved these and if you like your horror bizarre, unconventional, many written by little known queer authors, check them out. You will not be disappointed but be warned, these are not for the faint hearted, this is horror at its most macabre, you will not be the same afterwards!
I was kindly sent a selection of books from Weird Punk to read and review, they are the best in splatterpunk and weird horror, my twisted mind loved these and if you like your horror bizarre, unconventional, many written by little known queer authors, check them out. You will not be disappointed but be warned, these are not for the faint hearted, this is horror at its most macabre, you will not be the same afterwards!
January 7, 2023
Such an incredible collection of stories. Sara’s words will come to inhabit your bones. Characters deeply flawed and human and the more compelling for it. I’m blown away by the skill and care in every piece.
August 21, 2023
In the DVD era, when I could see a whole slew of European exploitation cinema for the first time, I was often disappointed by the female vampire films like Vampyros Lesbos (1971). They were fine as titillation, which I suppose was why they were made, but I always sensed the possibility of something else lurking in the imagery. Jess Franco’s film comes to mind because it has so many classically feminine images: the moon, shifting sands, waters and waves, etc. No upthrust castle tower that I can recall. I felt the potential for something other than the traditional vampire symbolism, something made with the “Mothertongue” Margaret Atwood writes of in her poem “Marsh Languages.” Sara Century’s debut, A Small Light & Other Stories, fulfills some of the questions I had years ago while watching Franco. She fuses fairy tales, urban legends, and imagery evocative of ‘70s exploitation films with gothic sensibilities. Often the speakers’ voices reminds me of Shirley Jackson, but a Jackson steeped in VHS and drive-in horror movies.
You can read Stephen McClurg's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
You can read Stephen McClurg's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
November 19, 2025
A solid book of horror short stories. Not a bad read in the bunch. This is a book about how women and the horrors intersect in new, fearful, and somewhat dazzling ways. The characters you'll meet are as defined and individual as fingerprints. Rarely are women given so much range to be human in horror fiction. But if representation isn't your thing and you just want to be scared? You'll have more than enough to be scared by here.
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May 9, 2023Troubled, flawed, complicated women and insidious, unsettling horrors are contained within the stories of A SMALL LIGHT. Sara Century artfully evokes various shades of dread whilst imbuing her characters with nuance and complexities even as chaotic, horrifying situations befall them.
February 20, 2024
So glad I found and read this short horror collection. Century sets tone and mood like nobody's business and while I thought the collection was strong overall, the title story A Small Light and the second to last story, Explicit, were exceptionally good. Highly recommended for ANY horror reader.
December 29, 2022
An excellent collection of stories! I read it one sitting 😊👏👏👏
January 23, 2023
Such vivid and horrific stories! Love it! The title of the book matches my favorite story. Then Hollow Bones and third would be The Last Days of the Plague.
July 3, 2023
A Small Light & Other Stories is a great collection! I love the way Century takes familiar tropes and reimagines them from new points of view. It makes everything feel fresh.
March 11, 2025
Sinister stories about troubled relationships and the predatory things that haunt the borders of reality. As gloomy and invigorating as a rainstorm.
February 13, 2025
Picked this up on a whim and enjoyed it thoroughly. Sara Century is one I'll be keeping an eye on.
My two favorites were:
The Hollow Bones - A woman recounts how she lost her girlfriend to a tragedy involving another couple, their mansion, and a lot of birds. Sad, beautiful, and mysterious.
Slipping but Not Falling - A woman on the run from an abusive relationship stops at a hotel on the beach, where she meets a friendly bartender, Jen, and a mysterious stranger, Sasha, who knows things she shouldn't. This one went in a totally unexpected, strange but interesting direction.
My two favorites were:
The Hollow Bones - A woman recounts how she lost her girlfriend to a tragedy involving another couple, their mansion, and a lot of birds. Sad, beautiful, and mysterious.
Slipping but Not Falling - A woman on the run from an abusive relationship stops at a hotel on the beach, where she meets a friendly bartender, Jen, and a mysterious stranger, Sasha, who knows things she shouldn't. This one went in a totally unexpected, strange but interesting direction.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews