Rita’s Reviews > The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror > Status Update

Review for The Burning One by Shakira Toussaint - 4/5

Wow, I really had no idea where this was going the entire time. The light bulb moment at the end was so intense and the end of the story was fantastic. Loved this one!

Review for Truth or Dare by Alex Brown - 4/5

This was a fun one and I support a woman who overreacts to a man wronging her!! This one kind of felt like an old Twilight Zone episode and I really enjoyed it. I liked the narration of recounting a story to the reader, and I thought the concept was really unique and clever.

Rating for It Stays With You by Aden Polydoros - 3.5/5

If I was rating this for the concept alone, I would give it a 5/5 stars. I really loved the concept of trying to out-run your trauma, but always having it shadow you throughout your life. I just didn't really care for the execution and writing style. The prose felt a bit disjointed and the dialogue leaned Netflix teen-movie-esque.

Review of Third Burn by Courtney Gould - 3/5

This story has The Scarlet Letter energy!!! I feel like this could be a novella or a novel, because the themes that are explored in this don't have enough pages to really expand on them to an in-depth degree. But another one that had me holding my breath trying not to read ahead to see what happens next! The writing was also a bit flat for my liking but overall good.

Review of Petrified by Olivia Chadra - 3/5

I really liked the concept of this story a lot but I feel like it could have been fleshed out more. The writing felt a bit disjointed and could have been connected better. I wanted there to be more conversation about colonization and gentrification, and I also found it interesting that a story with that at the focus had an immigrant main character, rather than indigenous.

Review of One-Lane Bridge by Hannah Whitten - 3/5

I enjoyed this for the most part. I found the subject of anger being a valid emotion, as long as you know how to hold it and own (process) it, really interesting, but I feel like the ending required a bit of suspension of disbelief. I won't spoil it, but I find it hard to believe that that would have been the outcome that easily.

Rating for Loved By All, Save One by Tori Bovalino - 4/5

Oo the writing for this one was so good. I loved the true crime element of this one, the tension, the suspense, the not shying away from a very scary real life kind of situation. I really liked that there was a focus and emphasis on the stripping away of humanhood for murder victims, esp those with a brutal death. Definitely going to read more by Tori Bovalino

Rating for The Tallest Poppy by Chloe Gong - 3/5

This one didn't quite come together for me. I don't think Gong's writing style is for me, as I've previously tried to read TVD and DNF'ed. While her prose here was much smoother, the tension was a bit lacking overall. I know that this story is inspired by the "tallest poppy syndrome" but it lacked a cohesiveness. Some good horrifying moments tho that made me cringe.

Rating for Stay by Erica Waters - 4/5

When the lightbulb went off for me I gagged!!!! Micro body horror and sapphic rep!