| Title | : | Lost Signals |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1943720088 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781943720088 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 378 |
| Publication | : | First published July 29, 2016 |
The signals are already inside you. You never even had a chance.
Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing brings you Lost Signals, a tome of horror fiction featuring radio waves, numbers stations, rogue transmissions, and other unimaginable sounds you only wish were fiction. Forget about what’s hiding in the shadows, and start worrying about what’s hiding in the dead air.
Edited by Max Booth III and Lori Michelle, featuring a front cover design by Matthew Revert and 25 interior illustrations by Luke Spooner, this 130,000 word collection is a must-have for any serious fan of horror.
Lost Signals Reviews
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LOST SIGNALS is an anthology edited by Max Booth III & Lori Michelle. I seem to be on the wrong "wavelength" with this one, compared to other reviews. While there were some stories that were rather impressive and made me think about them afterwards, I found that the majority just fell flat for me. A few even seemed like they were only half written stories--either that, or I was just hopelessly lost in figuring out the meaning to them.
There were some standouts for me, however.
--"If He Summons His Herd", by Matthew Bartlett: This one had an interesting premise on what choices you would make as a young child, if given the chance.
--"Darkhorse Actual", by George Controls: This was my favorite in the collection. A tale of soldiers stationed at a lonely desert retreat, with only an old radio--tuned into an odd frequency at various times--for company. Despite the short length, I felt that these characters made sense to me, and the idea behind it was gripping!
--"The Desert of Wounded Frequencies", by Betty Rocksteady: This tale was one that got better as it went on. I loved the fact that it didn't all come together to me until the very end, but rather, played out slowly, over the course of the tale.
With many of the stories, I started out invested in them, but they just didn't hold my attention as they went on. What would start out as promising, turned into something more "abstract", or simply not enough details given for me to really think about.
Obviously, everybody's opinion will differ, and this is only my personal experience. -
Themed anthologies can tend to have a problem of too much "sameness" about them. But do not have those trepidations with "Lost Signals" edited by Max Booth III. There are some powerful stories here written by (in some cases) relatively unknown authors.
Don't get me wrong, there is some great work hee from Matthew Bartlet, T.E. Grau, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Damien Angelica Walters and James Newman. I recommend applying portion control in consuming the variety plate on offer here. I tried to limit myself to two or three stories at a sitting, and at times found that to be quite difficult.
True some stories are slightly better than others, yet all are of extremely high quality. A special nod needs to be presented to the editors for producing this fascinating anthology.
Table of Contents:
i - Introduction by Scott Nicolay
001 -"If He Summons His Herd" by Matthew M. Bartlett
017 - ‘Transmission’ by T.E. Grau
034 - ‘The Dangsturm Interruption’’ by Joseph Bouthiette Jr.
039 - ‘The Givens Sensor Board" by Josh Malerman
049 - "Sharks With Thumbs" by David James Keaton
065 - "Bad Lieutenant" by Tony Burgess
070 - "How the Light Gets In" by Michael Paul Gonzalez
098 - "Darkhorse Actual" by George Cotronis
109 - ‘The Desert of Wounded Frequencies" by Betty Rocksteady
117 - Eternity Lie in its Radius" by Christopher Slatsky
136 - "Where Night Cowers" by Matthew M. Bartlett
145 - "Rosabelle, Believe" by Amanda Hard
163 - ‘The Last Scream" by Gabino Iglesias
172 - ‘The Man in Room 603" by Dyer Wilk
185 - ‘The Sound of Yesterday" by Ashlee Scheuerman
205 - "Children of a German Autumn" by Matt Andrew
234 - "The Night Wire" by H.F. Arnold
243 - "Armageddon Baby" by John C. Foster
264 - "‘The Small Hours" by Vince Darcangelo
273 - "Hush’ by Regina Solomon
280 - "Feedback Loop" by Joshua Chaplinsky
297 - "Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home" by Damien Angelica Walters
309 - "All That You Leave Behind" - Paul Michael Anderson
347 - Credits
357 - "SomethingInTheCode" by James Newman -
How to properly read this book:
* Be alone. Go into your bedroom, close the door.
* Find recordings of EVPS, television/radio static, Numbers Stations. Turn them on, listen while reading.
* Turn off the light. Read by candlelight, Christmas tree lights, kindle lights, whatever is dim.
* Hope that you don't fall asleep and have strange transmissions invade your dreams.
(I received an e-copy of the book from the publishers in exchange for a review) -
Given that I'm notorious for being an short story anthology grump, the long-awaited LOST SIGNALS was some of the best time I've had reading one. The best stories were Paul Michael Anderson's dark and suffocating "All That you Leave Behind" and T.E Grau's contemporary classic "Transmission" followed by Damien Angelica Walters' "Little Girl Blue Come Cry Your Way Home", George Cotronis' "Darkhorse Actual", Amanda Hard's "Rosabelle Believe" and John C. Foster's twisted and oddly sassy "Armageddon Baby". Kudos to Joseph Bouthiette, James Newman and Joshua Chaplinsky for their original and challenging stories. See? It was so much fun I can't do anything but namedrop some people. The only knock I have on this anthology is that some of the stories are a bit samey. Lots of radios. Lots of dead people talking through the airwaves, but the participants all have an angle are were diligently chosen. Read it now or keep it for Halloween, it'll be fun either way!
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If He Summons His Heard by Matthew M. Bartlett ★★★★☆
The first cut is the deepest. Finn felt a personal connection to the dark mystery of his town. The story never lets you in all the way, but you feel it when it doesn't let Finn in either.
Transmissions by T.E. Grau ★★★☆☆
“The voice in the darkness had sliced open the forbidden fruit and offered a taste to Max.”
Wandering trucker finds himself drawn to an abandoned radio station in the desert run by the disciples of the Old Ones.
This should have been better.
The Dangstrum Interruption by Joseph Bouthiette Jr. ★★☆☆☆
This just read as a brief continuation of the previous story. Too vague and short to stand on its own.
The Givens Sensor Board by Josh Malerman ★☆☆☆☆
Stream of nonsense.
Sharks With Thumbs by David James Keaton DNF
Randomness.
Bad Lieutenant by Tony Burgess DNF
It didn’t start to make sense fast enough. Skip.
How the Light Gets In Michael Paul Gonzales ★★★☆☆
“The voices come when the stars fall.”
Lesbians try to solve horror mysteries. This was B Movie fodder.
Darkhorse Actual by George Cotronis ★★★★☆
“The voices never got tired. Never gave up.”
In enemy territory, forgotten, on fringe of endless war, it doesn’t take much to push men over the edge.
The Desert of Wounded Frequencies by Betty Rocksteady ★★★★☆
Driving faster and faster down a desert road a man fails to outrun his crimes.
Eternity Lie In Its Radius by Christopher Slatsky ★★★☆☆
“Music is a strange thing. I would almost say it is a miracle. For it stands halfway between thought and phenomenon, between spirit and matter...”
This was an odd music-from-beyond-makes-me-behave-badly story with some humor.
“Mark could call his sperm collection ectoplasm or whatever the hell he wanted, but it still didn’t make it magic to Molly.”
Where Night Cowers by Matthew M. Bartlett ★★☆☆☆
No idea what this grim fairytale is suppose to mean or allude to.
Rosabelle, Believe by Amanda Hard ★★★★☆
Devastating story of loss.
“My son is dead.
He felt nothing. The words held no meaning.
I’m not a dad anymore.
And then he felt everything.”
The Last Scream by Gabino Iglesias ★★★★☆
Damn.
A school project unleashes an Event Horizon level bloodbath in a college classroom.
The Man in Room 603 by Dyer Wilk ★★★★☆
Properly scary story about the government trying to control evil as a weapon. And the woman who thinks herself immune...
The Sound of Yesterday by Ashlee Scheuerman ★★☆☆☆
The dead are calling and they want you to do terrible things. This should have been quite entertaining, but it wasn’t.
Children of a German Autumn by Matt Andrew ★★★☆☆
When families are broken and madness reigns on the war torn streets of East Germany something else calls the children home...
The Night Wire by H.F. Arnold ★★★☆☆
A precursor short story of King’s The Mist; a reporters swan song.
Armageddon Baby by John C. Foster ★★★½☆
“I heard the devil laugh.”
Mick is tricked and honey-trapped into killing a radio jockey in no-mans-land Alaska. When he learns about the recordings the guy was hiding Mick decides to just let it play.
The Small Hours by Vince Darcangelo ★☆☆☆☆
This is the most depressing story I have ever read. I need some chocolate and a hug.
Hush by Regina Solomono ★★★☆☆
The fathoms of loneliness in this story will drown you. It was well, and painfully, written.
The Feedback Loop by Joshua Chaplinsky ★★★★☆
I read this twice! It reminded me of those creepy good one-off episodes of X-Files. With great difficulty Dylan figures out how to cause a small change in time.
It feels like there is a greater plan, a grander story; the first move in a chess match.
Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters ★★★★☆
Being the stay-at-home mom of a non-stop crying baby had already hit my personal horror button hard before anything supernatural occurred.
The Hallmark Channel is military breeding propaganda, real life is never that nice. Real life is screams, and shit, and bills, and people judging you for not being like that mom on the Hallmark Channel.
All That You Leave Behind by Paul Michael Anderson ★★★½☆
“They got their happy ending.”
“What about us ?”
“Let’s start with a walk...”
This story would make for good couples therapy after a miscarriage.
Something in the (Code) by James Newman ★★★☆☆
A story of a video game that causes violence and depression in children is cleverly linked, in meta fashion, to the book itself.
Good idea for a closing story.
I read 22 stories and DNF’d two.
Average rating - 3.5 which I will round down to three because this is the least fun I’ve had reading an anthology. Some of these stories were terribly depressing. -
The concept didn’t seem very appealing to me, at first, but the more stories I read, the more I began to appreciate how original some of the ideas were. Nearly every story in Lost Signals is about personal horror; many stories have characters that connect very well to each other, with relationships that must endure whatever horrific conflict is transpiring. There are a couple of exceptions; arguably, there is only one story that brings in shock value, but its presence in the collection is timely and it’s written by an author who has a penchant for writing stories that uncover dirty/horrific truths about ourselves that we can only admit to our closest friends: Gabino Iglesias’ “The Last Scream.” David James Keaton delights with, “Sharks with Thumbs”, the only other piece in the collection that you might consider “off-beat” from the rest of the stories, but it’s easy to become so interested in what Keaton is going to do next in the story that we end up being very satisfied with it.
Anthologies are usually a “best of” compilation of submissions acquired through the process of putting the book together; these are the best stories that involve “Transmission-signal” horror themes. The larger the book, the more likely it is for me to find pieces I am not interested in. There were a few stories I couldn’t start and a few I couldn’t finish for a variety of reasons, but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to finish any large tome of anthologies, no matter who is involved. Sometimes, you pick up an anthology and just find the authors that you know can write and you trust they will entertain you: I have read Iglesias before, as well as Keaton, T.E. Grau, Christopher Slatsky, and John A. Foster; I have heard of a few authors in the collection before, but I think the best part of reading an anthology is daring yourself to discover a new author—and you end up finding yourself reading author bios. Damien Angelica Walters, Joseph Bouthiette Jr., Matthew Bartlett ("Where Night Cowers" was my favorite of his two pieces because I enjoyed the surrealism), Betty Rocksteady, Vince Darcangelo, and H.F. Arnold are authors I want to check out again.
I truly appreciated that each story I encountered introduced a new spin on the theme, so I never felt like the mystery inherit in the theme or any potential horror elements was spoiled or predictable. The stories that I couldn’t finish were well-written, and I think they probably belong in the collection because they are likable. With the book feeling as if it were infused with a sense of “soul”, I found a reason to connect to many of the stories because I never felt like I could reach through the book and shake the protagonist to say, “You idiot” because I didn’t have to battle through cheesy horror tropes. These stories were horrific in the same way that most Stephen King shorts are horrific; we are prompted to think about ourselves.
The structure of the anthology seemed to slide from any sense of bizarreness to horrifying scenarios; the last two stories were about the extent of what I can handle. The content is something I find personally terrifying, and the stories were good enough to make me stop because I was uncomfortable. From “The Sound of Yesterday” by Ashlee Scheurman on, each story punched me in the stomach harder, and differently. The last story, “All That You Leave Behind” by Paul Michael Anderson, was a story that I knew I couldn’t finish, especially after the one before it, “Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home” by Damien Angelica Walters. To be fair, if the order of the two stories had been reversed, I wouldn’t have been able to get to the second one (I can’t spoil the horror element). These stories bothered me because they are literally nightmares ripped out of my head; the only thing that truly frightens me was present, and I squirmed.
Lost Signals represents a fresh idea packaged with a roster of talented writers who will likely be appearing in more anthologies in the near future. The collection is wonderfully vivid and delightfully horrific—a fresh invigoration of ideas and heart -
24 stories, total average 2.79. There were some stories I liked but over-all it just wasn't the anthology for me.
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I'll be writing a full length review of this later in the week, but wanted to put a quick two cents in here.
Lost Signals is brilliant in concept and even more so in execution. With outstanding and disturbing stories by T. E. Grau, Gabino Iglesias, John Foster, and others it's a who's who of some of the best voices in short genre fiction. I highly recommend this book. -
So, I made a note after each story as I read it. This anthology was THAT good. Here are my thoughts below:
If He Summons His Herd by Matthew M. Bartlett. This is how you do Weird fiction! I absolutely loved this story.
Transmission by T. E. Grau. Another brilliant story for this anthology, and I'm only 2 in! Cosmic Horror at its finest!
The Dangsturm Interruption by Joseph Boutiette Jr. Science Fiction/Cosmic Horror. Super short experimental weirdness.
The Givens Sensor Board by Josh Malerman. I had a little trouble getting started on this. There is a rhythm to the text, and once I hooked into its cadence, the story unfolded in disturbing darkness.
Sharks With Thumbs by David James Keaton. This story is written in second person, and Keaton pulls it off excellently. The prose is so eloquently crafted that it's a joy to read them. I will definitely be revisiting this story again in the future.
Bad Lieutenant by Tony Burgess. This was a very short, and odd, stream of consciousness piece. I'm not entirely certain that I followed it. With this kind of story you experience it as you process the words. Narrative degrades as cadence and flow supersede story. Words turn on images and patterns. Like signals disrupted.
Yes, there are signals that connect us to everything from visual light, radio waves, and neurons in our brains. If something goes wrong, or is altered at any point, then our perceptions can change radically.
Yes, it's kinda like that.
How the Light Gets in by Michael Paul Gonzalez. Another excellent Cosmic Horror tale in this superb anthology.
Darkhorse Actual by George C. Cotronis in Lost Signals by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. Here we delve into a War story. It reminded me of the Weird War comics from when I was a kid. I loved those tales, and this one is right in there with the best. This felt like only a slice of a bigger story. Or, maybe I just wanted more because it was that good.
The Desert of Wounded Frequencies by Betty Rocksteady. This story reminds me of the old EC Comics stories, or something from The Night Gallery. Somewhat of a morality play that ends in a full on nightmare. Betty is a very good writer, and I recommend checking out more of her work.
Eternity Lie in its Radius by Christopher Slatsky. This is the kind of story that perfectly merges Horror and Metal. I want the movie!
Where Night Cowers by Matthew M. Bartlett. A boy finds a box that talks to him and nothing will ever be the same. A weird and surreal fairy tale.
Rosabelle, Believe by Amanda Hard. This story was as good as some of the most memorable Stephen King short stories. Seriously.
The Last Scream by Gabino Iglesias. I can easily imagine this story as an episode of Creepshow. That end! Fucking gnarly. Gabino Iglesias is a brilliant writer. I highly recommend you seek out his works.
The Man in Room 603 by Dyer Wilk. Another good story in this excellent anthology.
The Sound of Yesterday by Ashlee Scheuerman.
Children of a German Autumn by Matt Andrew. A good story for me to read today. This was an homage to Lovecraft, and it got me warmed up for seeing Color Out of Space this evening. Good stuff!
The Night Wire by H. F. Arnold. Another good and spooky story in this anthology. I'm loving this book.
Armageddon Baby by John C. Foster. A Noir style story. The premise is awesome, and I love where the story goes, but I personally feel it needs to be longer--like a novella length. I still really like this story, I just want more time with the characters.
The Small Hours by Vince Darcangelo. Short, sad, and disturbing.
Hush by Regina Solomond. Another short and sad story.
Feedback Loop by Joshua Chaplinsky. Another good story.
Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters. Maybe if you've never been the parent of a newborn child you might not connect with that special kind of terror that is so unique. Still, this story conveys it so well.
All That You Leave Behind by Paul Michael Anderson. I believe that this is the longest story in this anthology. This story will make you think deep thoughts. There is loss and despair. There is fear and confusion. But, there is ultimately hope. Beautifully done. It is a great story to put near the end of this book.
SOMETHINGINTHECODE by James Newman. A bonus track at the end of the book. Very funny guys! That sudden popup on my phone claiming to be the NSA. Hahaha! Wait, someone is pounding on my front door. Is that a helicopter overhead? What the hell is goi- -
PMM Publishing is no stranger to deliver extremely original works, and Lost Signals is the umpteenth example of a well curated collection of compelling stories. I couldn't help appreciating the cure that has been put into this anthology -from the cover to the great illustrations, everything is perfect. Each and every story is beautifully written -fluent and engaging, this book will absorb you completely.
Read more on
The Serial Reader Blog. -
Not taking my own story into account, I give this antho 4 out of 5 stars. (My story bumps it up to a 5, suckaz!)
Seriously tho, so much talent, grateful to be a part of this. -
High caliber anthology with a great, creepy premise. The authors give the subject matter a lot of range, and there's a lot to love about the overall product. Standout favorites included The Givens Sensor Board, by Josh Malerman, The Desert of Wounded Frequencies, by Betty Rocksteady, The Man in Room 603, by Dyer Wilk, Armageddon Baby, by John C. Foster, Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home, by Damien Angelica Walters, and All That You Leave Behind, by Paul Michael Anderson.
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Mixed bag, as anthologies tend to be. There were few excellent pieces here and coupke that were less than stellar, but all in all I had good time with this.
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Just so, so long (I think the PDF version I read was 288 sides of small print A4) but luckily I was able to breeze past about 40% of it by skipping a story whenever it did two out of these three things: referencing the main character drinking whiskey, naming the manufacturer of a handgun, or an out-of-character paragraph leering at a female character. A handful of great stories in here, but I've long been wary of short genre fiction based on the mostly time-saving assumption that it's not worth wading through work by people I'd avoid in real life and on this evidence I was.. not wrong!
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This was awesome, every single story in this collection is fantastic. You might think that a collection of short stories featuring transmissions, radio stations and other electrical signals might be a strange idea but it works brilliantly!
The stories chosen for the anthology work really well together and the order of the stories must have been really thought through, it feels that each story shares a theme with the story that precedes and follows it.
The anthology also features some of the best contemporary horror writers right now, such as; Matthew M. Bartlett, T.E. Grau, Josh Malerman, Christopher Slatsky, Damien Angelica Walters etc.
I enjoyed every moment of this book and would recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in horror. -
This eclectic anthology is jam packed with stories. My favorites included three tales of obsession: "Children of a German Autumn" by Matt Andrew, "The Small Hours" by Vince Darcangelo, and "Hush" by Regina Solomond. The rich sensory details of Andrew's eerie tale transport the reader seamlessly to the story world of East Berlin in 1977 and 1992, where a mother strives to protect her son. Derangeleo's protagonist grapples with the psychotic pull of the Lurking Man entrenched within his psyche. Solomond brings to life a man who becomes obsessed with his search for connection through random phone calls.
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This is a long collection, and it took me a long time to get through it, chipping away here and there. I definitely found a good few winners -- the entries by Dyer Wilk, Gabino Iglesias, and James Newman come to mind in particular. I labored with a fair number of them, though, both stylistically and in forming a connection with the concept. I'd have liked it if more of them were short and sharp like Newman's.
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I was honestly a bit disappointed by this book. I was really excited to read these stories, as I love horror stories with white noise and the like. But...its a real hit or miss. Few stories are great, others are meh, and still others are just plain dumb or boring.
I think it'll really depend on your personal taste. Some people seem to really enjoy these stories, and I'm glad they could. But I didnt much care for this anthology in the end. -
“Armageddon Baby” by John C. Foster is something else.
“The Sound of Yesterday” by Ashlee Scheuerman was also a distinct pleasure.
“Darkhorse Actual” by George Cotronis and “How The Light Gets In” by Michael Paul Gonzalez would be excellent full-length novels.
Fun ideas, a few gems. -
As with most anthologies, the quality of the individual stories varies in Lost Signals and while a few didn't do much for me, the collection overall is well worth reading if you enjoy horror.
A lot of enjoyment comes from how the authors make use of the broad theme of the book, with the inevitable stories about weird radio transmissions, and others that get even weirder, darker or both. There are references to the Cthulhu mythos, Twilight Zone-ish dead people calling on phones, jovial electronic devices that seem to enjoy killing, time displacement and enough electrical discharges to put your hair permanently on end.
"All That You Leave Behind" is a haunting tale by Paul Michael Anderson in which a couple experiences the sorrow of a miscarriage and the surreal joy of birth simultaneously. Keeping with babies, Damien Angelica Walters' “Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home” will make you look twice at baby monitors.
David James Keaton's "Sharks with Thumbs" (apparently you needed at least three names to get into this anthology) nearly lost me up front as it's written from the second person perspective, but the off-kilter story of a man and a fly that acts as a supernatural transmitter is so daft the unusual choice of perspective ends up working.
While I normally don't give much thought to the actual order of stories in a collection, I had expected the long "All That You Leave Behind" to be the concluding tale, but it's followed by a rather glib tale presented as an epistolary of a video game that inspires many of the children in a small town to kill themselves. The quiet, powerful conclusion of "All That You Leave Behind" would have been a nice conclusion for the book, but "somethinginthecode" feels like an attempt to abruptly lighten things up (weird, I know, given the plot of the story). It's a minor thing, and others may react differently (or indifferently).
Overall, the range of styles and subject in service of weird horror and the specific theme are strong and varied enough to warrant a recommendation. Just be advised that the tinfoil hate probably won't help. -
When editors
Lori Michelle and
Max Booth III put out the call for Lost Signals, they were looking for "...horror fiction about radiotelegraphy. We want to be disturbed. Stories should somehow involve radios, radio stations, radars, cell phones, military broadcasts, distress signals, walkie talkies, podcasts, or anything similar." So, right out of the starting gate, we have that first element covered. They have a unique and intriguing theme that is of interest to the authors involved in the project, and entertaining for readers of the finished product. In addition, it's a concept that's open to many different interpretations, affording the authors the freedom to think and create outside the box, in some cases, such as
David James Keaton's "Sharks With Thumbs," way outside the box.
You can read Shane's full review at Horror DNA by
clicking here. -
A decent anthology featuring a couple authors I already enjoyed, and a bunch I've never read before including some I've been meaning to check out and some I'm definitely gonna check out more of. Every story had something to do with radio waves or radio signals in some way or another.
Matthew M. Bartlett: If He Summons His Herd ⭐⭐
T.E. Grau: Transmission ⭐⭐
Joseph Boutiette Jr.: The Dangsturm Interruption ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Josh Malerman: The Givens Sensor Board ⭐⭐⭐
David James Keaton: Sharks with Thumbs ⭐⭐
Tony Burgess: Bad Lieutenant ⭐
Michael Paul Gonzalez: How the Light Gets In ⭐⭐⭐⭐
George Cotronis: Darkhorse Actual ⭐⭐
Betty Rocksteady: The Desert of Wounded Frequencies ⭐⭐⭐
Christopher Slatsky: Eternity Lie in its Radius ⭐⭐⭐
Matthew M. Bartlett: Where Night Cowers ⭐⭐
Amanda Hard: Rosabelle, Believe ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gabino Iglesias: The Last Scream ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dyer Wilk: The Man in Room 603 ⭐⭐⭐
Ashlee Scheuerman: The Sound of Yesterday ⭐⭐
Matt Andrew: Children of a German Autumn ⭐
H.F. Arnold: The Night Wire ⭐⭐⭐
John C. Foster: Armageddon Baby ⭐⭐
Vince Darcangelo: The Small Hours ⭐⭐
Regina Solomond: Hush ⭐
Joshua Chaplinsky: Feedback Loop ��⭐⭐⭐
Damien Angelica Walters: Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paul Michael Anderson: All That You Leave Behind ⭐⭐⭐
James Newman: Something in the Code ⭐⭐⭐ -
3.5 stars
Interesting book design () but ultimately, like most short story anthologies, an uneven read. Some of these stories I strongly disliked, especially the overly gory stories.
My favorites of the bunch:
The Givens Sensor Board by Josh Malerman (also the author of Bird Box, which I've been meaning to check out)
Rosabelle, Believe by Amanda Hard (that ending!! I read this story at midnight, right before bed, and that was a mistake)
The Night Wire by H. F. Arnold (originally published in 1926)
Armageddon Baby by John C. Foster (my absolute favorite of the bunch - weird, supernatural depictions of native peoples aside, this was just the right level of unsettling and gory) -
Radio-related horror or anything that involves a vicarious experience of unsettling things has always been my favorite kind of horror. This was a good collection of short horror that played with that theme albeit loosely.
The strongest story in Lost Signals was one I have already read prior and one that I consider one of my favorites of the (sub?)genre: The Night Wire by HF Arnold. It exemplifies the dread that can be transmitted over the wireless and grip an unwary listener on the other side. -
Staticky radio signals on lost highways, mysterious number stations, impossible transmissions over radio telescopes, telephones, baby monitors, and even from graves. These things are my jam, so I was predisposed to love this collection. Max Booth is also an excellent anthologist. Like all anthologies, some entries aren't as good as other, but the overall quality is such that I wouldn't ding it a star for a couple lesser stories.
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This was a very strong collection and a lot of fun! While there were some forgettable stories, most of them were intriguing and well-written and creepy. The theme was fascinating and I feel like each of the stories tackled it in a different way so the collection didn't feel repetitive or redundant. I also really loved the way it ended...definitely on a very strong note!
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Like a radio signal that keeps fading in and out, it’s an uneven collection that I struggled to get through. My rating is based on the first two stories by Matt Bartlett and TE Grau, which captured what creeps me out with AM Radio really well. The rest was mostly static, ended up skipping about half the other stories once I realized I wasn’t hooked.
