The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror by David T. Neal

The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror Reviews

• 
  Stephanie

  Unsettling
  
  A disturbing and unsettling collection of folk horror reinforcing the tradition of story telling which focusses on the place of man in the landscape and his (or her) uneasy relationship with it. Here is horror defined by ritual and belief, whether set in the past or present. They are stories which chill because we just know that hidden somewhere out there are folk traditions which remain very much alive and in today's rudderless society, they could so easily return.
  Every single story deserved its place in this collection and it is a book I know I will return to.
• 
  Alex

  This anthology dances with those shadows in the Wild and helps ensure that we don’t forget what came before. “The Hanging Tree and the Old Tom Pit” by Hazel King follows a delightful and morbid New Year’s tradition of hanging dolls on a communal tree for protection from Old Tom. This story perfectly inhabits the theme of folk horror with unusual traditions of small towns that border on the Wild, and the reasons that we believe the traditions must be kept. “The Slow King” by Tim Major does a nice job of exploring the boom of folk horror films and leaves us unsettled. I particularly respect how Major made the exposition sections feel particularly organic.
  
  “The Complete Compleat Gardener” by Elizabeth Twist was witchy fun. It could have abandoned all the worldbuilding and projection into the deep future for a more nebulous near future. It almost robs the story of some of its immediacy and threat. “A Deed Without A Name” by Jack Lothian is an unsettling story that we hope is about the creation of a witch escaping to claim her power, but is probably about mental disturbances and disassociation. “Dearg-an-Daol” by Tracy Fahey is the perfect closer to this anthology with a cleansing fire to protect those that come after.
  
  I also appreciate the note at the end of the typesetting. It adds an extra little something that this book -- about the things that came before and how they haunt us -- uses a revival font from the mid-1700s.
  
• 
  Lawrence Watts

  overall spoooooooky tales, only unintentionally undercut once when an american character was waxing lyrical about "feeling the weight of history" in a pub that dated all the way back to the prehistoric time of... 1860.
• 
  Elle

  Good collection of stories!
• 
  Carmen Tudor

  I love that this anthology includes a quite a few stories by first-time published authors. More of that all around, please. Ed Christine M Scott's design is great, too.
  
  As for the works, there are a couple of instances of grammatical errors slipping through (e.g. some punctuation problems, as well as a 'to' instead of 'too' in Jack Lothian's piece. Pedants will find this hard to forgive, but with Alys Hobbs's gem 'Yan' taking its rightful place at the beginning of the collection, I'm willing to forgive and forget. I also really enjoyed Sara Century's 'The Death of a Drop of Water'. These two stories, for me, best capture the unease and darkness of folk horror, while a few others only hint at that connection or make their way into cliché territory*. That's unavoidable, I suppose. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the third volume. :)
  
  *This reader could do with less animal death. Folk horror is more than that.
  
  
• 
  James Slaven

  Mot anywhere near as good as the first. There were a few decent stories (“The Complete Compleat Gardener,” “Dear-an-Daol,” and “The Slow King”), but even these weren’t great. Very little suspense and tension building anywhere. The folk horror is minimal and nowhere in some stories. Most of these would’ve been better in a different horror genre book.
• 
  Erica Summers

  Another Five stars for part II. Both of these books were everything I could want in folk horror anthologies. I started following several of the authors on social media after this and bought their other work because I enjoyed their story so much. Fabulous sequel. I cannot wait for part III to come out this year. I will be pre-ordering it immediately.
• 
  Tyler

  Several good ones including good Foreward:
  Yan
  Hour of the Cat's Eye
  A Well-fed man
  The binding Tide
  Deed without a name
  The hanging tree and the old tom pit
  The slow king(not quite good really but some good ideas that don't really add up)
  
  If scratches the itch for folk horror. Kind of loses it by the end though.
• 
  Pax

  Better than the first, in my humble opinion. This collection was more varied and dark I think. And I can't remember the last time I was "jolted" at a certain part of a story, but one of these accomplished that! And it was largely in the way it was written moreso than the action itself!
• 
  Mandy

  Read this in one sitting as I was getting tattooed. Great continuation in the anthology. Loved the repeated themes/images used to create very different stories: hunger, witches, effigies, women in white, culty religion. The Macbeth inspired story spoke to my little Shakespeare loving heart.
• 
  Amanda

  Another decent collection of folk horror that doesn't break any boundaries but was still good fun to read. I enjoyed the story about the "Compleat" gardener the most.
• 
  GrimMandarin

  the first 2/3 I was hooked, but with the last few stories I sort of lost the thread. still a fine collection overall.
• 
  Josh Towzey

  Favorites:
  
  The Binding Tide
  A Well Fed Man
  A Deed Without a Name
• 
  Julie

  This one didn't have a lot of stories that made my skin crawl, but it was still a good read
• 
  C.J.

  2.5 stars. I liked the first one better; although this one wasn't bad - just much slower-paced and more psychological horror than folk horror.