| Title | : | Collective Darkness: A Horror Anthology |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1734890533 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781734890532 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 167 |
| Publication | : | First published September 2, 2020 |
Collective Darkness: A Horror Anthology Reviews
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For a horror anthology, starting with a sense of affection may seem a bit off genre, but when you crack open the book and read the forward, introduction, and summation, the passion for the project shines. We've all read it before, but this book is indeed a labor of love. With that out the way, the frights roared to life. Horror anthologies are the best way to get quick fixes of drama, not to mention a way to discover new talent and, with luck, a new favorite author. This is one of those deals.
Like “The Book of Cthulhu,” “Stalkers,” or “It Came From the Multiplex,” “Collective Darkness” has range.
These stories were a blast. Chilling. Terrifying. And, most importantly, surprising. Within these pages we get stories from 17-year-old author Edward Suggs, a twisted fairy-tale of vampiric destruction by Jonathan Reddoch, a bloody rampage on a movie set by Becca Rose, a tale with a creepy young girl in lace by Jen Ellwyn, an eerie tale told from the lips of a madman by Elizabeth Suggs, and many more. And they're all perfectly dark.
Authors in the collection: Edward Suggs, Jonathan Reddoch, Alex Child, Becca Rose, Brandon Prows, K.R. Patterson, Austin Slade Perry, B. Todd Orgill, Jen Ellwyn, Chris Jorgensen, Samuel Smith, and Elizabeth Suggs.
Bravo to you all! -
Collective Darkness: A Horror Anthology is a collection of stories that range from the mildly spooky to the ones that will give you full body chills. These stories are just screaming to be read out loud to your friends or family to share in the creepiness!
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the editor in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way. I also purchased a copy.
Let’s dive in!
My Thoughts on Collective Darkness: A Horror Anthology Edited by Elizabeth Suggs, Brandon Prows, and Jonathan Reddoch
Okay, first things first… the disclaimer that “Some stories contain descriptive violence” right at the beginning?! Wonderful! I would love to see more people adding notes like this!
Per usual with anthologies, I’ll add my notes about each section and story below.
Foreword, Introduction & Editor’s Summation
I enjoyed that the forward gives a bit of insight into how this anthology came together while the introduction explained more about the group of authors. The Editor’s Summation is an element that I don’t think I have seen before but I liked that the readers are introduced to the tales quickly here.
Feast by Edward Suggs – 3/5
This tale is about a mother daughter duo that are at work, just trying to get by when they have a visitor pay them a visit.
This one started out slow but WOW, it certainly took a bizarre and brutal turn! This story was written by a 17 year old and I would love to see how his writing career progresses. The action scenes were really powerful.
Polter Geist by Jen Ellwyn – 3/5
A quick tale about a boy determined to get into the shop, take and item, and get out. But can he do it without being caught? This one was pretty suspenseful!
Padua’s Eyes by Jonathan Reddoch – 4/5
When a girl witnesses her father and prized pony attacked by a vampire, she is absolutely heartbroken. Soon afterward, her father rises a changed man and the townsfolk take him down. When they see that the pony, Padua isn’t just an albino, it’s also been bitten and has risen again, the girl doesn’t hesitate to free her horse and flee the area. She then sets off on a quest to take down the vampire that killed her father.
I love a good vampire tale! This one was super fun.
Brisket, Please by Becca Rose – 5/5
This tale is about an actress who finishes up a scene and heads to her trailer to prepare for a date. However, when she wakes up, something is very wrong on set…
WOAH! This one was so intense; I absolutely loved this one. It started with a bang that quickly takes a hard turn before things take yet another turn. I loved the two little hints that pop up as the main character wakes up from a nightmare that, once you’ve finished the story, will realize were great foreshadowing! I would love to see this one on Creepshow or something like that series!
Crimson Snow by Austin Slade Perry – 5/5
The story is about four people that head to the summer home of one of the group. As the snow falls, the main character quickly realizes that there was a reason why his family didn’t spend their winters there.
I LOVE stories that focus on tales from books as well as stories about people trapped in a cabin. This story had both and it was wonderfully spooky!
Pond Scum by Alex Child – 4/5
When two boys are out exploring, they come across a strange pond. One boy doesn’t hesitate to get into the water but the other doesn’t like the look of the pond scum. There’s something very odd about this pond…
I love stories like this that start out innocent and then suddenly goes sideways.
The Fallout by Chris Jorgensen – 4/5
In this story, a bar is suddenly in the middle of a raid. Bombs are dropped and the sirens wail. The bar is still standing but there’s an odd fog outside that seems to be calling to them. One man, Oliver, struggles with the situation, thinking that everything seems so familiar…
What an eerie tale! Just the element of a fog that you can’t see through totally weirds me out!
The Last Light by B. Todd Orgill – 3/5
The darkness is creepy enough, but add to it creatures that are made of darkness that can consume humans, and you’ve go this tale! A group of people are traveling in the darkness, struggling to keep lamps lit to keep the darkness at bay. But can they make it to their destination safely?
The Figure in the Mirror by Brandon Prows – 5/5
In this tale, a man goes back to his family home after his grandfather had passed away. Immediately after crossing into town, his scar stars bleeding which he thinks is odd, but soon forgets it while he’s occupied with other things. Then at night when he is resting, he is haunted by terrible nightmares! One nightmare leads him to investigate something in the real world, but what he finds is much more than the terror he found in the nightmare.
This one was SO creepy! I loved every second of this. It was eerie from the start with the missing boy and just got more and more suspenseful as it went on. I would love to check out more work from this author!
The Breathing Wall by Samuel Smith – 3/5
In this story, our main character hears a ruckus and when they go to investigate, they see a man who has been attacked. As them man dies, the main character takes a book from his satchel. After months spent decoding the book, it’s realized that it’s a formula to create a creature…
This one certainly got out of hand quickly! Definitely a tale that can caution readers about their curiosity!
Red Flag by K.R. Patterson – 4/5
Oh my gosh, this one was heartbreaking. This was a tale about a mother and a son, but I’ll leave the rest of this one up to you to discover.
Into the Dark by Elizabeth Suggs – 5/5
In this tale, a man kills his wife in a drunken stupor and then runs. He find a door unlocked and enters. The man inside is willing to hide him from the police if he helps with chores. But there’s a darkness that is also present, and this man is about to learn that he chose the wrong door…
I loved this story! The setup was awesome and I loved that it centered around tea. I also loved the ending and how it lets the reader think about what happens next!
My Final Thoughts
An all around awesome anthology! This is another collection that would be especially great for readers that are just dipping their toes into the genre as this has a nice variety with different levels of intensity, but nothing too dark.
I can’t wait to read more from many of the authors included here! -
If you like spooky stories, you'll love this collection of creepy tales by 12 different authors. I love that they all use the theme of "darkness" but go off in very different directions. It'll definitely get you in the mood for Halloween!
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A great collection of new and upcoming authors! Fun and spooky goodness on every page.
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A page turner that will leave you wanting more. Thought provoking stories that are more than just horror.
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Collective Darkness is an eclectic assemblage of twelve tales that knock about the realm of dark fiction, from psychological horror to dark fantasy. There is something in this book for every spooky story aficionado, and I found myself surprised and delighted at both the originality of some of these creepy yarns and my gravitation toward pieces in sub-genres I don’t normally enjoy.
One of the more original stories is
K. R. Patterson’s “Red Flag,” snagging the reader from the get go with the line, “Shane told me he’s going to kill somebody.” From the time when he was just a toddler, a son’s insidiously matter-of-fact declarations make his mother, the story’s primary narrator, concerned about the sociopathy she sees growing within him. The narrator does not want to “betray” her child by notifying the authorities, but her interaction with outside sources makes her question her judgement. The road Patterson chooses to lead the reader is a well-tread one—the “Good Son” trope is one that seems only to have proliferated with the advent of school shootings—however, where she leads the reader from there is quite unique, and the story kept me rapt until the very end.
“Pond Scum” by
Alex Child proves that metaphorical darkness can be stronger than any visual cloak. I don’t recall Child specifically stating the season in which his no-longer-coming-of-age tale takes place, but I imagine it was late summer when Isaac and Corey bypassed the fence and warning signs posted around the “sickle-shaped pond” and explored its nefarious secrets. What occurs there is delightfully disturbing in a plot twist akin to Stephen King’s “The Raft.” Read this one the next time you’re at the lakeside retreat with the family.
What surprised me was the story I enjoyed the most of the twelve: “The Figure in the Mirror” by
Brandon Prows. An expertly crafted hybrid of psychological and cosmic horror, its plot arc can only be compared to one of a roller-coaster slowly ascending an incline, the view in front obscured from its passengers until the moment the car drops; then, the twisting descent pulls the car’s passengers into paranoid confusion and screaming terror. Asher returns to his hometown of Hornwood to visit his grandfather’s property. But as he’s welcomed home with a series of strange occurrences—a desperate stranger handing him a flyer on a missing child, a gash in his forehead he doesn’t remember getting, a subtly unnerving gathering of townsfolk—Asher begins to suspect there’s something very different about the Hornwood he abandoned years ago: something different…and deadly. I’ve never been fond of folk horror, but Prows has single-handedly converted me. Furthermore, despite being the lengthiest story in the anthology, “Figure” does not drag or waste words. Bravo to Prows for conjuring the love child of Shirley Jackson and HP Lovecraft.
Although not all of the tales resonated with me, I did not find a true weak link in the bunch; rather, editor Suggs offers a solid variety of styles and sub-genres for her readers to devour. My only criticism is of the number of pages devoted to an Introduction, a Foreword, and an Editor’s note; with a collection this slim, the space would have been better served featuring another piece of fiction and the musings over the experience shared in a blog post or podcast interview about the book. Overall, Collective Darkness makes good on its promise. As suggested in the editor’s own tale, the final in the anthology, “You can’t hide forever. Not from Hell. Not from me,” darkness will be found in the most innocuous of places, and its chameleonic nature is illuminated by these twelve craftsmen. -
This is the first multi-author compilation I've read in which every story was at least 3 stars (and that 3-star was, without a doubt, not because of low quality - it was just because of my own weird tastes). Most of the stories were 5 stars. I've never given a multi-author compilation above 3 stars total before.
Part of what made this compilation so good was the consistently high quality of editing. I didn't find any mistakes in the work, which is something I tend to find in at least one author's story in these compilations. I bet it's hard to get every story from multiple authors to feel like they're all done well and edited to their best!
Another thing that made the compilation so good was the darkness that linked them. Though the theme was very vague, the creepiness factor remained the same for all the stories. Though they had disparate settings, characters, and even sometimes genre, the collection went together very well. The order in which the stories were presented was also perfect; it went together like an album of music.
When I review a compilation, I like to leave a review of 3 stories: my favorite, one that stood out, and my least favorite. This time, I'm proud to say, I even liked the least favorite!
The Favorite: Padua's Eyes
HOLY MOLY. This story turned vampire stories on their head. Padua was a vampiric horse that helped her human rider seek vengeance for turning her father. Not only was the story an exciting bit of fantasy, but the journey that Padua and her rider Cordelia make is dark and filled with difficult decisions. I also loved the author's choice of a German-inspired setting. Even though it was simple, the small hints and flicks of German inspired names, dress, and activity gave it just that little kick that made this story my favorite.
The Standout: Red Flag
This was a Southern Gothic tale, and I loved it. There were all kinds of little niceties about how being quiet and maintaining honor was important, even if it was never explicitly stated. Though I think some of the Southernness was a bit heavy-handed, the short as a whole made good use of the setting. The first line of the story, "Shane told me he's going to kill somebody," leads to a paranoid, macabre set of twists and turns. By the ending I knew what was going on and what needed to happen, but I couldn't look away because it was so intense.
This was one of the stories in which violence occurs, but unless you're really, truly bothered by it, the paranoia and creepiness is absolutely worth it.
Least Favorite: Crimson Snow
Honestly, this story wasn't bad. There was mystery, a sense of dread instilled by the chilly setting, and a plot that had a beginning, middle, and end. It fit the book well. Even so, I guess it was my least favorite because the story blended reality and vision in a way that my brain, which was seeking easily digestible material at the time, decided it didn't want to try so hard. Eventually some monsters show up, and I thought it was ok but wasn't the more sociopolitical direction I'd thought the story was heading. -
Fun and spooky read. Each author has their own unique style and voice and they come together perfectly in this collection.
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A lot of people find something they like and stick with it, the folks that think only King, Koontz, Hill and Nevill can write horror. That’s not really fair and, though I’m somewhat the same way, like to give new or unknown authors a chance. Thus I read Collective Darkness. The good news was the few stories I liked, “Pond Scum,” “Brisket Please” and “Red Flag,” though none of them blew me away. I guess the bad news would be that I didn’t fancy most of the stories. This anthology is built up with more than one introduction, and it’s pretty-much said that all the authors were asked to be in it, they were so great. But I haven’t heard of any of them. Yet I do say it’s worth a look for those few good stories. Never giving a new writer a chance, would you want somebody to do that to you?
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This is such an awesome anthology with 12 enjoyable and spine-chilling stories. It is suitable for someone who looking for a quick read and short stories. This is so relaxing. I think this is another collection that would be especially great for readers that are just getting into this genre, this has a nice variety with different levels of intensity, but nothing too dark.
I was given a free copy of this book from the editor in exchange for an honest review. -
Quite good!
Lots of talent on display in this collection, with Jen Ellwyn’s story being the true standout for me. There’s definitely some emerging talent to be found within! -
This beautifully chilling collection of darkness consists of twelve short stories. I loved how every story presents darkness in different ways. Darkness can be spooky, psychotic, mysterious, a intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. And this is exactly what this Anthology has to offer to the readers!
So here's some of my thoughts on each one of the beautiful stories:
Feast by Edward Suggs:
I loved the writing style, the narrrative was so poetic and yet so harsh. The last description of what happened to Alice was so intense and then the last sentence of the mother .... well let's just say that that was the moment that I realized that this book was going to give me nightmares. So I kept reading...
Padua's Eyes by Jonathan Reddoch: I really enjoyed this vampire story. Poor Cordelia is trying to take revenge for her father's death. I'm so glad Padua lived, even in a condition as such!!
Pond Scum by Alex Child:
This one reminded me of the Goosebumps stories I was reading when I was a teenager. I would really like to see what could have happened next in the story!!
Brisket, Please by Becca Rose:
What a start!!! Wow! This wasn't as creepy as I thought it would be, but as I read in the short bio, the author - like another George R. R. Martin - does like to kill all characters!!☠
The Figure in the Mirror by Brandon Prows:
It started really slowly and then BAM! All the twists started happening and the suspense was raising page after page. Really intriguing.
Red Flag by K.R. Patterson:
I love the family stories, especially this one. The relationship between a mother and her unstable son. This kind of darkness here was really sentimental and it makes you wander how far can I mother go for the sake of her children, even if it means killing them.
Crimson Snow by Austin Slade Perry:
Suspenseful atmosphere surrounds this story as a group of young friends face a terrifying evil in a cabin in the woods. I love those kind of horror stories (and movies).
The Last Light by B. Todd Orgill:
It reminded me of Sam's battle against Shelob in LOTR, where he was holding the light of Earendil's Star. Really liked the writing style and the descriptions.
Polter Geist by Jen Ellwyn:
Catchy title. I really liked the ending. I would like to read more, a continuity of the story.
The Fallout by Chris Jorgensen:
A mysterious fog surrounds a bar and whoever gets outside is shallowed into the darkness of it.
What an end!! Loved it.
The Breathing Wall by Samuel Smith:
I enjoyed the lyrical and flawless writing and the description of the Lords Chaotic, that could see into your soul...! You should definetely write a whole book about them.
Into the Dark by Elizabeth Suggs:
I was looking forward for this last one! I love how every story has a different perception of darkness.
This one was presenting the main character in a psychoanalytical level. I loved the whole setting and the descriptions.
I totally recommend this book and I'm looking forward to the sequel! -
Opinião completa no blog BUÉ DE LIVROS:
Collective darkness
«(...) os temas são variados: fantasmas, vampiros, locais isolados, monstros na escuridão. A intensidade também difere, com nenhum verdadeiramente aterrador.
Gostei bastante de três contos:
Padua's eyes – Jonathan Reddoch - o meu favorito; passado na era medieval, onde uma jovem vê o pai e o pónei de estimação serem atacados por um vampiro e depois perseguidos pelos locais... e ela decide vingar-se.
Red flag – K.R. Patterson - um conto sobre a dinâmica entre uma mãe e o filho, com uma reviravolta final interessante.
Polter geist – Jen Ellwyn - um rapaz determinado em recuperar um artefacto numa loja com "sombras" por todo o lado, tenta sair sem ser detectado; bom clima de suspense.
Apesar desta antologia não ter contido histórias tão interessantes como outra que li recentemente, aprecio bastante descobrir novas "vozes", quiçá algumas delas os autores de referência no género daqui a uns anos.» -
Collective Darkness-
REVIEW:
The stories in Collective Darkness explore the shadows, while peeking behind the veil of the supernatural. It's a diverse collection and as Jared Quan says in the introduction, "a brilliantly terrifying jigsaw puzzle". There are some real homegrown takes on terror, each of which have been cultivated to perfection. It is obvious from the start the effort that's gone into the compilation of this collection, and in each author's offerings.
The opening story by Edward Sugg's is a peculiar exploration of the beast within man, right and wrong, good and evil. It will choke you with every bite as it tears at your throat like a feral dog... Provocative in every sense.
Padua's Eyes, by Jonathan Reddoch, is a great contrast to the first tale. We see a vampire being chased down by humans, once again suggesting the beast that hides inside human skin. It also viscerally displays the relentless cruelty of nature. As enchanting as a fairytale but soaked in blood. One of the best vampire stories I've ever read.
Pond scum is an unnerving and atmospheric flash of fiction, and there are fresh takes on the genre throughout this book. Each one a clean cut across the flesh with a box cutter.
Polter Geist, by Jen Ellwyn, is a personal favourite. A completely original take on the poltergeist, as a theiving ghost attempts to steal a vase from a shop without being caught, as if he is still alive. The shadows in this tale are the humans through the eyes of the ghosts!
The Breathing Wall, by Samuel Smith, is a perfectly executed tale of evil that takes on a physical form that slowly consumes one man's house and person.
Elizabeth Sugg's finishes the book with Into the Dark. A questionable cup of tea and a gripping interview with a killer in a mental institution.
I would urge you to read every story that makes up Collective Darkness, then re-read your favourites whenever you wish to, once again, dance with the Devil... -
So, I always love a good horror anthology. This is the best time of year to read them, and this was not a disappointment. I loved the variation of stories and levels of darkness. There were a few that were chilling, but some that made me completely creeped out like I get from reading a good Creepypasta.
Going into this collection, I hadn’t read any of the authors before, but now I’ve got them on my list of authors to check out. If you’re looking for something to get you in the mood for Halloween, pick up this collection. You won’t be disappointed!
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. -
This anthology has a lot of potential!
That being said, however, many of these stories felt unfinished to me. I think they'd benefit from more editing and more story development, but they're great starts.
I particularly liked the opening to Brisket Please and the premise of the final story in the collection. The story Red Flag had a great twist to it, as well.
I'm grateful to have been granted an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. -
Highly enjoyable anthology
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Standard stuff, really.
Nothing really stood out as exceptional.
Jeff McIntosh -
Great horrific stories!
These were some horrific great stories. Some of them had some very chilling scenery. Loved it! Each one was so written well. Glad I read these! Perfect for the spooky season. -
Awesome collection, great stories, thrilling and entertaining!
I really enjoyed this anthology. I’m a big fan of horror, so when I heard about this collection I had to buy it. I wasn’t disappointed. The stories were thrilling and entertaining, filled with suspense at times, and just a pleasure to read. I was entertained, and heard from some new authors I have never read before, but definitely want to read more from. 5 of 5 stars, great stories and done beautifully, I definitely recommend everyone buy this book. -
This is a solid collection of spooky shorts. The stories were all interesting and well written. All the authors in the collection had some unique and interesting entries.
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This is a collection of stories by authors that were all new to me. These stories range from spooky to spine chilling. There is plenty of variety for everyone. Anyone who enjoys reading paranormal will enjoy these stories. They are all short but they tell a complete story.
*
Overall, it was entertaining and enjoyable and would recommend to others looking for some scary tales to read. -
There are some really great short horror stories in this anthology. It is definitely a book to read around a campfire or hearth late at night, and a perfect collection of tales to read for Halloween! In fact, it reminds me of the classic Goosebumps stories. My favorite stories in Collective Darkness were Red Flag, Pond Scum, The Breathing Wall, Crimson Snow -oh man, I could go on and on. I recommend this book to anyone who likes spooky tales!
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I recently listened to the audiobook of Collective Darkness: a horror anthology, and it has something for every horror fan in there. The stories are varied, yet cohesive and the performances of the narrators are engaging. I enjoyed every story in here, which as anyone knows, isn't always the case when reading an anthology.
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Originally posted over at my personal blog site,
Night Terror Novels
"The pupils were the abyss. Looking into them was to fall into an endless twilight, time suspending, a desire to scream welling up to never be heard. Their irises stared up into the night sky, with the same scary emptiness, depth, and beauty."
– Samuel Smith, The Breathing Wall
Horror anthologies, particularly those featuring stories from a varied line-up of authors, have always been a solid cornerstone of my reading habits. There is something very exciting about picking up a collection and not knowing what you’re going to get; a sort of pick-and-mix bag containing lots of different flavours, if you will. It’s even more enticing when the collection features fresh writers such as this, offering a chance to discover newcomers to the field, and to experience new voices in the genre.
Often, they’re not all going to be to your individual taste. But every now and again an anthology comes along that provides many more hits than misses, and for me, Collective Darkness: A Horror Anthology (2020), from Editing Mee, certainly fits that description.
As John M. Olsen aptly describes in the foreword, “In this case, the theme was ‘darkness’. This gives you a view into the mind of each author, and a little insight into the form of their personal demons, the things that make them jump and check over their shoulder when the shadows grow long”. This pretty accurately sums up the stories in Collective Darkness, being that they concern the theme of darkness itself, and how that idea is interpreted by all of the authors.
The quote also highlights the anthology’s greatest strength: every writer was given the freedom to depict the theme as they saw fit, making the stories feel personal to each author. Sometimes the darkness is figurative – such as in Becca Rose’s Brisket, Please or Elizabeth Suggs’ Into the Dark – the sort that lurks within the mind or heart, that grows and gnaws internally at the characters. Other stories offer a much more literal darkness – like that shown in B. Todd Orgill’s The Last Light or Chris Jorgensen’s The Fallout – the absence or distortion of light concealing monstrous horrors and beastly creatures.
This collection was actually brought onto my radar by several of the authors themselves, namely Elizabeth Suggs and Jonathan Reddoch, whose work ethic in promoting this project on social media platforms such as Instagram, hosting readings on Facebook, and all manner of things in between, has been truly admirable. It takes an awful lot of work to stand out from the crowd, particularly within the horror genre, so kudos to those two, and indeed the rest of the team, for their respectable effort in getting their work out and into the world. As mentioned earlier, I’ve always been a fan of the anthology format, so reading this was really a no-brainer for me.
Moving on to the stories themselves, I’ll start with the few little issues I had, and get those out of the way first. There were – as ever with anthologies – some minor niggles. There is quite a significant variance in story length, which I found somewhat disorienting. I’m not sure how word counts for each individual tale was approached, but certain stories felt like they could have benefited from more fleshing out, a bit more of the old ‘meat on the bones’ so to speak, as some of the longer ones almost eclipse them in the collection. Obviously given the nature of the anthology, not every story clicked with me, though that is more attributable to individual taste than anything else.
With that being said, a large portion of the stories on offer here did resonate with me, and many were original and very enjoyable as a result. If I were to select three personal highlights they would be – in no particular order – Red Flag, The Fallout, and The Breathing Wall. Written by K. R. Patterson, Red Flag details a mother’s growing concern with her emotionally detached son, weaving a compelling psychological tale about the relationship between a mother and her child to chilling effect. Chris Jorgensen’s The Fallout is an engrossing story of psychological breakdown, and of creatures lurking in a mysterious fog, in many ways evoking the excellent Stephen King novella The Mist (1980). Finally, The Breathing Wall from Samuel Smith is a hypnotic tale of scientific experimentation and the eldritch horrors it creates, set against the backdrop of an intriguing fantasy world, conjuring up wild images of godlike entities and unknowable monstrosities à la H. P. Lovecraft.
These are just a few of the twelve stories compiled together and on offer in Collective Darkness. There are many more besides, and they all have their own draws and individual character (special mention to Jonathan Reddoch’s unique vampiric tale, Padua’s Eyes), and make this an easy recommendation from me to all fans of the mysterious and the macabre. Delve into the darkness yourself, if you dare.
VERDICT: An anthology featuring a wide variety of horror stories from fresh faces in the genre, many of whom I’ll be keeping a keen eye on, Collective Darkness is sure to offer a little something for everybody. Overall, this is a strong collection of intriguing and thoroughly inventive tales, and I am personally looking forward to the future projects from Editing Mee and Collective Tales Publishing.
A solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from this reviewer.
Book Information
Title(s): Collective Darkness: A Horror Anthology, Collective Darkness
Author(s): Elizabeth Suggs, Edward Suggs, Jonathan Reddoch, K. R. Patterson, Becca Rose, Jen Ellwyn, Samuel Smith, Brandon Prows, B. Todd Orgill, Chris Jorgensen, Austin Slade Perry and Alex Child
Publisher(s): Editing Mee
Original Publication Date: 2nd September, 2020
Page Count: 167 pages
Format Read: Digital
Advance Review Copy (Y/N): N
Website(s):
https://www.collectivedarkness.com/
https://www.editingmee.com/ -
A fun collection of short stories. My favorites were the last three. Support local authors (Utah) and buy this easy read.
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The folks at Editing Me have assembled a cast of authors with varying writing styles to invoke shivers in their readers regardless of their reading preferences.
Collective Darkness was published in 2020 by Editing Me. The anthology includes the distorted submissions from K.R. Patterson, Brandon Prows, Edward Suggs, Becca Rose, B.Todd Orgill, Austin Slade Perry, Chris Jorgensen, Elizabeth Suggs, Jonathan Reddoch, Alex Child, Jen Ellwyn, and Samuel Smith. There are some elements of gore that bear the need for a warning.
Feast by Edward Suggs:
Reminiscent of a folk tale retelling, a mother and daughter wade through their familiar conflicts with each other to confront an unknown creature.
What really impressed me in this entry was Edward’s ability to translate the agony in the exchanges between the mother and daughter.
Padua’s Eyes by Jonathan Reddoch
Follow the origins of a faithful pony given a second life as their owner exacts their revenge.
Given that this was originally an entry to a disbanded contest whose only rules were to be about a vampire pony, I was happy to see what became of it. Too bad that contest disintegrated!
Pond Scum by Alex Child
Follow the youthful mischief of two boys as they flaunt their immunity to death in a way only a set of youth can.
From their packed lunches to their decision making, the story screams a carefree summer gone awry.
Brisket Please By Becca Rose
When the main character gets asked out by a senior actor and resident hunk, how can she prepare before her appointed date?
When horror happens to a cast of horror actors, do the victims make a sound?
The Figure in The Mirror By Brandon Prows
Revisiting his late grandfather’s estate, the main character unearths some things he would rather have not known.
This tale held my attention and would not let me put down the book. The elements of distorted innocence in and of itself were unsettling.
Red Flag by K.R. Patterson
A mother documents and recounts the clues for her son’s psyche, but when she suspects he might cross a line no one can ever come back from, she will do what a mother has to do.
The phycological aspects and perceptions of the story proved for a compelling plot device.
Crimson Snow by Austin Slade Perry
A group of four visits a family cabin, but a long-forgotten book the main character’s mother used to read captures the main character’s attention and won’t let him enjoy the trip.
Nothing is more horrifying than a desolate cabin filled with dread from a fear of the unknown.
The Last Light by B. Todd Orgill
A bodyguard for hire escorts his client through the dark, but his ace up his sleeve may not be enough for what he faces.
This should be a series. Witcher step aside.
Polter Geist by Jen Ellwyn
The main character is determined to regain ownership of his family's vase.
The cadence and content reminded me of a Pixar short. Should you know, they delve into the macabre.
Fallout by Chris Jorgensen
When the sirens go off and the clientele of a pub bound together awaiting the all-clear, some odd happenings tug at their patience.
Chris did an excellent job of teasing the character’s internal phycological dread and how it results in team cohesion.
The Breathing Wall by Samuel Smith
When a scholar finds a book he should not have, his curiosities drive him to test the unknown.
My personal favorite of the collection, the classic writing style and premise had me itching for more.
Into The Dark by Elizabeth Suggs
An angle none have dared so far leads the main character to a psych ward to interview a murderer for a story.
The story explores the guilt of a murderer and the judgment that comes along with specific acts.
The first thing that grabbed my attention was the attention to the authors that Editing Me brought. From the forward to the carefully personalized author bios, a matter of relationships and trust shines through. The book bleeds with comradery to be jealous of. Just the choice to keep the author’s bios right after the story rather than at the back of the book emphasizes the author. It was a nice touch in my opinion.
I would recommend this book to those looking to try out different horror genres and maybe find a new author and style one might not have traversed otherwise.
