Tag Archives: Horror

The Secret of Flight by A. C. Wise

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: The Secret of Flight
Author: A.C. Wise
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Horror
Dates read: 29th March 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: POLICEMAN startles and falls back.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

The secrets held in a play and its play house continue to haunt the director fifty years after the lead actress disappears. As the letters and the play unfold, so do the secrets that have been kept hidden over the years.

Thoughts

There are some short stories that tell a tale, start at the beginning and end at the end. Then there are short stories like this one. They are so open ended you’re not sure if you’ve missed something. So different and convoluted that no matter how many times I read it, I won’t feel like I have accessed all of the information.

There is something about plays and theatres that inspire a level of horror that you don’t find in many other settings. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe it is the juxtaposition between the light and gaudy front and the dark and twisty back. The level of secrecy that is inspired by having a backstage in which an actors’ transformation can occur. Whatever it is, it manages to situate feelings and tales of horror beautifully. And helps to twist this horror into one of tragedy and loss.

The secrets of the actors’ change echo the secrets of her life. The ways in which the starlings haunt the directors every moment make things vaguer and vaguer, more and more intense.

 <- Pigeon from Hell ReviewIsobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring Review ->
Image source: Amazon

Pigeon from Hell by Stephen Graham Jones

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: Pigeon from Hell
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Horror
Dates read: 21st March 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: We were trading babysitting jobs, Kara and me.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

Little Ben went missing one day, but his pigeon stayed around… to remind her just what she’d done.

Thoughts

This was a haunting story from the very outset. But, honestly, it wasn’t until the story started to unfold that I truly started to get goosebumps. And feel uncomfortable. This is a very different and… well, haunting tale that I don’t think will be leaving me for a very long time.

Initially I really loved this story. I thought that it was a tale with an observer retelling a tragedy. And a crapped out, musty old pigeon was somehow part of it. But, as it unfolded, I realised more and more that this wasn’t really a bystander telling the story. And that there wasn’t going to be any kind of happily ever after.

This is one of those stories that doesn’t have a happy ending. It doesn’t leave you with happy, glowy feelings. But it does leave you thinking. Which means that while I don’t plan on rereading this tale anytime soon, it certainly was a… not fun, but something like it… kind of read.

 <- The Fortune of Sparrows ReviewThe Secret of Flight Review ->
Image source: Amazon

Moon, and Memory, and Muchness by Katherine Vaz

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for mad hatters and march hares ellen datlow book cover

Title: Moon, and Memory, and Muchness
Author: Katherine Vaz
In: Mad Hatters and March Hares (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Family, Horror
Dates read: 29th March 2019
Pace: Slow, Medium, Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: It’s itself, with its own intensifications.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

Alicia was lost to her years ago, but in the world she’s created of Wonderland, her mother might be able to find her replacement. But at what cost?

Thoughts

This was both an incredibly sad and an incredibly creepy short story. Which kind of matches with the whole Alice in Wonderland theme. It’s a bit of a creepy story when you really think about some of the things that have happened. It’s definitely nostalgic, and more than a little sad at moments. Especially when Alice is looking for her muchness. A bit like the woman in this story.

I can think of nothing worse than raising and loving a child, only for her to be taken away from you way too early. Especially in a quite horrific and dreadful manner. Which meant that I had so much sympathy for the lead voice throughout this story. The fact that what she eventually decided to do was somewhat horrible and something I could never conceive of, yet, I still felt sympathy for her… well, it made this into one powerful story.

There is a moment from the original that sticks with me in this rendition. One that I want to return to… the treatment of the dormouse by the mad hatter and march hare. I don’t remember it being this horrific, but when compared to the attack on a young girl… it becomes something which certainly inspires a little horror.

 <- The Flame After the Candle ReviewRun, Rabbit, Run Review ->
Image source: Bookdepository

The Fortune of Sparrows by Usman T. Malik

Book Review, ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: The Fortune of Sparrows
Author: Usman T. Malik
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Horror
Dates read: 12th March 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: Still, I sometimes dreamed.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

A home for young girls is haunted by sparrows, but when one of the sisters gets sent off to become a wife, they slowly disappear.

Thoughts

Like a lot of the short stories in Black Feathers, this tale had a very surreal and uncomfortable quality. It was haunting and kind of beautiful. But there was almost a sense of floating while I was reading this (alright, I can’t think of a better way to describe the experience of reading this short story other than floating…)

I never really thought that there was something scary about sparrows. After all, they’re kind of small and petite. They might be in flocks, but they always look so damn cute. Until you get to know a little more about them, and even when you do, they’re still too cute to imagine them being a little scary! But, this story with the flocks hovering through the courtyard and the movements of them all together, makes them a lot more intimidating. And I really don’t know how I’m going to feel the next time I find a flock of sparrows.

 <- Blyth’s Secret ReviewPigeon from Hell Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Howling Girl by Laurie Penny

Book Review, , ,
Overview

Title: The Howling Girl
Author: Laurie Penny
In: I Am Heathcliff (Kate Mosse)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Horror, Twisted romance
Dates read: 15th March 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Borough Press
Year: 2018
5th sentence, 74th page: She could.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

She’s returned to an ex-lover to see if she can fix the mistakes of the past. But, is his haunting about to become hers?

Thoughts

This was a great play on the haunting of Heathcliff. It took the ideas and themes that highlight how badly Heathcliff treated Catherine, but twisted them into something a little more contemporary. Rather, it isn’t Catherine’s counterpart which is providing the haunting, but she does encourage it. And finds a way to twist it about so that he isn’t able to get away with his past and present actions.

This short story had a great intensity and beautiful symbolism throughout. It may not be one that I will read again and again, it just wasn’t that kind of happy, feel good tale that I like. But it was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. And one that I think I gained from experiencing.

 <- One Letter Different ReviewFive Sites, Five Stages Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins Publishers

Blyth’s Secret by Mike O’Driscoll

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: Blyth’s Secret
Author: Mike O’Driscoll
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Horror
Dates read: 7th March 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: She sighed.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

A man with a horrible past and a weird obsession with corvids is trying to communicate with a crow… but when he finally learns his secret, it is far darker than he ever imagined.

Thoughts

Well. This didn’t end like I expected it to. At all. But it did end in a great way. Well, not for Wil, but for me and my sick, happy little brain… it ended brilliantly.

I always feel sympathy for those who are not quite socially… adequate. There is something kind of vulnerable about them. And this was highlighted throughout this story. Wil isn’t quite capable of working with others, and he just wants to be reclusive and left to his own research. But between a creepy corvid who keeps leading him about, and his own social inadequacies, it just isn’t meant to be.

The actual villain in this story was not remotely who I was expecting. I thought that it would be a hidden secret from Wil’s past, but it was someone completely… surprising. Which makes sense, because people like Ted Bundy were also completely unpredictable.

 <- The Murmurations of Vienna Von Drome ReviewThe Fortune of Sparrows Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Murmurations of Vienna Von Drome by Jeffrey Ford

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: The Murmurations of Vienna Von Drome
Author: Jeffrey Ford
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Horror
Dates read: 7th March 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: “Good lord,” I said, “by this time he could have eaten a half dozen spleens.”

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

The Beast has been preying upon a small American town for years, and the local Sheriff knows that it has something to do with Vienna Von Drome. But even with all of his suspicions, he won’t know who the villain truly is until the end.

Thoughts

I actually found this short story a lot more difficult to put down than the other stories which preceded it in Black Feathers. It still had that slightly dark horror feel to it, but the storyline was a lot more linear than I had expected. Where many other horror stories have an incredibly jumpy and disjointed feel to them, this followed a chronological path and one that made a lot more sense to me. It was a nice change from the more abstract horror short stories I have been reading lately.

I spent the entire story line of this tale trying to figure out who the Beast was. It seemed too easy to be Vienna, but I couldn’t figure out who it would be if it wasn’t her. This sense of mystery and intrigue meant that I kind of walked into a wall when I was reading this (bad habit of mine to get so absorbed into a story that I forget to concentrate on anything around me).

Although this was kind of a straight-laced story of crime and horror, it had the recurring theme of sparrows throughout. Not birds that I have ever associated with horror, but the haunting flight patterns that are shown throughout are quite eerie and intense. They added a feeling of horror to the atmosphere that it would have otherwise lacked.

 <- The Orphan Bird ReviewBlyth’s Secret Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Ripper Legacy by John Moralee

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of jack the ripper stories book cover

Title: The Ripper Legacy
Author: John Moralee
In: The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories (Maxim Jakubowski)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Crime, Horror
Dates read: 7th March 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: OK.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

A Jack the Ripper conference is faced with a horrible tragedy. Has Jack the Ripper returned? And with a vengeance?

Thoughts

This story was intense. I thought that the lead female was going to get offed pretty quickly. After all, it starts with her having an affair. And Jack the Ripper went after promiscuous women… it seemed like a pretty potent parallel. But that really wasn’t the case.

This short story bought the shock and horror aspect of Jack the Ripper into a more modern day context. After all, the Butcher of Baker Street has always seemed terrifying, but it happened so long ago and the villain is definitely dead, so it’s not all that scary except as an indication of the depravities of humanity. Yet, creating a modern-day massacre and having a group obsessed with the Ripper involved in this… it made me understand a little more what the people of Whitechapel must have felt when their halls were being stalked.

I always enjoy a contemporary telling of a tale that is familiar. Whether it is through history or fairy tales, the themes and ideas that are displayed in the original come to the forefront and take over. In an amazingly beautiful and, in this case, incredibly terrifying way.

 <- Martha ReviewBlue Serge Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Orphan Bird by Alison Littlewood

Book Review, ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: The Orphan Bird
Author: Alison Littlewood
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Horror
Dates read: 22nd February 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: The water no longer felt cold; it was warming against his skin, running down his face and into his eyes.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

Birds and orphans intertwine to create a horrifying tale of revenge.

Thoughts

This story gave me the heeby jeebies. Which most of the stories in the Black Feathers collection do. The watching of birds and flashbacks to a past of bullying and abuse gave this story a very disjointed feel. But it isn’t until the end that I start to feel truly uncomfortable. After all, that is kind of horrifying. And it did leave me with some very not-okay dreams.

I think one of the reasons that I find this story so horrifying is that I like the idea of adopting in my future. And this child, the orphan bird, is a terrifying idea. He thinks nothing at murder, and even finds himself a young child to train in his place. There is such a sense of horror at the calm and assured way in which he follows the birds and commits his acts. Just. Terrifying.

 <- The Season of the Raptors ReviewThe Murmurations of Vienna Von Drome Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Season of the Raptors by Richard Bowes

Book Review, ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: The Season of the Raptors
Author: Richard Bowes
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Horror
Dates read: 18th February 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: When that happened, the parents stopped feeding them.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

The countryside seems to be obsessed with birds of prey, and more specifically, the hawks that have taken up residence. But is there a more sinister side to this obsession?

Thoughts

The flickering between real world observations of the hawks and the dreamscape that the lead character finds himself in creates an incredibly spine tingling (and somewhat confusing) dreamscape across this storyline. It makes feelings of horror and goosebumps come to the forefront as the storyline unfolds. And leaves a feeling of uncanny confusion and, even slight obsession when you turn the last page.

I think one of the things that left me with the most intense goosebumps on reading this story is the fact that I myself have a slight obsession with raptors. There is something about them that really draws me in. So the fact that this is a story about obsession slowly turning into insanity… well, that is uncomfortable. Which kind of feels like the point of most of the stories in the Black Feathers collection…

 <- Great Blue Heron ReviewThe Orphan Bird Review ->
Image source: Amazon