Tag: collections

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Peripheral Visions

Publisher’s Description

Peripheral Visions is a unique, award-winning reference collection that includes all of Robert Hood’s 44 ghost stories to date, three of them especially written for this volume. These memorable tales display Hood’s uncanny ability to make the fantastic real, to embrace weirdness and create human characters whose lives – both inner and outer – haunted by mortality, are laid bare and revealed to be our own worst nightmares. Ranging from melancholy reflection on life and death, through disquieting tales of dark humour and vengeance, to chilling visions of ghostly apocalypse.

Hood’s stories are sure to draw you into a terrifying world that in the end is revealed to be irrefutably our own. Though many of these stories draw on the traditions of the past, they are far from traditional in approach.

As you turn each page remember this: not everything here is as it seems. There’s always something more, barely glimpsed, out there on the periphery.

Summary

I recently read the limited edition three volume collection Peripheral Visions: The Collected Ghost Stories by Australian horror author Robert Hood.

This limited edition collection spans forty years of Robert Hood’s ghost story writing with 44 tales covering six different themes of haunting in the horror genre. There are many brilliant stories within each section that focuses on a variety of themes including Haunted Places, Haunted Families, Haunted Minds, Haunted Youth, Haunted Vengeance and Haunted Realities. Some of my favourites included Haunted Places, Haunted Minds, Haunted Youth and Haunted Vengeance. The scope of aspects that Hood delves into in these stories includes the deeply psychological, historical and, at times, what felt like a deeply personal venture in the haunted mind.

Review

Peripheral Visions is a sweeping three volume collection of divided into themes on the horror genre of Haunting. There are some of the most unique, darkly humorous and chilling ghost stories I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. Hood delivers a masterclass in ghost stories with brilliant prose that keeps the pace of this three volume collection moving with a deft storyteller’s hand.

Conclusion

This was a fabulous, wide-ranging collection of ghost stories and hauntings by one of the best horror authors in the business. Highly recommended!

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Coyote Songs

Publisher’s Description

In this mosaic horror/crime novel, ghosts and old gods guide the hands of those caught up in a violent struggle to save the soul of the American southwest. A man tasked with shuttling children over the border believes the Virgin Mary is guiding him towards final justice. A woman offers colonizer blood to the Mother of Chaos. A boy joins corpse destroyers to seek vengeance for the death of his father.These stories intertwine with those of a vengeful spirit and a hungry creature to paint a timely, compelling, pulpy portrait of revenge, family, and hope.

Summary

I recently read Coyote Songs by US author Gabino Iglesias after several recommendations and it did not disappoint.

Coyote Songs is a series of independent short stories that feature a family and the introduction of violence into their lives. The shattering of a child’s innocence with unexpected violence drives him to seek revenge. The mother becomes a symbolic portrait of vengeance incarnate and the devastation of a hopeful life. Intertwined is the coyote who assists the desperate to cross borders but becomes increasingly determined to fight back against the abuse of those he has aided to cross into a ‘better life’. The drive for vengeance and violence in both main story arcs intertwine in a compelling resolution.

Review

Coyote Songs was a masterpiece of a novel. The novel consists of a series of stories, often with interlinking characters and an overall story arcs that follows the noir theme of violence and struggle in a horrorscape of a city. Here, hope and revenge are intertwined in a gritty tale of a family’s drive towards increasing violence and revenge. Igleasias is a compelling storyteller and brings these worlds of crime and the supernatural into a thrilling novel.

Conclusion

A thrilling dark fiction combining gothic horror, ghosts, crime, gritty noir, politics and ancient gods. A fantastic and important read. Highly recommended!!

** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

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Dreamwhispers

** I received an ARC for an honest review **

Publisher’s Description

Take a journey into the swirling abyss of fever dreams, starry nights, and amethyst lights. Driven by lyrical prose, captivating storytelling, and pure emotion, dreamwhispers sets sail through one writer’s imagination with an unflinching stare into the condition of human beings where the shadows are sharper, and the darkness holds promises of pain.

Summary

I recently read Dreamwhispers, a collection of dark fiction by Canadian author M Ennenbach.

The collection spans contemporary dark fiction, poetry and some pieces are unique reimagining of classic folktales and legends. Some of the highlights which were stories that particularly resonated with me included the poem “Psyche and Eros”, short story “Nervous Breakdown”, “I saw it from the upstairs window” and the dark reimagining of the Grimms fairytale “Piper”.

Review

Ennenbach provides a raw, heartfelt and honest journey into a myriad of different aspects of dark fiction- from the intensely personal to the imagined realms of fairytales. Well-written, this is a beautifully told collection of dark fiction.

Conclusion

A great collection of unique and varied aspects of dark fiction. A recommended read!

** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

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The Trees Grew Because I Bled There

** I received an ARC for an honest review **

Publisher’s Description

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Review

I recently read The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by US LGBTQI author Eric LaRocca.

Each of these eight stories are so different from each other, explore very different aspects of life, love, loss and the darkness dwelling in the corners of the human soul. I was fascinated and even made uncomfortable in the way these stories challenge and test boundaries of what it means to be human.

Final Thoughts

A truly thought-provoking and at times uncomfortable exploration of the human condition. Stark and unflinching, LaRocca explores grief, tragedy and the harm done to others defined in singular events. A masterpiece of raw and powerfully undisguised humanity. Skilfully written and elegantly told stories that are at the darker heart of what makes us human.

Conclusion

A great literary collection of dark fiction. LaRocca holds a mirror to humanity and – without filters – it shows the darkness and love, the anguish of loss of each human experience without flinching. A highly recommended dark fiction collection!

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New Release! Dark Christmas

An updated and quality full-colour paperback of the second edition of my illustrated chapbook and ebook Dark Christmas were released on February 15, 2023.

Dark Christmas marks the first in my new chapbook series Quick Bites Chapbooks published under my imprint Quill Lore. These chapbooks are a combination of short stories or microfiction on a theme. And, each reimagining, retelling or story inspired by a specific aspect of the chapbook theme has quality colour illustrations related to the story.

More details on how to purchase Dark Christmas here. You can also buy SIGNED COPIES directly from Shop.

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The Bloody Chamber

Publisher’s Description

From familiar fairy tales and legends – Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves – Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.

Review

I read the classic The Bloody Chamber and Other Tales by UK author Angela Carter as part of a gothic literature course.

Carter retells many classic fairytales that the world knows from childhood or from wider readying. She tears away the layers of subtle coverings that have always made these tales feel slightly comforting but not quite innocent. The thrilling and horrific feminist retelling of Bluebead in “The Bloody Chamber”, the sometimes scary, mournful and honest retelling of Beauty and the Beast in “The Courtship of Mr Lyon” and the unique, sexually subversive retelling “Puss-in-boots” were just some of the unique tales transformed and transported in time and place but the true honesty of the darkness within the real fairytales is retained.

Final Thoughts

This gothic retelling of classic fairytales from Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots and others was revolutionary for a feminist twist to some stories but also a brutal, horrific and sexually subversive culture to many of the tales. It is the classic fairytales reimagined in an adult world of their original settings with the veneer of sweetness torn away. Brilliant and terrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it.

Conclusion

This is a classic for readers of fairytales – both retellings and reimagining. Carter tells these tales in a new and unique way which is horrific, honest and amazing. Highly recommend read.

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Dark Christmas Release

Dark Christmas is the first in a series of illustrated chapbooks on various dark fiction themes. All illustrated collection is inspired by Yuletide folklore from Canada, Poland,Iceland, Australia, Germany ang England.

Dark Christmas was released on ebook on 24th December 2022.

If you wish you buy copies of Dark Christmas you can find more information here.

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Cut to Care

Publisher’s Description

An agency that sends social workers into the homes of grieving families to impersonate dead loved ones… The kind old woman who saved a teenager’s life but now finds herself haunted by the weight of a cheated suicide… And the daughter of a candlestick maker as she tries to survive a painful existence after her father’s execution for making human chandeliers from drunken cowboys…

These stories and more — ranging from supernatural to the frighteningly domestic, Splatterpunk to the weird and cosmic — stain the pages of CUT TO CARE: A COLLECTION OF LITTLE HURTS by Aaron Dries. They serve as a timely reminder of the cost of caring too much. Or not caring enough. Of how we mask cruelties behind kindness. And of our willingness to rip ourselves apart in the hope of satisfying a world that doesn’t always care for you back.

I recently read Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts by Australian horror and dark fiction author Aaron Dries.

There are the horror tropes that are psychologically alarming – the replacement of a lost daughter, the neglect of others who transformed into something monstrous. And the things that wait in the cold dark, stark and the real human monsters.

I needed a few days to consider the breadth of work that is in the Cut to Care. It was a brilliant read- moody atmospheres, dark and deceptive characters and situations- all the tropes we expect of horror. Yet there was also a very raw revealing of the soul and a question of what happens in a world where we care too greatly that it breaks us, spread our strength too far that there’s no left to sustain us? And the flip side, what happens when we ignore the hurt of others? Or deliberately inflict it on others for our own relief of pain or gratification?

Final Thoughts

Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts reveals all these dark and innermost reflections of society and ourselves. It is gritty and intense in its goal of what makes us care? Can we care too much that we stop caring?

Conclusion

A highly recommended collection which is as fascinating as disturbing. A dark web of horror and honesty and a great read for anyone who enjoys psychological horror at its most potent.

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Dark Folklore Collection Acquisition

I’m excited to announce my collection of dark folklore short stories, novelettes, flash fiction and microfiction Three Curses and Other Dark Tales has been acquired by IFWG Publishing Australia.

You can read more about this exciting announcement below

IFWG is very pleased to announce the acquisition of a collection of short fiction by Leanbh Pearson titled Three Curses and Other Dark Tales. “We have had a long standing admiration of Pearson’s work, both as a writer and an active member of the speculative fiction scene in Australia,” said Gerry Huntman, Managing Director of IFWG, “and it was a delight to have received her manuscript, and discover a fine collection knitted so well together with common themes. We know readers of dark fiction will be delighted with this.”

This title will be released world-wide in the second quarter of 2024.

Three Curses and Other Dark Tales is a world tour of dark folklore with uncanny beings reimagined into new tales, where wits, heroism and truth meet trickery, bargains and curses.”

– Gerry Huntman, Managing Director of IFWG