The Third Corona Book of Horror Stories edited by Lewis Williams

Corona Books, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-9996579-4-9

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

It seems that every horror collection published always has an introduction detailing how the publisher worked very hard to put only the greatest stories into print.  Sometimes it’s true, and sometimes it’s just lip service.  Corona Books boasts that they selected only the “best of the best” from over 800 submissions.   Thankfully, in this case it’s not an idle boast.  The stories tend towards the short side, but the quality is extremely high.  All the stories are good: there isn’t a bad, or even just fair, story in the lot.  If this collection isn’t nominated for a Stoker award in the “Anthologies” category this year, then the whole nominating process should be called into question.

Many of these stories clock in at only fifteen pages, and some at ten or less.  However, there’s a lot of good, concise writing packed in to that short space.  There are a few with some blood and gore, but it’s minimal.  The publishers realized that mental torture and anguish is just as effective, if not more so, then the standard hack and splatter model that is in vogue right now.  Physical pain is only temporary, but mental agony can go on for a long, long time.  In some of these stories, it lasts forever.  Seeing the fate that some of the characters in these stories are condemned to makes for a truly unsettling read.  Sue Bentley’s “Old Gods”  is a prime example.  Treasure hunter/thief Edward Cranby gets way more then he bargained for when hunting for riches in the jungles, and the true torture is that his punishment will NEVER be lightened, or end… ever.  John Haas’s “The Debt” has a less prolonged fate, and a bit more physical punishment, but it’s just as effective.  Drawing on Shylock’s  “a pound of flesh”  in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, the interactions between a mad doctor and the man who caused his family untold misery are truly horrifying: this  may be the best story in the book.

The two above stories are the best in the anthology, but the others are also extremely effective. There is no one unifying thread in this collection, other than the high quality.  The lack of a common theme makes the book that much stronger, as the ideas are quite diverse.  Molly Thynes’s  “Worse Things” takes aim at a favorite target—politicians– and shows the wretched lengths that some will go to in order to remain in power. It’s a lot more frightening than anything a real politician has been responsible for.  “The Barber”, by A.P. Sessler, is the only story written in the rarely used second person point of view.  It’s difficult to write in the second person, but Sessler uses it well in this cross between Sweeney Todd and Face/Off.  Viktoria Faust’s “Roxy” and Richard A. Shury’s “Gamer” both take a look at the warped future that may await humankind when it comes to organ donations and virtual reality, respectively. Jeremy Megargee’s “Scythe” details the fear of being old and waiting to die…when you can literally see the end coming for you.  The story ideas come from everywhere, and every one is extremely well written and effective.  This review only covers a few of the stories: there are plenty more in the book for the reader to devour.

This is the finest short story collection to come out in a long time, and it’s worth the price ten times over.  If short horror stories that make you squirm and keep you awake at night are your thing, you need this book on your shelf.  Highly recommended.

Contains: mild violence.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson