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Book Review: Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology of Women in Horror

cover art for Not All Monsters edited by Sara Tantlinger

Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology of Women in Horror edited by Sara Tantlinger

Rooster Republic Press, 2020

ISBN-13: 9781946335319

Available: Paperback (  Bookshop.org )

 

Not All Monsters, a new anthology of horror fiction edited by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Sara Tantlinger, contains twenty-one tales of terror and darkness by women authors. Tantlinger had the privilege and challenge of scouring hundreds of entries for the anthology.  Her introduction provides an overview of why she decided to embark on this project, and it is well worth the read.

I loved all the stories in this anthology, although some tales stood out more than others. In “Portrait of a Girl in Red and Yellow” by Joanna Roye, set in the Victorian era, the narrator discovers a hereditary skin condition that turns out to reveal a family secret has been passed on to her. “The Miraculous Ones” by G.G. Silverman tells the story of conjoined twins developing their own personalities and the deep desire to live different lives. In “Black Feathered Phlogiston” by K. P. Kulski, sisters tend to a flock of harpies that live in their attic. As their bodies grow, so do their appetites, and the new woman in their father’s life knows more about the creatures than the girls think she does.  “Leather”, a particularly delicious tale by S. M. Ketcham, reveals what can happen to an incel when he takes things too far. “Pretty Little Vampires” by Sam Fleming tells a dark tale about a woman who wants to attract fairies to her dwelling, but gets more than she bargains for. Joanna Koch’s “The Revenge of Madeline Usher” is wonderful, and keeps with the tone of Poe’s original “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This reimagining of the story of the Usher twins told from the perspective of Madeline gives the original story more grotesque content, a deeper story about what goes on in the House of Usher, and what happens, or could happen, when the house finally falls. Could Madeline finally be free of the house and her brother? It is a brilliant short story.

I would recommend this volume to libraries or individuals who want to expand their collections of women-led horror projects. This is a great book, and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading. Each story has its own unique feel. I look forward to reading more by the contributors! Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Editor’s note: Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology of Women in Horror is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthology. 

Posted on April 3, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Chew on This! edited by Robert Essig

Cover art for Chew on This edited by Robert Essig

Chew on This! edited by Robert Essig

Blood Bound Books, 2020

ISBN: 9781940250465

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition  ( Amazon.com )

 

Chew on This is a themed horror anthology dealing with…food.  Can food actually be horrifying?  Based on this book, the answer is a resounding “yes.”  It combines creativity and gut-wrenching disgust into a brew of good stories.  Fair warning: some of these stories are truly barf-inducing, and sicker than any “splat” style horror writing.   Combinations of food and body fluids (and limbs), babies roasted in ovens: it’s all on the table.  This is a fun batch of horror stories, and also the National Restaurant Association’s worst nightmare.

 

With only a few exceptions, the overall story quality varies from good to very good, and most of them aren’t disgusting, just good, smart stories.  Some of them are “cycle” stories, where the story focuses on one event and then ends, leading into another of the same event.  Chad Lutzke’s “Cherry Red” and Kristopher Trianna’s ‘The Feeding” fall into this category.  One deals with a psychotic kid and his fascination with red cereal box toys, the other with a sandwich delivery service that takes much more than the customer’s money.  Ronald Kelly’s “Grandma’s Favorite Recipe” is Kelly doing what he does best: taking a lovable southern character, in this case the “saintly granny,” and turning her into something more sinister, by way of her cooking.  Vivian Kayley’s “Roly Poly” is notable for its entertaining look at the lengths some unfortunate women will go to for weight loss. It’s also the only story in the book with a happy ending.  Shenoa Carroll-Bradd’s “Barrel Aged” may be the most intriguing story, although it might take a second read to understand, as the author squirrels away the most important details in only a few sentences.

 

If you want to avoid (or read first) the stomach churners, here they are.  They are solid pieces, just gruesome.  Tonia Brown’s “A Woman’s Work” features the aforementioned cooked human baby, and John McNee’s “With a Little Salt and Vinegar” has an eating contest, with dead fetuses on the menu.  Nikki Noir’s “Magick Brew” is a hilarious look at combining a certain reproductive body fluid with margaritas to make a drink that renders the consumer ravenous with lust…to the extreme.  The true pukefest is K. Trap Jones’s “Seeds of Filth”.  With restaurant employees combining any and all types of bodily fluids with condiments and serving them to rude customers, this story is likely to make the average reader upchuck their last meal.  It might be the most revolting story ever committed to paper.

 

Overall, Chew on This is a well-written, creative anthology, it just takes a stomach of iron at times to read the full book.  Recommended.

 

Contains:  violence, profanity, gore, body horror, cannibalism, and everything disgusting you can think of

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on March 16, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

cover art for Miscreations edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

( Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com )

Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

Written Backwards, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1732724464

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

 

In the foreword to Miscreations, Alma Katsu writes that “we’re told from childhood that monsters exist… we don’t need anyone to tell us they’re real”. Collected within the pages are 23 tales of monsters of all kinds, from the traditional to the unconventional, from the literary to the personal.  Interspersed is artwork from HagCult, who also did the cover art for the book.

Josh Malerman gives us a werewolf tale in “One Last Transformation” with an engaging, murderous narrator addicted to the change, and a number of writers approach the Frankenstein story in different ways. My favorites of these tales were Stephanie M. Wytovich’s poem “A Benediction of Corpses”  in which the Creature addresses his creator directly, and “Frankenstein’s Daughter”, by Theodora Goss, with its surprising and satisfying ending. Christina Sng takes an unconventional approach to an evil Russian water spirit in “Vodoyanoy”.

More personal monsters also appeared.  Michael Wehunt’s “A Heart Arrhythmia Creeping Into A Dark Room” was an effective and creepy tale about the anxiety and dread that accompany someone living in the shadow of a potential heart attack. The story was flawed by the author’s insertion of a fictionalized monster and victim in a story that was far too realistic. Victor Lavalle’s “Spectral Evidence” touched on the way grief lives on, and Scott Edelman’s “Only Bruises Are Permanent” tells the story of a woman who has the bruises left from an incident of domestic violence tattooed on her body.

Monstrous mothers also appear, in Joanna Parypinski’s brutal “Matryoshka”, in which a family tradition of giving each mother and daughter a matryoshka doll goes dramatically wrong, and Mercedes M. Yardley’s ironic “The Making of Asylum Ophelia”, in which a mother raises her daughter to resemble Hamlet’s Ophelia with plans to also replicate her fate.

Other strong stories I especially enjoyed include Nadia Bulkin’s “Operations Other Than War”, Usman T. Malik’s “Resurrection Points”,  Lisa Morton’s “Imperfect Clay”, and the disturbing “My Knowing Glance” by Lucy A. Snyder, which went in a much different direction than I expected it to.

Miscreations is overall a strong collection. The authors have come up with imaginative creatures using a variety of creative approaches, and readers will find sitting down with it well worth their time. Highly recommended.

Contains: murder, torture, violence, gore, body horror

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Editor’s note: Miscreations: Gods, Monsters, and Other Horrors is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. 

Posted on March 5, 2021 by , Reply
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