Dread Softly

If I had to describe its overall vibe, I'd say this collection is like what would happen if Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark grew up a bit and had more detailed, engaging writing. The stories are bite-sized and have surprise twists that often defy expectations in entertaining ways, not unlike well-crafted ghost stories for the campfire. Most of them were short enough to push through my reading slump yet long enough to not feel incomplete.

Overall, I enjoyed the collection, though I actively disliked a couple of stories. My absolute favourite among the stories, Watchers' Warning, makes up for every bit of annoyance I felt, though. (Seriously, turn that one into a series of paranormal novels!)

One major gripe I have is that the book doesn't provide content warnings in the front. It says to go to the back for them, but ‘story notes' contains spoilers and talk of inspiration for each of the tales. In a physical book, finding the content warnings on the very last page is easy. In digital form, I went to the final section from the table of contents and didn't want to keep skimming spoilers to see if the warnings were in them. Thus I gave up, only to find the warnings I wish I'd had on the final page - long after I'd read the stories, two of which I'd have really appreciated being able to brace for beforehand. So, to spare anyone else with a digital edition from the same experience, here you go, copied directly from the book. I don't want to delve into spoilers for certain stories best experienced with no expectations, so I will not be discussing all of these topics.

Content Warnings: Death and dying; Death of a loved one; Mental illness; Murder; Mutilation of corpses; Threatening a child

And now, for a brief overview of each story.

No Soliciting

There's not much mystery to what, exactly, Doris does that sets her apart from other people; that's telegraphed from nearly the very beginning. Even so, it's engaging and the ending took me off-guard in a very good way.

I enjoyed this one. It was fun and had a nice element of making the reader wanna cheer for the monster. I'm fond of stories like this!

Empire of Dirt

Obviously, I had a certain Nine Inch Nails song stuck in my head the entire time. Unfortunately, I like the song more than the story.

The premise is interesting, and I enjoyed bits and pieces of it, but the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. I also couldn't quite shake the ick factor of someone with a chronic illness being desperate enough to invent and test an experimental cure on herself, only to discover it has body horror levels of side effects. The story was much better before the consequences kicked in regarding the spoiler-tagged element. But then, I also am not a big fan of body horror in general, so there's that.

The Fishermen

A story that mixes ogres and modern weapons feels wrong to me on so many levels, but it works here in ways I can't divulge. I felt a bit like I was reading the opening scene of a classic Supernatural episode blended with a touch of The Walking Dead. And then it flew off the rails so fast I think I maybe got whiplash, but it was fun like a carnival ride with an ending I never would have guessed.

Without spoiling anything, because this story needs to be read without foreknowledge, I'll say there's more to the lore than just ogres and I quite liked the direction it went. Another good one!

The Devil's Way Out

The story begins with the narrating character calling fresh-brewed peppermint tea a foul stench and explaining they feel this way because of something a demon has done. I can think of no eviler a beast than one who takes the enjoyment of peppermint tea away from its victims!

I jest, but if I interpreted the slightly vague ending of this one correctly then I'm also right in the worst of ways. This one aches, and touches on something that's really uncomfortable for me - either Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or another condition with memory loss and confusion involved - but I was deeply interested from the very beginning. I liked it and wanted to see where it would go, and now I'm not sure how to feel about it after seeing the outcome.

Would love to see an alternate ending where things remain planted firmly and unquestionably in the paranormal realm.

Family Time

I don't get it. I mean, yeah, an abusive piece of trash mother ends up dead by the consequences of her own greed and that's cathartic on some level, but I still feel confused. The lore of this one just doesn't make sense and I didn't feel surprised by the ending. This felt like reading a never-ending stream of psychological abuse lobbed onto a middleschool-aged child (the main character) for no real reason and no worthwhile payoff. Think: Harry Potter if he never finds out he's a wizard and the series is just about how much he's mistreated by everyone in his life.

Watchers' Warning

I didn???t respond. I???d long since learned humans couldn???t understand Cat, but I absorbed the compliment, pleased she recognized my charisma.

It went from a grieving widow to actually the ghost of a woman who died in her sleep, murdering her still-living husband so they can be together forever.

going to kill herself in grief

a disgustingly selfish and psychotic ghost trying to figure out how to murder her husband so they can be dead together

not

The X-Files

barking