The Broken Darkness

I received an ARC of this book through Booksirens in exchange for an honest review.

The Broken Darkness is a horror anthology. The author does a nice job with characters and concepts, but ultimately almost every story fell a bit short for me, specifically when it came to the endings. Several of the stories felt more like a first chapter than a complete story. 

Short stories CAN end with some loose ends, and often the reader can surmise or speculate in a way where the story is satisfying. I think a couple of these stories meet that mark, but when alongside other stories that fall short, every unanswered question looms larger. 

I can't stress enough that every story had merit, some solid moments, or a cool twist. A few were thought-provoking. We meet Vlad Tepes in a nicely atmospheric story that almost felt complete. If you like vampire stories, this story alone might be worth your time. The final story has layers I'm sure I haven't fully unpacked, and is impressive. The first story is also quite nice; it has loose ends, but I feel they work. There's another story that will really make you think twice or ten times about driving while distracted on your phone.

But too many stories ended for me in disappointment as I felt it needed more, and that more might only be a line or two.

To put this into perspective, I have time and time again bought Riley Sager books because I love, love, love the concepts, and I always end up disappointed. Obviously Sager is an accomplished author who is an autobuy for a lot of people, but there's something missing in his stories for me. And, in this case, the endings in this anthology fall short for me. 

I love horror and fantasy. Add a dash of darkness and I'm a happy book nerd. The Broken Darkness is a good mix of all these and more. There is a depth of emotion, and some dark humor to a couple of the longer short stories and I really loved that aspect.

As with all anthologies, there were some I loved and some that fell flat for me. I sometimes have a hard time with short stories because just as I get into the story...its done. I understand that, to some degree, the reader is supposed to finish off the story for themselves BUT there are times when even my imagination isn't enough to satisfy