(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) Illinois author John Everson’s horror novels and short stories often use the disturbing combination of the occult and taboo sex to explore infidelity and obsession. While he won a Bram Stoker Award for First Novel with Covenant …
Category: short story review
SHORT SHOTS | ‘They Say the Sky Is Full of Snakewolves’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) I almost cut myself on the satirical edge of Lucy Leitner's standout short story "They Say the Sky Is Full of Snakewolves." The author wastes no time in dropping the reader into the action as we follow …
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SHORT SHOTS | ‘Vampire of the Midnight Sun’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) I like my horror fiction with a darker tone, but I'm always impressed when an author effectively adds the right amount of dark humor to the mix. I'm also surprised by how much I enjoy it. "Vampire …
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SHORT SHOTS | ‘Wreckers’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) In her short story “Wreckers,” Florida author Kenzie Jennings delivers one of the most chilling horror moments of 2022. The standout opener in her 12-story collection titled Always Listen To Her Hurt, "Wreckers" is the dispiriting tale of …
SHORT SHOTS: ‘The Painting My Husband Keeps’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) "The Painting My Husband Keeps" is the quietly menacing opener to the horror collection titled Under Your Bed by Blair Daniels. The well-paced short story is narrated by a recently married woman named Tara who's unnerved by a painting owned …
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SHORT SHOTS: ‘A Traveler Between Eternities’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) “A Traveler Between Eternities” by Atlanta-based author Amanda DeWees is a tragic but hopeful tale of a woman named Ruth Whitlock who’s in the midst of a pregnancy where the unborn child “had suddenly gone still.” Set in 1864, the story …
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SHORT SHOTS | ‘Slashbacks’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review horror short stories.) "Slashbacks" by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Waggoner is a vicious little wish-fulfillment tale of vengeance set inside a horror movie lover's dream video store. The short story appears in the 2022 anthology Attack from the '80s edited by Eugene Johnson and …
SHORT SHOTS | ‘Cabin Twelve’ & ‘The Face’
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) "Cabin Twelve" by Daphne Strasert won the Next Great Horror Writer Campfire Horror Story Challenge, and "The Face" by Naching T. Kassa finished runner-up. The tales are featured in the flash fiction anthology, Horror Bites: Campfire Tales, edited by Emerian …
SHORT SHOTS | ‘The Sun Sets Nonetheless’
(Editor's note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) "The Sun Sets Nonetheless" by Priscilla Bettis appears in the 2020 anthology by Nightmare Press titled Todd Sullivan Presents: The Vampire Connoisseur. Surprisingly, this is the first published work by Bettis, and what an outstanding debut it is. On her …
The Official Website of Horror and Fantasy Writer Lionel Ray Green 