Reviews
The 4 stars are for the 4 out of 8 moderate stories that have given me chill. A Study in Black and White - It was just amazing. Especially If you like haunted stories has chess in it. The Eel Singers - 2 friends and a boy(Six) having a holiday out of London. Everything looks welcoming and charming but were they? The Chillingham Chair - A haunted wheeling chair. Some parts of this story were more creepy than spooky. Confinement - It was too real. In fact, It is based on a real serial killer, Amelia Dyer. She murdered infants in her care over thirty years during the Victorian period of the United Kingdom
about what i expected. it is difficult to get the right atmosphere for a haunting / horror story and even more so for a winter / festive season one but there were some really good entries in this collection.
among them, i really enjoyed "thwaite's tenant" by imogen hermes gowar which centres a mother and her child running from her abusive husband. it is a story about a woman trying to build up her autonomy to escape the abusive influence of both her husband and her father who confines her away from civilisation.
another title i enjoyed was "the eel singers" by natasha pulley which is set in the same universe as "the watchmaker of filigree street" and follows the same character on a christmas adventure. even though the story needs to pull the "and they magically forgot all about it trick" at the end, pulley's ability to create an atmosphere and draw the reader in is unmatched. this is definitely one of the top two entries in the collection.
another really good story is "lily wilt" by jess kidd which involves a - to put it in modern terms - a gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss character who manipulates a young man into necromancy. a delicious and very masterfully told story that i cannot recommend enough.
there is also "the hanging of the greens" by andrew michael hurley which is fantastic and creepy but i do feel i need to acknowledge that it reads a little like a creepy pasta post / a short story someone would send to the watcher's "are you scared?". it is a form i occasionally enjoy, when done well, and this is done very well.
the last entry is "monster" by elizabeth macnal which is a traditional story of the overly ambitious scientist becoming the monster it seeks. the story puts a twist on it by making it clear from the very start that the protagonist is not a good person who is susceptible to corruption. from then onwards, it is a game to see how far exactly he would go.
the collection is rounded up by "a study in black and white" by bridget collins, "the chillingham chair" by laura purcell and "confinement" by kiran millwood hargrave. there is plenty good in them too but they do not quite hit like the above.
Excellent collection of spooky stories set in the wintery months. Would certainly recommend reading during the dark nights close to Christmas!
