2.5
Chilling Horror Short Stories
ByPublisher Description
New Authors and collections. A deluxe edition of original and classic short stories, packed with monsters, vampires and a host of weird creatures. Tales of shadows and voices in the dark from the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Hope Hodgson are cast with previously unpublished stories by some of the best writers of horror today.
New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: DJ Tyrer, Ed Grabianowski, Andrew J. Wilson, Elise Forier Edie, Frank Roger, Gwendolyn Kiste, David A. Elsensohn, Bill Kte'pi, Justin Coates, James Lecky, Eric Esser, John H. Dromey, Kristopher Triana, Michael Bondies, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Glen Damien Campbell, William R.D. Wood, Rebecca J. Allred, and Lucy Taylor.
A dazzling collection of the most gripping tales of horror, vividly told.
New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: DJ Tyrer, Ed Grabianowski, Andrew J. Wilson, Elise Forier Edie, Frank Roger, Gwendolyn Kiste, David A. Elsensohn, Bill Kte'pi, Justin Coates, James Lecky, Eric Esser, John H. Dromey, Kristopher Triana, Michael Bondies, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Glen Damien Campbell, William R.D. Wood, Rebecca J. Allred, and Lucy Taylor.
A dazzling collection of the most gripping tales of horror, vividly told.
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesChilling Horror Short Stories Reviews
2.5
“An interesting collection, I will say, but split a bit too even between stories I legitimately enjoyed and ones I wouldn’t have picked up on their own. The book itself is lovely, but it gives the impression of something put together and sent to press quickly. There were copy and formatting mistakes in just about every story, from paragraphs split in strange places, spelling or spacing errors, and at one instance, a number in place of the word that belonged there. It wasn’t entirely unworthy the time, though.
General thoughts on each story:
Ecdysis – Rebecca J. Allred (2015)
(****) This was an interesting twist of a real medical phenomenon with something altogether horrific and disturbing. I enjoyed it. Good creepy fun.
The Damned Thing – Ambrose Bierce (1893)
(***) A very Lovecraftian sort of concept, here, with the feeling of something more alien than monstrous. Solidly Okay.Very Lovecraftian sort of concept, here, with a feeling almost more alien than monstrous. Post-mortem mystery horror story vibes. Solidly Okay.
Beyond The Wall – Ambrose Bierce (1907)
(***) The concept wasn’t as unusual as the previous work, but somehow it was more engaging to read. I like a good haunting.
Mirror’s Keeper – Michael Bondies (2011)
(***) I don’t know that I’d consider it out and out horror, but it had a folktale feeling to it I enjoyed.
The Watcher by the Threshold – John Buchan (1900)
(*) I simply couldn’t get engaged in this one. The premise eluded me. It felt primarily like a creepy encounter with a sick old man and I couldn’t much feel interested in that. At least not the day I read it. Perhaps a re-read in the future may yield a better opinion.
The Dying Art – Glen Damien Campbell (2014)
(**) It ended on an interesting Question, I’ll give it that, but I was honestly bored.
The Yellow Sign – Robert W. Chambers (1895)
(****) Solidly engaging, even if a bit confusing in places. I felt like I was missing part of the plot in relation to the POV character’s connection to the book in question toward the end, but I was compelled to keep reading nonetheless.
Breach – Justin Coates (2015)
(**) Plenty of decent descriptive language and imagery, but leaned more on gore than fear and was more than a bit cliched.
The Dead Smile – F. Marion Crawford (1899)
(*****) I don’t know what all to say besides I just really enjoyed this one.
The Screaming Smile – F. Marion Crawford (1908)
(****) Honestly, the same. I enjoyed the concept and the way the author chose to present it. The only reason I don’t count it as five stars is I found the narrator grating by the end of it and I struggled for the first couple of pages to make sense of the delivery.
The Child’s Story – Charles Dickens (1852)
(***** (but * in this collection)) In general, I’d give this one five stars. It’s a nice and pleasant journey through a largely symbolic story. However, I fail to understand why it was included in a horror collection at all. Dickens penned more than enough legitimate horror to have taken from that it shouldn’t have made much sense to pick a short that didn’t read at all as if it were meant to thrill or unsettle. It was… sweet, honestly.
The Leather Funnel – Arthur Conan Doyle (1922)
(***) I enjoyed Doyle’s style and the concept was fascinating, but I wasn’t really engaged in the story itself.
In Search of a New Wilhelm – John h. Dromey (2015)
(**) This one felt a little silly by the end, but it did make me laugh. That’s not, however, something I’d want from a collection I picked up for its horror.
Leonora – Elise Forier Edie (2013)
(****) I’ll admit to enjoying this one because it hit at a couple of things I tend to enjoy from my pulp fiction. Not to say the author didn’t show skill in her work, it was legitimately good, but that is what came to mind while I was reading it.
A Game of Conquest – David A. Elsensohn (2011)
(***) This one was well written, but I wasn’t too engaged with it.
Thing in the Bucket – Eric Esser (2013)
(**) I’ll admit to personal hang-ups being part of the reason my rating is this low. I just couldn’t sign on for the premise through its catalyst of the POV character taking advantage of the young woman that came to see him in the beginning for the rest. However, it was mesmerizing from beginning to end, so… two stars instead of one.
The Murdered Cousin – Sheridan Le Fanu (1851)
(****) I really enjoyed this one, even if it took me a few pages to truly get engaged. The uncle and cousin were loathsome and I was legitimately concerned for the main character’s safety for a few points there.
The Grey Woman – Elizabeth Gaskell (1865)
(****) Four stars rather than five because this was yet another example of one that I wouldn’t necessarily consider a horror tale, but that’s entirely my opinion. It was an interesting story, though, and I really quite enjoyed it.
Worth the Having – Michael Paul Gonzalez (2014)
(*) I just didn’t find this one enjoyable to read. It was mostly gross and unsettling, which was the point, but it simply wasn’t for me.
Extraneus Invokat – Ed Grabianowski (2011)
(*****) Five star stories are hard to speak on for some reason. I liked this one. It was engaging from the opening and still had me by the end.
The Three Strangers – Thomas Hardy (1883)
(*** (* for this collection)) Yet another story that just didn’t feel right in a horror anthology. This one was more of a dinner mystery sort of setup than horrific. I really fail to see why some stories were chosen for this anthology. This one was a decent enough scenario, though, and I was admittedly entertained at points. The only aspect, though, that could be considered even horror adjacent was that one of the characters was an executioner. There was no real element of tension or fear. It was comedic, even, at points.
Young Goodman Brown – Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835)
(*) I enjoyed the Scarlet Letter when I read it, so I don’t dislike Hawthorne’s work, but I didn’t care for this piece. It was feverish in places and there were points where I had trouble not seeing the young mister Brown as anything but foolish and silly, which made it difficult to remain engaged.
The Gateway of the Monster – William Hope Hodgson (1910)
(*****) Legitimately exciting, this one. I liked it.
The Challenge from Beyond – Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, and C.L. Moore (1935)
(***) It was certain intriguing and the way the different parts of the story knit together was well done, but otherworldly horror has never really been my favorite.
The Man in the Ambry – Gwendolyn Kiste (2015)
(****) This definitely had a lot of that modern horror flair to it. Legitimately creepy and a good time.
Start with Color – Bill Kte’pi (2003)
(****) I really liked this one. I really did. But, again… why is this one in a horror anthology? This is tragic, sure, and certainly fantastical, but it felt out of place in this sort of selection. Granted, with the amount of stories in this book that feel that way, perhaps it’s right at home.
The Rocking-Horse Winner – D.H. Lawrence (1926)
(***) It was an interesting concept.
The Magnificat of Devils – James Lecky (1997)
(***) I wish I could have connected more with this one.
The Dunwich Horror – H.P. Lovecraft (1929)
(***) Three stars because I did enjoy it. Not more because, as I’ve said, this sort of horror just isn’t my cup of tea most of the time. I’m not that affected by the Strange and Unknown element.
The Call of Cthulhu – H.P. Lovecraft (1928)
(***) See above. I’m confused, though, why the Lovecraft entries were arranged out of publication order.
The Horla – Guy de Maupassant (1886)
(**)
The Woman of the Wood – A. Merritt (1926)
(***) Definitely strange. This one felt more like a fairy tale.
The Vampire – Jan Neruda (1920)
(****) Short, to the point, and left an impression.
The Masque of the Red Death – Edgar Allan Poe (1842)
(****) It’s always enjoyable to find Poe in a collection. The Red Death is a feverishly detailed classic.
The Premature Burial – Edgar Allan Poe (1844)
(***) This one definitely pulls at the psychological aspect of horror and personal fears. This is an anxiety I’ve had myself and this piece only brought it back in force. It’s one of Poe’s more meandering works, though, and I had to re-read passages more than a few times when my mind would wander. Yet another example of a piece being placed after one published before it.
Trial and Error – Frank Roger (2013)
(***)
The Mortal Immortal – Mary Shelley (1833)
(****) This was definitely something I’d associate with the psychologically horrific in thinking about the ramifications of immortality, but I wasn’t finding it as ‘horror’ feeling as some of Shelley’s other work. It was meditative, almost, and oddly soothing to read. I think a lot of horror from this era, though, is just what we consider more dark fantasy these days. Still, it was a pleasant read.
The Body Snatcher – Robert Louis Stevenson (1884)
(****) I liked this one. I might be a bit partial to it because of my interest in true crime, and I did struggle to get the Horrible Histories skit on Burke and Hare out of my head while reading it, but it was engaging.
Dracula’s Guest – Bram Stoker (1914)
(*****) I’m sucker for Stoker, I think. I’ve read this story before this anthology and I loved it even more the second time through.
Blessed Be the Bound – Lucy Taylor (1991)
(*) I simply didn’t enjoy this one. The handling of the subject matter felt more gratuitous than artful and I was happy to have finished it only so I wouldn’t have unread pages in the book.
Dead End – Kristopher Triana (2015)
(***) This one started out looking like a one star story for me, as it was absolutely loaded with cliché from the POV character, but once the twist at the end picked up I actually kind of enjoyed it. It made me laugh, anyway, though perhaps a bit maliciously. It did read, however, as an episode each of Criminal Minds and the Twilight Zone dropped in a blender.
Justified – DJ Tyrer (2013)
(-*) Can I negative star a story? Because I’d like to negative star this story. At the start of it, I was confused but strangely intrigued by the handling of the aspect of a trans antagonist. The main character wasn’t malicious toward her in the usual way and her trans-ness didn’t SEEM the catalyst for her depravity. But the entire thing carried the bad taste that Trans Woman as Killer stories still very much have. I thought for a moment, when the red herring of her perhaps not actually being who she claimed to be came up, that my opinion of the story would be improved. Instead, it was worsened. Not only was the antagonist Yes Actually Trans, it was her motivation for murder, too.
Her present pronouns were respected, though, so… congratulations for that, I guess.
Afterward – Edith Wharton (1910)
(****) Legitimately engaging. I feel like the higher rating I give, the more Same my comments get… I wouldn’t have been impressed by the moment of shock if this one were written in a more recent decade, but the era of it kept that intact.
Deep-sixed Without a Depth Gauge – Andrew J. Wilson (2009)
(**) I just rolled my eyes. The whole time. The opening was loaded with cliched lines to the point I started underlining them. Good use of parasites, though, as absolutely horrifying.
The Dew of Heaven, Like Ashes – William R.D. Wood (2013)
(****) A nice one to end on. I liked it. The moment in which I believed the main character might actually die there was legitimately heartbreaking.
Overall… Yeah, I’d recommend this collection to anyone wanting a sampler. But I’d probably suggest they just borrow mine rather than buy their own.
Merged review:
An interesting collection, I will say, but split a bit too even between stories I legitimately enjoyed and ones I wouldn’t have picked up on their own. The book itself is lovely, but it gives the impression of something put together and sent to press quickly. There were copy and formatting mistakes in just about every story, from paragraphs split in strange places, spelling or spacing errors, and at one instance, a number in place of the word that belonged there. It wasn’t entirely unworthy the time, though.
General thoughts on each story:
Ecdysis – Rebecca J. Allred (2015)
(****) This was an interesting twist of a real medical phenomenon with something altogether horrific and disturbing. I enjoyed it. Good creepy fun.
The Damned Thing – Ambrose Bierce (1893)
(***) A very Lovecraftian sort of concept, here, with the feeling of something more alien than monstrous. Solidly Okay.Very Lovecraftian sort of concept, here, with a feeling almost more alien than monstrous. Post-mortem mystery horror story vibes. Solidly Okay.
Beyond The Wall – Ambrose Bierce (1907)
(***) The concept wasn’t as unusual as the previous work, but somehow it was more engaging to read. I like a good haunting.
Mirror’s Keeper – Michael Bondies (2011)
(***) I don’t know that I’d consider it out and out horror, but it had a folktale feeling to it I enjoyed.
The Watcher by the Threshold – John Buchan (1900)
(*) I simply couldn’t get engaged in this one. The premise eluded me. It felt primarily like a creepy encounter with a sick old man and I couldn’t much feel interested in that. At least not the day I read it. Perhaps a re-read in the future may yield a better opinion.
The Dying Art – Glen Damien Campbell (2014)
(**) It ended on an interesting Question, I’ll give it that, but I was honestly bored.
The Yellow Sign – Robert W. Chambers (1895)
(****) Solidly engaging, even if a bit confusing in places. I felt like I was missing part of the plot in relation to the POV character’s connection to the book in question toward the end, but I was compelled to keep reading nonetheless.
Breach – Justin Coates (2015)
(**) Plenty of decent descriptive language and imagery, but leaned more on gore than fear and was more than a bit cliched.
The Dead Smile – F. Marion Crawford (1899)
(*****) I don’t know what all to say besides I just really enjoyed this one.
The Screaming Smile – F. Marion Crawford (1908)
(****) Honestly, the same. I enjoyed the concept and the way the author chose to present it. The only reason I don’t count it as five stars is I found the narrator grating by the end of it and I struggled for the first couple of pages to make sense of the delivery.
The Child’s Story – Charles Dickens (1852)
(***** (but * in this collection)) In general, I’d give this one five stars. It’s a nice and pleasant journey through a largely symbolic story. However, I fail to understand why it was included in a horror collection at all. Dickens penned more than enough legitimate horror to have taken from that it shouldn’t have made much sense to pick a short that didn’t read at all as if it were meant to thrill or unsettle. It was… sweet, honestly.
The Leather Funnel – Arthur Conan Doyle (1922)
(***) I enjoyed Doyle’s style and the concept was fascinating, but I wasn’t really engaged in the story itself.
In Search of a New Wilhelm – John h. Dromey (2015)
(**) This one felt a little silly by the end, but it did make me laugh. That’s not, however, something I’d want from a collection I picked up for its horror.
Leonora – Elise Forier Edie (2013)
(****) I’ll admit to enjoying this one because it hit at a couple of things I tend to enjoy from my pulp fiction. Not to say the author didn’t show skill in her work, it was legitimately good, but that is what came to mind while I was reading it.
A Game of Conquest – David A. Elsensohn (2011)
(***) This one was well written, but I wasn’t too engaged with it.
Thing in the Bucket – Eric Esser (2013)
(**) I’ll admit to personal hang-ups being part of the reason my rating is this low. I just couldn’t sign on for the premise through its catalyst of the POV character taking advantage of the young woman that came to see him in the beginning for the rest. However, it was mesmerizing from beginning to end, so… two stars instead of one.
The Murdered Cousin – Sheridan Le Fanu (1851)
(****) I really enjoyed this one, even if it took me a few pages to truly get engaged. The uncle and cousin were loathsome and I was legitimately concerned for the main character’s safety for a few points there.
The Grey Woman – Elizabeth Gaskell (1865)
(****) Four stars rather than five because this was yet another example of one that I wouldn’t necessarily consider a horror tale, but that’s entirely my opinion. It was an interesting story, though, and I really quite enjoyed it.
Worth the Having – Michael Paul Gonzalez (2014)
(*) I just didn’t find this one enjoyable to read. It was mostly gross and unsettling, which was the point, but it simply wasn’t for me.
Extraneus Invokat – Ed Grabianowski (2011)
(*****) Five star stories are hard to speak on for some reason. I liked this one. It was engaging from the opening and still had me by the end.
The Three Strangers – Thomas Hardy (1883)
(*** (* for this collection)) Yet another story that just didn’t feel right in a horror anthology. This one was more of a dinner mystery sort of setup than horrific. I really fail to see why some stories were chosen for this anthology. This one was a decent enough scenario, though, and I was admittedly entertained at points. The only aspect, though, that could be considered even horror adjacent was that one of the characters was an executioner. There was no real element of tension or fear. It was comedic, even, at points.
Young Goodman Brown – Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835)
(*) I enjoyed the Scarlet Letter when I read it, so I don’t dislike Hawthorne’s work, but I didn’t care for this piece. It was feverish in places and there were points where I had trouble not seeing the young mister Brown as anything but foolish and silly, which made it difficult to remain engaged.
The Gateway of the Monster – William Hope Hodgson (1910)
(*****) Legitimately exciting, this one. I liked it.
The Challenge from Beyond – Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, and C.L. Moore (1935)
(***) It was certain intriguing and the way the different parts of the story knit together was well done, but otherworldly horror has never really been my favorite.
The Man in the Ambry – Gwendolyn Kiste (2015)
(****) This definitely had a lot of that modern horror flair to it. Legitimately creepy and a good time.
Start with Color – Bill Kte’pi (2003)
(****) I really liked this one. I really did. But, again… why is this one in a horror anthology? This is tragic, sure, and certainly fantastical, but it felt out of place in this sort of selection. Granted, with the amount of stories in this book that feel that way, perhaps it’s right at home.
The Rocking-Horse Winner – D.H. Lawrence (1926)
(***) It was an interesting concept.
The Magnificat of Devils – James Lecky (1997)
(***) I wish I could have connected more with this one.
The Dunwich Horror – H.P. Lovecraft (1929)
(***) Three stars because I did enjoy it. Not more because, as I’ve said, this sort of horror just isn’t my cup of tea most of the time. I’m not that affected by the Strange and Unknown element.
The Call of Cthulhu – H.P. Lovecraft (1928)
(***) See above. I’m confused, though, why the Lovecraft entries were arranged out of publication order.
The Horla – Guy de Maupassant (1886)
(**)
The Woman of the Wood – A. Merritt (1926)
(***) Definitely strange. This one felt more like a fairy tale.
The Vampire – Jan Neruda (1920)
(****) Short, to the point, and left an impression.
The Masque of the Red Death – Edgar Allan Poe (1842)
(****) It’s always enjoyable to find Poe in a collection. The Red Death is a feverishly detailed classic.
The Premature Burial – Edgar Allan Poe (1844)
(***) This one definitely pulls at the psychological aspect of horror and personal fears. This is an anxiety I’ve had myself and this piece only”
About Dale Townshend
Senior Lecturer in Gothic and Romantic Literature at the University of Stirling, Scotland, and Director of the MLitt in The Gothic Imagination. In the field of Gothic studies, his most recent publications include The Gothic World ; Ann Radcliffe, Romanticism and the Gothic; and Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination.
Other books by Dale Townshend
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
