by Alex Mcdermott:
October is the season for horror and this Halloween is no exception. I’ve seen a lot of anthologies scheduled for release, so we are in for a real scare season! Dangers Untold, edited by Jennifer Brozek, was the first on my reading list this year. Its premise was interesting-no traditional monsters. You won’t find a zombie or vampire anywhere in these pages. So what’s there? Enough chills and thrills to keep you awake long into the night.
There is nothing wrong with the classic horror monster. But stepping away from those tropes forces a writer to look into the darkness for new fears. A writer has to delve into the strange and macabre, like Poe did a century before. Many of the authors in this collection handle the challenge well. Marty Young’s “A Monstrous Touch” explores the idea of beings capable of great pain, suffering, and tragedy just beyond our plane of understanding. “Mutes” by Rob Smales also examines the other dimensions around us and the frightening consequences of breaking those barriers. Lillian Cohen-Moore’s “The Dybbuk Wife” is based on a Jewish legend of possession and exorcism that left my skin crawling. B.E. Scully’s “The Oracle Bone” tells a frightening tale of ancient revenge passed down to an unsuspecting modern generation. These are a few of the standout stories in this collection that made me scared of the shadows for days after.
It’s the nature of anthologies to be uneven. What one reader loves, another hates. There were a few stories here that went way too far into graphic violence for my taste. I’m not interested in gore horror. They were just gross and not scary at all. A few veered into the humor/ horror vein and lost my attention.
While no anthology is perfect, Dangers Untold is definitely worth a read. There are some outstanding stories here and the unique take on monsters and fear is really interesting. This one comes highly recommended.
Dangers Untold will be released on October 1st. For more information, please click here.
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