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Dark Cities
An anthology of horror stories in urban settings whether back alleys, crumbling brownstones, gleaming high-rise towers, or city hall. Terrifying urban myths, malicious ghosts, cursed architecture, malignant city deities, personal demons (in business or relationships) twisted into something worse virtually anything that inspires the contributors to imagine some bit of urban darkness."
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 2017
198 people are currently reading
2302 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Golden
798 books2,959 followersCHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
May 26, 2017
(I freely admit to some bias as my story "The Society of the Monsterhood" is in this anthology)
Very cool collection of horror/dark fiction set in cities. Nathan Ballingrud's story "The Maw" kicked my ass, dragged me out into the city square, and then kicked my ass some more. Ow.
Very cool collection of horror/dark fiction set in cities. Nathan Ballingrud's story "The Maw" kicked my ass, dragged me out into the city square, and then kicked my ass some more. Ow.
December 1, 2017
This is a solid anthology that starts off with one of the most WTH stories I've ever read, and ends with a disturbing tale about tough love and fatherhood.
I picked up this collection because it's absolutely chock full of some of my favorite horror writers. That being said, it's no surprise that the standouts for me come from those writers. I loved We'll Always Have Paris by M.R. Carey, a story that took me completely by surprise. Sanctuary by Kealan Patrick Burke is exactly the kind of story I expect from him. It builds to a jarring and unsettling climax, only to have you questioning everything you just read by the end. The Crack by Nick Cutter is another story that I was really excited about, and it did not disappoint. I was curious to read Cutter in a short story format, and while this tale didn't go quite as full-on "Cutter" as his novels, it's certainly one nasty little story.
I think my favorite story in the collection though is thoroughly unexpected and the most shocking of them all. I'm a huge Scott Smith fan, and ever since he published The Ruins it seems as if he had disappeared from the planet. When I saw his name on the list of contributors I was ecstatic. And boy does Smith deliver. The Dogs is the first story in the collection, and I think I had to sit and process it for about 10 minutes once I finished. This is definitely a messed up little story, and one that will have you thinking about dogs in a way that never occurred to anyone except Scott Smith.
Like I said, this collection is very good, and I enjoyed all of the stories. There really isn't a bad one in the bunch. I highly recommend this to all of my fellow horror lovers.
I picked up this collection because it's absolutely chock full of some of my favorite horror writers. That being said, it's no surprise that the standouts for me come from those writers. I loved We'll Always Have Paris by M.R. Carey, a story that took me completely by surprise. Sanctuary by Kealan Patrick Burke is exactly the kind of story I expect from him. It builds to a jarring and unsettling climax, only to have you questioning everything you just read by the end. The Crack by Nick Cutter is another story that I was really excited about, and it did not disappoint. I was curious to read Cutter in a short story format, and while this tale didn't go quite as full-on "Cutter" as his novels, it's certainly one nasty little story.
I think my favorite story in the collection though is thoroughly unexpected and the most shocking of them all. I'm a huge Scott Smith fan, and ever since he published The Ruins it seems as if he had disappeared from the planet. When I saw his name on the list of contributors I was ecstatic. And boy does Smith deliver. The Dogs is the first story in the collection, and I think I had to sit and process it for about 10 minutes once I finished. This is definitely a messed up little story, and one that will have you thinking about dogs in a way that never occurred to anyone except Scott Smith.
Like I said, this collection is very good, and I enjoyed all of the stories. There really isn't a bad one in the bunch. I highly recommend this to all of my fellow horror lovers.
June 25, 2022
"Everyone knows a street that doesn't feel right. Where the light from the street lamps feels sour and spoiled, like bitter honey. Where the shadows are too deep and too dark, and creep up on you when you're not looking."
Lots of good authors contained within, along with some pretty dark stories to make living in the city that much more horrifying.
Lots of good authors contained within, along with some pretty dark stories to make living in the city that much more horrifying.
March 2, 2020
Original dark shorts about cities, supposedly, running the gamut from straight horror through weird fiction to urban fantasy. Some clunkers, but also a good number of solid creepy entries from the usual heavy hitters. A disappointing number were just stories that happened to take place in a city, rather than centering the cityscape or urban crowds or terroir or whatever. I know psychogeography has become a joke but this was the perfect opportunity to explore it in a meaningfully weird way!
The Dogs • Scott Smith
A craiglist escort lucks into a Manhattan apartment that seems too good to be true (aside from the three telepathic dogs she has to live with). She's a bit of a loser, and it's easy to not ask for more and to give the dogs what they want, until it isn't. Almost had some interesting things to say about complicity, but lost itself to a sophomoric desperation to shock. Ugh. 1/5
In Stone • Tim Lebbon
"The city eats people." A man unable to get over the death of a friend goes on late night walks through London. He sees people vanish, and the city sees him seeing. A nicely melancholy affair, drenched with rainwater and puddles and echoes of "Evening Primrose" and Campbell's "The Brood." 4/5
The Way She Is with Strangers • Helen Marshall
Also a rather gently sad story about a recently-divorced woman who moves from a small town to Manchester and, worrying about rebuilding and resizing and losing and filling empty space, becomes a psychopomp of some sort. Her name is Mercy and her daughter is Comfort; the whole story has a mythical/folkloric approach that suits the material well. 4/5
We'll Always Have Paris • M. R. Carey
Whoa. We're off-kilter from the get-go as our hardboiled protagonist, a Parisian detective, casually mentions the 14th arondissement, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Alhambra all in a single neighborhood. Also, Paris recently suffered a zombie uprising and there's a serial killer on the loose. The movie Dark City, if it were more of a gonzo post-modern melange (the voice manages to be both noir and romantic/arch). I'm not totally sure it sticks the landing, but it was inventive and interesting enough that I'm also not totally sure that matters. 5/5
Good Night, Prison Kings • Cherie Priest
A recently-deceased woman finds herself, ghostly, in a ghostly city, figuring out how to take care of unfinished business with two of her miscreant cousins. Her dissipation and confusion (and the miasma swirling through the city) are nicely rendered, although the actual revelations and revenge left me cold. The struggle to remember was the interesting part, not the being-remembered or the acting-on-the-remembrance. 3/5
Dear Diary • Scott Sigler
A man moves to Philly to be near his married girlfriend and, living with chronic back pain after an unspecified accident, drives away everyone who loves him in favor of the connection he feels with his apartment and its past tenants, whose stories are all set down in the same diary. The story takes place entirely within the apartment, making the point over and over again of how easy it is to be alone even when surrounded by other people. Achronological and interspersed with the (melodramatic) diary entries, this one succeeds on a thematic and structural level despite some occasionally clunky prose and characters who could've used a bit more fleshing out (married girlfriend, I'm looking at you). Flashes of Leiber, the master of this kind of urban weirdness; also strongly reminds me of a story whose title I can't quite put my finger on - I thought it was "The Beckoning Fair One" but it involved a found manuscript, and it's entirely possible I've combined TBFO and Kiernan's _The Red Tree_ into a story that doesn't actually exist. 4/5
What I've Always Done • Amber Benson
Short urban fantasy about an asshole "fixer" in Portland who does bad things. Not for me. 2/5
Grit • Jonathan Maberry
Also urban fantasy, the noir-ish story of a bail bondsman with magic tattoos, the ghosts who follow him, caricatured drug dealers, and the diner waitress who deserves better than her lot in life. Has sections of transcribed text messages, but it shouldn't have. 2/5
Dark Hill Run • Kasey Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale
A man gets hypnotized to quit smoking and accidentally calls forth the revenant of his childhood bully. Old-fashioned and uninspired. 2/5
Happy Forever • Simon R. Green
An expert thief of things magical and arcane has to rescue his ex-girlfriend from the House where time stands still. Like "We'll Always Have Paris," a noir-inspired voice, replete with bad hardboiled dialogue ("It's been years since I last saw you. Ten years since my daughter Julia disappeared."), but a mirror image here where a story that seemed to be going through rote motions was redeemed by a fantastic ending. 4/5
The Society of the Monsterhood • Paul Tremblay
Interesting headings, a convincingly-conversational tone, second person, weirdness as an examination of poverty and communities that lose people, the unfairness of the status quo, an interesting monster, this story has it all. 5/5
The Maw • Nathan Ballingrud
An entry in his loosely-related series about Hell, here after it's exploded into a neighborhood of London (maybe?) and a young guide takes in an old man who's interested in more than just sightseeing. Beautiful and forlorn, exactly my kind of setting; I'm pretty sure Ballingrud can do no wrong. 5/5
Field Trip • Tananarive Due
A teacher, well-meaning but in way over her head, takes her inner city 6th grade class (one of whom recently lost her brother to police violence) on a field trip. An illegible announcement on an unfamiliar subway (one of life's greatest anxieties) heralds further loss. An absolutely gutting story. 5/5
The Revelers • Christopher Golden
An old friend (a liar and "a bit of a prick") shows up to drag our protagonist off to a night of partying in Manhattan. Haziness abounds, both supernatural and chemically-induced, people slip in and out of time, no one can escape the endless grind of the city's social scene with their youth intact, etc etc. 2/5
The Stillness • Ramsey Campbell
A retired accountant becomes fixated on a human statue "performing" (?) outside the thrift store where he works (to avoid spending too much time sitting still, both literally and metaphorically). Typical latter-day Campbell, a beautiful accretion of off-kilter details before a final horrific denouement. 5/5
Sanctuary • Kealan Patrick Burke
A child struggles to understand the disintegration of his parents' relationship and the city they live in and even of his parents themselves. A surreal nightmare of a story, like a darker, perverse Bruno Schulz. This one deserves re-reading, I think. 4/5
Matter of Life and Death • Sherrilyn Kenyon
Weird things happen to an editor after her star author, horrible to work with, drops dead. Or do they, and was she, and did she? Take that, every editor who was ever mean to Sherrilyn Kenyon. Badly-deployed cliches and worse prose. Also a surreal nightmare of a story, but not in a good way. 1/5
Graffiti of the Lost and Dying Places • Seanan McGuire
A convenience store clerk in a rapidly-gentrifying Financial District is being priced out of her job and her home, but the city, in pain and lashing out, fails to commiserate. Creepy, quietly despairing, and timely. 5/5
The Crack • Nick Cutter
Our protagonist, our awful, toxic, irredeemable protagonist, is at his wit's end with his crying toddler, who is absolutely terrified of being left in his room alone at night. Our tiresome, narcissistic protagonist is similarly fed up with his "weak" wife, and befuddled at the crack in the wall of his son's room, even though he himself, a construction foreman by trade, built the house. There's a time-honored tradition in horror stories of producing a protagonist that you actively anticipate something awful happening to, and this guy is an all-time champion of the trope. He is, frankly, exhausting to read about, but good on Cutter for taking on toxic masculinity so directly, and the "something awful" is devastating and unsettling when it comes. There is, however, absolutely nothing urban about this one. It takes place in a house, and maybe the house is in a city, but it could just as easily be in the middle of nowhere. Let's call this a 4.75/5
The Dogs • Scott Smith
A craiglist escort lucks into a Manhattan apartment that seems too good to be true (aside from the three telepathic dogs she has to live with). She's a bit of a loser, and it's easy to not ask for more and to give the dogs what they want, until it isn't. Almost had some interesting things to say about complicity, but lost itself to a sophomoric desperation to shock. Ugh. 1/5
In Stone • Tim Lebbon
"The city eats people." A man unable to get over the death of a friend goes on late night walks through London. He sees people vanish, and the city sees him seeing. A nicely melancholy affair, drenched with rainwater and puddles and echoes of "Evening Primrose" and Campbell's "The Brood." 4/5
The Way She Is with Strangers • Helen Marshall
Also a rather gently sad story about a recently-divorced woman who moves from a small town to Manchester and, worrying about rebuilding and resizing and losing and filling empty space, becomes a psychopomp of some sort. Her name is Mercy and her daughter is Comfort; the whole story has a mythical/folkloric approach that suits the material well. 4/5
We'll Always Have Paris • M. R. Carey
Whoa. We're off-kilter from the get-go as our hardboiled protagonist, a Parisian detective, casually mentions the 14th arondissement, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Alhambra all in a single neighborhood. Also, Paris recently suffered a zombie uprising and there's a serial killer on the loose. The movie Dark City, if it were more of a gonzo post-modern melange (the voice manages to be both noir and romantic/arch). I'm not totally sure it sticks the landing, but it was inventive and interesting enough that I'm also not totally sure that matters. 5/5
Good Night, Prison Kings • Cherie Priest
A recently-deceased woman finds herself, ghostly, in a ghostly city, figuring out how to take care of unfinished business with two of her miscreant cousins. Her dissipation and confusion (and the miasma swirling through the city) are nicely rendered, although the actual revelations and revenge left me cold. The struggle to remember was the interesting part, not the being-remembered or the acting-on-the-remembrance. 3/5
Dear Diary • Scott Sigler
A man moves to Philly to be near his married girlfriend and, living with chronic back pain after an unspecified accident, drives away everyone who loves him in favor of the connection he feels with his apartment and its past tenants, whose stories are all set down in the same diary. The story takes place entirely within the apartment, making the point over and over again of how easy it is to be alone even when surrounded by other people. Achronological and interspersed with the (melodramatic) diary entries, this one succeeds on a thematic and structural level despite some occasionally clunky prose and characters who could've used a bit more fleshing out (married girlfriend, I'm looking at you). Flashes of Leiber, the master of this kind of urban weirdness; also strongly reminds me of a story whose title I can't quite put my finger on - I thought it was "The Beckoning Fair One" but it involved a found manuscript, and it's entirely possible I've combined TBFO and Kiernan's _The Red Tree_ into a story that doesn't actually exist. 4/5
What I've Always Done • Amber Benson
Short urban fantasy about an asshole "fixer" in Portland who does bad things. Not for me. 2/5
Grit • Jonathan Maberry
Also urban fantasy, the noir-ish story of a bail bondsman with magic tattoos, the ghosts who follow him, caricatured drug dealers, and the diner waitress who deserves better than her lot in life. Has sections of transcribed text messages, but it shouldn't have. 2/5
Dark Hill Run • Kasey Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale
A man gets hypnotized to quit smoking and accidentally calls forth the revenant of his childhood bully. Old-fashioned and uninspired. 2/5
Happy Forever • Simon R. Green
An expert thief of things magical and arcane has to rescue his ex-girlfriend from the House where time stands still. Like "We'll Always Have Paris," a noir-inspired voice, replete with bad hardboiled dialogue ("It's been years since I last saw you. Ten years since my daughter Julia disappeared."), but a mirror image here where a story that seemed to be going through rote motions was redeemed by a fantastic ending. 4/5
The Society of the Monsterhood • Paul Tremblay
Interesting headings, a convincingly-conversational tone, second person, weirdness as an examination of poverty and communities that lose people, the unfairness of the status quo, an interesting monster, this story has it all. 5/5
The Maw • Nathan Ballingrud
An entry in his loosely-related series about Hell, here after it's exploded into a neighborhood of London (maybe?) and a young guide takes in an old man who's interested in more than just sightseeing. Beautiful and forlorn, exactly my kind of setting; I'm pretty sure Ballingrud can do no wrong. 5/5
Field Trip • Tananarive Due
A teacher, well-meaning but in way over her head, takes her inner city 6th grade class (one of whom recently lost her brother to police violence) on a field trip. An illegible announcement on an unfamiliar subway (one of life's greatest anxieties) heralds further loss. An absolutely gutting story. 5/5
The Revelers • Christopher Golden
An old friend (a liar and "a bit of a prick") shows up to drag our protagonist off to a night of partying in Manhattan. Haziness abounds, both supernatural and chemically-induced, people slip in and out of time, no one can escape the endless grind of the city's social scene with their youth intact, etc etc. 2/5
The Stillness • Ramsey Campbell
A retired accountant becomes fixated on a human statue "performing" (?) outside the thrift store where he works (to avoid spending too much time sitting still, both literally and metaphorically). Typical latter-day Campbell, a beautiful accretion of off-kilter details before a final horrific denouement. 5/5
Sanctuary • Kealan Patrick Burke
A child struggles to understand the disintegration of his parents' relationship and the city they live in and even of his parents themselves. A surreal nightmare of a story, like a darker, perverse Bruno Schulz. This one deserves re-reading, I think. 4/5
Matter of Life and Death • Sherrilyn Kenyon
Weird things happen to an editor after her star author, horrible to work with, drops dead. Or do they, and was she, and did she? Take that, every editor who was ever mean to Sherrilyn Kenyon. Badly-deployed cliches and worse prose. Also a surreal nightmare of a story, but not in a good way. 1/5
Graffiti of the Lost and Dying Places • Seanan McGuire
A convenience store clerk in a rapidly-gentrifying Financial District is being priced out of her job and her home, but the city, in pain and lashing out, fails to commiserate. Creepy, quietly despairing, and timely. 5/5
The Crack • Nick Cutter
Our protagonist, our awful, toxic, irredeemable protagonist, is at his wit's end with his crying toddler, who is absolutely terrified of being left in his room alone at night. Our tiresome, narcissistic protagonist is similarly fed up with his "weak" wife, and befuddled at the crack in the wall of his son's room, even though he himself, a construction foreman by trade, built the house. There's a time-honored tradition in horror stories of producing a protagonist that you actively anticipate something awful happening to, and this guy is an all-time champion of the trope. He is, frankly, exhausting to read about, but good on Cutter for taking on toxic masculinity so directly, and the "something awful" is devastating and unsettling when it comes. There is, however, absolutely nothing urban about this one. It takes place in a house, and maybe the house is in a city, but it could just as easily be in the middle of nowhere. Let's call this a 4.75/5
July 12, 2017
TW: bestiality, rape
I have to seriously question the thought process of Christopher Golden in choosing to put The Dogs as the first story in this anthology. I question why it was even included in the anthology, but if it were to be included, it should not have been the first story. Yes, this is a horror anthology, but that story alone made me put the book down and walk away. It took me over a week to talk myself into picking it up again to skip to the short stories from authors I already know I like/trust. Why? Because The Dogs features a very graphic bestiality/rape scene. I was suspicious of the story as soon as the MC was revealed to be a sort-of sex worker. I should have stopped reading then. The first story in an anthology sets the tone, and the tone The Dogs set was unpalatable.
I skipped forward. The short story Dear Diary was good. Amber Benson's entry was interesting but very short. Seanan McGuire's story was creepy and sad. I did not read the other stories in this anthology, especially Golden's own, because I couldn't trust that the other authors wouldn't cross lines I am uncomfortable with, and in putting The Dogs first, Golden showed me that I can't trust him. This may be a shame. I may be missing out on some excellent short stories by other authors in this collection. I'll never know.
I have to seriously question the thought process of Christopher Golden in choosing to put The Dogs as the first story in this anthology. I question why it was even included in the anthology, but if it were to be included, it should not have been the first story. Yes, this is a horror anthology, but that story alone made me put the book down and walk away. It took me over a week to talk myself into picking it up again to skip to the short stories from authors I already know I like/trust. Why? Because The Dogs features a very graphic bestiality/rape scene. I was suspicious of the story as soon as the MC was revealed to be a sort-of sex worker. I should have stopped reading then. The first story in an anthology sets the tone, and the tone The Dogs set was unpalatable.
I skipped forward. The short story Dear Diary was good. Amber Benson's entry was interesting but very short. Seanan McGuire's story was creepy and sad. I did not read the other stories in this anthology, especially Golden's own, because I couldn't trust that the other authors wouldn't cross lines I am uncomfortable with, and in putting The Dogs first, Golden showed me that I can't trust him. This may be a shame. I may be missing out on some excellent short stories by other authors in this collection. I'll never know.
September 24, 2017
I only read Sherrilyn Kenyon's story, and it freaked me out.
August 20, 2017
1.5 stars that I gave 2.5 solely because of Seanan McGuire's offering, which was, undoubtedly, a breath of fresh air in comparison to the rest of the book.
The authors, I feel, all chose to go weird esoteric and kind of Pan's Labyrinth-y but not in a way that gave any sort of narrative fulfillment when it came to their respective endings. I wonder if Golden (whose story comes in a distant second place in terms of enjoyment) gave the authors a list of criteria needed to be met, and they were not able to deliver fully— even Golden, himself.
All in all— especially considering the two worst stories bookend the anthology— a thoroughly disappointing read.
The authors, I feel, all chose to go weird esoteric and kind of Pan's Labyrinth-y but not in a way that gave any sort of narrative fulfillment when it came to their respective endings. I wonder if Golden (whose story comes in a distant second place in terms of enjoyment) gave the authors a list of criteria needed to be met, and they were not able to deliver fully— even Golden, himself.
All in all— especially considering the two worst stories bookend the anthology— a thoroughly disappointing read.
June 13, 2017
Sometimes I read anthologies from front to back, first to last as they appear. Other times I skip around, picking out the authors I know I like and then going back to pick up the ones that are new to me or that I haven't been overly impressed with previously. Luckily, this time I indulged in the cherry-picking peripatetic style, reading the stories by Maberry and McGuire, Burke and Benson, Green and Golden (sometimes alliteration happens, what can you do?), Lebbon and Lansdale & Landsdale, first, and then the others. If I would have read the first story first I would have tossed the book aside and never finished it; it's an awful, offensive piece, but the other eighteen stories are pretty good. There are nice, understated, very British pieces from Helen Marshall and the famous Ramsey Campbell; a funny recursive story by Sherrilyn Kenyon; a good kids/monsters story by Paul Tremblay; a very moody family story by Cherie Priest, a good short punchy tale by Tananarive Due, etc., etc. My favorite was a unique story by Nathan Ballingrud, though I really did enjoy reading the whole lot... after page fifty-six, that is.
August 29, 2017
Christopher Golden has assembled an absolutely stellar cast of authors for this anthology, and the combination does not disappoint.
The stories run the gamut, from a rather unsettling look at the lives of dogs of the city, to eldritch horrors slowly warping their surroundings, to an absolutely brilliant - and hilarious - look behind the writing scenes from Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Grit, by Jonathan Maberry, was a surprise and I want much more from that universe please! And The Maw, from relative newcomer (it's a REALLY great collection of authors!) Nathan Ballingrud, similarly left me wanting more.
A great collection for anyone who likes their horror with an edge that catches and makes sure it never quite leaves you the same.
The stories run the gamut, from a rather unsettling look at the lives of dogs of the city, to eldritch horrors slowly warping their surroundings, to an absolutely brilliant - and hilarious - look behind the writing scenes from Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Grit, by Jonathan Maberry, was a surprise and I want much more from that universe please! And The Maw, from relative newcomer (it's a REALLY great collection of authors!) Nathan Ballingrud, similarly left me wanting more.
A great collection for anyone who likes their horror with an edge that catches and makes sure it never quite leaves you the same.
July 6, 2017
This anthology plays with a great theme and has some cracking stories in it. Not all of them worked for me, a couple of real misses, though taste is arbitrary, of course. But the good ones are outstanding and make the cover price worthwhile. Standouts for me included stories by Nathan Ballingrud, Cherie Priest, Paul Tremblay and Christopher Golden. I'm always leery of an editor including a story in their own anthology, but Golden's is one of the best in this book. Dark, urban, gritty, noirish horror of every kind, I really enjoyed this book.
March 27, 2018
WARNING: that first story is terrible, with bestiality and rape, among other things, and a deep sense of hopelessness and terror that's depressing and horrifying. Not for the faint of heart.
The others are more standard horror. A bit creepy, ghost stories, lurking shadows... something to scare a little, but not make you want mind bleach. It would be a solid three stars if not for that first one.
The others are more standard horror. A bit creepy, ghost stories, lurking shadows... something to scare a little, but not make you want mind bleach. It would be a solid three stars if not for that first one.
February 26, 2019
Kind of disappointing, considering the lineup of authors. Paul Tremblay's and Scott Smith's tales were the best. Ramsey Campbell's and Tim Lebbon's were pretty good. Most of the others didn't feel like they even belonged in the collection, based on the description on the back cover. They were so generic they could have found their way into a dozen anthologies of varying themes.
October 6, 2017
Maybe this is just the wrong genre for me. I picked up this book at the library because some of the authors I enjoy had stories here. Other than theirs, the rest I didn't enjoy. Some stories crossed the line from horror into horrid.
May 22, 2017
This has some absolutely excellent short stories in not all of which are blatantly horror but a rather strong stomach is required to get past the first story which does involve a form of bestiality.
The final story by M.R Carey is however brilliant and really the sort of thing to stop you sleeping at night.
Of course some stories were a tad mediocre but this being a short story collection it's easy enough to flip past the ones that aren't holding your interest or even just plow through them as none are more than 20 minutes reading long.
The final story by M.R Carey is however brilliant and really the sort of thing to stop you sleeping at night.
Of course some stories were a tad mediocre but this being a short story collection it's easy enough to flip past the ones that aren't holding your interest or even just plow through them as none are more than 20 minutes reading long.
June 27, 2018
Honestly, the first story in here messed me up and soured me on the rest of them. I’m pretty sure I read every other story through a much more negative lens. In fact, the first one was so repulsive to me that I considered quitting. And then the last one made me regret my decision.
So consider this a five-star review for everything in between, and a negative three for those two. The math works.
So consider this a five-star review for everything in between, and a negative three for those two. The math works.
August 17, 2019
Horror stories, set in the an urban setting. Some work, some are not my cup of tea. Overall, a good read.
February 26, 2018
All new tales of urban terror by a who's who of modern literary horror. In shadowy back alleys, crumbling brownstones, and gleaming skyscrapers, cities harbor unique forms of terror. Here lie malicious ghosts, cursed buildings, malignant deities, and personal demons of every kind.
You know how a lot of times with an anthology book with different authors, you only end up with maybe 3 really good stories, then the rest are ok to bleh? Well, this is probably the best anthology book by multiple authors I have ever read. 19 stories and only two that I didn't like. That's pretty good for me. I am a very lenient rater and reviewer of books, yes, but I am normally a lot harder on anthologies. I don't know why, but when I read a short story that I didn't like, I feel like I've wasted my time and I guess that just pisses me off more then reading a book that might not have been the best but was entertaining. *shrug*
Anyways.... 19 stories. I gave only two stories a 1 rating- The Society of the Monsterhood by Paul Tremblay and The Crack by Nick Cutter. With Paul's book, I honestly just did not get what was going on....? The ending was just WHA-? I THINK I get it....? o.o; I guess.... people confronted the monster..... that was..... themselves.....? And.... They took themselves away....? To make the community.... better?? I don't know... It was very Paul Tremblay. Kinda ambiguous and vague and when it is over you don't really know what you've just read. At least that is how I always seem to feel after reading a story by him. Nick's story, I had 2 problems with. First, the main character was such a FLAMING clownshoe that it kinda ruined the story. Like, I disliked him so much I just didn't even care what was happening to him. And then, the other problem, was that it was the most unoriginal story out of the book. Compare this story to Stephen King's short story The Boogeyman from the book Night Shift. Maybe it's just me, but I felt it was waaaaay too similar. Disappointing.
There was one story I did not read all of. The Maw by Nathan Ballinguid. I skipped it not because it was bad, but because it just made me sad. It was about a guy who was trying to rescue a loved one during an Apocalypse. And it turned out the loved one was his old dog that got lost. OMG. I love animals and my pets and I'm always saying that when the zombie apocalypse happens, the first thing I'm grabbing is my dog and the second thing is my bunny. So this sad story about the lost dog and this man's journey to risk his life to find his dog really hit home. I would have done the same thing to rescue my pets. So this one gave me all the FEELS and I did not like that. I want horror, not the FEELS!!
Everything else was 5's and 4's. Some really amazing writers and some really creative stories. I would have loved to have had some of these as full length novels because it was so interesting of ideas and left us with so many questions! I would highly recommend this book to any horror fan. Some really clever zombie, ghosts, curses, and monsters. Nothing extremely scary, but lots of great creepy feelings and shivery shudders.
You know how a lot of times with an anthology book with different authors, you only end up with maybe 3 really good stories, then the rest are ok to bleh? Well, this is probably the best anthology book by multiple authors I have ever read. 19 stories and only two that I didn't like. That's pretty good for me. I am a very lenient rater and reviewer of books, yes, but I am normally a lot harder on anthologies. I don't know why, but when I read a short story that I didn't like, I feel like I've wasted my time and I guess that just pisses me off more then reading a book that might not have been the best but was entertaining. *shrug*
Anyways.... 19 stories. I gave only two stories a 1 rating- The Society of the Monsterhood by Paul Tremblay and The Crack by Nick Cutter. With Paul's book, I honestly just did not get what was going on....? The ending was just WHA-? I THINK I get it....? o.o; I guess.... people confronted the monster..... that was..... themselves.....? And.... They took themselves away....? To make the community.... better?? I don't know... It was very Paul Tremblay. Kinda ambiguous and vague and when it is over you don't really know what you've just read. At least that is how I always seem to feel after reading a story by him. Nick's story, I had 2 problems with. First, the main character was such a FLAMING clownshoe that it kinda ruined the story. Like, I disliked him so much I just didn't even care what was happening to him. And then, the other problem, was that it was the most unoriginal story out of the book. Compare this story to Stephen King's short story The Boogeyman from the book Night Shift. Maybe it's just me, but I felt it was waaaaay too similar. Disappointing.
There was one story I did not read all of. The Maw by Nathan Ballinguid. I skipped it not because it was bad, but because it just made me sad. It was about a guy who was trying to rescue a loved one during an Apocalypse. And it turned out the loved one was his old dog that got lost. OMG. I love animals and my pets and I'm always saying that when the zombie apocalypse happens, the first thing I'm grabbing is my dog and the second thing is my bunny. So this sad story about the lost dog and this man's journey to risk his life to find his dog really hit home. I would have done the same thing to rescue my pets. So this one gave me all the FEELS and I did not like that. I want horror, not the FEELS!!
Everything else was 5's and 4's. Some really amazing writers and some really creative stories. I would have loved to have had some of these as full length novels because it was so interesting of ideas and left us with so many questions! I would highly recommend this book to any horror fan. Some really clever zombie, ghosts, curses, and monsters. Nothing extremely scary, but lots of great creepy feelings and shivery shudders.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2025
What a frustrating anthology. Starting off with a Scott Smith story was so promising because he’s not at all prolific, and everything I’ve ever read from him has been fantastic. But his amazing concept for a story devolves as soon as he uses the very tired trope of “SA is the most heinous thing I can use to make this evil.” Without the very graphic SA, this story would have been 5 stars. But it comes off as so trite and cliché.
If you’re hoping that the anthology picks up after this, it doesn’t for quite some time. Most anthologies end up being a blend of five-star hits and one-star misses, averaging out to three stars. This one had so many duds upfront that it stood no chance of recovering to anything higher than three stars.
What follows is a whole lot of “meh”, with a few shining stars sprinkled in. My favorites were Grit by Jonathan Maberry, The Revelers by Christopher Golden, Graffiti of the Lost and Dying Places by Seanan McGuire, and The Crack by Nick Cutter.
Overall, most of the stories do a great job of embodying the theme of the anthology, where cities are the living evil. It’s a nice twist on the usual rural horror, but most of these stories unfortunately fall flat.
If you’re hoping that the anthology picks up after this, it doesn’t for quite some time. Most anthologies end up being a blend of five-star hits and one-star misses, averaging out to three stars. This one had so many duds upfront that it stood no chance of recovering to anything higher than three stars.
What follows is a whole lot of “meh”, with a few shining stars sprinkled in. My favorites were Grit by Jonathan Maberry, The Revelers by Christopher Golden, Graffiti of the Lost and Dying Places by Seanan McGuire, and The Crack by Nick Cutter.
Overall, most of the stories do a great job of embodying the theme of the anthology, where cities are the living evil. It’s a nice twist on the usual rural horror, but most of these stories unfortunately fall flat.
June 19, 2019
Most of the stories in this collection were pretty good, some were absolutely exceptional, but I downgraded my rating because of the first story. 4.5 without it.
There are a lot of comments about how horrible the opening story is, and if that makes you want to read it even more, let me spare you the trouble with a brief synopsis. Not only is it unnecessarily graphic, there's a chasm of a plot hole. Spoilers below:
Dogs are blackmailing humans into feeding them murder victims, but said dogs lose all power when they leave the apartment. They turn into normal dogs when they're outside. Oh, and when it's convenient to the plot they can control other dogs. But again, only from the apartment. So, the problem could be solved with a smoke bomb and a trip to an animal shelter. But no. Instead the reader has to suffer through an assault that does nothing but prove why so many people hold the opinion men shouldn't write rape scenes, and subsequent repetitive mention of dog semen. Trust me. Skip the first story in this anthology like it's the vomit you have to step over to get into the club.
There are a lot of comments about how horrible the opening story is, and if that makes you want to read it even more, let me spare you the trouble with a brief synopsis. Not only is it unnecessarily graphic, there's a chasm of a plot hole. Spoilers below:
Dogs are blackmailing humans into feeding them murder victims, but said dogs lose all power when they leave the apartment. They turn into normal dogs when they're outside. Oh, and when it's convenient to the plot they can control other dogs. But again, only from the apartment. So, the problem could be solved with a smoke bomb and a trip to an animal shelter. But no. Instead the reader has to suffer through an assault that does nothing but prove why so many people hold the opinion men shouldn't write rape scenes, and subsequent repetitive mention of dog semen. Trust me. Skip the first story in this anthology like it's the vomit you have to step over to get into the club.
October 3, 2018
So... let's just talk about the book without talking about "The Dogs" because... yeah. MAJOR sexual assault trigger warning for that entire story.
Other that that, I found some of the stories totally awesome (not sure on the names but - Dark Run Hill by Joe and Kasey Landsdale, the one by Ashley Benson I think?, and Grit by Jonathan Maberry or if I have the story titles wrong, the guy who tried to quit smoking, the man who got tattoos of people with their blood in it, and the girl who haunts her cousins) and found others completely mediocre and lackluster.
As a whole, I wouldn't describe this as a "horror" or "terror" anthology. More of thriller if anything. The first and last stories are the only ones that lived up to horror/terror. I generally liked a good chunk of it.
Other that that, I found some of the stories totally awesome (not sure on the names but - Dark Run Hill by Joe and Kasey Landsdale, the one by Ashley Benson I think?, and Grit by Jonathan Maberry or if I have the story titles wrong, the guy who tried to quit smoking, the man who got tattoos of people with their blood in it, and the girl who haunts her cousins) and found others completely mediocre and lackluster.
As a whole, I wouldn't describe this as a "horror" or "terror" anthology. More of thriller if anything. The first and last stories are the only ones that lived up to horror/terror. I generally liked a good chunk of it.
February 14, 2020
I have just finished the sample from Amazon and it’s already enough for me to throw this book away and never look at it again. Sure there might be some good ones in there but the first one? I would not hesitate to call the first one awful and disturbing. I love dogs with all my hearts and I can’t stand when someone wrote a story about a dog raping a human. That’s very difficult for me to understand and absolutely disturbing. That entire short story has really ruined my day. I would not recommend reading this book.
February 24, 2021
tw: rape, bestiality
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Glad to see I'm not the only one who almost put the book aside after the first story with its sudden graphic rape scene with a dog. Wtf? That was just lazy and seemed to be put in for some sort of gross out, shock value moment. It made me wary of all the other stories. A lot of which didn't really have much to do with cities?
Some were good though and I really enjoyed Seanan McGuire's story.
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Glad to see I'm not the only one who almost put the book aside after the first story with its sudden graphic rape scene with a dog. Wtf? That was just lazy and seemed to be put in for some sort of gross out, shock value moment. It made me wary of all the other stories. A lot of which didn't really have much to do with cities?
Some were good though and I really enjoyed Seanan McGuire's story.
September 22, 2017
I was going to give this 3.5 or 4 stars because there are a few stories that don't bring the horror. But those last 2 or 3? The last story! I don't have kids, but the last story left me messed up! The one before that is by an author I really like the work of. There are some real freaky stories in this collection! Great for your favorite horror lover.
September 10, 2018
Some real standouts here, including Grit by Jonathan Maberry, Sanctuary by Kealan Patrick Burke, and (my personal favorite) The Maw by Nathan Ballingrud. The authors I picked this up for were weaker in my opinion (Scott Smith, Scott Sigler, Christopher Golden.) We’ll Always Have Paris by MR Carey also stuck the landing with its blend of old and new.
November 26, 2018
Only one story really worth reading
The last story in this book was the only one I found worthwhile. A few others were okay but for the most part I was just ready for it to be over. Very disappointed that I wasted my kindle credits on this.
The last story in this book was the only one I found worthwhile. A few others were okay but for the most part I was just ready for it to be over. Very disappointed that I wasted my kindle credits on this.
March 1, 2019
I would strongly recommend skipping the first story in this collection. There was a very unpalatable, or maybe more accurately, horrific rape scene that almost made me not move on to the other stories.
October 27, 2024
Overall there were a handful of stand-outs here, but also a lot of stories that were only ok and a handful that I thought were just badly written and boring. The central conceit is an interesting one but I didn't think people were that good about following it - it's more like this is just a bunch of stories that happen to take place in cities, rather than the city really feeling distinct or important to the city. With a stronger tie between the stories, I think I would have liked the collection more.
The Dogs by Scott Smith - a woman has to kill people to keep her dogs fed. Interesting concept but I felt like it toed the line on voyeuristic, it's obviously while reading that it was written by a man. 3/5
In Stone by Tim Lebbon - a city is consuming people and they sucked into stone and trapped there. Kind of boring, 3/5
The Way She Is With Strangers by Helen Marshall - Mercy sees the ghosts of lost people in a city, and after her daughter vanishes she sees her ghost too. Interesting idea and I liked the writing style which gave it fairy-tale-esque vibes. 4/5
We'll Always Have Paris by MR Carey - Paris is consuming people to steal their memories so it can remember the city it used to be, after a zombie apocalypse happened. I liked it but there's kind of too much going on here. 4/5
Good Night, Prison Kings by Cherie Priest - after a woman is murdered by her cousins, her ghost takes revenge. Cliche and predictable, and not that well written. 2/5
Dear Diary by Scott Sigler - a guy gets eaten by his apartment after chasing off all his friends. Nice aspects of horror here, well done lead up and well written. 5/5
What I've Always Done by Amber Benson - an immortal guy who's a "fixer" murders his ex for knowing too much or whatever. Cliche and not that interesting. 2/5
Grit by Jonathan Maberry - a bounty hunter kills a dealer selling bad coke, guided by the ghost of a junkie he killed. An excellent example of what this collection was supposed to be. Good balance of horror, supernatural, and noir elements, great central voice, and the city background is an important part of the story. 5/5
Dark Hill Run by Kasey Lansdale & Joe R Lansdale - a guy is haunted by the ghost of a high school bully he accidentally killed and then repressed. The premise is a bit silly but the conclusion is narratively satisfying. 4/5
Happy Forever by Simon R Green - a thief breaks into a house where time is stopped for an endless party. There's not too much to this one but I thought it was well done. 4/5
The Society of the Monsterhood by Paul Tremblay - people who are bullying private school kids get eaten by a monster, except it turns out they don't get eaten after all. Whatever this was supposed to be a metaphor for, I didn't get it. 2/5
The Maw by Nathan Ballingrud - a guy goes to save his dog from a city that's gone Lovecratian. Some great imagery here and the two characters are well drawn. 5/5
Field Trip by Tananarive Due - a substitue teacher is trying to keep track of her class on a subway. This is maybe trying to say too much but the sense of panic and disorientation is well done. 4/5
The Revelers by Christopher Golden - a couple just barely escapes being trapped inside an endless party, while another couple doesn't make it out. Lots of stories kind of like this but I thought this was the best of the bunch, 4/5.
The Stillness by Ramsey Campbell - a guy gets turned into stone by an evil statue or something, this story didn't totally make sense. 3/5
Sanctuary by Kealan Patrick Burke - a kid is haunted by an evil church except it turns out to be his imagination. Good imagery but I don't like an "and then he woke up and it was all a dream" ending. 2/5
Matter of Life and Death by Sherrilyn Kenyon - a mean book editor is haunted by her mean client. This was just not that well written. 2/5
Graffiti of the Lost and Dying Places by Seanan McGuire - a girl is eaten by gentrification, basically. Well written but strays into being too didactic. 3/5
The Crack by Nick Cutter - a guy who's honestly a terrible dad and husband lets his son get eaten by a demon or something. Extremely good example of a hateable main character, 4/5.
The Dogs by Scott Smith - a woman has to kill people to keep her dogs fed. Interesting concept but I felt like it toed the line on voyeuristic, it's obviously while reading that it was written by a man. 3/5
In Stone by Tim Lebbon - a city is consuming people and they sucked into stone and trapped there. Kind of boring, 3/5
The Way She Is With Strangers by Helen Marshall - Mercy sees the ghosts of lost people in a city, and after her daughter vanishes she sees her ghost too. Interesting idea and I liked the writing style which gave it fairy-tale-esque vibes. 4/5
We'll Always Have Paris by MR Carey - Paris is consuming people to steal their memories so it can remember the city it used to be, after a zombie apocalypse happened. I liked it but there's kind of too much going on here. 4/5
Good Night, Prison Kings by Cherie Priest - after a woman is murdered by her cousins, her ghost takes revenge. Cliche and predictable, and not that well written. 2/5
Dear Diary by Scott Sigler - a guy gets eaten by his apartment after chasing off all his friends. Nice aspects of horror here, well done lead up and well written. 5/5
What I've Always Done by Amber Benson - an immortal guy who's a "fixer" murders his ex for knowing too much or whatever. Cliche and not that interesting. 2/5
Grit by Jonathan Maberry - a bounty hunter kills a dealer selling bad coke, guided by the ghost of a junkie he killed. An excellent example of what this collection was supposed to be. Good balance of horror, supernatural, and noir elements, great central voice, and the city background is an important part of the story. 5/5
Dark Hill Run by Kasey Lansdale & Joe R Lansdale - a guy is haunted by the ghost of a high school bully he accidentally killed and then repressed. The premise is a bit silly but the conclusion is narratively satisfying. 4/5
Happy Forever by Simon R Green - a thief breaks into a house where time is stopped for an endless party. There's not too much to this one but I thought it was well done. 4/5
The Society of the Monsterhood by Paul Tremblay - people who are bullying private school kids get eaten by a monster, except it turns out they don't get eaten after all. Whatever this was supposed to be a metaphor for, I didn't get it. 2/5
The Maw by Nathan Ballingrud - a guy goes to save his dog from a city that's gone Lovecratian. Some great imagery here and the two characters are well drawn. 5/5
Field Trip by Tananarive Due - a substitue teacher is trying to keep track of her class on a subway. This is maybe trying to say too much but the sense of panic and disorientation is well done. 4/5
The Revelers by Christopher Golden - a couple just barely escapes being trapped inside an endless party, while another couple doesn't make it out. Lots of stories kind of like this but I thought this was the best of the bunch, 4/5.
The Stillness by Ramsey Campbell - a guy gets turned into stone by an evil statue or something, this story didn't totally make sense. 3/5
Sanctuary by Kealan Patrick Burke - a kid is haunted by an evil church except it turns out to be his imagination. Good imagery but I don't like an "and then he woke up and it was all a dream" ending. 2/5
Matter of Life and Death by Sherrilyn Kenyon - a mean book editor is haunted by her mean client. This was just not that well written. 2/5
Graffiti of the Lost and Dying Places by Seanan McGuire - a girl is eaten by gentrification, basically. Well written but strays into being too didactic. 3/5
The Crack by Nick Cutter - a guy who's honestly a terrible dad and husband lets his son get eaten by a demon or something. Extremely good example of a hateable main character, 4/5.
January 31, 2022
The concept of what a city is, and what it means, is re-intepreted by each individual writer so this takes the shape of a grief stricken man , looking for sense in the senseless in 'In Stone', or a modern day fable in the case of Mercy, looking for her lost child , Comfort in 'The Way She is With Strangers'.
How each story will affect you will, I think, depend on what you understand the word 'city' to mean-there is so much to explore here in the respect of missed opportunities at success-see The Dogs which I was kind of on board with till a shocking act of sexual violence pulled me straight out of the story. As the book opener, this, in my humble non-editorial opinion will either have people continue to read, or else stopping right there.
I always enjoy a MR Carey story, and here we get a Parisian riff on a time loop zombie mystery in We'll Always Have Paris, elegant and disturbing in equal measures.
Grit is a nice over easy , cafe breakfast of a story featuring Jonathan Maberry's Monk Addison, star of the novel Ink. I've not read it yet but as it is set in the town of Pine Deep, which is where his eponymous trilogy is set , then I think that will be jumping up my to-read list based on what Grit delivered.
One of the joys of an anthology is picking up what short stories are like by writers who you are more familiar with at novel length, such as Nick Cutter's The Crack, about a sleep deprived dad and his battle of wills with a screaming toddler. As a mother whose third daughter came as the complete antithesis of the previous two, and did not sleep through the night till she was 5, this gave me serious flashbacks . It is rare that the extreme lengths of how degraded, angry, frustrated and sad you feel as a parent are summed up so succinctly. It reminds me of King's 'The Boogeyman'.
Goodnight Prison Kings, takes a look at the cityscape and how it changes when you are no longer living and travel down a different route. Cherie Priest does a bang up job of examining the travails of the recently deceased.
The other stories are all good, I did enjoy them, I think I wished I had picked them out vicariously and not read from start to finish as that first story left such an awful taste in my mouth I had no idea down what road the rest of the book would take me.
It was hard to wash out, but I am glad to have stuck with it as the rest of the collection was packed with delights and oddities alike.
The creation that they constructed was uneven, probably would not pass a safety inspection and is most likely built on a cemetery, but, as anthologies go, I expected what I got from the writers I knew.
And when you are familiar with the works of Tananarive Due and Paul Tremblay, for example, that is not a bad thing.
How each story will affect you will, I think, depend on what you understand the word 'city' to mean-there is so much to explore here in the respect of missed opportunities at success-see The Dogs which I was kind of on board with till a shocking act of sexual violence pulled me straight out of the story. As the book opener, this, in my humble non-editorial opinion will either have people continue to read, or else stopping right there.
I always enjoy a MR Carey story, and here we get a Parisian riff on a time loop zombie mystery in We'll Always Have Paris, elegant and disturbing in equal measures.
Grit is a nice over easy , cafe breakfast of a story featuring Jonathan Maberry's Monk Addison, star of the novel Ink. I've not read it yet but as it is set in the town of Pine Deep, which is where his eponymous trilogy is set , then I think that will be jumping up my to-read list based on what Grit delivered.
One of the joys of an anthology is picking up what short stories are like by writers who you are more familiar with at novel length, such as Nick Cutter's The Crack, about a sleep deprived dad and his battle of wills with a screaming toddler. As a mother whose third daughter came as the complete antithesis of the previous two, and did not sleep through the night till she was 5, this gave me serious flashbacks . It is rare that the extreme lengths of how degraded, angry, frustrated and sad you feel as a parent are summed up so succinctly. It reminds me of King's 'The Boogeyman'.
Goodnight Prison Kings, takes a look at the cityscape and how it changes when you are no longer living and travel down a different route. Cherie Priest does a bang up job of examining the travails of the recently deceased.
The other stories are all good, I did enjoy them, I think I wished I had picked them out vicariously and not read from start to finish as that first story left such an awful taste in my mouth I had no idea down what road the rest of the book would take me.
It was hard to wash out, but I am glad to have stuck with it as the rest of the collection was packed with delights and oddities alike.
The creation that they constructed was uneven, probably would not pass a safety inspection and is most likely built on a cemetery, but, as anthologies go, I expected what I got from the writers I knew.
And when you are familiar with the works of Tananarive Due and Paul Tremblay, for example, that is not a bad thing.
June 12, 2018
Little horror but plenty of telegraphed endings. Quite pedestrian efforts in several cases.
Still, I enjoy short stories and most anthologies have a few good ones at least so I persevered past the half-way mark. Then it wa due back and I gave up becasue I couldn't be bothered logging on to renew it. It just wasn't interesting enough.
So, I haven't read past The Society of the Monsterhood, which I actually liked quite a lot; it was a one star rating up until that point - I give that story on it's own a four star rating. Unexpected and excellent ending to a very good story.
The other stories I liked were Dear Diary, Grit and Happy Forever.
So, I really liked a few, a few were okay and a few were just very ordinary. Probably typical for a themed anthology. I suspect most readers will find a few stories they like, hey just won't always be the ones I liked.
The Dogs seemed to turn a few people off, and I guess I can see why. The bestial rape scene was quite off-putting for a few readers. Whilst it didn't worry me like that, it was entirely gratuitous and if it's intention was to add to the feeling of horror, well it just didn't work. It added nothing to the story, which is a shame because I felt it really needed something extra. I saw the end coming almost from the start, which is a killer for me.
But, if you are looking for a collection of stories where every story grabs you, get something be Ellison or one of the other greats.
Still, I enjoy short stories and most anthologies have a few good ones at least so I persevered past the half-way mark. Then it wa due back and I gave up becasue I couldn't be bothered logging on to renew it. It just wasn't interesting enough.
So, I haven't read past The Society of the Monsterhood, which I actually liked quite a lot; it was a one star rating up until that point - I give that story on it's own a four star rating. Unexpected and excellent ending to a very good story.
The other stories I liked were Dear Diary, Grit and Happy Forever.
So, I really liked a few, a few were okay and a few were just very ordinary. Probably typical for a themed anthology. I suspect most readers will find a few stories they like, hey just won't always be the ones I liked.
The Dogs seemed to turn a few people off, and I guess I can see why. The bestial rape scene was quite off-putting for a few readers. Whilst it didn't worry me like that, it was entirely gratuitous and if it's intention was to add to the feeling of horror, well it just didn't work. It added nothing to the story, which is a shame because I felt it really needed something extra. I saw the end coming almost from the start, which is a killer for me.
But, if you are looking for a collection of stories where every story grabs you, get something be Ellison or one of the other greats.
July 9, 2021
My life is worse for having read the first story. If gratuitous shock factor is what you're looking for in a horror tale then The Dogs may be the story for you, but to me the shock scene felt cheap in the context of this particular story and, to be honest, pretty poorly written.
The rest of the collection I mostly enjoyed. A couple I think failed to quite hit the 'urban terror' theme head on and were just stories that happened to take place in a city, which was a little disappointing. On the other hand Nick Cutter's The Crack was one of the best in the collection and it definitely fell into this category, so I wasn't too mad at it.
Overall a 3.5 star read. Lots of nice 3 and 4 star stories, a couple I'd give 5, one 2 and unfortunately the first story was a 1 from me. I probably would have given this book a 4 star overall if the first story hadn't been the first story, even if it were still in the collection. It was vastly different from the other stories in terms of the content level so either you hated it and went into the rest of the stories with a sour taste, or you loved it and found the rest of the book disappointing because it was such a shift. I had a strong negative reaction to the story and took a break from the book before continuing, but if I'd already been enjoying the book and hit it in the middle I would have just mowed right through it and kept going, one blip in an otherwise pretty solid collection.
The rest of the collection I mostly enjoyed. A couple I think failed to quite hit the 'urban terror' theme head on and were just stories that happened to take place in a city, which was a little disappointing. On the other hand Nick Cutter's The Crack was one of the best in the collection and it definitely fell into this category, so I wasn't too mad at it.
Overall a 3.5 star read. Lots of nice 3 and 4 star stories, a couple I'd give 5, one 2 and unfortunately the first story was a 1 from me. I probably would have given this book a 4 star overall if the first story hadn't been the first story, even if it were still in the collection. It was vastly different from the other stories in terms of the content level so either you hated it and went into the rest of the stories with a sour taste, or you loved it and found the rest of the book disappointing because it was such a shift. I had a strong negative reaction to the story and took a break from the book before continuing, but if I'd already been enjoying the book and hit it in the middle I would have just mowed right through it and kept going, one blip in an otherwise pretty solid collection.
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