Thank you Hellbound Books for giving me the opportunity to read this collection of short horror stories curated by Samantha Hawkins!
This book was such a fun read with so many gems! It definitely scratches the creature feature itch and is delightfully diverse, containing stories that range from heartfelt to action-packed to plain but pleasantly gross.
Here are some of my favorite stories from this collection:
White Mantis by Rose Strickman
You know how female praying mantises will bite off the heads of the males while they are mating? Yeah…
The Seraph in the Crawlspace by Julien Jayus
This one blew me away! Julien Jayus is definitely an author to look out for. “The Seraph in the Crawlspace” follows two young siblings as they discover an angel hiding in the crawlspace under their house. Not only is this a well-written story, but it is also packed full of heart, which is not an easy thing to achieve in a short story. I found myself wishing this was a full length novel– I would definitely read that as well. And I will be anticipating future works by Jayus!
The Goldfish by Tim Newton Anderson
A fun and strangely wholesome tale that gave me old school Goosebumps vibes. This tells the story of a young bullied boy and the mysterious instances of violence which ensue after he wins a peculiar goldfish at the fair.
The Whimpering by Seaton Kay-Smith
Think I Know What You Did Last Summer, but make it a creature feature.
Fingers by R.D. Tyler
This one actually made me nauseous. “Fingers” follows our narrator who has grown accustomed to his dog’s habit of licking his fingers every night as he drifts off to sleep. He is so accustomed to it that he doesn’t notice when his fingers start to go numb one night…
Thank you again to Hellbound Books for providing me a copy! You can get the anthology here, or anywhere you get your books, and support indie authors and indie publishers!
FEMHORROR 
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