My Goodreads review: Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk!

[ankh_hpl]

Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk! by Lois H. Gresh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


(Full disclosure: I have a story in this anthology. I won't be discussing it here.)

In her intro, editor Lois H. Gresh describes this anthology as “a smorgasbord for readers of dark fiction.” I found this to be completely accurate. Aside from vampires, lycanthropes, zombie apocalypses, and full-on Lovecraftian pastiche, about anything was fair game. There seemed to be some preference for quieter horror, however – no extreme spatter – and none were purely psychological.

Such an approach, of course, means that any one reader is unlikely to appreciate all eighteen tales. Though all seemed well-crafted, there were a couple I simply didn’t “get.” My personal favorites include Nicholas Kaufmann’s “The Rest is Noise” (cosmic horror), Cody Goodfellow’s “The Flea Circus” (SF bizarre), James Alan Gardner’s “Thirst” (classic Weird Tales type) , Yvonne Navarro’s ”Faceless” (pure creep-out), and Robert M. Price’s “Medieval Metaphysics” (Miskatonic minus the Mythos).

Dark fiction readers weary of themed anthologies should definitely investigate this one.




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