Shadows & Tall Trees 8 edited by Michael Kelly

Publisher - Undertow Publications

Published - Out Now

Price - £5.34 Kindle eBook £20.99 Hardback £12.99 paperback

“a smart, soulful, illuminating investigation of the many forms and tactics available to those writers involved in one of our moment’s most interesting and necessary projects, that of opening up horror literature to every sort of formal interrogation. It is a beautiful and courageous series - Peter Straub

epitomises the idea of, and is the most consistent venue for weird usually dark fiction. Well worth your time - Ellen Datlow”

Horror has many flavours. It can be explosive and in your face but my preference is the subtler kind that starts to puzzle you, then unnerve you and then BLAM you know you’re in trouble. For me horror is the dark alleyway you accidentally walk down and then lose sight of where you’re going or the deserted house everyone creeps to the other side of the road when they pass. Michael Kelly has been gathering a strong reputation for assembling regular collections of authors to produce tales to do exactly this and Volume 8 of Shadows & tall Trees has some truly delicious weird horror to pull you into it’s grip.

In this collection among the tales that grabbed me are

The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson - one of the truly unsettling bits of horror is how a normal person can just by going to the wrong place end up in a truly horrible situation. Sometimes we all get unlucky by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The opening tale of this collection has Hekla simply deciding to go with her sister to a guru’s workshop for a weekend - while not in any way a believer in cosmic attunement she really could do with a break. What follows is a wonderfully eerie tale where Hekla arrives alone due to her sister being ill and arrives at a strange deserted hotel and a disturbing night in room everyone seems to avoid talking about. Its a tale of strange dreams, oppressive atmospheres and a fear you can never escape your destiny. Evenson creates a wonderfully skilled rising feeling of dread.

Too Lonely, Too Wild by Kay Chronister - I loved how this story uses a narrator to create a whole world in rural and what sounds like early to mid twentieth century america a young woman has found herself suddenly married to a man; a town where many wives get stuck into relationships but our narrator is haunted by another woman in the same house. I liked how the threat of this story changes as we get more understanding of the world and the magic being used for different purposes- it manages to be oppressive and also hopeful that some nightmares could be escaped if you can find a way.

Tattletale by Carly Holmes - a weird lyrical and almost poetical tale about a young girl that no one should have been bullying as her secrets are about to be revealed. Weird and deliciously pointed.

The Somnabulists by Simon Strantzas - this story feels initially just surreal as a hotel inspector arrives at the new opportunity of a Hotel actually made of the dreams of others. But within the story is the tale of the dreamers who made it and their sad decision to hide from the waking world in order to build it. It powerfully uses dream logic and repetition to weave layers of truths that the reader has to unpeel. Its final stages are both tragic and haunting.

The Sound of the Sea, Too Close by James Everington - Its strange how climate change isn’t something I immediately associate with horror considering how big a threat to our world it now is. This a very strange tale set on an abandoned school on the coast which is being eaten away by the rising tides as the earth burns in the sun. A janitor opens up as he hears kids playing. It impressively gives us a history of the fall of humanity; a sympathetic character who does evil things and some pointed tales about those of us who love to play as adults but can’t focus on the important things. One of my favourites in the collection.

Hungry Ghosts by Alison Littlewood - A story set in another culture’s myth must be written carefully and I was so pleased this was the case. A woman visits a friend in Hanoi at the time of the Hungry Ghosts festival and finds her friend has a strange new boyfriend. Littlewood takes the feeling of being in a world where you don#t understand the rules and educates her and the reader. It feels dangerous but at the same time raises the issue of when you know your friend’s partner probably isn’t the person everyone says they are. Really well constructed and I love the feeling of the ghost world being so close to our own. Littlewood creates an eerie atmosphere of shadows, noise and even smells.

A Coastal Quest by Charles Wilkinson - this a truly dark mystery of a tale. Samantha flees her family and arrives at an island to hide from it all. But she meets people who vanish; sees those with horrible injuries walking around and she knows he needs to find a single place. Evereything in this tale feels off and you slowly realise that its a world where everyone feels trapped.

Workday by Kurt Fawver - This tales uses corporate messages of enforced fun at the company party while mixed with historical asides that suggest an ancient ritual that requires regular sacrifices. While not subtle in what is going on it has a strong message that capitalism uses people for profit and really doesn’t care about e the consequences.

Green Grows the Grief by Steve Toase - another tale I really enjoyed tells how Sophie scatters her father’s ashes in his favourite greenhouse. But what should be a happy act of remembrance poisons all the garden. Its a hard tale to get through but it’s about letting go and moving on through grief. I loved the vivid sense of a world gone wrong after someone you love has died.

Down to the Roots by Neil Williamson - this was another of my favourites in the collection. Dan escaped his small town to make it big and in the financial world he has enjoyed doing what he likes regardless of the consequences. But now that all feels to have been lost and he finds himself back in his strange Scottish village catching up with a friend he has not spoken to in years. I loved the way Dan’s character was built up and we see a town full of odd rituals and secrets. It’s a wonderfully unsettling folk horror tale where you start to realise Dan’s ego really has put him in huge danger and a reminder about how going back home can sometimes be very a very weird and painful experience.

I really loved the variety of tales in this story. None were quite what I expected from tragic to almost comedic. I loved how the horror was used to explore our modern fears from the workplace to the end of the world. This is a fine collection for fans of horror to read and feel that growing suspicion that nothing in the world is quite what it seems and it’s isn’t a safe place to get lost in.