Publisher - Undertow Publications

Price - $16 via https://undertowpublications.com/shop/weird-horror-9

Hellooo!

On the cusp of the spooky season arriving for this trip to the short shelves it is a trip to the horror shelf and this time with a an appropriately weirder twist. Reality and logic are not always here going to help and that may make it a little frightening.

it’s a large magazine with over 130 ages of content.

On Horror by Simon Strantzas looks at Clive Barker and intriguingly argues their work is less pure horror but uses the framework of it for their own type of stories.

In Grey’s Grotesqueries by Orrin Grey we get a look at artist and horror fan Richard Sala’s career with a personal touch.

Fiction then begins with

Black Water by Sean Padraic Birnie- an increasingly disturbing encounter here as a man lost in a strange city meets an enigmatic stranger. Time, space and even the human body then go through the winger and it’s less our main character’s horror but more his strange acceptance of his situation that powerfully disturbs. Loneliness can make you seek happiness to extremes.

New In Town by Corey Farrenkopf - this is a trio of linked experiences where the characters are new in town and all want to be accepted. One is told they must visit and enter a particular crypt, another finds disturbing crypts by the dweller of a tent by their house and the final occupant finds a strange note that leads them all on disturbing journeys. Everything gets stranger and more dangerous and yet the stories highlight our drive to be accepted by a community can sometimes make us put ourselves in dangerous places.

It Knows What’s Under Your Skin by James Fernandes - a take that’s starts with our narrator watching a young couple decide to enter a form of spooky haunted house event. It’s sinister as the event organisers know everything about this couple so we wonder what the agenda is but there is a sharp left turn I really enjoyed experiencing - identity is a fascinating thing to play with. The lack of answers helps the story work.

Fragments (From A Film) by Avra Margariti - this is a disturbing tale of people watching a film where someone puts themesves through immense body horror. A story exploring how we seek pain in media for our own ends and the horror here is what this can inspire people to do. Sinisterly and powerfully uncomfortable.

All The Devils Are Here by Mike O’Driscoll - a struggling actor trying to learn a method to make their ambitions come to awaits his friend at a bar. This story really puts identity and reality through the wringer. Characters change names and looks, time and objects change and it’s as strange to us as it is to our witless main character. Eventually we realise a trap has been pulled and hints at what the bigger agenda was all along. I really liked this experience of a tale.

Fliers by Gordon Brown - this story takes the horror of someone playing a horrible prank on you and magnifies it into something terrifying. A strange black leaflet is sent again and again with strange and haunting messages. Things escalate from there and again the black of answers but sense something malignant is at work is brilliantly delivered.

Rippling Salt, Like Rolling Waves by Jorja Osha - this appears a police procedural where we find people are disappearing and our main character seeks her missing sister. I’ll leave at that as this tale is visceral body horror and has some unexpected reveals in store.

Our Best Selves by Hiron Ennes - a very eerie tale where family move into a house made of stone including the furniture. That is not the strangest thing to happen in this story. The family appear to be hiding from something, the seemingly idyllic life they seek is not one we would and everyone in the family changes during the course of their stay. Was this inherent in them already or is it their new home at work. Threats weave and yet are all strangely accepted. The family’s acceptance of it all is what makes this uncomfortable as we see how much has changed over the story. Haunting!

To The Wolves by Sasha Brown - a son brings his mother to stay at a new nursing home. This very smart tale explores the guilt of the parental relationship and who sacrifices what and also how the young can see bringing old as a burden and something to fear. Prices have to be paid but not as we expect.

Finally in The Macabre Reader we have Lynette Stevenson look at a variety of and old new weird fiction collections

All in all if you’re looking for a haunting and strange trio this autumn it’s definitely recommended!