Publisher - https://remains.uk

Price - £8.99 print

Another new magazine for the Short Fiction shelves this week in the form of new quarterly horror magazine Remains brought to you via editor Andy Cox of Black Static fame and Richard Wagner as artist who also worked with Cox on Interzone.

This was an impressive collection of horror and weird fiction which definitely made me order Issue 2. The art throughout is eye catching and suits the vibe of each story

Within this were six really interesting tales

The Heart of Creation by Rich Larson - this tale is all about the narrator voice which exposes that there are things lines between arrogance, great talent and madness. A master sculpture has decided he must create his ultimate masterpiece which is naturally a bronze of himself. It’s a tale of hubris and his ‘logical’ conclusion is actually incredibly startling.

Deceptive Appearances by Anna Tambour - Off to Australia for a weaving unsettling tale of a woman and her therapist who is fascinated by her apparently live night terrors. As well as the mystery of what is going on there is a blurring of lines in the relationship between the two characters. Is this a game, supernatural or something else - we are kept guessing all the way to the final page. Really intricate as we have a character we both like and feel unsure of we should believe them.

Her Little Ray of Sunshine by Neil Williamson - one of my favourite stories as it plays with expectations. Ina. Seedy Scottish bar a man approaches ‘The Sunshine Man’ and tells him he’s a vampire. It’s not that kind of story though this plays with guilt, secrets, the chance of being healed and being exploited. It takes us to the depths of someone’s miserable life and offers a moment of joy and then subverts this again with an inventive final scene. Very powerful.

Inclusions by Giselle Leeb - ever found something strange left in an old book. Wondered where they come from? This story starts with three people after a writer’s course playing around at the end of the course. Things quickly go south and it’s the unexpected event, the ones you can’t comprehend or escape that brings the sense of horror as these people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wonderfully dark horror.

Cockatrice by Stephen Bacon - the longest story in the magazine is a tale that starts in the past with a young shy child whose family life is falling apart and an old pensioner has become his only friend. A mysterious new lodger though is adding more fear to the apartment block they live in, it’s an interesting story the first section we as adults see the problems the kid is only just starting to glimpse and then we see his old friend’s life is also not what he believed. A bigger reveal awaits with the stranger but I did think this may have been overly hinted at my some reading choices that came up. A really interesting take nonetheless.

A Heartwarming Tale of A Girl and Her Monkey by Jolie Toomajan - Karyan works in a lab and is fascinated by their test subject monkey that she calls Maximus. While everyone in the office is being nice to one another she fears for her life. It’s a really neat idea for an experiment to go wrong and the extent of that is quite powerful: it’s a very big story starting in just a few pages and that is impressive storytelling.

Nothing Special by James Cooper - a bleak tale told on the set of a horror movie. One of the veterans is starting to be plagued by all the actual secrets he is aware of and his role in them. Some things are far scarier and more disturbing than the movies and there is a feeling of corruption in this story that sucks everyone eventually into it.

A really impressive start to the magazine and I definitely will be picking up another copy.