Reviews tagging 'Death'

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

64 reviews

acepiary's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Hate crime, Death, Sexual violence, Blood, Animal death, Colonisation, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Suicide, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racial slurs, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, and Body horror

eaprilfish's review against another edition

Not quite what I expected from the marketing descriptions. All the stories I read were well written and engaging, but I think I was in the mood for more dark supernatural or magical realism stories. There was a significant amount of SA, and violence against children in the first few stories I didn't expect and had a hard time with. I wanted to push through and finish all the stories, but each one felt like a big trigger-gamble for me. This definitely isn't a knock on any of the authors! I might come back to this,  but right now I was ultimately not in the mood for the intensity of the violence in some of these stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, Physical abuse, Body horror, Abortion, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Gore

trishsmelody's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Rape

Minor: Death

gnomeguy1138's review against another edition

dark tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Blood, Death, Violence, Child abuse, Hate crime, Torture, Death of parent, and Body horror

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Minor: War, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Genocide, Death, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

theotherallie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal death, Mental illness, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Torture

Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Rape

justagir1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Sexual content, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Violence, Body horror, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

rorikae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 ‘Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology’ edited by Shake Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr is a great anthology collecting horror short stories from a variety of Indigenous writers. The stories span the more fantastical to the horrors of everyday lived existence. Between exploring folklore horrors and the horrors of humanity, this anthology does a great job of showcasing not only a variety of writing talent but also a variety of what Indigenous writers find horrific. A few personal favorite stories from this collection include: 

-          White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse, which touches on the violence of white supremacy and the idea of ‘pure’ blood 

-          Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth by Conley Lyons, which discusses feeling entitled to a person and seeing them as a commodity 

-          Quantum by Nick Media, which touches on the idea of blood quantum and the impacts of nurturing (or lack there of) on a child 

-          Scariest Story Every by Richard VanCamp, which discusses the importance of story and who gets to tell a story 

-          Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, which delves into academia and how academia collects diverse students to tokenize and use them 

I enjoyed so many of these stories and this is just a selection of some of my favorites. This anthology has definitely added more authors to my TBR list and I’m excited to explore some of their other works. I highly recommend this anthology if you are interested in horror short stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Grief, Violence, Body horror, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, and Colonisation

thegayestghost's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Gore, Miscarriage, Murder, Torture, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

klb77's review against another edition

Started as good spooky stories and social commentary that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed but then pretty immediately devolved into descriptions of rape, sexual coercion, a nonconsensual forced abortion, child abuse, child abandonment, and child torture. Be aware that there are also graphic needle and syringe scenes which affected me very physically. Those are not spooky stories and absolutely not what I signed up for. 



The fact that content like that is presented without content warnings at any point? or a general note at the beginning? They’re topics I can handle in small bites but not as surprises and not constantly and ideally not without justice. Maybe they get lighter or change but I’m not interested in finding out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcoholism, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Ableism, Sexual violence, Torture, Child death, Child abuse, Classism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

This was a really interesting collection of Indigenous short stories. As with any anthology, it’s hard to rate because you personally like some more than others. I have a hard time with anything that’s super graphic/gory and has body horror, so any of the stories with those elements weren’t that good for me, and there were a number of them like that. However if that’s your thing in horror you might like those stories more. I particularly enjoyed the ones that were either ghost stories (especially Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power) and thrillers (“Collections” and “Navajo Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” really stood out to me). There were a few like “Heart Shaped Clock” and “Sundays” that I thought were really emotional or powerful but I don’t necessarily know what genre to put them in, as they didn’t fit any of the categories I listed above. Even though many of the stories weren’t for me, I really liked seeing different elements of Indigenous cultures and history and it’s worth a read just for that alone, even if you don’t like traditional horror that much. There’s a really broad range of stories here and I definitely found some new authors to explore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Chronic illness, Classism, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Rape, Violence, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, and Cannibalism