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wpsmith17's review
4.0
3.5 stars to this solid collection. The best stories of the bunch dealt with grief and loss in ways that were truly captivating. Standouts include "The Pipe," "Angel Wings," "The Dogshit Gauntlet," "Every Lucky Penny is Another Drop of Blood," and "Refuge."
howlinglibraries's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes, as reviewers, there are books that are hard to review for one reason or another, and to me, the worst of those occasions comes when there's a book that I felt so confident I would love (in this case, due to my pre-formed love for quite a few of these creators), only to find that the end result was nothing like my expectations. Sadly, In Darkness, Delight is one of those occasions.
I'm not sure what it was about this anthology and me that seemed unable to mesh, but there were a disappointingly low number of stories in the collection that warranted 4 or more stars from me. I found many of them to be anticlimactic, and there's an overarching theme in many of them that I struggled with: I adore it when a horror creator can merge heartbreak and fear, but when I'm only given the former without the latter, I find myself wondering how that particular piece fit the theme of the collection at large.
There are a lot of talented creators in this lineup who I will continue to support and eagerly await each release from — I'm still obsessed with last year's Doorbells at Dusk collection, which featured many of the same creators — but sadly, In Darkness, Delight just didn't ever quite pan out for me.
Finally, I'd like to quickly give a shout-out to my favorites in the collection: 'In the Ground' by Patrick Lacey, which details a boy's descent into possible madness after the loss of his father; 'The Pipe' by Israel Finn, in which we're treated to a terrifyingly claustrophobic view of a white supremacist's torture methods; and 'The Rules of Leap Year' by Monique Youzwa, which has one of the most interesting and unique premises I've ever seen as a family attempts to murder one of their own on each Leap Year.
Content warnings for violence, murder, body horror, suicide, racial slurs, ableist slurs, murder of a pet, substance abuse, and domestic abuse
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
———
Buddy read with the lovely and amazing Cassie! 💕🌈
I'm not sure what it was about this anthology and me that seemed unable to mesh, but there were a disappointingly low number of stories in the collection that warranted 4 or more stars from me. I found many of them to be anticlimactic, and there's an overarching theme in many of them that I struggled with: I adore it when a horror creator can merge heartbreak and fear, but when I'm only given the former without the latter, I find myself wondering how that particular piece fit the theme of the collection at large.
There are a lot of talented creators in this lineup who I will continue to support and eagerly await each release from — I'm still obsessed with last year's Doorbells at Dusk collection, which featured many of the same creators — but sadly, In Darkness, Delight just didn't ever quite pan out for me.
Finally, I'd like to quickly give a shout-out to my favorites in the collection: 'In the Ground' by Patrick Lacey, which details a boy's descent into possible madness after the loss of his father; 'The Pipe' by Israel Finn, in which we're treated to a terrifyingly claustrophobic view of a white supremacist's torture methods; and 'The Rules of Leap Year' by Monique Youzwa, which has one of the most interesting and unique premises I've ever seen as a family attempts to murder one of their own on each Leap Year.
Content warnings for violence, murder, body horror, suicide, racial slurs, ableist slurs, murder of a pet, substance abuse, and domestic abuse
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
———
Buddy read with the lovely and amazing Cassie! 💕🌈
spookyoctopusreads's review
5.0
Well...wow! I went into this short story collection not really knowing what to expect, because I had not previously heard of the contributing authors. However, I was enthralled and sucked into almost every story. Each story was its own unique stand-alone work of art, and I was more and more "delighted" with each turn of the page.
My favorite stories:
THE PIPE: This story gave me chills. It's the story of one father's punishment to the man responsible for taking his daughter away from him. I was squirming in my skin as I read this one!
VIOLET: Such a short story that packed a HUGE punch....if you're an animal lover, this one will certainly hit you in the feels.
LETTERS: A story of what loss and grief can do to someone...I totally "felt" Miles's pain over losing his wife in such a tragic way and his unique way of trying to make peace with her absence.
ONE MILLION HITS: I think this had to be my favorite of the entire collection! What starts off as an innocent ploy for a group of high school friends to scare up as much Halloween candy as they can quickly turns into a horrifying quest of social media hits. I could not turn the pages fast enough with this one!
One thing that I loved about this collection is that the stories didn't seem to "try too hard" to be horror. In some collections, I feel that each story tries to outdo the rest and really reaches too much and ends up just being weird and strange, rather than true horror. However, each story in this anthology was haunting and spooky in it's own respect- whether it be the emotional punch that is was packing, the blood curdling language, or the original ideas that make your mind wander into the darkness.
I am certainly going to be looking for more by these authors, and I cannot wait to dive into the second volume in this collection. If it is as hauntingly dark as this one was, I know I am in for a very enjoyable wild ride.
**Thank you to Corpus Press and Erin Mahairi for providing me with this copy to read and review.**
My favorite stories:
THE PIPE: This story gave me chills. It's the story of one father's punishment to the man responsible for taking his daughter away from him. I was squirming in my skin as I read this one!
VIOLET: Such a short story that packed a HUGE punch....if you're an animal lover, this one will certainly hit you in the feels.
LETTERS: A story of what loss and grief can do to someone...I totally "felt" Miles's pain over losing his wife in such a tragic way and his unique way of trying to make peace with her absence.
ONE MILLION HITS: I think this had to be my favorite of the entire collection! What starts off as an innocent ploy for a group of high school friends to scare up as much Halloween candy as they can quickly turns into a horrifying quest of social media hits. I could not turn the pages fast enough with this one!
One thing that I loved about this collection is that the stories didn't seem to "try too hard" to be horror. In some collections, I feel that each story tries to outdo the rest and really reaches too much and ends up just being weird and strange, rather than true horror. However, each story in this anthology was haunting and spooky in it's own respect- whether it be the emotional punch that is was packing, the blood curdling language, or the original ideas that make your mind wander into the darkness.
I am certainly going to be looking for more by these authors, and I cannot wait to dive into the second volume in this collection. If it is as hauntingly dark as this one was, I know I am in for a very enjoyable wild ride.
**Thank you to Corpus Press and Erin Mahairi for providing me with this copy to read and review.**
motherhorror's review
4.0
Review originally appeared in SCREAM Magazine Issue #58
I love short stories! I think it’s so entertaining to grab an anthology and just read straight through the book, comparing and contrasting each author’s contribution to the theme. I have found some of my favorite authors this way--sometimes one story will stand out among the others as particularly worthy of praise and adoration. If the storytelling was exceptionally noteworthy, I have been known to buy some of the author’s short story collections or novels-so it’s my opinion that anthologies and short stories, in general, are important.
In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight there was a great mix of familiar and new-to-me authors. I will admit, I skipped around and read the stories from some of my favorite authors first (Of course I read Josh Malerman’s first. Shhhh-don’t tell. It was weird but I have come to appreciate and love Malerman’s unique brand of weird)
The standouts for me are: The Pipe by Israel Finn- I read a short story collection by Finn earlier this year and instantly fell in love with his imagination and storytelling voice. It was a treat to see his name in this collection and I was not surprised I enjoyed his story.
One Million Hits by Evans Light- I have never read an Evans Light story in an anthology that I didn’t like. This one was about some boys who get up to some Halloween hijinks and things go horribly wrong. Great unexpected twists in this one! Tattooed All In Black by Mark Matthews- Everyone needs to buy a bunch of Mark Matthews’ books. This guy writes some seriously twisted, heart-wrenching horror. I’m here for everything. Some of the new-to-me authors came out swinging! Lisa Lepovetsky, Monique Youzwa and Joanna Koch each had impressive stories with a memorable bite to them. As with any anthology, not every story is going to knock it out of the park and there were a few in this one that left me feeling indifferent or I ultimately skipped them but there were only a couple. Most of these tales are 3 or 5 skull offerings rounding this collection out to be a solid
I love short stories! I think it’s so entertaining to grab an anthology and just read straight through the book, comparing and contrasting each author’s contribution to the theme. I have found some of my favorite authors this way--sometimes one story will stand out among the others as particularly worthy of praise and adoration. If the storytelling was exceptionally noteworthy, I have been known to buy some of the author’s short story collections or novels-so it’s my opinion that anthologies and short stories, in general, are important.
In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight there was a great mix of familiar and new-to-me authors. I will admit, I skipped around and read the stories from some of my favorite authors first (Of course I read Josh Malerman’s first. Shhhh-don’t tell. It was weird but I have come to appreciate and love Malerman’s unique brand of weird)
The standouts for me are: The Pipe by Israel Finn- I read a short story collection by Finn earlier this year and instantly fell in love with his imagination and storytelling voice. It was a treat to see his name in this collection and I was not surprised I enjoyed his story.
One Million Hits by Evans Light- I have never read an Evans Light story in an anthology that I didn’t like. This one was about some boys who get up to some Halloween hijinks and things go horribly wrong. Great unexpected twists in this one! Tattooed All In Black by Mark Matthews- Everyone needs to buy a bunch of Mark Matthews’ books. This guy writes some seriously twisted, heart-wrenching horror. I’m here for everything. Some of the new-to-me authors came out swinging! Lisa Lepovetsky, Monique Youzwa and Joanna Koch each had impressive stories with a memorable bite to them. As with any anthology, not every story is going to knock it out of the park and there were a few in this one that left me feeling indifferent or I ultimately skipped them but there were only a couple. Most of these tales are 3 or 5 skull offerings rounding this collection out to be a solid
charshorrorcorner's review against another edition
4.0
CORPUS PRESS is a publisher that I've grown to love. Everything I've read from them looms large over the competition and IN DARKNESS, DELIGHT is no exception! Featuring authors like Josh Malerman, Patrick Lacey, John McNee and William Meikle, among others, how could this volume be anything but excellent?
I can't cover all the stories here or my review would be as long as the book itself-because almost every tale in this book is good. What I'm going to focus on here are the ones that I found to be truly exceptional:
THE PIPE by Israel Finn: I had no idea where this story was going and when it got there, I felt...stunned ...just...stunned. I love short stories with a punch and this is definitely one of them! (His volume of short stories, DREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS, is now heading towards the top of my "to be read" list.
LETTERS by Michael Bray: Here's another tale it's hard for me to describe without giving anything away. It twists and turns into itself before it twists again. My emotions were so confused I felt absolutely wrung out by the time I finished. LOVED it!
ONE MILLION HITS by Evans Light: A group of teenagers on Halloween night concoct a scam to bring in as much candy as possible, and then they concoct another scam to get a million hits on their site. You already know things will go wrong, but just how wrong was a surprise to me.
VIOLET by Jason Parent: It's always hard to lose someone, and sometimes I think it's even worse when you lose a dear pet. After all, you're with your pets almost every single day of your life. Sometimes, you just don't want to listen to platitudes or the attempts of others to comfort you. Or worse yet, when they try to tell you what to do. I felt this one deep in my heart.
THE DOGSHIT GAUNTLET by John McNee. I chuckled at the title, I admit it. But the actual story was scary and sad, with the two being all wrapped up and twisted around each other. I was so happy for Paul...and then I felt so sorry for him. Read it and you'll see.
TATTOOED ALL IN BLACK by Mark Matthews: You might recognize the title from the Pearl Jam song BLACK. It's an excellent tune and this tale is excellent too. I've yet to read anything from Mark Matthews that I haven't enjoyed. At this point, I doubt I ever will. (P.S. Prepare to have your heart ripped out and then you can "be a sun in someone else's sky.")
REFUGE by William Meikle I came away from this story feeling that it was about forgiveness. I'm not sure my conclusion is correct, but I do know that holding a grudge can kill you. Let love rule instead.
PULSATE by Espe Kvlt: I've already cursed in this review with John McNee's title, so...all I can say about this one is: WTF? I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but I know I liked it! (I've done a search for this author on Goodreads and don't see anything else by them. That needs to change!)
As a long, long, long-time reader of horror anthologies, I like to think that I'm a good judge of them. There certainly are a lot more of them in this age of digital publishing and it can be difficult weeding out the good from the bad. I hope you feel that you can trust me when I say this will surely make my top ten of the year list, so DON'T MISS OUT!
Highly recommended!
*I received a paperback ARC from the editors, Evan Light and Andrew Lennon, in exchange for review consideration. I considered it, said HELL YEAH, and read the book!*
**Further, I have been friends online with a few of these authors for years and I think I should let you know that. Our relationships have not affected the honesty of this review.**
I can't cover all the stories here or my review would be as long as the book itself-because almost every tale in this book is good. What I'm going to focus on here are the ones that I found to be truly exceptional:
THE PIPE by Israel Finn: I had no idea where this story was going and when it got there, I felt...stunned ...just...stunned. I love short stories with a punch and this is definitely one of them! (His volume of short stories, DREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS, is now heading towards the top of my "to be read" list.
LETTERS by Michael Bray: Here's another tale it's hard for me to describe without giving anything away. It twists and turns into itself before it twists again. My emotions were so confused I felt absolutely wrung out by the time I finished. LOVED it!
ONE MILLION HITS by Evans Light: A group of teenagers on Halloween night concoct a scam to bring in as much candy as possible, and then they concoct another scam to get a million hits on their site. You already know things will go wrong, but just how wrong was a surprise to me.
VIOLET by Jason Parent: It's always hard to lose someone, and sometimes I think it's even worse when you lose a dear pet. After all, you're with your pets almost every single day of your life. Sometimes, you just don't want to listen to platitudes or the attempts of others to comfort you. Or worse yet, when they try to tell you what to do. I felt this one deep in my heart.
THE DOGSHIT GAUNTLET by John McNee. I chuckled at the title, I admit it. But the actual story was scary and sad, with the two being all wrapped up and twisted around each other. I was so happy for Paul...and then I felt so sorry for him. Read it and you'll see.
TATTOOED ALL IN BLACK by Mark Matthews: You might recognize the title from the Pearl Jam song BLACK. It's an excellent tune and this tale is excellent too. I've yet to read anything from Mark Matthews that I haven't enjoyed. At this point, I doubt I ever will. (P.S. Prepare to have your heart ripped out and then you can "be a sun in someone else's sky.")
REFUGE by William Meikle I came away from this story feeling that it was about forgiveness. I'm not sure my conclusion is correct, but I do know that holding a grudge can kill you. Let love rule instead.
PULSATE by Espe Kvlt: I've already cursed in this review with John McNee's title, so...all I can say about this one is: WTF? I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but I know I liked it! (I've done a search for this author on Goodreads and don't see anything else by them. That needs to change!)
As a long, long, long-time reader of horror anthologies, I like to think that I'm a good judge of them. There certainly are a lot more of them in this age of digital publishing and it can be difficult weeding out the good from the bad. I hope you feel that you can trust me when I say this will surely make my top ten of the year list, so DON'T MISS OUT!
Highly recommended!
*I received a paperback ARC from the editors, Evan Light and Andrew Lennon, in exchange for review consideration. I considered it, said HELL YEAH, and read the book!*
**Further, I have been friends online with a few of these authors for years and I think I should let you know that. Our relationships have not affected the honesty of this review.**
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