chrispybacon's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

A Study in Black and White ⭐️⭐️
A solid venture by Collins into the horror short story, albeit a bit lackluster.

Thwaite's Tenant⭐️⭐️
The ending was a pleasant surprise

The Eel Singers 0
Trash. Pulley could at least have tried to come up with a story that doesn't require to know her other novels. Made no sense and I hated every page of it. This is the only story where the hauntings had no impact on the characters and I hated it.

Lily Wilt ⭐️
Bad pacing. Funny idea badly executed. 

The Chillingham Chair⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By times unintentionally funny, predictable but overall well written.

The Hanging of the Greens ⭐️
Bland, the flashback/ pulling the Protagonist along in visions trope is so annoying and uncreative. 

Confinement ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pretty good pregnancy & post-partum trauma depiction.

Monster 0
stop👏apologizing👏rapists'👏behaviour👏 No kidding. The author seems to have been aware of the protagonist being awful but still tried to find apologies for him. Cringe.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

izzyhallow's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This book is the PERFECT January read. Eight short stories that invoke Winter but not necessarily Christmas, I enjoyed reading one or two each evening for the last week. 

My ranking from favourite to least would be:
Monster
Confinement
The Eel Singers
Lily Wilt
The Chillingham Chair 
A Study in Black and White
Thwaite's Tennant
The Hanging of the Greens

It made me chuckle how the (living) men in these stories were often the scariest ghouls.

When adding content warnings I realise that the book covers a lot of sensitive ground over the eight stories. I would class the majority of these instances as moderate or minor but do proceed with caution.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mondovertigo's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

spacecadelliot's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious 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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

starsreside's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...