derschnauzbart's review

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

A good set of spooky, wintry stories. More than I expected were set around Christmas, which I liked since I read this in December. 
My favorite stories were "The Eel Singers" by Natasha Pulley and "A Study in Black and White" by Bridget Collins. 

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allisonsmith120's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5


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outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition

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

2.75

A collection of short stories with a ghost/haunting theme:

1) A Study in Black & White: man rents strange house & is haunted by the former owner who has a soft spot for chess.

2) Thwaite's Tenant: woman & her young son try to flee her abusive marriage but end up at a house where the owner's wife disappeared in strange circumstances.

3) The Eel Singers - man who can predict the near future heads to the one spot where he cannot see anything except the present.

4) Lily Wilt - photographer becomes obsessed with the corpse of a young girl he has been hired to photograph for posterity.

5) The Chillingham Chair - haunted wheelchair points to the murder of its former user.

6) The Hanging of the Greens: man is drawn into the strange tale of one of his self-help group attendees.

7) Confinement: late 19th century woman confined in her chamber to give birth is haunted by the tale of a local witch.

8) Monster: man goes looking for dinosaur fossils but who is the real monster?

The Chillingham Chair is the best of these stories & was written by Laura Purcell. The others are all really strange & not really very well developed & they left me with an odd sense of disappointment as if there was something missing from all of them.  

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chrispybacon's review against another edition

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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.

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heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

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

4.0


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_teoeo's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

3.25

Story 1: 3 ⭐
Was okay but a little too short

Story 2: 3 ⭐
Was unsettling but I'm not sure how I feel about the "abuse"-topic for it could be really triggering especiall with the detailed descriptions

Story 3: 3,5 ⭐
Quite nice, but too short for a propper world building, for it was a bit confusing. Think it would be good as a novel rather that a short story. Good characters and as far as I see it, Six could be autistic? (Update: recently learned that the characters are from one of her books and that makes so much sense!)

Story 4: 2,5 ⭐
Meh...was okay

Story 5: 3,25 ⭐
Quite liked it, wanted to rate ist 3,5 but the ending disappointed a little (not the plottwist but the very end)

Story 6: 4 ⭐
Liked it, would be a great movie, expeciall the parts where he tells about what happened at the farm (and the plottwist!)

Story 7: 4 ⭐
Loved the writing and had a really thrilling atmosphere. It also would be a great (A24) movie

Story 8: 1,75 ⭐
Way to much sexual content for my liking, also my gut turned at the part that seemed to be rape (I don't see how this is necessary as an element of horror.)

All in all the rating is 3,125 and I rounded it up to 3,25 because overall I enjoyed reading the book. Also, I know now that I like anthologies!!

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5


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