Reviews

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by Tori Bovalino

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smerika's review against another edition

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Disclaimers: I've determined I'm not a fan of short stories. I like long, complex words and sentence structure.

The authors of these stories feel young. There's hardly enough to get a good tension before it's over and onto the next. Last one was my favorite.

dana_yamaguchi's review against another edition

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3.0

Stay by Erica Waters
“Granny said the only family you need is the family that stays.”
-Melissa, from Stay by Erica Waters

The Tallest Poppy by Chloe Gong
“Neat as a picture, a garden with not a poppy out of place.”
-Chloe Gong, The Tallest Poppy

Love by All, Save One by Tori Bovalino
“And I will remember.”
-Jenna, from Love by All, Save One by Tori Bovalino

One Lane Bridge by Hannah Whitten
“None of this is for you. Nothing I feel is yours to take. You got a taste, and that’s all you’re getting. Do you understand?”
-Jules, from One Lane Bridge by Hannah Whitten

Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft
“At the end of it all, we’re just two girls kneeling in the wreckage of our love.”
-Maud, from Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft

Petrified by Olivia Chadha
“They were frozen in the bone forest forever.”
-Dhara, from Petrified by Olivia Chadha

Third Burn by Courtney Gould
“The Devil is in her room tonight.”
-Charlene Skaggit, from Third Burn by Courtney Gould

It Stays With You by Aden Polydoros
“There was no scale of justice in life.”
-Marlow, from It Stays With You by Aden Polydoros

Truth or Dare by Alex Brown
“It was impossible to keep something that never intended to stay.
No. It was more than impossible. It was exhausting.
Heartbreaking. The kind of thing that tore you to shreds, only to hastily put you back together, with no regard to where the pieces were being placed.
It was a painful process. A punishment.”
-Sienna, from Truth or Dare by Alex Brown

The Burning One by Shakira Toussaint
“Stay High. Stay safe. Nothing good Below.”
-Shakira Toussaint, The Burning One

taylorrblack's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.0

katcxfe's review against another edition

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3.5

The rating of this book is the mean of the ratings of all the stories.

My favorite stories:
- Loved by All, Save One By Toni Bovalino
- Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft
- It Stays with You by Aden Polydoros

individual ratings:
➛ Stay by Erica Waters ★★★★★

Stay is a story about Melissa who takes care of her grandmother and her cousin Daniel. Her grandmother thinks that there are worms living beneath her skin. They all live in a small town called Lagerty. In this town "we bury our own dead and tend our own graves." and that "tending your dead is sacred as baptism."

This story was so good. It was the first one to 'the gathering dark.' and I truly loved the horror aspect of it. It was so creepy and the short story was well written. There were small aspects that just didn't add up that makes you question what was actually going on in the story. The story was only 24 pages but I felt like it did a great job and creating a setting and characters for the story. I love the "stuck in a small town and rotting" vibes it portrayed. This was my intro to the authors writing and it leaves me wanting more

➛ The Tallest Poppy By Chloe Gong ★★★★

The Tallest Poppy is about Penelope (Poppy) Gao who becomes a nanny so she can save up money for a plane ticket to go to her dream university. She becomes a live in nanny at a house that is overlooking a beach. The townsfolk says that the beach is cursed.

I love Chloe Gong and this short story by her is another great story by her. The haunting elements of the house and the sea that haunts Poppy’s dreams. I always enjoy Chloe’s writing and this short story was no exception. Her writing is always so gorgeous and I love it.

➛ Loved by All, Save One By Toni Bovalino ★★★★★

Loved by All, Save One is a story about Lee, Jase and Jenna. They all have been friends forever, when they were younger they used to go searching for her. Barbara Davidson, if the legend were true, she was murdered in Jenna's house in the 1800's. She was decapitated by someone who broke into the house. Her body was buried under the floorboard, her head was never found. Barbara's killer was never found.

This story was such a thrilling horror tale. I was reading it and I couldn't put it down. The horror aspects of this book was fantastic and even though the story was short it was very fulfilling. I enjoyed the plot of the book and the characters. It left me wanting to read more. I wanted to learn more about Barbara Davidson, about Lee, Jase and Jenna. I would read a full book about these characters and their lives.

➛ One- Lane Bridge by Hannah Whitten ★★★

One Lane Bridge is about a group of friends, Jules, Simon, Lanie and Chase. There is a Bridge that has become a scapegoat for the high amount of disappearances in the area. The legend was that the Bridge belonged to something inhuman. They decided to go to the bridge one midnight to see if the legends are true.

I did not get into the story as much as I would have liked. I did enjoy reading it but it would have done better as a full story. There were parts that I felt needed more detail. I did like the aspect of a haunted bridge and it remined me of goatmans bridge.

➛ Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft ★★★★★

Ghost on the Shore is about Maud who drives out to Iris Lake. Maud's friend, June drowned and died in that lake. Legend says that anyone who die's in Iris Lake's water is kept beneath the surface. That every morning at two, the souls of the dead come back and wait for someone to take them home.

I loved this story so much! You really get into it right away and I enjoyed the elements of grief and how holding onto it takes a toll on yourself. I liked the characters and it's about Maud's grief and the lengths she goes to hold onto it. It's tells a tale about how grief and holding onto it can take a toll and consume you. I wanted more, I would read a whole novel about these characters and plot.

➛Petrified By Olivia Chadha ★★★

Petrified is about Dhara who is apart of the The Children of the Aspen community. The story is Dhara and her friends Will and Joce. The forest that surrounds the community is own by tightly knit Children of the Aspen community.

I love a haunted/ creepy forest. It's always so ominous and such a great setting for a horror story. I did enjoy reading this story and the writing was really good. Forests are always creepy and this story just made them even more. I did wish that I could have read more about this story. I longed for more.

➛Third Burn By Courtney Gould ★★★★

The Third Burn is set in a town called Amberville, Oregon. Amberville is in the middle of nowhere. There was dead and empty farmland for as far as the eye can see. Charlie come's back to town after she went away for five months to learn a lesson.

I think its always creep when a horror story is set in a town in the middle of nowhere. I enjoyed reading the storyline and the characters. I really enjoyed Courtney writing and I am excited to read more books by them. I liked the story a lot and it was great for a short story format.

➛It Stays with You by Aden Polydoros ★★★★★

It Stays with You is about Quinn, Sarah, Gabe and Marlow. One final send off before Quinn and Sarah leaves for college, and the cancer moved from Gabe's lungs to his brain, and Marlow getting left behind in the town that they will die. Then they all decided to play Bloody Mary, and the best summer of their lives turned into something more sinister.

I loved this short story! It was so creepy and ominous and I ate it up. I really enjoyed reading this storyline and I liked the characters. Some of theses stories left me wanting more in a good way and some of them needed more, but this short story was perfect. I love the story and it was just the perfect amount of horror.

➛Truth or Dare by Sharika Toussaint ★★

I have to admit, I am unsure what I read and I don't think I can come up with a summary for it. I think I needed more of the story to full understand what was going on. It was gory and played on the horror aspect but I just didn't get it.

jenhurst's review against another edition

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3.0

I would’ve preferred if this was an adult book or maybe I would’ve enjoyed this more as a teenager, but I found it didn’t hit hard enough for me.

wardenred's review

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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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In hypothetical lunchtime conversations, rehashing movies and true crime documentaries, we always say we’ll fight back. That it’s weak and foolish to let yourself be bested, to let yourself be killed. As if it’s the victim’s idea to become a victim.

Like pretty much any anthology, this one is varied: there were stories that left a lasting impressions on me, there were ones that were more forgettable. Still, on the whole, I really, really liked this read. The lowest I’d rate any given story would be 3.5, and there were quite a few clearly 5-star ones.

My absolute favorite story here is Loved by All, Save One by Tori Bovalino. It starts as a ghost story, then goes into a far more realistic and terrifying direction, and when the ghost does appear, it definitely doesn’t happen in a predictable ghost story way. This was the one tale that actually genuinely scared me, to the point that I very much regretted reading it after dark with everyone around me asleep. I also just genuinely loved the heartbreaking idea behind the whole thing (staying vague here because I don’t want to spoil anything).

Another one I enjoyed a lot was One-Lane Bridge by Hannah Whitten. Despite the small size of the tale, I felt like I connected with the MC very well. I liked the small twists along the road and absolutely adored the ending. Also, the vibes early on kind of reminded me of one of my favorite early episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural. The one with the bridge, you know the one.

To round off the top-3, I think I’m choosing Truth or Dare by Alex Brown. An absolute trip, dreamlike and sad, beautifully written. It gave me some Orpheus and Euridica vibes, except kind of upside down / the other way round. So strange and delicious.

For a couple of honorable mentions, there’ Stay by Erica Waters—a little rushed, I felt, but ultimately super atmospheric and evocative. And also Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft that focuses so hard on the pain of letting go and builds up to a more hopeful ending than I expected.

I perhaps found it a little repetitive how many stories were set during the characters’ last summer holiday or last summer in their hometowns, but at the same time I understand why the authors must have gravitated toward the same decisions. It’s a bit of a liminal time when the old weighs you down harder than usual, everything is possible, and everything is about to change. Makes it promising for YA horror in many ways.

All in all, I liked this way more than I expected to like it and definitely recommend it to those who are into folk horror and YA horror in general!

Content Warnings