A review by alexauthorshay
Things Withered by Susie Moloney

3.0

After reading The Thirteen and loving it, I found out Moloney had a short story collection out; I like horror and am trying to get more into short stories so it seemed a good fit. But many of these stories weren't horror at all, most not even all that suspenseful. Many of them also felt like they ended suddenly, building up to something and then getting cut off before the ending occurred. Certainly many had 'fantastic' events occur, bizarre happenings that would be impossible in reality as we know it. But none of the stories really left an impact beyond just how mundane they all were, with splashes of the odd you wouldn't expect and which left me wondering what exactly the point/goal of the stories were. Probably a lot of them could be framed as 'What if X', some weird thing happening in an otherwise normal situation, but the lack of distinct ending on many of the stories just makes them confusing.