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A review by citrus_seasalt
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
5.0
HANDS DOWN THE BEST ANTHOLOGY I’VE READ!!! Even if there were some stories I vibed with less than others, it was clear these were carefully curated. I loved the range of voices and cultures strewn in throughout. (Although, to people outside North America reading this, this does center around Native American/Canadian voices.) There are also a couple authors whose work I want to check out now, which is pretty cool because hey, that’s what an anthology is supposed to do, right? I was expecting all the stories to stick to the “never whistle at night” theme, but don’t be thrown off by the title and summary! Firstly, not all the stories in this are horror per se(but they are all dark, as per the theme), and second of all they cover a lot of different types of horror: whether that be monster horror, psychological, or something along the lines of a gore fest. I remember only one or two of the stories actually had the whistle theme.
My favorites were “Snakes Are Born In The Dark”, and “Behind Colin’s Eyes”. “Snakes Are Born In The Dark” was a throughly bizarre story with nauseatingly-written body horror, an unexpected ending, and creepiness that made me shocked to see the author’s other books ARE ROMANCE BOOKS??? (I should’ve recognized DN Trujillo’s name.) “Behind Colin’s Eyes” first kept my interest with the POV choice of a foul-mouthed ten year-old, but then built a sense of dread that I found myself absolutely engrossed by. I loved the turn it took. Besides those two, though, I’m putting “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” and “Collections” as my honorable mentions.
Beyond the scary/unsettling elements though, I liked the integration of different cultures, and some of the character relationships in each story. There’s a lot of themes to cover, from survival, to revenge(particularly in an anti-colonial context), fitting within a cultural identity or struggling to, grief, or family: it just depends on the story which one of those is covered(or how many).
Just know that almost every trigger warning you can think of—especially racism—is mentioned in at least one story. (“Sundays” in particular is a really hard one to read.) The horror in this anthology isn’t meant to be something enjoyed with popcorn, lol.
My favorites were “Snakes Are Born In The Dark”, and “Behind Colin’s Eyes”. “Snakes Are Born In The Dark” was a throughly bizarre story with nauseatingly-written body horror, an unexpected ending, and creepiness that made me shocked to see the author’s other books ARE ROMANCE BOOKS??? (I should’ve recognized DN Trujillo’s name.) “Behind Colin’s Eyes” first kept my interest with the POV choice of a foul-mouthed ten year-old, but then built a sense of dread that I found myself absolutely engrossed by. I loved the turn it took. Besides those two, though, I’m putting “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” and “Collections” as my honorable mentions.
Beyond the scary/unsettling elements though, I liked the integration of different cultures, and some of the character relationships in each story. There’s a lot of themes to cover, from survival, to revenge(particularly in an anti-colonial context), fitting within a cultural identity or struggling to, grief, or family: it just depends on the story which one of those is covered(or how many).
Just know that almost every trigger warning you can think of—especially racism—is mentioned in at least one story. (“Sundays” in particular is a really hard one to read.) The horror in this anthology isn’t meant to be something enjoyed with popcorn, lol.