Horror is not my bag, yet.
I’m still learning. I know enough to realise I don’t like spatter-gore, or
horror that involves detailed explanation of the removal of body parts.
Fortunately – for me - Urban Occult, edited by Colin F Barnes
and published by Anachron Press, has no truck with this type of horror.
Urban Occult is focused very much more on what I call (probably erroneously) psychological horror, or Hitchcockian horror. It’s less blatant,
less in your face, and more situational, suggestive.
I won’t pretend that I
liked every story. I questioned the inclusion of a couple, and simply didn’t
get a couple more, and some I thought were well written, but not particularly
horrific. The majority, though, are snappy, compelling, and thought-provoking.
The anthology covers
everything from creepy golem-children, through a people eating house, to moving
tattoo jigsaw. In fact, Pieces by
Julie Travis, for which the latter is the subject, is one of the outstanding
stories of the collection.
Other specific mentions are hereby awarded to James
Brogden for The Remover of Obstacles and The
Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead by Sarah Anne Langton
For me, though, Wonderland by K T Davies was the scream
of the crop. Yes – I did mean to just that word. Wonderland skirts the edges of insanity and fantasy, both urban and
classic, and kept me up far too late finishing it off.
Whilst I reviewed this
anthology in return for an e-book copy provided by the editor, my comments are
fair and impartial, Even so, I still recommend this book as a fine read.
