Blaze Ward

I’ll admit, I don’t usually read short stories, gravitating more toward long novels and series, but this anthology sounded intriguing enough that I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did! This collection contains 9 stories, all from different authors, containing the type of monsters that might be the creepiest - those that could be hidden right in front of us. I found all of the stories to be creepy, psychological and thought-provoking, making me need some time to digest before moving on to the next story. While each author has their own writing style, I found the entire anthology to have great use of description that pulled me into the stories. I found all 9 stories to be interesting, but I think “Imposter Syndrome” by Leah R. Cutter ended up being my favorite with its futuristic, post-COVID world feel. This anthology is definitely worth a try for anyone who is into creepy, dark fantasy!

I received a free copy of this anthology from one of the authors, but my honest review is completely voluntary.… (altro)

I should preface this review by stating short stories have to be pretty spectacular for me to really like them. So maybe I was just the wrong audience for a short story anthology - but on the other hand, I am the perfect audience because I love fairy tale retellings.

I had two main problems with this anthology: 1) the caliber of the stories, and 2) the disjointed nature of the book. There were a few stories I did enjoy while reading them, but overall none were very memorable. I honestly can't remember some of the stories from the beginning of the book.

All the stories in this book are billed as retellings of familiar tales. Which is true, yes, but which tales? The titles make me think fairy tales. So why then is there a full section that contained elements of Greek myths? And the random story about Nimue? Or the Bluebeard story that made me go WTF? Or the entire last section of the anthology which seemed like it was cobbled together to hold the three stories which really had no commonalities?

In addition to the common theme of the anthology not holding true, the feel of the different stories also varied to the point where they honestly shouldn't have been included in the same collection. There were tongue-in-cheek stories side-by-side with depressing and serious stories.

An okay collection, but there are much better anthologies of fairy tale retellings out there.… (altro)