Another fantastic Crystal Lake Publishing anthology! This collection of dark fiction short stories is in the same vein as Gutted. All of the tales within have either beautiful writing, an interesting twist, or something to say about our shared humanity - many of the stories contain all three. Every story is well-written, and a few are quite creepy and/or disturbing. My only single complaint is that a few stories pile on the emotional descriptions a little too heavily for my tastes. I'd rather have one effective gut-punch sentence than several pages to describe someone's pain. However, I also see this as a generational thing. I think it is the younger authors that tend toward the emotional overload, which I believe reflects the times we live in, in which everything has to be exaggerated in order to even be noticed. In horror, it's the modern version of overdosing on gothic melancholia, and in that light I respect it. Either way, this book in totality was an extreme pleasure to read. Highly recommended for anyone who digs the dark side of poetic prose. ( )