Tag Archives: Horror

October 15, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Case of Elmwood Ranch

Book cover for The Case of Elmwood Ranch by Deanna Grey. Image on cover shows two young black women st adding outside in front of a meadow and under some trees whose leaves have turned orange. They are both wearing sweaters and slacks for the chilly day. Title: The Case of Elmwood Ranch

Author: Deanna Grey

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: July 15, 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance,  LGBTQ+, Horror, Contemporary

Length: 432 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Elmwood Ranch is Octavia Daniel’s dream. A safe place to land after years on the road. But once she signs the paperwork and receives the keys, the nightmare begins.

Shadows move on their own, strange accidents become the norm, and injured ranch hands refuse to work a second longer. Octavia doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she can’t deny something’s wrong with the land she’s sunk her entire savings into.

Rae Jones is in the business of ending nightmares. She comes from a family of successful paranormal investigators. But she’s set herself apart from the Jones sisters by making their legacy into a commercial success.

After years of enjoying said success, she’s hit a wall. Whether it’s burnout or a full-blown existential crisis, she doesn’t know. One way to try to avoid a downward spiral? Take every interesting job she can get. And that includes one from a very stand-offish, nonbelieving horse rancher who thinks she’s a scam artist and the things she hunts don’t exist.

Octavia and Rae must figure out how to work together if they have any hope of solving what’s truly going on at Elmwood. As they build trust, they begin to build something more. Something that could either help or harm their chances of making it out of this haunting alive.

The Case of Elmwood Ranch is a sapphic paranormal romance featuring bisexual leads. This book is intended for 18+ readers.

Content Warning: Childhood bullying, neglectful parents, paranormal violence and injuries due to said violence, parent’s death by helicopter accident (not depicted), character paralyzed by by a car accident (not depicted), and sexual content.

Review:

Not every haunting is easy to resolve.

I loved the main paranormal storyline and thought it was well executed. It’s difficult to know how much to share about it in my review as the blurb skirted around the lore surrounding it and I don’t want to accidentally share spoilers. What I can say about it is that the characters took a methodical approach to gathering evidence about the haunting using both their intuition and certain types of modern technology that made it fairly easy for them to take note of the odd things happening on the ranch. It was nice to see how seriously they took this mission. Sometimes characters in this genre become so wrapped up in figuring out what’s happening that they lose track of their common sense, so it was nice to see an example of people remaining cautious and sensible while also attempting to figure out what is actually happening on a property where people who have been left alone there have been harmed on multiple occasions.

As excited as I was to read this tale, the slow pacing made it difficult for me to justify a higher rating. I sometime struggled to remain highly interested in the storyline due to how much time it took for everything to develop and how often the protagonists focused on things that didn’t seem to be advancing any of the storylines very well. In my opinion, trimming back on those sections heavily would have made this a five-star read as the concept itself was incredibly intriguing and I did like the character very much as well. I hope to read more from Ms. Grey in the future and that I will be able to give her next book a much higher rating as she had a creative and descriptive writing style that was otherwise right up my alley.

Most of the storyline was concerned with who or what was haunting Elmwood Ranch. The sapphic romantic subplot, while obviously important for both plot and character development reasons later on, took longer to develop and was rarely if ever the main focal point. This was a good decision in my opinion as I tend to enjoy romantic works more when they are a small part of a book instead of the main course, but it is something I wanted to take note of in my review for readers who may or may not agree with my preferences there as this is definitely a subjective topic.

The Case of Elmwood Ranch made me wish for a sequel.

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October 1, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Grief Eater

Book cover for Grief Eater by Emma Osborne. Image on cover is a drawing of a zombie with green skin and long, wavy black hair who is holding her head up and back and looks like she’s yelling in pain. There is a little blood around her mouth. Title: Grief Eater

Author: Emma Osborne

Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press

Publication Date: June 1, 2026

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length: 94 pages

Source: I borrowed it from my local library

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Visceral, gritty, and unforgiving, GRIEF EATER is a zombie story like you’ve never read before.

When Kristina rises from her violent death, she’s not the same fragile woman her family once abandoned. She’s rageful, powerful, and hungry—for the blood of the ones who were supposed to love her. With a newfound craving to see vengeance and grief served, she launches into a once-in-an-undead-lifetime journey across blood-slicked highways to the scorched Australian bush and her hometown. As her body fails and her mind fractures, she’s left with one final question: Is she here to forgive, or to feed?

A transgressive, gory examination of queer identity and found family, GRIEF EATER sinks its teeth into trauma and what it means to be devoured by grief.

Content Warning: Domestic abuse, violence, dismemberment/gore, stalking, homophobia, and death of a parent.

Review:

Some things can never be forgiven.

One of the first things I noticed about this novella was how much time it spent telling readers what was happening instead of showing them, but I eventually came to the conclusion that this may have been done on purpose in order to illustrate Kristina’s intellectual and emotional limitations. Zombies have thoughts and feelings in this universe, but they are pretty muted when compared to how a living person would react to the same situations. Things that would have made me recoil in horror barely registered as a blip on the protagonists radar, for example, and her priorities in life – or undead life, as the case may be – were wildly appropriate for a zombie but would have been incredibly odd for the living. This isn’t a criticism, then, but it is something to keep in mind if you read this for yourself as I’d love to hear other perspectives on what should and shouldn’t be expected from the recently deceased.

Strong world building would have propelled this to a five-star read to me. While I learned a lot about the life cycle of a zombie in this universe, the bigger question of what was happening in Australia, much less the rest of the world, went nearly entirely unanswered. This was something I found surprising due to the fact that the protagonist managed to survive the first few waves of attacks and was doing pretty well for herself right before she was turned. Had she shared some more details about what she’s learned about human society’s reaction to this threat in general, this would have been just about the perfect horror novella for me.

Zombie fiction is only something I’m interested in on rare occasions these days, but seeing the world from the perspective of one of these individuals definitely piqued my interest. Kristina had an abusive and traumatic childhood that so deeply affected her as an adult when the events of this tale began that she couldn’t sustain romantic relationships with any of the women she was drawn to. I thought the combination of blatant horror themes and the more subtle but still easy to discern journey she experienced as she confronted her violent beginning in life worked well together and added a much-needed layer of meaning to her quest.

Grief Eater was a wild ride and a good introduction for more Halloween season reads.

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August 27, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Science and Magic and Lions, OH MY!

Book cover for Magic, Science, & Lions, OH MY! by JD Bennett. Image on cover simply shows the title and author written in a gold cursive font against a light yellow background. Title: Science and Magic and  Lions, OH MY!

Author: JD Bennett

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 31, 2025

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Horror

Length: About 45 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

***Intended for adult readers*****

Magic, Science, & Lions, OH MY! is a collection of short stories that include horrifying tales of a rapist eating monster, the staging of a war between fairy tale and folklore characters, and, of course, aliens.

Content Warning: Poisoning, politics, domestic violence, and murder.  I skipped over the story about the rapist eating monster and so will not be including it in my review. (Yes, I read the rest of them!)

Review:

Some fairy tales have sharp teeth.

”The (Attempted) Murder of a Pot Head” showed what happened after the protagonist was poisoned at a family reunion and had to try to figure out who might have been the culprit and what their motivation was. There was a plot twist involved in the investigation of this crime that I don’t want to reveal in my review for spoilers reasons, but it was as clever as it was attention grabbing and showed off Ms. Bennett’s writing abilities nicely.

Anyone who reads the title of “The Confession” can almost certainly make an educated guess about what it is about. What surprised me about this piece was the complete lack of any fantasy, science fiction, or other speculative fiction elements to it. While I thought it included some interesting ideas and had a satisfying ending, it felt out of place in this collection due to that.

By far my favorite story was “Lion in the Mirror” due to how it blended real-life events like the repeal of Roe vs. Wade in the United States to some heavy fantasy elements of a storyline featuring a likeable and intelligent main character. This is the sort of storytelling that grabs my attention and doesn’t let go, and I loved coming up with various theories about how the fantasy themes could be reinterpreted as metaphors for various experiences that many women encounter in their lives, particularly for those of us who are part of one or more other minority groups as well.

Magic, Science, & Lions, OH MY! kept me on my toes. 

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August 20, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of All the Little Hedgehogs

Book cover for All the Little Hedgehogs by Leigh Kimmel. Image on cover shows a blue double helix strand of DNA against a laboratory background. Title: All the Little Hedgehogs

Author: Leigh Kimmel

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 29, 2023

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Alternate History

Length: About 20 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

In Soviet Union, genetic engineering does you. Yona wondered why everyone kept steering him toward a military career, until one of his teachers noticed his aptitude for genetics. Now he’s the personal student of Academician Voronsky, working in a secret genetic engineering facility in a closed town. However, Yona keeps having to spend as much time babysitting the Academician’s adopted son Kolya as actually doing genetics. When this extra assignment becomes a frustration, Yona learns just how quickly privileges can be retracted. And then he starts learning just how deep the secrets of the Soviet human genetics program really goes. A story from the Grissom timeline (Gus on the Moon universe). Caution: Contains intense material that may be disturbing to some audiences. Reader caution advised

Content Warning: Pregnancy, birth, cloning, and brief references to infanticide.

Review:

DNA only tells part of the story.

Genetic engineering is one of those topics I often like to see covered in the Science Fiction genre because of how many different ways it can be approached. While I don’t want to go into too much detail about what exactly what happening  in this facility, I thought the narrator asked some interesting questions about how important genetics are to how someone turns out that might be of special interest to any readers out there who might be related to people who are incredibly different from them in crucial ways. That is to say, you can be a blood relative of someone and share very little in common with them.

I struggled with the violent content in this short story due to how unnecessary it felt for plot development. Horror is a genre I’ve been moving away from, so this made be of greater interest to readers who still like to read that sort of stuff.  Still, there was one particular scene I thought was egregious and could have easily been cut out without ruining the effect of the chilling world Yona knew in general.

The descriptions of the medical facilities were my favourite part of this short story. They were given so much attention that I could easily imagine what it would be like to visit or work there. One bright moment that stood out to me the most involved how the fetuses interacted with each other before birth. I could have read many more pages about them if such a thing were possible due to the funny things they did to each other.

All the Little Hedgehogs made me shudder. 

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May 21, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of This House Isn’t Haunted, But We Are

Book cover for This House Isn’t Haunted, But We Are by Stephen Howard. Image on cover is a drawing of a house that was built just over the side of a hill. It’s shortly past dusk and the yellow lights in the house’s windows resemble yellow animal eyes due to how the house is partially hidden by the hill and the shadows of evening. Title: This House Isn’t Haunted, But We Are

Author: Stephen Howard

Publisher: Wild Hunt Books

Publication Date: April 3, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Mystery, Contemporary

Length: 106 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A couple mourning the loss of their young daughter take up an opportunity to renovate a rural cottage on the remote North Yorkshire Moors. However, they can’t process their grief as increasingly eerie events unfold. Is it their daughter haunting them or something else?

Content Warning: the death a child that occurred before this novella began. I will be discussing it briefly in my review.

Review:

Moving forward rarely happens on a set schedule.

I adored the house’s motivation for attempting to communicate with Priya and Simon, the couple who just moved in. While I can’t go into detail about this without sharing spoilers, it was a fresh perspective on the haunted house genre that made me eagerly want to learn more. Mr. Howard is a creative storyteller, and these scenes in particular were well done and made me want to check out more of his work.

This would have been a much stronger work if more time had been spent fleshing it out, especially when it came to the character development. While the minimalistic descriptions worked better for the storyline given how straightforward it was for the most part, I found myself wishing I knew more about who Simon and Priya were as individuals. There simply wasn’t enough space in this novella to explore their personalities, histories, and what their marriage had been like before little Lily passed away.

The ending was as unexpected as it was thought provoking. I was intrigued by what it had to say about the process of grief and how easy it is to get stuck in certain phases of it for some people. It takes courage to pull oneself out of those spirals and move forward when what one really wants to do is wallow in the past. While I would have liked to see another chapter added at the end to explain what was really going on in the house, I also understand why the author decided to leave those questions unanswered. Grief in real life is often accompanied by questions that can’t possibly be answered, too, so it made sense to reflect that in fiction as well.

If anyone reading this review would like a recommendation for a similar read, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters explores similar themes surrounding grief, the loss of a child, and the physical and emotional decay of a home and may be of interest to you.

This House Isn’t Haunted, But We Are made me want to read more haunted house tales.

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February 26, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Five Miles Out Of Black Creek

Book cover for Five Miles Out Of Black Creek by Neil Shooter. Image on cover shows a dry, dusty country road that has no one travelling on it. It shoots straight ahead and, in the far distance, turns up over a hill. There are mountains even further in the distance. The trees on either side of the road and brown and leafless as it appears to be late autumn in this scene. The sky overhead is hazy and blue. Title: Five Miles Out Of Black Creek

Author: Neil Shooter

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 30, 2016

Genres: Horror, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length:13 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Dean Rand is in a bit of a slump, and needs to sell a story fast. Can this one save his bacon? Dr. Chang’s dirty white farmhouse in the middle of nowhere? Well, in the middle of Hamilton County, five miles out of Black Creek. Sure, the view is great, but it’s so isolated. Why would a scientist want to live here? Or work here?

Content Warning: Blood.

Review:

Not every farm is a tranquil getaway from city life.

Let’s see how much I can say about the antagonists of this piece without giving away too many clues about who or what they are. This means that my review may feel a little mysterious, but I’d rather allow other readers to discover for themselves what’s going on than to know ahead of time what to expect. What I can say about the antagonists is that they had good reasons for behaving the way that they did and that they provided plenty of conflict for Dean to work through during his visit. There’s  definitely something to be said for that! I also appreciated how unusual some of them were. That is to say, they didn’t exactly conform to mainstream ideas of what should be attempting to harm the protagonist in this genre, and that’s a good thing.

It would have been more helpful to have additional plot development. I knew what the twist in the end probably would be by the time I read the first scene, and unfortunately this was the sort of tale that, in my opinion, works better if one doesn’t know what to expect in advance. The character development was sufficient for something of this length, so it was really just the depth of the plot that held me back from choosing a higher rating.

With that being said, I do enjoy rural horror. Sometimes other genres glamorize this setting in ways that make me uncomfortable as someone who grew up in various rural places and intimately knows both the negative and positive aspects of that environment, so it was refreshing to see a character drive out to the middle of nowhere and be genuinely taken aback by what he found there. I also appreciated the way the story played around with the trope of a highly educated city slicker arriving at a farm and realizing there are still things about life he doesn’t know. This is something that happens to all sorts of people when they find themselves in cultures or places they’re unfamiliar with, after all, and it was well used here.

Five Miles Out Of Black Creek made me shudder.

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January 15, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Homeless

Book cover for Homeless by Neal Shooter. Image on cover shows a black and white sketch of someone walking through a forest on a cold winter day. The ground is covered in snow, the trees are bare, and the person is so bundled up you can’t tell what they look like. Title: Homeless

Author: Neil Shooter

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 9, 2013

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 15 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Winter didn’t end, but his world has. Is he completely alone? In a world gone cold, what can keep the spark of life shining?

Content Warning: Animal attack. Murder. A character who eats a dead, raw rat. Possible mental health problems depending on how one interprets certain scenes.

Review:

Sometimes the world ends with a whisper, not a bang.

The first half of this tale was an excellent example of what the post-apocalyptic genre can be like. The unnamed protagonist has somehow survived a catastrophe that killed the vast majority of humans and should have killed him, too. His limited information about what happened only made his struggle to survive even more poignant as I had no idea what else might await him after the months of hardship he had already endured. I loved the fact that the reader was limited to what this character knew about the world and could only make rough guesses about the things he had yet to discover.

Unfortunately, I struggled with the second half of this tale due to how unbelievable I found certain scenes. Their themes were so exaggerated when compared to what happened earlier that I kept wondering if there was a piece of the puzzle I was missing. Was the narrator holding something back from the audience? Was he unaware of an important detail that would make later scenes feel more logical? There were answers to these questions that I thought made sense, but I kept wishing that Mr. Shooter would give us a few more hints about which direction he intended his audience to go.

With that being said, my ultimate conclusion about what happened was an interesting one and did help me to find some closure for this character. Whether or not it was what the author intended, it made sense given what I knew about the protagonist early on as well as some of the clues about his personality that were revealed later on. If my interpretation was correct, this was a more realistic assessment of what this catastrophe would actually be like for the surivors than many books in this genre tend to create.

Homeless was a wild ride.

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October 30, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib

Book cover for I Found the Boogeyman under My Brother’s Crib by Ben Farthing. Image on cover shows two glowing red eyes underneath a crib at night. It has a sinister vibe to it. Title: I Found the Boogeyman under My Brother’s Crib

Author: Ben Farthing

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

Genres: Horror, Contemporary

Length: 112 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 2 Stars

Blurb:

How do you protect your family from an urban legend?

Rachel hears a stranger laugh in her baby brother’s nursery.

She races in to see a dark figure slip beneath the crib, disappearing into an eerie reflection of her brother’s room.

Mom and Dad don’t believe her. They accuse Rachel of making excuses for breaking their strict rules about healthy sleep.

But Rachel knows what she saw.

The Boogeyman wants her baby brother.

The Boogeyman wants to drag him away into his eerie realm beneath the crib.

Rachel’s not going to let that happen.

I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib is a tale of urban legends, liminal spaces, and things that go bump in the night, from Ben Farthing, the “King of Creepy” (MJ Mars, author of The Suffering).

Content Warning: Kidnapping and child abuse.

Review:

Nobody can get away with being naughty forever.

The narrator captured the frustration of being a sixteen-year-old who doesn’t always feel like adults are listening to her well. While my parents were thankfully nothing like Rachel’s, just about every teenager at least occasionally has a conversation with their parents that doesn’t make sense. Sometimes you grow up and understand the adult perspective better, but not all parents make the sorts of decisions that are in their children’s best interests and that can be seen from another perspective in five, ten, or twenty years.

This novella would have benefited from more character and plot development. The premise was strong in the beginning but later scenes didn’t build on it in the ways I hoped they would. It petered out instead of explaining why the characters behaved the way they did and what the boogeyman was truly capable of which was disappointing to me. I had been anticipating this novella all autumn due to how much I enjoy this series in general and expected to give it a much higher rating than I ultimately did.

With that being said, I thought the ideas in this tale were interesting ones and could see how they may have been meant to fit together. It was interesting to learn the historical context of the boogeyman in this universe and what people hoped would happen when they talked about him. There was a twist involving this antagonist that was fun and would have encouraged me to go for a higher rating if it had been given more time to develop.

This is part of the I Found series that can be read in any order.

I Found the Boogeyman under My Brother’s Crib had a creative premise.

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October 23, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

Book cover for I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall by Ben Farthing. Image on cover is a possibly AI-generated shot of a dimly-lit hallway in a mall that doesn’t have anyone walking around in it. The atmosphere is chilly and ominous due to the dull fluorescent lights and many dark spots between where the light can reach. Title: I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

Author: Ben Farthing

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: June 18, 2024

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 162 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Somewhere among the shuttered stores…

Lisa hears a call for help.

She finds her senile old coworker, Saswin, lost in an abandoned hallway. He’s talking to a circle of mannequins, their limbs twisted and fused in unnatural ways.

When Lisa looks away, she swears the mannequins have moved…

And that this abandoned hallway has grown longer.

After Saswin disappears down the impossible hallway, Lisa goes to find him, but she’s unprepared for the horrors that await her in the mall’s forgotten depths.

I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall has been compared to creepypastas like NoSleep stories or SCP entries. It’s a chilling tale of identity, liminal spaces, and the horror of leaving the past behind, from Ben Farthing, “The King of Creepy” (MJ Mars, author of The Suffering).

Each book in the I Found Horror series is a STANDALONE. They can be read in any order.

Content Warning: Disability from a stroke. Dementia. Emotional abuse.  Mannequins.

Review:

Everything declines eventually.

This was a good example of how the horror genre doesn’t have to include a single drop of blood in it in order to scare its audience. Dying  malls are eerie enough on their own if you ask me, and adding in mannequins that are anything but the inanimate objects they’re supposed to be only added an additional layer of dread to the setting. The explanation for why such innocuous things could suddenly become terrifying was well done, too, and made me wish for a prequel or a sequel as there was still plenty of space to explore how this dying mall transformed into something so unlike its formerly cheerful self.

Lisa’s illogical decisions were the only thing holding me back from giving this book a higher rating. My first impression of her was of an intelligent woman who used her wisdom to try to make the world a better place if or when she had the opportunity to nudge it in that direction, so it was confusing for me later on when she began making choices that put her and those around her in danger. This didn’t seem to match the dependable Lisa I’d already met and grown to like, and there was never quite enough character development for me to reconcile these different aspects of her personality.

With that being said, I loved the exploration of disability and aging in this piece. Lisa and Hank had reached a point in life where their physical health was beginning to slow them down in ways they could no longer explain away as a bad day. Adjusting to that wasn’t easy for them, especially when they began to face the small moments in life that would have been effortless a few years ago but not required some planning and energy management in order to accomplish.

I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall was thought provoking and makes me hope that Mr. Farthing will release some more stories soon.

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October 16, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Horsefly

Book cover for Horsefly by Mireille Gagné. Image on cover is a yellow and red drawing of a large horsefly whose body also looks like a gas mask depending on how you look at it. Title: Horsefly

Author: Mireille Gagné

Publisher: Coach House Books

Publication Date: May 20, 2025

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 171 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A terrifying tale about the ways in which we try to dominate nature, and how nature will, inevitably, wreak retribution upon us.

In 1942, a young entomologist, Thomas, is sent to a remote island to work on biological weapons for the Allied military. The scientists live like prisoners while they look for the perfect carrier for anthrax among the island’s many insects.

In 2024, in the same region of Quebec, a heat wave unleashes swarms of horseflies while humans fall prey to strange flights of rage. Theodore is living a simple life, working double shifts and drinking to forget, when a horsefly bite stirs him from his apathy and he impulsively kidnaps from the nursing home his grandfather Emeril, whose dementia has him living in the past during the Grosse Ile biological weapons experiments.

The horsefly, meanwhile, knows a few secrets…

Content Warning: Horseflies, brief references to the damage these bugs do to a body when they bite you, an insect-born pandemic, and dementia.

Review:

Anger is only the first step.

Poetic is just about the last word I’d associate with horseflies, so it was a wonderful surprise to discover just how beautifully the horsefly in this story described their life. Kudos to the author for writing these scenes so descriptively and smoothly. I genuinely felt as if I were exploring the world through the perspective of a creature that, while highly intelligent and certainly not what a real horsefly would sound like if they could talk, also experienced life in a radically different way than how a human would describe those same events. This sort of storytelling takes talent, and it makes me want to read everything else Ms. Gagné has written or will write in the future.

It would have been helpful to have more action scenes. So much time was spent talking about the characters’ thoughts and feelings that I sometimes grew a little restless as I was reading. There was plenty of space to explore topics like what else the government did in response to this project once they realized it had some horrifying side effects or how the sickness that caused uncontrollable rage was affecting human society. Even a little more attention to such things would have made it easy for me to choose a five star rating.

Don’t let the horror tag scare you off if this isn’t a genre you typically read. The frights in this story were real but mostly happened off-screen or developed slowly in my imagination as I pieced together what happened on that remote island to make horseflies suddenly so dangerous. I thought that was a refreshing way to approach topics like pandemics and how messing around too much with the natural world can go terribly wrong. Many storytellers write these these tales from the perspectives of innocent people who suddenly must confront something they don’t understand instead of sharing the origins of these diseases from the perspectives of the people  and the horseflies who created it or helped to spread it. When combined with the smooth writing style I complimented earlier, this made for a creative reading experience.

Horsefly was a thoughtful and deliciously scary piece of xenofiction.

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