Title: Why Didn’t You Just Leave
Author:
Publisher: Cursed Morsels Press
Publication Date: April 30, 2024
Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: 308 pages
Source: I borrowed it from the library.
Rating: 3 Stars
Blurb:
It’s the question asked of any story about a haunting: why didn’t you just leave? But if accounts of people who have stayed in haunted houses are any indication … it’s never that simple.
In this book, you’ll find twenty-two all-new stories about the reasons people don’t leave scary situations—parents who stay in haunted houses to protect their children, convicts who literally can’t leave their prison, retail workers who need a paycheck even if it’s from a haunted workplace, trauma survivors suffering from agoraphobia, and more.
Featuring Shauntae Ball, I.S. Belle, Die Booth, Max Booth III, Christa Carmen, Raquel Castro, Alberto Chimal, Gabe Converse, Lyndsey Croal, Victoria Dalpe, Alexis DuBon, Corey Farrenkopf, Cassandra Khaw, Joe Koch, E.M. Linden, Steve Loiaconi, R. Diego Martinez, J.A.W. McCarthy, Suzan Palumbo, Tonia Ransom, Rhiannon Rasmussen, and Eden Royce. With illustrations by Luke Spooner, Yves Tourigny, and Yornelys Zambrano.
Content Warning: Murder. Possible infanticide. Serial killer. Deaths caused by things like drowning, falls, or hypothermia. A character with a transphobic parent who misgenders him. Emotional abuse. A ghost child who died from neglect. Pregnancy. Covid. Animal deaths. Infidelity. Hoarding. I won’t discuss any of these topics other than the last one in my review.
Review:
Escape isn’t always as easy as it may seem.
The bureaucracy in ”Your Application to Vacate 372 Wicker Avenue Is Still Pending” was simultaneously amusing and scary, especially once I realized why this particular home was included as an affordable option for low-income applicants. Writing it in epistolary form only increased the tension in the storyline as it was easy to imagine what sorts of angry and frightened letters the clerk was responding to as things went from bad to worse.
As much as I enjoyed the theme of this anthology, the stories themselves were uneven. Some of them were excellent while others ended much too abruptly for my tastes. While I wouldn’t expect every loose end in them to be tied up, there were multiple times when I was left hanging and wondering what just happened. ”The Spirit Bed” was one example of this. It showed what happened to two sisters after one of them was attacked by an evil spirit. I was immediately drawn into the storyline but surprised by how quickly it ended and how many unanswered questions I had by the final sentence.
“AITA For Setting My Dad’s Trailer on Fire?” was a memorable way to end this book. It was written in the style of Reddit post by a character who wondered what her ethical obligation was to her parents whose house had become unliveable thanks to hoarding. (You do not have to be familiar with Reddit or the Am I the A**hole subreddit in order to understand this one, but people who do understand the social conventions on that site and that subreddit in particular many find a few extra things to think about). I don’t want to give away spoilers about what else she discovered there, but I loved the narrative flow of this one as additional layers of detail were revealed as she described her parents’ dangerous home without holding anything back.
Why Didn’t You Just Leave made me shudder.