shortfiction – Imogen L. Smiley

Book Review: Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw ‘Nothing But Blackened Teeth’ by Cassandra Khaw was released in 2021. It is a short story which follows a group of friends who have trespassed on a haunted mansion in Japan to look for ghosts. The story follows Cat and her friends, who decided that theyContinueContinue reading

Book Review: Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke ‘Sour Candy’ by Kealan Patrick Burke was released in 2015. It is a short supernatural horror novella. It follows Phil Pendleton, who, after being faced by a bedraggled woman and her screaming child in the candy aisle of ‘Walmart’, was rear-ended by the very same woman, withContinueContinue reading

‘The Mist’ is one of Stephen King’s novellas, first published 1980. This short story delves into a more eldritch take on horror, whilst also delving into what makes a monster. It looks at one of my favourite areas of niche media; ones that delve into the possibilities of deep, horrific, government orchestrated creations being inadvertently unleashed, and the horrible atrocities that could commence.

Book Review: Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson ‘Guillotine’ by Delilah S. Dawson was published in 2024. It is a short story that explores the super-rich and exclusivity of it through grotesque and visceral horror. The horror in this book was harrowing and intimate in a variety of ways and was incredibly interesting to look into.ContinueContinue reading

Book Review: That Time I Got Drunk And Yeeted A Love Potion At A Werewolf ‘That Time I Got Drunk And Yeeted A Love Potion At A Werewolf’ is the second book in Kimberly Lemming’s Mead Mishaps series. It was released in 2022 and is available to read via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription. This isContinueContinue reading

Book Review: The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw ‘The Salt Grows Heavy’ by Cassandra Khaw was released in 2023. It is a unique blend of horror and dark fantasy, exploring darker themes through supernatural entities and grotesque violence. There are two main characters, neither of whom are named, The Plague Doctor and The Mermaid,ContinueContinue reading

‘Medusa’ is a novella by Jessie Burton that was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. It follows the story of mythological figure, Medusa, and offers a take on her encounter with Perseus, one of the demigod sons of Zeus.

‘Tender Is The Flesh’ by Augustina Bazterrica was originally published in Spanish in 2017. Pushkin Press released an English translated edition, with a translation provided by Sarah Moses in 2020.

‘How High We Go In The Dark’ is a series of interconnected short stories by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It was published in 2022, in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic, and follows an alternative version of this world, in which a prehistoric pathogen is unearthed in the body of a young girl, who is preserved in ice and excavated from a site in Siberia.

‘The Vision’ is an early novella by Dean Koontz that follows a psychic, haunted by traumas, long-repressed from her childhood. Due to the nature of the story, this story could prove deeply triggering, and contains rather explicit depictions of animal abuse, sexual assault, sexual abuse, molestation and manipulation. If you do intend to read this, please tread carefully, and be mindful of your limits.