Scan barcode
lisaml's review
3.0
The stories in this collection were so completely different. I can't really review this book as a whole, so I have reviewed each story separately and averaged my ratings for each for a 2.75.
Story 1 – Maggot – 2.75 – This was a very weird story. It seemed a bit disjointed, especially at the beginning. I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style, either. However, either it changed as the story went on, or it grew on me. In the beginning I kept getting taken out of the story and focusing on how it was written, but later on that quit happening. I kept reading and wanted to know what happened, so I can’t say it was bad, but I don’t think it’s memorable and I don’t have any urge to read it again or recommend it to people. Overall, it was ok.
Story 2 – Priest’s Hole – 2.5 - This story was all over the place. It definitely wasn’t scary. There were some odd grammatical choices that I wasn’t sure if there was a reason for them or they were just mistakes. I read the whole story and I didn’t hate it, but I don’t think I’ll remember it in a week. I just think maybe I didn’t get it.
Story 3 – Gnaw – 3.25 – This was a pretty creepy ghost story. A family moves into a house and soon learns all of the many ways it is haunted. It was pretty much what I think of when I think of a short haunted house/ghost story, and I like ghost stories.
Story 4 – The Best I can Manage Under the Circumstances – 1.75 – Um. I don’t even know what to say. What did I read here? This was the weirdest most bizarre thing I have ever read. There is probably some kind of deep meaning in there if you want to deconstruct it, but I don’t think I want to spend any more time in this author’s head. I gave it higher than a one, because I was compelled to finish it, no matter how strange it got, and unfortunately, I think it will stick in my head, but I certainly don’t ever want to read it again and won’t recommend it to anyone. Weird and gross.
Story 5 – Skin Deep – 3.5 – I really enjoyed this story! It was absolutely my favorite in the book. It was told by way of interviews with different people. A possible murder happened before the start of the book and we are reading interviews of the victim and possible murderers friends and acquaintances. It was a very creepy haunted house tale and it was told in an interesting way. I read it very quickly and enjoyed every minute of this read. I wish the whole book had been this good.
Story 1 – Maggot – 2.75 – This was a very weird story. It seemed a bit disjointed, especially at the beginning. I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style, either. However, either it changed as the story went on, or it grew on me. In the beginning I kept getting taken out of the story and focusing on how it was written, but later on that quit happening. I kept reading and wanted to know what happened, so I can’t say it was bad, but I don’t think it’s memorable and I don’t have any urge to read it again or recommend it to people. Overall, it was ok.
Story 2 – Priest’s Hole – 2.5 - This story was all over the place. It definitely wasn’t scary. There were some odd grammatical choices that I wasn’t sure if there was a reason for them or they were just mistakes. I read the whole story and I didn’t hate it, but I don’t think I’ll remember it in a week. I just think maybe I didn’t get it.
Story 3 – Gnaw – 3.25 – This was a pretty creepy ghost story. A family moves into a house and soon learns all of the many ways it is haunted. It was pretty much what I think of when I think of a short haunted house/ghost story, and I like ghost stories.
Story 4 – The Best I can Manage Under the Circumstances – 1.75 – Um. I don’t even know what to say. What did I read here? This was the weirdest most bizarre thing I have ever read. There is probably some kind of deep meaning in there if you want to deconstruct it, but I don’t think I want to spend any more time in this author’s head. I gave it higher than a one, because I was compelled to finish it, no matter how strange it got, and unfortunately, I think it will stick in my head, but I certainly don’t ever want to read it again and won’t recommend it to anyone. Weird and gross.
Story 5 – Skin Deep – 3.5 – I really enjoyed this story! It was absolutely my favorite in the book. It was told by way of interviews with different people. A possible murder happened before the start of the book and we are reading interviews of the victim and possible murderers friends and acquaintances. It was a very creepy haunted house tale and it was told in an interesting way. I read it very quickly and enjoyed every minute of this read. I wish the whole book had been this good.
motherhorror's review
4.0
I buddy read this with two of my good friends from BG, Johann and Mindi which was way fun. All three of us got Nocturnal Reader's Boxes and this book came in the box. There are 5 short stories in this book. The first one, Maggots, was OK. The second one, Priest's Hole I didn't care for at all. But the third story, Gnaw is worth buying the whole book. It's so unsettling. Even the writing was weird and foreign to me. The story and imagery totally got under my skin. I loved it! The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances is the 4th story and it was so WEIRD! It had me laughing and nervous at the same time. Skin Deep was another fantastic story. So overall I very much enjoyed this collection of stories.
sammymantha's review
3.0
The first two stories did nothing for me, so much so that I put this book down for a year. But after picking this back up, I found the last three stories interesting.
lauriereadslohf's review
3.0
I received this ARC from Netgalley. Thanks, Netgalley!
One house, five hauntings, five chilling stories.
Oh the Blurbs. Why do they lie? I promised myself this would be the year of the DNF and I am failing quite spectacularly at that promise. The problem is story collections. I may never read another one again. Story collections are the bane of my reading life this month. I can’t DNF them because I fear that if I do so, I’ll miss out something mind-blowing. This one has two good stories that are chilling and set in a haunted house. The other three? I haven’t a clue how they found their way into this collection.
Maggots by Nina Allan
Maggots started out interesting enough but it soon went off the rails for me. A young college student suspects something is off with his beloved aunt after she goes missing for a brief moment while on vacation. He begins to obsess over thoughts that her body has been inhabited by another. . . Sounds good right? And it was at first but then it got terribly dull. It devolved into his search for the truth. That search leads him to Irongrove Lodge, which isn't haunted in the typical way, ugh, and then he discovers some cosmic weirdness. This kind of story just wasn’t what I was expecting from the blurbage. I didn’t find it chilling or haunting. 3 Stars
Priest’s Hole by K.J. Parker
After my disappointment with story #1, I will admit to skimming Priest’s Hole almost immediately once I realized it too was not about a haunted house but about a shape-shifter instead. If I wanted to read the daily goings-on and meanderings of a day in the life of a shape-shifter I would’ve picked up another book. A sexier book, if truth be told. What on earth is going on here?! I cannot rate this one because I only read enough of it to realize it wasn’t the story I was looking for and I moved on to the next. DNF
It was here that I nearly DNF’d the entire book but figured I’d give it one more shot and I’m glad I did.
Yep, that was not a typo. I’m glad I did!
Gnaw by Tade Thompson
The perfect little family moves into Irongrove Lodge and the husband begins to renovate. Uh oh! You know that is never a good idea! His wife has reservations about the whole thing but the husband does what he wants. This story is a slow, slow burn but boy does it ever start to pay off in the final act. The son starts acting strangely and then the wife starts seeing extremely unsettling visions. I absolutely adored this story. The atmosphere, the creeping dread, the horrific images it has burned into my brain? It’s all awesome and it is the reason I am so glad I did not DNF this book! This was the kind of story I was hoping for when I requested this ARC from Netgalley. It’s a shame they weren’t all written in this vein. 4.5 Stars
The Best Story I can Manage Under the Circumstances Robert Shearman
This is story would fit right in if this were a bizarro collection but this was not marketed as a bizarro collection. So, what we have here is a baby born with only a head. It has no legs, no arms, no torso, no nothing besides the head but it’s alive. Alright. But don’t you worry, soon after another baby is born with just a torso and a little peepee and the two baby parts find each other, hook up and match perfectly. Now what are the odds? Then things switch over to a boy and a strange little door that appears only on his birthday. Was it the same baby boy now fully whole? Don’t ask me because I was skimming at this point. I honestly couldn’t comprehend what was going on here and found it all just a strange jumble of words. Eventually I threw in the towel and DNF’d it. This was not at all what I wanted when I picked up this book.
Skin Deep Sarah Lotz
The collection ends on a good note, at least. Skin Deep is about an older woman who purchases Irongrove Lodge for her boy toy. It's clear a terrible thing happened when the story begins and it is slowly revealed how she earned the nickname “The Butcher”.
This was told from many POV’s which kept things lively and kept me guessing. It was dark with slowly creeping dread and as a bonus I got to watch a slow descent into madness. Great stuff and another 4.5 star story that’s worth a read.
It’s a shame 3 out of these 5 stories felt like they belonged in another collection.
Audiobook Challenge: Book #4 Not an audio
HA Mount TBR Challenge: Book #7
HA Pages Read Challenge
2017 Horror Reading Challenge Book #4
See this and the rest of the crap I write at my blog.
One house, five hauntings, five chilling stories.
Oh the Blurbs. Why do they lie? I promised myself this would be the year of the DNF and I am failing quite spectacularly at that promise. The problem is story collections. I may never read another one again. Story collections are the bane of my reading life this month. I can’t DNF them because I fear that if I do so, I’ll miss out something mind-blowing. This one has two good stories that are chilling and set in a haunted house. The other three? I haven’t a clue how they found their way into this collection.
Maggots by Nina Allan
Maggots started out interesting enough but it soon went off the rails for me. A young college student suspects something is off with his beloved aunt after she goes missing for a brief moment while on vacation. He begins to obsess over thoughts that her body has been inhabited by another. . . Sounds good right? And it was at first but then it got terribly dull. It devolved into his search for the truth. That search leads him to Irongrove Lodge, which isn't haunted in the typical way, ugh, and then he discovers some cosmic weirdness. This kind of story just wasn’t what I was expecting from the blurbage. I didn’t find it chilling or haunting. 3 Stars
Priest’s Hole by K.J. Parker
After my disappointment with story #1, I will admit to skimming Priest’s Hole almost immediately once I realized it too was not about a haunted house but about a shape-shifter instead. If I wanted to read the daily goings-on and meanderings of a day in the life of a shape-shifter I would’ve picked up another book. A sexier book, if truth be told. What on earth is going on here?! I cannot rate this one because I only read enough of it to realize it wasn’t the story I was looking for and I moved on to the next. DNF
It was here that I nearly DNF’d the entire book but figured I’d give it one more shot and I’m glad I did.
Yep, that was not a typo. I’m glad I did!
Gnaw by Tade Thompson
The perfect little family moves into Irongrove Lodge and the husband begins to renovate. Uh oh! You know that is never a good idea! His wife has reservations about the whole thing but the husband does what he wants. This story is a slow, slow burn but boy does it ever start to pay off in the final act. The son starts acting strangely and then the wife starts seeing extremely unsettling visions. I absolutely adored this story. The atmosphere, the creeping dread, the horrific images it has burned into my brain? It’s all awesome and it is the reason I am so glad I did not DNF this book! This was the kind of story I was hoping for when I requested this ARC from Netgalley. It’s a shame they weren’t all written in this vein. 4.5 Stars
The Best Story I can Manage Under the Circumstances Robert Shearman
This is story would fit right in if this were a bizarro collection but this was not marketed as a bizarro collection. So, what we have here is a baby born with only a head. It has no legs, no arms, no torso, no nothing besides the head but it’s alive. Alright. But don’t you worry, soon after another baby is born with just a torso and a little peepee and the two baby parts find each other, hook up and match perfectly. Now what are the odds? Then things switch over to a boy and a strange little door that appears only on his birthday. Was it the same baby boy now fully whole? Don’t ask me because I was skimming at this point. I honestly couldn’t comprehend what was going on here and found it all just a strange jumble of words. Eventually I threw in the towel and DNF’d it. This was not at all what I wanted when I picked up this book.
Skin Deep Sarah Lotz
The collection ends on a good note, at least. Skin Deep is about an older woman who purchases Irongrove Lodge for her boy toy. It's clear a terrible thing happened when the story begins and it is slowly revealed how she earned the nickname “The Butcher”.
This was told from many POV’s which kept things lively and kept me guessing. It was dark with slowly creeping dread and as a bonus I got to watch a slow descent into madness. Great stuff and another 4.5 star story that’s worth a read.
It’s a shame 3 out of these 5 stories felt like they belonged in another collection.
Audiobook Challenge: Book #4 Not an audio
HA Mount TBR Challenge: Book #7
HA Pages Read Challenge
2017 Horror Reading Challenge Book #4
See this and the rest of the crap I write at my blog.
thesffreader's review
4.0
Review first published on The Curious SFF Reader
Five Stories High is an anthology edited by Jonathan Oliver that features five horror novellas written by five different authors all set in the same house, a huge mansion called Irongrove Lodge. The stories are loosely linked together by interludes written by Jonathan Oliver. However, since it took me several weeks to read this, I didn’t really pay attention to the interludes and I read the stories as standalones.
I am not a huge horror fan, I don’t especially like horror movies but oddly, I like horror short stories quite a bit and I would like to read more of them so when I saw that Solaris was coming out with this anthology, I was very intrigued. I was especially looking forward reading Tade Thompson and Nina Allan’s stories.
As usual with anthologies, not every single story is going to work for you but, as anthologies go, this one was very strong. Two of the stories were outstanding, one was really good and the other two were interesting enough to be worth a read. My two favorite were Gnaw by Tade Thompson and Skin Deep by Sarah Lotz and I would highly recommend this anthology for those two alone.
Individual Reviews
Maggots by Nina Allan 4*
Willy Randle is a happy young man raised by a loving family, he has a wonderful and caring girlfriend, he is studying at university. He’s promised to a great future.. until the day his aunt, Claire, vanishes for a few instants. When she comes back, Willy is persuaded that something is wrong with her somehow, but he’s the only one who seems to see it. He then starts a quest to find who or what his aunt really is.
It was fascinating little story, extremely well paced and hard to put down. It felt very different from The Harlequin, another novella written by Nina Allan that I read and reviewed last year, the writing was as good but the tone was completely different. It was slow paced but it never was boring, on the contrary. Subtle and eerie, it is definitely one of the best novella I read this year.
Priest’s Hole by K.J. Parker 3*
Following a character who can shapeshift and whose work is to pretend to be other people providing them with alibi when they need them, this story was my least favorite of the collection. Mind you, I wasn’t expecting much from it after reading two other novellas by Parker and I think that I enjoyed this novella the most out of his other works.
Parker is just “not my style”, I find that all his main characters tend to look the same and I am not necesseraly a fan of his writing style. I find it a bit all over the place and his pacing is definitely odd to say the least. Also I think the plot of this story was reminisent of The Last Witness in the sense that both main characters seems to loose their own identity toward the end. If you enjoyed The Last Witness, Priest’s Hole is going to a good read, if you didn’t well, don’t go into this story expecting a lot from it.
Gnaw by Tade Thompson 5*
Tara and Larry decide to buy and move in the house of their dream, Irongrove Lodge, with their two children. However, they soon realize that something really weird is happening in their house and that they might not be the only ones living here.
Sounds like déjà-vu ? However, what could have been a “I read that a hundred times before” story was so very well done that it really managed to grab my attention. Tade Thompson is a terrific writer, the writing, the pacing and the characters were on point. The relationships between all the family members felt real and I could identify with all the characters, including the “bad guys” which is pretty rare for me with this genre. This story is definitely one of the highlights of this collection.
The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances by Robert Shearman 3*
I don’t even know how to explain this one actually because it is pretty messed up. I will just say that it begins with a woman giving birth to a head.
Do I really need to say more? This story is insane, maybe a bit too much for me but at least, I can’t say that I ever read a similar story before. However, it didn’t grab me as much as the other stories and it is probably because it is a bit all over the place pacing-wise. I would still recommend it because as I said, it surprised me quite a bit, it’s the first time I read a Shearman story, but I definitely want to read other things by him now.
Skin Deep by Sarah Lotz 5*
This story has a very interesting structure because it is told from the perspective of many side characters and it is mainly following the aftermath of a crime committed in Irongrove Lodge. Malika and Robin just moved there when Robin started to get a bit too obsessed with it, so much so in fact, that it just got under his skin. Literally.
Another great story, I read this one very quickly because I really wanted to know what was going to happen next and, even if, in a way it was very predictable, the execution was so good that I didn’t mind at all!
So overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the collection, even if the stories were all set in the same place, they were all very different form one another and I definitely think that it is worth a read even if you don’t usually read horror stories! 🙂
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Solaris and Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Five Stories High is an anthology edited by Jonathan Oliver that features five horror novellas written by five different authors all set in the same house, a huge mansion called Irongrove Lodge. The stories are loosely linked together by interludes written by Jonathan Oliver. However, since it took me several weeks to read this, I didn’t really pay attention to the interludes and I read the stories as standalones.
I am not a huge horror fan, I don’t especially like horror movies but oddly, I like horror short stories quite a bit and I would like to read more of them so when I saw that Solaris was coming out with this anthology, I was very intrigued. I was especially looking forward reading Tade Thompson and Nina Allan’s stories.
As usual with anthologies, not every single story is going to work for you but, as anthologies go, this one was very strong. Two of the stories were outstanding, one was really good and the other two were interesting enough to be worth a read. My two favorite were Gnaw by Tade Thompson and Skin Deep by Sarah Lotz and I would highly recommend this anthology for those two alone.
Individual Reviews
Maggots by Nina Allan 4*
Willy Randle is a happy young man raised by a loving family, he has a wonderful and caring girlfriend, he is studying at university. He’s promised to a great future.. until the day his aunt, Claire, vanishes for a few instants. When she comes back, Willy is persuaded that something is wrong with her somehow, but he’s the only one who seems to see it. He then starts a quest to find who or what his aunt really is.
It was fascinating little story, extremely well paced and hard to put down. It felt very different from The Harlequin, another novella written by Nina Allan that I read and reviewed last year, the writing was as good but the tone was completely different. It was slow paced but it never was boring, on the contrary. Subtle and eerie, it is definitely one of the best novella I read this year.
Priest’s Hole by K.J. Parker 3*
Following a character who can shapeshift and whose work is to pretend to be other people providing them with alibi when they need them, this story was my least favorite of the collection. Mind you, I wasn’t expecting much from it after reading two other novellas by Parker and I think that I enjoyed this novella the most out of his other works.
Parker is just “not my style”, I find that all his main characters tend to look the same and I am not necesseraly a fan of his writing style. I find it a bit all over the place and his pacing is definitely odd to say the least. Also I think the plot of this story was reminisent of The Last Witness in the sense that both main characters seems to loose their own identity toward the end. If you enjoyed The Last Witness, Priest’s Hole is going to a good read, if you didn’t well, don’t go into this story expecting a lot from it.
Gnaw by Tade Thompson 5*
Tara and Larry decide to buy and move in the house of their dream, Irongrove Lodge, with their two children. However, they soon realize that something really weird is happening in their house and that they might not be the only ones living here.
Sounds like déjà-vu ? However, what could have been a “I read that a hundred times before” story was so very well done that it really managed to grab my attention. Tade Thompson is a terrific writer, the writing, the pacing and the characters were on point. The relationships between all the family members felt real and I could identify with all the characters, including the “bad guys” which is pretty rare for me with this genre. This story is definitely one of the highlights of this collection.
The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances by Robert Shearman 3*
I don’t even know how to explain this one actually because it is pretty messed up. I will just say that it begins with a woman giving birth to a head.
Do I really need to say more? This story is insane, maybe a bit too much for me but at least, I can’t say that I ever read a similar story before. However, it didn’t grab me as much as the other stories and it is probably because it is a bit all over the place pacing-wise. I would still recommend it because as I said, it surprised me quite a bit, it’s the first time I read a Shearman story, but I definitely want to read other things by him now.
Skin Deep by Sarah Lotz 5*
This story has a very interesting structure because it is told from the perspective of many side characters and it is mainly following the aftermath of a crime committed in Irongrove Lodge. Malika and Robin just moved there when Robin started to get a bit too obsessed with it, so much so in fact, that it just got under his skin. Literally.
Another great story, I read this one very quickly because I really wanted to know what was going to happen next and, even if, in a way it was very predictable, the execution was so good that I didn’t mind at all!
So overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the collection, even if the stories were all set in the same place, they were all very different form one another and I definitely think that it is worth a read even if you don’t usually read horror stories! 🙂
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Solaris and Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
bumbledragonb's review
3.0
'Maggots' by Nina Allan 4/5
'Priest's Hole' by K.J. Parker 3/5
'Gnaw' by Tade Thompson 1/5
'The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances' by Robert Shearman 1/5
'Skin Deep' by Sarah Lotz 3/5
'Priest's Hole' by K.J. Parker 3/5
'Gnaw' by Tade Thompson 1/5
'The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances' by Robert Shearman 1/5
'Skin Deep' by Sarah Lotz 3/5
jobis89's review
4.0
When I received this book in my first Nocturnal Reader's Box, I was very intrigued. It's quite an interesting premise - five different novellas, written by five different authors, but all focusing on the same building, called Irongrove Lodge. I thought the best way to review it was to take each story individually, as some were far better than others...
First up was Maggots by Nina Allan, and this was a very interesting one. It focuses on Willy Randle, a young man of university age, who has a perfectly normal life until one day after a fall, when he begins to have altered perceptions, starting to believe his aunt is not herself. He then decides he must investigate what is happening and therefore delves deeper into the mystery and secrets surrounding Irongrove Lodge. This was a good story to open the book with, in that it sucked me in and left me wanting to know more. A criticism of this story, however, is the writing itself - it was just not very good. Overall, I rated this story 4 stars!
The second story was Priest's Hole by K. J. Parker. This story is about a man who is hired by people who wants to use his unique skill - the ability to change his face. Of course, there are many reasons why you would want to hire such a person, such as providing an alibi, manipulating evidence etc. But then one day, he is stabbed when under one of his guises and he ends up encountering Irongrove Lodge, upon which he begins to question reality. This novella was just BAD. It was all over the place, I felt a bit confused at times, I just didn't enjoy it that much. Even thinking back now, I feel like I can't remember what really happened and I only finished this a few days ago - truly forgettable. It even reminded me of House of Leaves at some parts. 2 stars from me.
The middle story was a vast improvement from its predecessor and it was Gnaw by Tade Thompson. Now this story was amazing! Tara and Harry buy and move into the beautiful Irongrove Lodge, along with their two children, but they are not the only inhabitants of this house... Creepy written messages appear, as well as sounds of children laughing and running around. Gah, even writing about this is starting to freak me out. I don't want to say too much, but if you get the chance - read it! This was a great story, it even left me with a restless night. I really need to stop reading before bed... This one clearly gets 5 stars!
The next story was The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances by Robert Shearman. This story was just insane, it opens with a mother giving birth to a baby born without a body - so basically just a head. For his first birthday, she finds him a torso, and then follows the limbs. The narration then switches quickly to a young boy who is drawn into an strange and extraordinary place through a door in his bedroom wall. There he encounters a storyteller, who longs to tell him haunted house tales and kind of becomes a surrogate dad. He also shares a bed with a girl who is essentially put into the sister role. This story was just... batshit crazy. I will not forget it for a while! I'd give this one 3 stars.
The final story in the collection was Skin Deep by Sarah Lotz. Malika and Robin move into their new house, thinking it will be a real fixer-upper. However, Robin becomes a little too obsessed with renovating their new abode, it almost gets under his skin, you could say... The story is told from the objective of a number of different characters, and it was AWESOME. I loved how the story was initially told from the perspective of people like the estate agent, their friends, co-workers etc, before "The Butcher" herself, Malika, tells her side of the story. It was so creepy that I just blasted through it, as I couldn't put the book down. There was also a shout-out to my girl, Jillian Michaels, which I may have got a tad too excited about. This was a great story, well-told. Already planning to look out for more work by Sarah Lotz. My favourite story in the entire collection - 5 stars!!
Overall, this collection of stories was pretty enjoyable, with 4 out of 5 being very good. I'm so glad this book was included in last month's Nocturnal Readers box as I probably would never have found it otherwise - so thanks, guys! I'd love to give the book 5 stars, but that second story Priest's Hole was just so awful that I feel like I have to deduct a star... so it's 4 stars from me!
First up was Maggots by Nina Allan, and this was a very interesting one. It focuses on Willy Randle, a young man of university age, who has a perfectly normal life until one day after a fall, when he begins to have altered perceptions, starting to believe his aunt is not herself. He then decides he must investigate what is happening and therefore delves deeper into the mystery and secrets surrounding Irongrove Lodge. This was a good story to open the book with, in that it sucked me in and left me wanting to know more. A criticism of this story, however, is the writing itself - it was just not very good. Overall, I rated this story 4 stars!
The second story was Priest's Hole by K. J. Parker. This story is about a man who is hired by people who wants to use his unique skill - the ability to change his face. Of course, there are many reasons why you would want to hire such a person, such as providing an alibi, manipulating evidence etc. But then one day, he is stabbed when under one of his guises and he ends up encountering Irongrove Lodge, upon which he begins to question reality. This novella was just BAD. It was all over the place, I felt a bit confused at times, I just didn't enjoy it that much. Even thinking back now, I feel like I can't remember what really happened and I only finished this a few days ago - truly forgettable. It even reminded me of House of Leaves at some parts. 2 stars from me.
The middle story was a vast improvement from its predecessor and it was Gnaw by Tade Thompson. Now this story was amazing! Tara and Harry buy and move into the beautiful Irongrove Lodge, along with their two children, but they are not the only inhabitants of this house... Creepy written messages appear, as well as sounds of children laughing and running around. Gah, even writing about this is starting to freak me out. I don't want to say too much, but if you get the chance - read it! This was a great story, it even left me with a restless night. I really need to stop reading before bed... This one clearly gets 5 stars!
The next story was The Best Story I Can Manage Under the Circumstances by Robert Shearman. This story was just insane, it opens with a mother giving birth to a baby born without a body - so basically just a head. For his first birthday, she finds him a torso, and then follows the limbs. The narration then switches quickly to a young boy who is drawn into an strange and extraordinary place through a door in his bedroom wall. There he encounters a storyteller, who longs to tell him haunted house tales and kind of becomes a surrogate dad. He also shares a bed with a girl who is essentially put into the sister role. This story was just... batshit crazy. I will not forget it for a while! I'd give this one 3 stars.
The final story in the collection was Skin Deep by Sarah Lotz. Malika and Robin move into their new house, thinking it will be a real fixer-upper. However, Robin becomes a little too obsessed with renovating their new abode, it almost gets under his skin, you could say... The story is told from the objective of a number of different characters, and it was AWESOME. I loved how the story was initially told from the perspective of people like the estate agent, their friends, co-workers etc, before "The Butcher" herself, Malika, tells her side of the story. It was so creepy that I just blasted through it, as I couldn't put the book down. There was also a shout-out to my girl, Jillian Michaels, which I may have got a tad too excited about. This was a great story, well-told. Already planning to look out for more work by Sarah Lotz. My favourite story in the entire collection - 5 stars!!
Overall, this collection of stories was pretty enjoyable, with 4 out of 5 being very good. I'm so glad this book was included in last month's Nocturnal Readers box as I probably would never have found it otherwise - so thanks, guys! I'd love to give the book 5 stars, but that second story Priest's Hole was just so awful that I feel like I have to deduct a star... so it's 4 stars from me!
More...