The Gnome King reviewed After Sundown by Mark Morris
Review of 'After Sundown' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I don’t read much horror, so of the 20 authors included in this book I had read none and only heard of a few. There are 16 well known authors and 4 that haven’t made it to the big time yet…I was unable to tell the difference, the quality of story telling was high from each author. The range of stories was varied, a well selected mix was picked by Morris, you have sci-fi, gothic, modern take on horror, post-apocalyptic and good old fashioned ghost stories. I got into some more than others, the others weren’t weak, it’s just with a collection like this you are always gonna have your favourites. Here are the ones I liked best.
Starting off at the end BRANCH LINE by Paul Finch, a proper good old fashioned ghost story with a scary lady in a wedding dress. The intensity builds up nicely to a …
I don’t read much horror, so of the 20 authors included in this book I had read none and only heard of a few. There are 16 well known authors and 4 that haven’t made it to the big time yet…I was unable to tell the difference, the quality of story telling was high from each author. The range of stories was varied, a well selected mix was picked by Morris, you have sci-fi, gothic, modern take on horror, post-apocalyptic and good old fashioned ghost stories. I got into some more than others, the others weren’t weak, it’s just with a collection like this you are always gonna have your favourites. Here are the ones I liked best.
Starting off at the end BRANCH LINE by Paul Finch, a proper good old fashioned ghost story with a scary lady in a wedding dress. The intensity builds up nicely to a cracking ending, not too many pages long and this story still had time for a nice plot twist at the end.
SWANSKIN by Alison Littlewood. A rather messed up folklore style tale, full of tragic scenes and plenty of beauty, loved it.
SAME TIME NEXT YEAR by Angela Slatter. Story told from the point of view of a ghost in a cemetery and the fun she gets up to once a year, not really scary (well it is for her victims haha) but fun to read.
IT DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT by Michael Marshall Smith. This was the pick of the bunch for me, in the style of Stephen King, taking something you wouldn’t consider to be a scary story and creating something mind boggling…Getting your kid ready for school….nothing scary there right????
All in all this is a fine introduction into 20 authors, each author has a bio at the end so if you want to see what else they have written then this book helps you with that. Highly recommended book.