Genre: Horror Short Stories, Anthology
Published: The Borough Press, October 2025
Overall rating: 3/5 stars
Although (horror) anthologies aren’t usually my favourite format, with a star-cast like this and a cover to match, there was no way I was going to pass it up. There were hits and misses, as to be expected with a collection, but I really loved the selection of fruit this cornucopia of human horrors had to offer.
Standout works for me were by Susan Barker (I might need to keep an eye on her 2025 release Old Soul), Lucy Rose (her 2025 debut The Lamb was already on my list), Michel Faber (obviously I was going to love this authors work), and Louisa Young.
Individual ratings and synopses below.
1. Susan Barker – Fight, Flight, Freeze
5/5 stars. A melancholically tale drenched in guilt, grief and terror about a woman who finds herself haunted by the distorted, cancer-ravaged ghost of her lovers wife. This was amazing! Wonderful imagery and a surprisingly layered tale for such a short one on guilt, caregiving and adultery.
2. J K. Chukwu - Flight 2212
2/5. In a world where no one has fingers and toes but limbs that end in bone, a woman flies abroad for risky surgery to have digits fitted. I get what it was going for with its messaging on class- and racial-disparity, but I the execution was a bit clunky and forced…
3. The Fruiting Body - Bridget Collins
4/5. A pervasive fungal rot drives a wedge between a young couples, soon after they move into their new fixer-upper-house. You know I love a domestic-rot metaphor in horror…
4. Mariana Enríquez – Daisies
3/5. A son must rebury his mother only to find out his mother’s remains are “incorruptible” (haven’t decayed even though years have passed). His family members react in different ways. Bit forgettable, could’ve done more with the theme.
5. Michel Faber - The Broccoli Eel
5/5. This one is going to divide readers: visceral and disturbing, but I loved it for what it did. A young boy grows up in an abusive household (partner violence towards each other, in front of the child). He channels his trauma into believing in a story his mom used to scare him about an eel living within his insides. Things turn gut-churning…
6. Emilia Hart – Apples
2/5. Eating the fruit of an apple tree gives a mother the ability to hear the thoughts of men around her. Things escalate when her daughter brings her new boyfriend home.
I’m personally just over the “all-men-are-evil”-subgenre of horror…
7. Ainslie Hogarth- Waffle Thomas
3/5. 2 strangers meet in the woods and share campfire-stories about an urban legend names Waffle Thomas: a shapeshifting serial killer who is said to roam these camping-grounds.
A fun take on the saying “what are the odds that 2 serial killers meet”.
8. Robert Lautner – Shade
3.5/5. An 11-year old child-laborer in a Bolivian mine erects an underground alter to the devil that rules the mines. Very atmospheric, strangely cozy, but the ending felt a bit underwhelming.
9. Adorah Nworah - The Smiling African Uncle
1/5. Not so much horror-fiction as a sad reality of true-to-life racism. I feel bad for rating it low, but it lacked the originality and magical realism-lens of the other stories.
10. Irenosen Okojie – Rosheen
1/5 stars. See above, only more forgettable…
11. Lucy Rose – Carcinization
4/5. A fishermen’s wife’s strange entanglement with one of the crustations her husband dredges up from the deep one day. This one was very effective for me. An intense exploration of bodily autonomy and ownership with a maritime twist.
12. Lionel Shriver - Going Large
1/5. A take on the new and emerging genre of “fatfobia-horror” we’ve seen in feminist fiction in recent years, by Lionel Shriver. I’m not going to lie: I don’t like this subgenre, I don’t like this author and I especially don’t like the combination of the two.
13. James Smythe- BobAJob
4/5. A very strange one that somehow worked for me, about a man who starts a new job at a sort of “online dating service”, posing as various women online for costumers. Soon, he and his coworkers start to notice changes in themselves too… A good mix of corporate-horror, e-horror and something else I won’t spoil…
14. Lavie Tidhar – Fairies
2/5. A young girl fears fairies only she can see. Many people mention this as one of their favourites, but didn’t really do anything for me.
15. Francine Toon - Ghost Kitchen
4/5. A displaced woman orders takeaway. This didn’t go for the “gross-out” horror I was expecting it to based on the premise, but took a more psychological turn. All I want to say is: Francine Toon knows how to reflect the subtle dread in every-day life…
16. Evie Wyld – The Old Lion
1/5. A woman takes a trip home to visit her widowed father. Meanwhile girls and animals are going missing. Absolutely 0 emotional reaction from me.
17. Louisa Young – Mouse
5/5. A woman, caring for her sick and ungrateful husband in a high-rise flat, discovers she has an unwelcome house guest. This one got under my skin a bit; well written and effective in its metaphor.
You can find this book here on Goodreads.
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