A spooky anthology from Haunt Publishing!

I participated in the Kickstarter last year I believe? I don’t know anymore. What is time? There is one more book I am waiting for! But this one I could finally read now that it was Halloween/Spooktober. I just love saving scary books for this season.

In this anthology featuring 24 stories we find out about true hauntings. From real hauntings and spooky things that go bump in the night to things in the forest to murder to retellings of stories (I spy a Blue Beard one) but also to hauntings like the girl who lost her sister and still feels her with her. She isn’t able to go on with her life. There were some very dark stories in there. Some very unsettling. But also some that were a bit easier and didn’t scare me that much. Some were just plain weird (that girl who heard a beat in her freaking walls, girl what?). But in overall I did enjoy most of the stories and I am so glad I got the chance to read this book!

I have to say that the first half of the book’s stories were great and I found quite some gems there. But in the later half? Less and less was to my appeal (some even bored me) not to mention that several there just ended. Like, boom. Story over and I would be like, wait? Did I miss something? Did something happen? Oh no, this is really the end. There were a few that I did like, but in comparison to the strong first half…

Here are my favourites: Sight, Clockwork, Candlemaker’s Daughter, For Evermore.

Also I would have liked to see the trigger warnings at the stories themselves as well (like under the title). It is great that there is a whole chapter for that, but it was just a bit too much to keep having to go to content page > search for the right page and in the mean time not click anything on the bottom or I would lose where I was with the story > remember the trigger warnings > read or not read. But again, I was still happy with that as I could skip the story featuring sexual assault and thread carefully in the one with the suicide.

All in all, I am very happy with this read! Some really spooked me. I loved the diversity. More colour in spooky stories go! Bring it! I would recommend it!