In a dark corner of the attic lies a wooden box burgeoning with forgotten relics from bygone decades. Evil effigies of plastic, metal and wood claw their way out of their dusty confines into your very nightmares.
Devil dolls and terrifying teddies, abominable action figures and gruesome games all lying in wait for the opportunity to be free to wreak terror.
Get your fearsome fix of selected short fiction by some of the best horror authors around the globe.
Featuring stories by:
Richard Beauchamp
Steve Burford
Mia Dalia
Tim J. Finn
Wil Forbis
Galen Gower
Julie Hiner
Tim Jeffreys
Shashi Kadapa
Vic Kerry
Annie Knox
M.J. McClymont
Scotty Milder
Kurt Newton
Harriet Phoenix
Leigh Ramsden
Armand Rosamilia
J Benjamin Sanders Jr
Trish Wilson
Sheldon Woodbury
Dark bleatings, my dearest tribe! I’m bleating about a toy themed anthology today – I do love a good theme! To get a wee complaint out of the way first, I did have a slight issue with this anthology but it was more on the editing side than the author side. Proportionately speaking, there were quite a lot of doll stories. In a toy themed anthology, this might be expected, but there are so many other toys!
After a few, I started to find the doll stories a bit of a bore, which is honestly not the fault of the authors or the actual stories, more just a recurring focus when I was hoping for a bit more variety. Perhaps the running order could have been different to avoid this? I’m unsure. I’ve been on the compilation side of an anthology and I will say it’s very difficult to decide these things, especially in a themed book when several of the stories use the same element. You don’t want to exclude any if they’re good, but that then presents the problem of the overall book feeling a bit repetitive at times. If you love doll stories, this likely won’t be an issue for you anyway, but I’m not a huge fan of them as a topic in the first place so I think my prejudice leaked out a bit.
With that said, I did enjoy this collection overall and there were several standout stories for me that used the theme really creatively. My top 3 were:
‘Ma Gentry’s Dream Catcher’ by Richard Beauchamp
It was real creepy, you guys. Layla is the youngest in a line of blood witches – an inheritance she starts to embrace when something… er.. flamey happens. Loved the writing style and was very invested in little Layla. I would have loved for this story to be a bit longer, actually, as I was very into it.
‘Faux Joe’ by M.J. McClymont
There’s nothing wrong with collecting action figures… right? The horrific imagery of what happens to our good pal Joe will stay with me for life. I’m scarred… scarred, I tell you! Though not as scarred as Joe. This dude (40 years old) collects action figures. There’s nothing wrong with that as a hobby, on first glance. But on second glance, hold up, wait a minute, why has Joe completely surrounded himself, why is he more connected to his dolls than his is to real people, and hang on wtf why does this obsession feel contagious?! Great stuff!
‘A Sister’s Love’ by Annie Knox
My absolute favourite of the anthology. I thought this one used the theme the most creatively, and was really emotionally authentic and also mysterious. I’ll never look at a rubber ducky the same way again. And I shan’t say more about it, because you should really read it for yourself.
Overall, it’s a pretty fun read with some wonderful hidden gems (as in authors I wasn’t previously familiar with that I will now look up!). I’d recommend this to fans of short stories that involve toys! If you’d like to check out the book or the press, there are links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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