From the people who brought you Castle Heights, Sweet Little Chittering, and Unceremonious, comes a new horror anthology of intertwining tales… Laid to Unrest.
On the day of the funeral for self-made millionaire Morton Clark a motley crew of mourners gather to say their farewells, but no-one is an innocent as they first seem. Whilst the circumstances around Morton’s death may be strange, as we dive into stories of his associates, friends, and family things will only become more bizarre and unsettling.
Dark bleatings, my rested (hopefully!) tribe! I’m here with an anthology today, and it’s a bit of a weird one. I love themed anthologies when they’re pulled off well (I’d say theme depending, but it’s so rare that I actively dislike a theme – any theme!). This particular horror offering centres around one man’s death. Let’s dive in!
THE SCREAMING ROOM – BY TRISTAN SARGENT
A woman returns home for a funeral, believing that the reason the guy is dead is because she cursed him. He was a pig that tried to take advantage of her following the death of her husband. This was unsettling but also sort of a “good for her” genre story. I enjoyed the devious ending too 😀
A great start to the anthology!
THE GRAY LIFE OF ADRIAN GREY – BY FREDDY BEANS
Feels like it follows on from the last one – the protagonist saw a woman spitting on Morton’s grave – interesting! (Morton is the fellow whose funeral we’re at). This time our main character is of the tragic variety because his wife and child are no longer with us, and the reason is devastating. There’s also an unexpected monstrous element to this story. I had some slight issues with the writing because the tense jumps around a bit mid-paragraph and so I had to re-read parts to figure out who the action was about. However, that didn’t detract much from what was otherwise a good horror story, and as a bonus, the final few pages are grotesque!
ESSENCE – BY TONY SANDS
Thanks to not reading the synopsis, this is where I realised that all the stories start at this funeral! Anyway, Gary has a secret which, unfortunately for him, is discovered during this time of grief. I was thrilled to see a story of this subgenre in this anthology, it was very unexpected! My only real complaint here is that the story doesn’t quite feel complete – I wanted a little more!
THE EARLY BIRD -BY MJ DIXON
Finch, serial killer, seizes the opportunity of an open grave to hide a body. Quite frankly, I thought this was genius and if I were a serial killer I’d be taking notes. But anyway…this dude thinks he’s got it allll figured out, but then something…is amiss. Something squirmy.
Full disclosure, I thought this one could have been a wee bit shorter once the action kicks off. Trimming a few pages might have made it a bit punchier and elevated the pacing. But it’s a really fun horror story and fits so well into the book.
HUNGER – BY TEIGE REID
Favourite so far – so creative with the theme! A ghost is at Morton’s grave. There are three options when you die – burn in hell, wander cold as a ghost, or become a zombie. No one takes the third option apparently…until now! This has got to be one of the freshest takes on what could cause zombies in the first place, that I’ve ever read. I loved it. Great general horror idea, but also strikes quite the degree of existential dread.
THE TOOTH HURTS – BY RAMONA PAUL
A dentist who is sometimes paid for his services on behalf of Morton is curious one day when he’s called to a yacht to remove a tooth from someone. Later on, Morton pays him a visit. It seems that perhaps they have a common…hobby. There’s some fetish or something trophy like about the way this dentist always keeps the teeth of his patients. I really liked this one and where it fit amongst the other stories – it was a great tonal shift from the more supernatural stories and creature features, offering up a different subgenre.
My one complaint (I’m going to touch on this again later, but for now let me say that I don’t believe this is the author’s fault), is that this is the first story in the book that doesn’t start at the funeral. Because the previous five did, this took me out of the book for a moment as I found the change a bit jarring this far in. It does end at the funeral, and I wish the event had been mentioned at the start and used as a framing device.
TAKE THE REINS – BY CHARLIE HALL
Doesn’t start at the funeral either and again, I didn’t like the change. Once again, I don’t believe this is anything to do with the author.
A woman’s partner cheats and leaves her but somewhere in her rage she discovers she’s…no longer exactly among the living. I really liked the story, and there were developments about Morton and the overall theme, so that was really fun to read.
A LONG WAY FROM HERE – BY RICHARD ROWNTREE
Here’s a question…is Morton actually in the coffin, as most people at this funeral seem to believe? Or is there something else in there! And if he’s not being buried, then where the heck is he? Enjoy these questions and more developments and information about Morton’s inner circle in this fun tale!
PS. We are now back to starting at the funeral again so I was a bit confused, not by the story itself, but by what the brief was for the authors.
GUARDIAN ANGEL – BY P.J. BLAKEY-NOVIS
This story is one of my favourites but it feels like an anomaly for this book overall because though it does start with the funeral, it doesn’t really feel like it was about Morton at all. But…demons. You know me, I’m always sold if there’s a demon! Thematically, it works, but the other stories have a more direct link to Morton so it stuck out a bit to me for that reason.
SAMARA THE SLAYER – BY ANNIE KNOX
Morton’s actual death! My favourite in the whole book – possibly because this is what I was waiting for. A little girl who believes that Morton was a vampire (and thinks he killed her sister) stakes him and then further chaos ensues. This story was not only great on its own merit, but answered questions and tied up the theme and overall story of the book beautifully.
The Anthology Overall
This was an enjoyable book and if you pick it up, I’d recommend reading it in as few sittings as you can manage (it’s short enough to read in one go if you have a couple of hours, depending on your reading speed). I’d most definitely say you should read them in order.
As themes go, I loved it. What an interesting concept – to build an anthology centred around the funeral/death of one person. I’m dying to know how this book came to be, how the authors were briefed, and I’d love to know more about the editing process.
Did the editor pull it off? For the most part, yes, I’d say so. I do wish those two stories just past the middle had also started at the funeral, or that they’d been placed differently so that the sudden change wasn’t so jarring. I think the other reason, besides being used to one format, that this rubbed me the wrong way is because it didn’t feel like there was an intentional purpose to these stories starting differently, more like the authors who wrote them just interpreted the brief slightly differently – I really can’t say, because I don’t know, but that would be my guess.
Regardless of that complaint, however, I do recommend this anthology and think that overall, everyone involved did a great job. I’ve worked on the editing side of two themed anthologies myself, and it’s hard enough balancing tone, subgenre, topics, plots, etc, when all the stories aren’t interconnected. I can’t even imagine trying to conceptualise this and then actually bring it to life, so I’m giving the creators a BRAVO! My favourite thing about it is the variety of horror. A theme like this could have ended up just offering crime horror or thriller stories all set in real world scenarios, so I really loved that the wider world created here was so full of possibilities.
If you’d like to check out the book, I’ve popped a link below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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