A teenager bullied for her gender identity, a gang member haunted by the deeds of his past, a woman trapped in an abusive relationship, struggling to keep a secret that could endanger her life… Wish Upon a Dark Star compiles eleven tales of terror in Richard Clive’s follow up to his critically acclaimed debut collection, Strange Frequencies. Introduced by award-winning author Bridgett Nelson, Wish Upon a Dark Star serves up an array of cosmic horror, splatterpunk gore, and dark fantasy that will keep you awake long after you have turned the final page.
Dark bleatings, my wishful tribe! I was thoroughly impressed with Richard’s debut collection, Strange Frequencies, so I was delighted to find out he released a second one. Let’s dive right in to my thoughts on each story!
AT THE WATER’S EDGE
Gordon is wading into the sea with plans to off himself. He’s haunted by some of the details of a “lad’s” holiday from the past, which illuminated the group as not the most savoury characters. His life and decisions have been affected since then, and he has his own guilt about a prior serious relationship he was in. AND THEN, on top of those great bones, we get some supernatural meat.
It’s a really deep story and works as both a great spooky horror tale, and a social commentary on certain issues. Great opener.
UNDER THE PINES
Goddamn my arachnophobia! A few guys go to steal what they think will be weed, but unfortunately for them, the place they break into actually contains something else that…er….well, doesn’t appear to be contained any longer. There are descriptions of the monstrous thing and how it moves that made me shudder. Excellent.
CHILDREN OF THE STATIC
This idea is so scary. Two brothers see a girl in the static on their old TV, and shortly after, their dog runs off to the other side of the river and goes missing. That’s not the last time they see him because…well…the creepy TV, you guys. And it comes back years later. This one feels like it would be right at home in the Poltergeist universe.
YOU MIGHT CALL IT MURDER
Blog format, initially feels like fiction (or is it?) because the blogger is detailing murders he’s committed but from the victims’ POV. This is a slasher story that feels like a cross between the weirdness of Peeping Tom, and the self-righteousness of Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. Slashers aren’t my jam, but I really enjoyed this and thought the format worked so well, particularly for the subtext.
DOWN, BITCH
Callie is a trans school student constantly at the mercy of a horrible bully and his gang (a Clap of C***s, she calls them, which I find hilarious as a plural term). The depiction of her school experience is unfortunately so true to life that this story almost made me cry.
As with all great tales of the downtrodden, Callie has a string to her bow that no one sees coming. An unexpected but very welcome shift into a subgenre that I love.
WISH UPON A DARK STAR
A boy who likes staring at the night sky ponders over his granddad telling him that the light they see is from dead stars. Sadly, shortly after, Granddad dies, and the boy has to endure his troubles at school without his main support system. But, when you wish upon a star…
I think this is a great story but there’s one detail I didn’t like (the boy is bullied – there’s a facet to the bully’s character and I didn’t understand why it was included). But overall, excellent, as per usual for this collection.
LIVE BY THE GUN
Really well written but this is more crime than anything else and not my cup of tea at all (you know how I flinch away from crime as a genre!). It’s a story of betrayal and violence, with a great surprise.
REMEMBER ME?
Colin is a complete asshole. He’s a boss to terrified staff who permanently walk on eggshells around him. He accuses people of things, gives no one any grace about sickness, assumes dishonesty and thinks everyone but him is lazy. He turns up to work one day and his desk is trashed, then opens an email from a disgruntled ex-employee he fired 5 years ago. What follows is at first a point of intrigue and tension, and then becomes the stuff of anyone’s worst nightmares. It’s one of my favourites.
THE STING
Eugh, this one made me feel all horrible and like the world is full of injustice. An online paedophile hunter group track down a guy (they’ve been doing this a short while and have the local police on board, sort of). It’s well placed because up until now, the horror stuff has had quite the delicious supernatural edge, and this just plunges us back into things that could happen in reality. Just made me feel gross! (Good story though!)
WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES
Penny and Tom are in a difficult relationship because Tom is abusive and Penny has to lie about small things to avoid his irrational wrath. A bizarre storm hits, which prompts people to commit suicide, and people can see the wrongs others have committed. This becomes a huge problem for Penny, who was desperately trying to hide a secret.
Such a great idea, and well executed.
WHERE DEMONS ROOST
A game designer called Greg in the 1980’s (I think) is asked to work on a game – a horror movie tie-in that he thinks will be his big financial break in the gaming industry. It has a tight deadline though that interferes with him finishing fixing up his dead mum’s house to sell, and he and his wife really need the money from the sale, so this is a point of contention. He’s obsessive about the game, drinks too much, and he sees coding in everything and starts putting code into the house as he’s refurbing it.
Then we jump forward to 2090. The world is overtaken by winged demons that are killing people. We’re with Morgan in an apocalyptic landscape and it’s brilliant. Well, not for Morgan, but I liked it and that’s really what counts here (sorry Morgan).
After an epic futuristic break, we’re with Greg again in the wake of a personal event, let’s say.
I suppose the ending is open to interpretation and I know which way I’d prefer to see it. This was an excellent story and my only criticism of it really is I wish the author had pulled back a bit on the ending. It’s a great potential work of scifi horror and an idea I’ve not come across before.
In conclusion, this is a very strong collection full of great stories and a lot of variety. Clive’s writing is wonderful, and I’ve said this before but he really is a talent and I’m excited to see what the future will bring for him. Absolutely worth a read and a spot on the shelf of any horror fan!
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
Leave a comment