Beneath the surface of small-town life lies a darkness waiting to be uncovered. Echoes in Dark Places is a collection of thirteen chilling stories that peel back the familiar façades of quiet communities to reveal the terror lurking within.
From a forgotten well that guards a horrifying secret to a snow-covered field where something unnatural waits to drag the unsuspecting under, each story delves into the eerie unknown hiding in plain sight. Ghostly apparitions, vengeful spirits, and malevolent forces move through these tales, proving that even the safest of places can harbor deep, unsettling fears.
In these pages, discover what happens when the ordinary meets the otherworldly and when the comfort of home is shattered by the unknown. Are you ready to step into a world where the echoes of dread never truly fade?
Explore Echoes in Dark Places—a journey into the haunting truths of hidden towns. But beware: once you hear the echoes, they may never leave you.
Dark bleatings, my spooky tribe! I’m here to bleat on about a short story collection today by an author that’s totally new to me, and this reading experience was a pleasure. Thirteen tales of terror, accented with a prologue and an epilogue, which was a very welcome unusual surprise. It’s usually a foreword from the author I expect to find in a collection.
PROLOGUE
An unconventional and interesting start to the collection that sets the tone/atmosphere for small town scary stories.
SUNDAY FISHING
Two boys go fishing and catch something unexpected…something it would have been better to have never discovered! A good creepy story – I only wish the ending packed a harder punch (though I changed my mind about that as I went through the rest of the collection, because there’s a particular story telling style in play here that only became apparent to me a few more stories in).
THE PAPER BOY
Ritualistic woodland shenanigans, missing kids, frightened animals…something devious is afoot. The town seems to subconsciously be readying itself for a decision or a showdown. There’s no central character to focus on and so it reads like someone is telling you a story around a campfire, which I liked.
THE THING IN THE WOODS
Something is lurking in the woods, something ancient. And Claude encounters it! At this point I “got” the style of the overall book and realised these stories are much more about letting the reader in on the secret that there are a lot of scary, small town peculiarities to be wary of, rather than tying everything up with a nice neat bow.
MONSTER IN THE GRAVEYARD
David becomes aware of a malevolent entity that can imitate the people he knows. Creepy. VERY creepy – the stuff of my own personal nightmares, and probably my favourite in the collection.
THE FIELD
Ghost cowboys! Can’t say anything more really without spoiling, but a rootin’ tootin’ spooky time.
HEADS UP!
CJ meets a pumpkin-headed man one Halloween that plays a trick with a decapitated head. Halloween will never be the same for CJ again!
SNOWBOUND
Lucy has to walk home in the snow from work and she decides to cut through the woods, where something lurks beneath…
Very original take on a familiar trope!
THE GATOR MAN
The clue is in the title!
Note: It was at this point that I realised there’s a noticeable lack of death in these stories, considering this is a horror collection. I found this refreshing, actually, because it felt like the author was tapping into the lighter, spookier side of horror that drew me in to the genre in the first place.
BLACK MIRROR
Okay, this is the only one I didn’t like because of nitpicking reasons. Two girls find a weird mirror in their gran’s attic, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why Gran hadn’t just smashed it up.
DINNER TIME
Stephen’s invited to a dinner party and when he gets there he discovers things about his neighbours that no one would ever want to find out. Actually, this one was my favourite! It also differed from those that preceded it because it had a definitive ending, which served this story beautifully.
THE WELL
This one is exceptionally creepy but it wasn’t a favourite because I didn’t understand the behaviour of the parents, especially the mum, at all.
SOMETHING IN MY CLOSET
A girl is scared of something in her closet, a red eyed something. She tells her parents, and they tell her to stay out of the closet. The closet woman comes back with a bizarre and frightening claim about her identity. Creepiness of the flesh-crawling variety but I must have been in my picky mode because I poked a few holes in this one too.
It’s probably worth mentioning that the people in my day to day life often exclaim things like, “WHY CAN’T YOU STOP POKING HOLES IN THINGS?” and “For God’s sake, can’t you just enjoy stuff?” So take my gripes with a pinch of salt and decide for yourself.
THE SPACESHIP
Aliens! Aliens? That’s all I’m saying.
EPILOGUE
I really don’t want to tell you anything about the epilogue because it’s such a great closer to the book and I don’t want to spoil the overall tone the author hit with it, but it was good.
Overall, this was a mixed bag for me but I enjoyed much more than I didn’t enjoy. It’s suitable for an adult audience but because of the type of storytelling and horror the author has pulled off here, I’d also really recommend this to preteens and a YA readership. There’s nothing that I would deem problematic for an impressionable audience so if you’re a parent trying to find books for your horror-hungry kids, this makes a perfect choice.
My favourite thing about it as a whole is that though the author uses a lot of well-worn tropes and themes, there’s an original spin on almost everything here. There’s a unique flair in a lot of places that I didn’t expect to see it, and great imagination. It made me feel the same way that I felt when I was devouring episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? as a teenager. Of all the collections I’ve read in the last year, this one most evoked that atmosphere of being told scary stories at night around a campfire with friends.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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