Dark bleatings, my fearsome tribe! I’m reviewing another Black Shuck Shadows collection today, this time by Aliya Whiteley (who is new to me!).
I REALLY enjoyed this micro-collection and – spoiler alert – I recommend it! The title implies that all of the stories are about…well…fearsome creatures. And they are! However, it’s not quite as narrow and straight forward as that. Some of the stories do feature actual animals/creatures putting fear in people, but some of them seem like human stories and you have to dig down a bit to find the monster hidden in them.
Day of the Dog
One of my favourites and a fantastic opener. A town installs a town-wide air freshener (mmm, lavender!), but unfortunately it does something pretty weird to everyone’s dogs. More of a ‘oh no, the dogs are going to kill us!’ than a ‘dog is man’s best friend’ kind of story. But who is really at fault here?
The Lovers That Lie Down in Fields
A couple decide to get intimate in a field and….well…this field expresses a desire of its own. This is so wonderfully weird and sort of sweet but also holy crap absolutely horrifying. It reminds me of an amazing Clive Barker story, the title of which eludes me right now, but this is a compliment.
Luisa Opines
This is one of the most unique takes on Red Riding Hood that I’ve ever read. A girl lives with her aunt and one day, a salesman starts turning up at the door asking her survey questions. Over time, she gets used to seeing him and enjoys the visits. One day, her aunt goes missing, and she goes out looking for her, and that’s when this story takes an insanely weird (but great) turn.
Wrapped
A pregnant Egyptologist makes a huge discovery only to find, via telegraph, that her husband has allowed/been complicit in men taking credit for her work. She’s very angry but this is the good old days so, of course, her husband decides she’s hysterical and takes some measures. This infuriated me and reminded me of The Yellow Wallpaper. I’m still furious, in fact.
A Very Modern Monster
This was such a fun one to close out the book with. A woman reconnects with an uncle that she barely knows and he takes her camping where there’s local legend of a creature. She doesn’t quite believe it but something is afoot! It’s a good old creature story with underlying subtext!
Overall, I think this collection is so strong. The stories, while connected by the underlying theme, are all completely, wildly different, but the quality never dips. The writing is consistently strong, the stories interesting and unique, and there’s also a lot of variety in the horror too.
I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy short stories. If you’d like to grab a copy or check out the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
FEARSOME CREATURES – FROM BLACK SHUCK BOOKS
FEARSOME CREATURES – FROM AMAZON
Bleeeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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