Happy Goat Horror

The baker’s dozen of stories in this book will scare you! They may really terrify you! While you read these thirteen terror tales and stare at the diabolical drawings, don’t be surprised if they give you nightmares. You have been warned!

However, if you are not afraid of monsters, ghosts, witches and other unspeakable things, and are not worried about being unable to sleep or being creeped out by horrors lurking in the shadows, then you’re going to love this volume! Inside you will discover spine-tingling tales about what happens when you wake up in the middle of the night, including:
•    a young girl’s new bedroom haunted by a warlock’s cat-familiar
•    a couple who find refuge in a deserted farmhouse that is home to something unspeakably horrible
•    a man who is visited by a ghostly company seeking revenge
•    a group of friends menaced by the dead at a Halloween party
•    and other stories too frightening to mention here!

Compiled by award-winning horror editor Stephen Jones and illustrated by acclaimed artist Randy Broecker, Scary Stories to Tell at Night features fear-filled fiction from Ramsey Campbell, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Mia Dalia, Sharon Gosling, Garry Kilworth, Stephen King, Dana Middleton, Lisa Morton, Kim Newman, Lynda E. Rucker, Robert Silverberg, Angela Slatter and Michael Marshall Smith. Get ready to hide under the covers and be really chilled!

Dark bleatings, my scary story loving tribe! I’ve got a BRAND NEW anthology for you today, because it’s out today (yay!), edited by the wonder that is Stephen Jones. Before we jump into the stories, I want to mention the wonderful artwork by Randy Broecker, which you will find throughout the book. Truly fantastic work, and a great accompaniment to the stories, which we’re now going to dive into.

What Happens When You Wake Up In the Night – by Michael Marshall Smith

The book opens with a story that chilled me to the bone, particularly in the last paragraph. In my notes, I wrote, “well, this is creepy as shit.” A little girl wakes up one night and struggles to get out of her room, not because she can’t see through the pitch blackness, but because the door handle doesn’t seem to be where it normally is. The further we go into this story, the more dread-inducing it gets. I loved it.

Trick or Retreat – by Lisa Morton

This one invokes Celtic folklore (the very best kind, I have to say), and makes for a perfect autumnal read. One Halloween, the adults start acting…weird. Not just Halloween weird, but “they’re not themselves” weird. Extremely creepy and very effective.

The Cat Room – by R. Chetwynd-Hayes

A family move into a house and the little girl immediately claims to have seen a ghost cat. Of course, her parents don’t believe her. They never do, do they? This wasn’t a favourite (it was less scary to me than the other two), but it is a nice modern gothic with a twist.

A Touch of Blue – by Dana Middleton

This one is pretty freaky. Lucy wants to recreate a family photo at a holiday spot because the original was taken before her brother was born, and she wants one with him included. Things take an extremely unpredictable turn, which I found impressive because that’s pretty hard to pull off in a short story. I do think there were maybe one too many things going on towards the end, but I loved the concept and the execution, for the most part. I shall not be going on any rides any time soon, let’s just say that.

The Other Side of Fear – by Mia Dalia

A retelling of our good old legendary friend, Baba Yaga. A little girl meets an old woman in the woods, and I can’t tell you the rest because of spoilers. Fantastic imagery painted by Dalia here. I think this maybe could have been a little bit shorter (for my tastes), but if you enjoy getting wrapped up in fantastical horror, this will definitely be for you.

Only the Dead and the Moonstruck – by Angela Slatter

I have to say, the placement of these stories is fantastic because it’s only fitting that the fiendish folklore of Mia Dalia should cosy up with the f***ed up fairy tales of Angela Slatter. This one is responsible for me jumping out of my skin when my bedroom window creaked the other night. Something is lurking, hoping for a live offering. I love these kinds of stories, and this one was chilling.

Older Than God – by Sharon Gosling

“You won’t be able to bring your God here…”

I’m a little obsessed with this one and I think it’s probably my favourite in the anthology. A girl and her religious dad move to a town so tiny it can barely be called a town, and she meets a girl that issues the most bizarre and unsettling warnings you could possibly hear of a new, strange place. Great writing, some wonderful lines, and outstanding folk horror.

The Horror in the Attic – by Robert Silverberg

This wasn’t a personal favourite but it’s a good story and would be well-received by those of you that love good, old-fashioned monster stories. A young couple elope and are staying in an old house, where they unfortunately discover there are worse things than creepy crawlies lurking.

The King of the Gibbous Moon – by Lynda E. Rucker

This is a surprisingly wholesome story (for a horror anthology) about friendship and connections. A group of teenagers connect through an online game, but the scary things within it might not be confined to the land of digital fiction. Again, it wasn’t a favourite (I prefer to be scared at the end of a short!), but it’s definitely one of the more unique stories in the book.

Richard Riddle, Boy Detective in “The Case of the French Spy” – by Kim Newman

This is classic Kim Newman – a blend of horror and mystery, with characters that feel like they jumped out of a Sherlock story and right into a supernatural horror, magnifying glasses and theories and all. Fossils, logic, religion…it’s all in here.

The Nightmarchers – by Garry Kilworth

Jack digs up some bones one day, not thinking much of it until he realises that he has angered quite a lot of people. Dead people. A creepy story that indeed would be perfect to tell at night.

Gramma – by Stephen King

I’ve read this one before (of course!) but you can never read a King short too many times. It’s about a boy who is left alone with his elderly Gramma, and he spends much of the time worried about being responsible for her. There are other horrors in this scenario for him though, as he will soon discover. Excellent.

Apples – by Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell excels, as always, creating a perfect atmosphere in this story, which feels perfectly suited for Halloween. A group of kids are partaking in some Halloween games involving apples, but soon grow suspicious of the apples…maybe for good reason. Tremendous!

Overall, this is a solid anthology and I loved most of the stories. What a wonderful mixture of subgenres, tones, characters, and types of scares. Very often, it reminded me of Are You Afraid of the Dark? There was a sense of sitting around a campfire with friends, under a dark, cold sky, freaking each other out. I’d recommend this to horror fans, it feels like there’s something for everyone.

If you’d like to check out the book or the editor, I’ve popped some links below for you.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL AT NIGHT

STEPHEN JONES

Bleeeeat!