Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Haunted Are These Houses edited by Eddie Generous & Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi Review

haunted

Haunted are These Houses explores the gothic sub-genre through poetry and fiction: from castle and lighthouses to suburbia to laundromats. It features 22 poems and 12 short stories sure to rattle bones and send shadows dancing about the walls..


Emily’s Review

“A man is a fool to try to account for shadows.” – Mary Wilkins Freeman

Haunted Are These Houses is an anthology of 32 gothic poems and short stories edited by Eddie Generous & Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi. I had read some of these authors before, but a lot of them were new to me. I was introduced to writers I would love to check out more from, such as Moira Gillen, Catherine Cavendish, Angela Zimmerman, and more. I was very happy to see so many women horror writers in this book, and it was very refreshing.

This book is a blend of current and classic stories and poems, and I struggled through some of the older ones. I’ve avoided a lot of classic authors since college, so it was jarring at times to have them mixed on with the newer stories at times. This is my personal problem, though, and not a fault of the book.

My top 5 stories and poems by women in this anthology were Our Room of Walking Coffins by Stephanie Wytovich, Landscape of a Haunting by Erika Hogan, The Brothers by Erin MacNair, The Call of the House of Usher by Annie Neugebauer, and Inheritance by Christina Sng. Annie Neugebauer was the only one of these writers I had read before, and I’m always happy to find new horror writers. I didn’t care for some of the other stories in the anthology, and it ended up being hit or miss for me. That being said, there were many strong stories & poems in Haunted Are These Houses.

Overall, I enjoyed this anthology, and Haunted Are These Houses is a good survey of gothic literature. If this is something you’re interested in exploring, this anthology is a great place to start. If you’re interested in hearing from some of the authors, Eddie Generous is currently doing mini-interviews with some of them on Unnerving Podcast. I recently heard the one with Annie Neugebauer discussing her story, and it was fun to get a closer look. I appreciate the concept of being interactive with the book through the podcast.

Unnerving Press | Better World Books | Amazon


Author Links

Eddie Generous – website

Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi – website

Gemma Files – website

Catherine Cavendish – website

Christina Sng – website

John McIlveen – website

S.L. Edwards – website

Annie Neugebauer – website

Christi Nogle – website

David Busboom – website

Bruce Boston – website

Stephanie Wytovich – website

Sara Tantlinger – website

Hailey Spencer – website

Moira Gillen – website

John Kiste – website

Mary Wilkins Freeman – website

Megan Mary Moore- website

Benjamin Chirlin –  website

Brian James Lewis – website

Sheldon Woodbury – website

Joseph VanBuren – website

Erin MacNair – website

Erika Hogan – website

Tobias Radloff – website

Shannon Connor Winward – website

Angela Zimmerman – website

Chris McGinley – website

Ashley Dioses – website

J.T. Seate – website

W.P. Osborne – website

J. Martin – website

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin