Book Review: Summer Slasher Horror Anthology: Vol. 1

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Summer Slasher Horror Anthology Vol. 1 is a collection of slasher stories, given the title. It's not; only one of these stories conceivably falls under that category. That doesn't mean it's not worth a read though. The editors have gathered an incredibly solid collection of horror stories here, especially so given that these authors are all fairly little known.


Aside from the fact they're not slashers, these stories have little in common with each other, apart from a generally high quality. Mark Braught's "Best Friends Forever" is a bittersweet Halloween tale, while "Intermission: Death at Weddings" by Bonnie Medford is dark poetry. The haunting "Death Comes in Threes" by Greg Bhatia takes place during the London Blitz, while Austin C. Nichols's "Beneath the Boat" is a creature feature set on the open ocean. 

The two best stories are the longer entries, "Cold Canaries" by Kristen Reid and "Walking With Strangers" by Dawn Major. In Reid's chilling tale, a group of miners find themselves trapped underground and being picked off one by one. In Major's, the tension is ratcheted up a little girl faces one obstacle after another trying to get home from school on her own. Terrors both fanciful and deadly real make this one truly harrowing.

Ultimately, Summer Slasher may not scratch your itch for a literary Friday the 13th, but it will introduce you to a collection of talented up and coming writers you might otherwise miss out on.

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