James D. Jenkins

Overall I feel it's a mixed bag and it averages out at 3 or maybe 3.5 if you're generous. There's a few really good stories, a few duds, then a bunch of stuff that's sometimes pretty good but nothing exciting enough to recommend. I'm still glad I read it and enjoyed the experience because it's cool seeing horror from around the world and the different styles and things referenced.


Uironda: does the "mysterious place existing somehow right alongside ours and you could easily slip into it" thing but by making the protagonist a trucker it draws something new out of it, showing trucking as a parallel world already and for one to slip out of everyone's lives isn't so strange. There's a little bit of a silly twist at the end but the grotesque imagery there is wonderful and the whole thing really stuck in my head. Great stuff. 4/5
Mater Tenebrarum: don't really understand this one. Poor homeless orphan kind of wanders around a town as an apprentice to a witch? It has shaggy dog story vibes, and not the clever kind. Just felt like nothing happened and it didn't explore anything. 1.5/5
the Time Remaining: a great exploring of a simple concept, the lives kids breathe into their toys and what happens when it collides with the "white" lies of a dodgy parenting technique. There's a few bits of supernatural stuff here but the real horror is the intensity of the kid trying to "save" his "sick" toy and the lengths he goes to, which is all realist. Again, really great 4/5
The Angle of Horror: maybe partly a translation thing but relies on you finding them talking about "seeing the angle" believably sinister rather than them doing a maths problem. Otherwise... Idk? A story about alienation and depression? Kinda. I thought it was going to be a vampire story but no. Not sure what's going on here. 2/5
Down, in their World: a creepy and ultimately gory story about the things that end up in abandoned mines in Romania. Not really my sort of horror but pretty good 3/5
The Collector: pretty clichéd and goofy and predictable but very short and the final image is still pretty great just on its own 3/5
Señor Ligotti: hmmm. Not sure what to say about this one. Does some mildly scary but in a confusing way things then ends on a reveal that feels kind of whiffed.The rich old man who also terrorised him was the executive of the publishing company and did weird shit to get him to write a book? I mean... It's ok but it's kind of just a goofy ending haha 2.5/5.
The Illogical Investigations: there's a couple of wonderfully gory images here I loved the ending of a guy getting eaten by a tree while hallucinating the tree is like some sort of gingerbread house with an erotic element. Great stuff but it's wrapped up in a weird frame story of a group of policemen that feels like it's supposed to be funny but without being funny and that punctures the scary atmosphere rather than forming a clever contrast. I admit translation might be the issue here but! 2.5/5
Menopause: A short story with a great absurd concept that doesn't outstay its welcome. Maybe not very horror and a littlleee uncomfortable with certain language relating to trans stuff but it's such a good idea I can't not love it a world where when women go through menopause they become men 4/5
The Bones in her Eyes: Just a straightforwardly well-written great horror story. Variations on someone who sucks the life out of you to stop dying are pretty common but it's just really solidly and scarily done. Great 4/5
Twin Shadows: ehhh I dunno. I guess it's like, a vampire story? Given she appears to hang from a rod in the wardrobe from the first page. She's like, a stillbirth who became a vampire? And then after a story about her relationship with her twin sister over like 20 years she kills her sister to make her a vampire or something?? idk just felt like a dumb ending and overall didn't do anything for me. 2/5
Backstairs: man. A really uncomfortable story that gets more and more uncomfortable the more it goes on. Major trigger warning for child sexual abuse and connected stuff. It starts as a psychiatrist treating a child patient who's having terrifying nightmares but there's a "massager" involved and the story builds on sexual themes and around crossing the boundary to becoming an adult woman and the way people see you and it changes you until the final horrific reveal that the girl is being abused by some sort of creature from beyond while she's sleeping with the complicity and support of her mother. And she may be the creatures daughter. Despite being on such intense themes it doesn't feel exploitative and only shows a little explicity at the very end - the feeling of violation and a cycle of misogynistic violence is present mostly through suggestion and parallel through the rest. Maybe for other people it doesn't come off or crosses the line but it's the best I've read so far. 4.5/5
Pale Toes: a spontaneous cave trip with a random guy in France goes wrong for a couple. There's one really good little scene where they're in the cave together naked and when weird shit starts happening the guy who led them there starts getting erect and there's some interesting elements around sex and age but it feels like it doesn't cohere super well? And shows a bit more of the things it doesn't need to and a little bit too little of the things it should. It's ok and there's interesting stuff just not quite there. 3/5
Kira: about regretting lost love at a South African lake. The horror element is pretty small and not very exciting. It sort of fits into the rest of the story but there's just not really much to this one, either in scares or something to think about. Cool dog though. 2.5/5
Donation: Hmm... I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. A bratty kid at the door taking mild advantage of people who won't just kick him out leads to two people talking about their relationship and it's dramatic. I was waiting for some sort of... Something but it was weird. Tense but because I kept imagining there would be something more that didn't come. The couple flip between reacting so meekly and so extremely that it gives you whiplash. The horror element is pretty weak because what the boy does is so tame, relatively. I dunno. Wasn't feeling it. 2.5/5
Tiny Women: Very short and doesn't do much but just the concept of a colony of tiny women living like bedbugs is fun as a short sketch. Not exactly horror but bedbugs are terrifying enough so 3.5/5
Mechanisms: an interesting story that juggles the emotions around parenthood and close relationships and "pursuing your dream" Vs stability and responsibility. The horror is there and then you think it's normal and then suddenly it's back again and at the end everything comes together in a completely bizarre ending with an incredibly image of a guy who doesn't want children suddenly developing a nipple that lactates to feed a "bear cub" that's probably something else (dog, possibly?) And asking his husband to take a photo 4/5
The House of Leuk Dawour: is this... An anti drug story? There's a sort of cliched element to this I guess she shot her husband while under the influence thinking he was an evil spirit. and you're left thinking... Was there any supernatural involved actually ooo spooky and it doesn't do much with it but it's fine and short and I enjoyed finding out about another country's mythology. 3/5
The White Cormorant: a classic tale of someone being told not to do something and then doing it for some reason and then it's bad? Plus the ending is... a time loop? eh. Mostly a horror story about sailing being dangerous tbh. 2.5/5
All the Birds: the horror is mild and very obscure - maybe what happens at the end makes more sense to someone with a Filipino background - but it's a sweet story about lesbian love and missed opportunities and I'm a sucker for anything with lesbian stuff sorry 3.5/5
Snapshots: just a short creepy idea of bad things happening with a photo booth. Somehow it feels a little too "random" for my own taste in horror but it is creepy. 3/5… (más)

Again this suffers from the anthology problem where the quality isn't really consistent and it was hard to pick stand outs as stuff kind of blurred together. There's only 1 outright bad story here I think but i get the feeling some weaker stories were chosen just because they're more obscure and not printed before or whatever. Which is interesting in its own way! But difficult to rate on a pure enjoyment level.

My favourite was really barely a horror story, California Burning by Michael Blumlein - about the aftermath of death and what we really know about someone. Also stylistically I found myself drawn more to the older stuff from Victorian era and a bit after - even when the horror is bad and cliche the approach really works for me… (más)

This book is a collection of horror stories across the ages from the late 1800s to one new to this volume. I enjoyed the selection and order of stories but would have preferred a stronger story at the end. Before each story is a brief literary history of the author and the date the selected story is written. The latter is imperative in my opinion for short story collections of older works. A great selection of stories which I mostly loved and only one dud. Many of the stories appear here for the first time. A pleasure to read this collection of unique stories.

1. Aunty Green (1977) - Reprinted here for the first time since original publication. Aunty Green abused little Jimmy terribly as a child but now he's a multimillionaire and is coming to visit her for the first time since then. Predictable but pleasant reading. (3/5)

2. Miss Mack by Michael McDowell (1986) - The headmaster is jealous of the relationship between two teachers. This is a well-written story with fully developed characters and very enjoyable but the ending was disappointing. (3/5)

3. School Crossing by Francis King (1979) - A man has visions of children crossing the road at a school crossing. The ending is predictable but the story is fun and only hints at other of the man's problems. (4/5)

4. A Psychological Experiment by Richard Marsh (1900) - Talk in the smoking room had been about murder and suicide. As the room emptied Mr Howitt turns to a remaining stranger and says what dreadful talk. The stranger then proceeds to tell him a story of a murder that he'd heard of. I didn't like this one. It's rather tedious reading and the twist was not much. (2/5)

5. The Progress of John Arthur Crabbe by Stephen Gregory. (1982) - A woman gives birth late in life. Unfortunately, her husband died one month before. The boy is mentally challenged and has slight physical deformities. However, he has the gift to heal animals. This is short and the twist comes with the last sentence. Well told and interesting until we start wondering and that last sentence grabs us. (5/5)

6. The Frozen Man by John Trevana (1912) - Set in the Frozen Canadian North. Three men, one of them an "Indian", set out going north with a dog sledge. One man is ill and that evening the Northern Lights shine red bringing spirits with them. Well-written having the essence of Jack London. A delightful tale of the Canadian North where the spirits of the Natives meld with those of the Whiteman. (4/5)

7. California Burning by Michael Blumlein (2009) - This story is very long. A man takes his father's body to a crematorium but the bones refuse to burn. A well-written piece of grief horror. The man's father is a developed character owing to the length. The plot goes to unexpected places. (4/5)

8. Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley (1890) - Written seven years before "Dracula" this is a somewhat vampiric tale set in an antiquated village in Yorkshire. This is my favourite story so far. Well-written and engrossing. (5/5)

9. Out of Sorts by Bernard Taylor (1983) - A woman has been married for twenty-five years and is fed up with her husband's continuous affairs. So she plans to make sure it never happens again. A fun story. I never even expected what the twist turned out to be. Loved it! (4/5)

10. The Head and the Hand by Christopher Priest (1972) - A man who is crippled from his performance art of self-mutilation returns to the stage for one more time. This was gruesome in the thought of what has happened to the man and while I didn't foresee the tiny twist it wasn't shocking. Well-written and unsettling. (4/5)

11. The Ghost of Charlotte Cray by Florence Marriage (1883) - A man is hounded by a woman who is in love with him. Though he must see her as she is a client but he does not feel the same. Then he marries someone else and she continues to stalk him. Then she died. This is excellent and well-told with a bit of literary writing. Not creepy but probably would. have been at the time of writing. It's a lot of fun. (5/5)

12. The Grim White Woman by M.G. Lewis (1808) - I started this with apprehension as it is written in prose. I do not like most poetry, however, story poems I find readable. This is about a knight who dumps his lady friend and so she curses him in the name of the Grim White Woman. It's ok as far as the story goes. It's written in AABB rhyme making it easy to read and the galloping rhythm also helps those not fond of poetry. I'd give this a 2 simply for being a poem, though that is not fair so I'm giving it a 3. (3/5)

13. The Terror on Tobit by Charles Birkin (1933) - Two teenage girls insist on spending the night on a small island that people disappear from. This totally creeped me out. I couldn't stop thinking about it last night. I must read more of the author. My favourite story. (5/5)

14. Furnished Apartments by Forrest Reid (unpublished) - A man in a pub tells the tale of his first night in a furnished room in London. Extremely atmospheric and weird. I don't really get it but it is certainly well-told and strange. (4/5).

15. Something Happened by Hugh Fleetwood (2016) - Four servants look after the Boss' Switzerland home which he never visits and where nothing ever happens. One day Boss' friend comes for a visit and something happens. This is like a fairy tale and sweet. (3/5)

16. The Tarn by Hugh Walpole (1923) - A man who preferred his own company out in the country has a friend, whom he despises, spend a couple of nights. He keeps dreaming of killing him. This was very atmospheric and I found the lead-up to be more creepy than the actual ending. A good story. (3/5)

17. The Gentleman All in Black by Gerald Kersh (1946) - The Devil bargains for a man's time. Very short. Pretty boring but well-written. (3/5)… (más)

I have to applaud the editors at Valancourt for the immense time and effort it must have taken to not only comb the globe for great stories, but to also translate them for this book. The magnitude of such an endeavor is overwhelming to me. Luckily it was all worth it as this is a fantastic collection of horrifying short stories from around the world!

The stories vary widely in their plots and the type of horror they contain, so there is truly something for everyone here. It was exciting reading this collection as each new story also introduced me to a new author, many of whom I would love to read more from. As with all anthologies there are hits and misses, but overall this is a solid group of entertaining and terrifying tales!!

Some stand outs for me are:

“Mater Tenebrarum” by Pilar Pedraza (Spain)
“The Time Remaining” by Attila Veres (Hungary)
“Señor Ligotti” by Bernardo Esquinca (Mexico)
“The Bones in Her Eyes” by Christien Boomsma (Netherlands)
“All the Birds” by Yvette Tan (Philippines)… (más)