The Gathering Dark
An Anthology of Folk Horror
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
These are the stories that haunt us
A cemetery full of the restless dead. A town so wicked it has already burned twice, with the breath of the third fire looming. A rural, isolated bridge with a terrifying monster waiting for the completion of its summoning ritual. A lake that allows the drowned to return, though they have been changed by the claws of death. These are the shadowed, liminal spaces where the curses and monsters lurk, refusing to be forgotten.
Hauntings, and a variety of horrifying secrets, lurk in the places we once called home. Written by New York Times bestselling, and other critically acclaimed, authors these stories shed a harsh light on the scariest tales we grew up with.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This frightening anthology edited by Bovalino (Not Good for Maidens), who also contributes, features 10 folk-horror stories by authors including Chloe Gong, Courtney Gould, and Aden Polydoros. Bovalino's haunting "Loved by All, Save One" follows a group of bored, snowed-in teens as they learn the truth about a grisly town legend. In Allison Saft's eerie "Ghost on the Shore," bereft Maud teams up with an unlikely ally to work through her grief when a girl who looks like her dead best friend mysteriously walks out of a local lake. Olivia Chadha takes the concept of a calcified forest to new and terrifying heights in "Petrified," in which teenage Dhara, of Indian descent, alongside fellow members of tight-knit community Children of the Aspen, teaches a tourist that women and the land do not belong to him. And Shakira Toussaint's immersive tale "The Burning One" centers an unnamed narrator with brown skin who lives on a cliffside observing the Below, where newcomers have begun settling. Tapping into timeless fears such as ghosts and monsters, and interweaving overarching themes of friendship and love, this unique and delightfully creepy anthology delivers scares while inviting contemplation. Characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up.
