HORROR LIBRARY, Vol. 8

ed. by Eric J. Guignard

Dark Moon Books
(www.DarkMoonBooks.com)
2023, 307 pages, $16.95

ISBN 978-1-949491-51-7

Click here to purchase

This anthology’s best tales:
“Rides” by Eric Del Carlo. Benjamin (Benny) Forsyth recalls his youth and his criminal past when he recognizes several of the cars he has owned and sold from his past. The cars bring back memories of his criminal youth and the ghosts of one of his crimes won’t let him forget it.
“Only the Stones Will Hear You Scream” by R.A. Busby. Pete is on a spelunking expedition to some chamber with his friend, the cave-touring expert, Kevin. But Pete takes a wrong turn into a very narrow tunnel in the ants’ nest of caves and learns the nature of claustrophobic horror.
“Mr. Hunicutt” by Bentley Little. A couple need to rent from a boarding house in which one resident is quite literally a bunch of spoiled walnuts. That skeleton of nuts is Mr. Hunicutt, and he wants residents to be always courteous and sensitive to him — or else.
“Under the Pale Mother Moon” by Garick Cooke. Sentient wolves seem to think they can eventually conquer primitive mankind, but mankind’s powers prove tough to defeat.
“The Old Tip Road” by C.M. Saunders. Two young men encounter a sort of junkyard with an old chest freezer, only opened from the outside. They rap on it, hearing it rap back. Could a boy missing and presumed dead be alive in there? What should they do but open it and find out?
“Holler Bridge” by J.L. Hoy. A professor is judging the results of a spate of student suicides off of a well-known bridge near the campus. Are the deaths the result of student depression or is it the bridge itself?
“Unwind” by Christopher O’Halloran. A man just wants to go to his quiet place, his bathroom, to get relief and a little peace of mind when he encounters a demon coming up through the toilet.
“Girlskin” by Clara Madrigano. An ordinary girl believes she is a werewolf, which proves to be true.
“In Fear as Dark as Coal (A Poem)” by Ron Perovich. A coal mine cave-in entraps a man, much like old Pa. Marty Junior greets his fate, with growing trepidation bordering almost on horror.
“The Yearning Pool” by Thomas P. Balazs. “Sue” is the object of many a boy’s attraction, including one guy who sees her naked in an abandoned swimming pool, and then she disappears. What happened to her? One ventures out, again, alone to find her. Find her he does, but at what cost?
“We Can’t Let Go” by Sheldon Higdon. Mira Wagner is a social worker sent to a home of a woman named Donna with her 10-year-old son, Tyler. There’s something very sad, unusual and frightening about the son-mother relationship, something that Mira ends up relating to.