Review | Served Cold by Alan Baxter

A collection of sixteen chilling, surprising and eerie horror stories featuring monsters, cults, and unexplained phenomena.

A closet door stood half-open. He glanced towards it and froze. The snakes in his stomach burst into ice water, his heart hammered in his throat. In the darkness of the closet, a grin glowed gently.

– Served Cold 

What a collection! While the stories take place in mundane settings, something frightful springs up to shake the foundations of the characters. There are hints of a bigger universe with weird and fantastic creatures that are only seen in glimpses.

As reflected by the title, the theme of revenge is clear in many of the stories. This is seen through a boy’s desperate call for help in Served Cold, a supernatural payback in Exposure Compensation, an unexpected doorway to the past in The Ocean Hushed the Stones, a summoning gone wrong in Ways To Live And Die, and a frightening adventure into the Dark Web in Crying Demon.

The theme of grief is also apparent, like in the prophetic The Goodbye Message, the sorrowful Her Grief in My Halls, and the heartbreaking Simulacrum of Hope. Crossroads and Carousels plays on the idea of the choices and sacrifices in life. I liked that while these stories are underlined with sadness, there is a spark of hope too.

This collection also has some truly scary, memorable monsters. In How Father Bryant Saw the Light, a priest helps a child who claims she is haunted by the Gangle Man and ends up with more than he bargained for. A man lives between the real-life and the dream world in Dream Shadow, as does a group of office workers at a conference in Waters Strangely Clear. Yellowheart features a group of friends on a vacation from hell, where the terrors come from something human, and something worse. Exquisite shows the effects of human choices and perhaps a different kind of monster.

While I enjoyed all the stories, a couple really stood out for me. In Vaulted Halls Entombed, a group of soldiers enter a dark cave and encounter inexplicable horrors. It’s action-packed, gory but also surprisingly moving, and I wouldn’t mind reading an entire book taking place in this universe. Taking the tube will never be the same again for me after reading They All Come Through London in the End, where a man stumbles into something malevolent while riding the underground train.

A strong collection of horror stories that not only frightens but forces the reader to think – would you make the same choices as these characters? Then again, what can you do when monsters come calling? Best not to read this after dark!

I received a copy from the publisher for review purposes.

About the author: Alan Baxter

Photo by Mikael Kristenson