Review | The Third Corona Book of Horror Stories edited by Lewis Williams

A collection of nineteen horror stories selected from over 800 submissions by new and established authors in the horror genre.

He takes a carving knife from the block and carefully slices through the foam, but it doesn’t help. He swishes it from side to side, creating temporary lagoons, thinking maybe he was mistaken, when in one of the foamless gaps he spots something sliding across the bottom.

Something alive.

– Suds and Monsters (Christopher Stanley)

A superb anthology! Each story brings something different in creating a sense of fear. Whether that be in the hands of its questionable characters or the situation they find themselves in. There are psychological horrors, blood and gore, hauntings, and unknown terrors.

I think the scariest stories are found when humans do terrible things to each other. We get plenty of that, stemming from all kinds of circumstances like the painful dilemma in The Debt (John Haas), the welcoming narrator in The Barber (A.P. Sessler), bad decisions in Murderabilia (Adam Meyer) and unsolved murders in Worse Things (Molly Thynes). I really liked Roxy (Viktoria Faust) which has an ending I didn’t see coming and Lily’s Kids (Florence Ann Marlowe) which showcases unnerving child characters.

And what would a horror collection be without stories from the unworldly? I liked the variety of monsters here, like the thing in the sink in Suds and Monsters (Christopher Stanley), the return of something ancient in Old Gods (Sue Bentley), the disturbance in an apartment in The Haunting of April Heights (Tricia Lowther), a strange item in The First Circle (Sue Eaton) and a shocking discovery in Curious, If Anything (C.C. Adams).

I liked that each story is not too long but perfectly encapsulated in a few short pages. There is not a single dud, and the writing is outstanding. I also appreciate that this collection features a balanced number of male and female authors, and includes LGBTQ+ and BAME authors. You only need to read the stories here to see why this should be common practice. Having stories from diverse voices makes the horror genre richer. I admit I am not familiar with the authors featured but I am now a new fan. Reading this book made me feel like I never knew where the next scare is coming, and I loved it!

This is an entertaining collection where I can’t pick a favourite story, as I enjoyed so many of them. If you’re looking for new horror stories to cozy up with this Halloween, I can’t recommend The Third Corona Book of Horror Stories enough.

I received a copy from the publisher for review consideration.

About the publisher: Corona Books

Photo by Jim DiGritz