- austrianspencer
Don't break the oath - edited by Jill Girardi
I received an ARC of this anthology in return for an honest review from Jill, I believe it was through Sadie Hartmann if memory serves? – and want to thank both for the opportunity.
This is a Women of Horror Anthology, and I was a little behind in reading it (it came out in September I think), so made sure I could fit it into women of horror month. There are some names I know from the horror community, some of whom I’d read already, some of which were new to me.
To cut to the chase – I liked this anthology, but that’s all. The stories in it were generally well written, a couple were stand out - Fluid, by R.A.Busby – a wonderful idea, and the concept was well realized in both presentation and voice – Seeds by Marie McWilliams – The Silver Horn by Alyson Faye (a fantasy-based tale from its feel) – and the opener – What the sea gives from K.P.Kulski, which was sad, poetic, stylized.
There were a couple of stories I didn’t like, they missed the mark with me, turned bizarre, or I found implausible, but that’s the nature of Horror – what one person finds horrific is another person’s daily grind – not everything is going to land when you throw things into the air. Some fly.
The editing was great, I know Jill from Slash-her and social media, and know how much writers rave about their experiences working with her. That’s evident here, my inner nerd editor had very little to say, it’s a pleasure to just read, and not find things.
I do have to say that, for me, most of the stories, though good, didn’t rise above that categorization. I liked the stories. I liked them in this anthology. It was great reading new authors (to me). But that spark was missing – I didn’t connect as much as I would have liked.
This gets a 3 out of 5 ⭐'s from me.
You can buy Don't Break The Oath, by clicking on the appropriate Amazon link:
