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brennanlafaro 's review for:
Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors
by Michael Bailey, Doug Murano
Editors Doug Murano and Michael Bailey have now released Miscreations into the wild. The book started off in the hands of Night Worms customers in January, giving a whole lot of happy horror fans early access to what will surely be one of the most anticipated anthologies of 2020.
Murano and Bailey have talked about how much time and care goes into curating an anthology, and Miscreations has that care on display in every facet. The illustrations and title fonts fit the creating a monster theme superbly. Adding to that the order of stories and inclusion of poetry by some of horror's top voices felt very blatant and pored over. Alma Katsu's introduction is also a can't-miss addition to the collection.
The bookends in Miscreations, A Heart Arrhythmia Creeping into a Dark Room by Michael Wehunt and Frankenstein's Daughter by Theodora Goss, are the perfect choices to begin and end with. Wehunt's piece is a self-aware, fourth wall breaker that I almost mistook for a second introduction. It evoked such anxiety in me by the time all was said and done. Goss' piece is a direct homage, and spiritual successor to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.
Murano and Bailey seemingly made very conscious decisions to pull stories that would give us a worldly flavor, pulling various monsters and mythology from all over. Matryoshka by Joanna Parypinski, The Vodyanoy by Christina Sng, and Resurrection Points by Usman T. Malik are some prime examples of stories that entertained me by showing me a side of horror I hadn't been familiar with before.
Like any anthology, not every piece resonated with me, but I found the misses to be few and far between. Since the whole book reads like a story from cover-to-cover, it's easy to shrug off a story that didn't work for me in anticipation of what comes next. One of the biggest reasons that this anthology is an easy recommendation is the sheer number of stories that blew my mind with their underlying commentary, social or otherwise.
I won't go into detail about all my favorites because you should probably be spending your time reading Miscreations rather than a 7-page review of it, but I'll leave you with some of the stories that worked best for me: Operations Other Than War by Nadia Bulkin, You Are My Neighbor by Max Booth III, Spectral Evidence by Victor LaValle, and My Knowing Glance by Lucy A. Snyder.
Special attention to Josh Malerman for putting a really interesting and unique take on a werewolf story, and to Ramsey Campbell for Brains, which was hands down my favorite story in the collection. I bought this as a very satisfied Night Worms subscriber. If you aren't getting their monthly packages, what are you even doing?
Murano and Bailey have talked about how much time and care goes into curating an anthology, and Miscreations has that care on display in every facet. The illustrations and title fonts fit the creating a monster theme superbly. Adding to that the order of stories and inclusion of poetry by some of horror's top voices felt very blatant and pored over. Alma Katsu's introduction is also a can't-miss addition to the collection.
The bookends in Miscreations, A Heart Arrhythmia Creeping into a Dark Room by Michael Wehunt and Frankenstein's Daughter by Theodora Goss, are the perfect choices to begin and end with. Wehunt's piece is a self-aware, fourth wall breaker that I almost mistook for a second introduction. It evoked such anxiety in me by the time all was said and done. Goss' piece is a direct homage, and spiritual successor to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.
Murano and Bailey seemingly made very conscious decisions to pull stories that would give us a worldly flavor, pulling various monsters and mythology from all over. Matryoshka by Joanna Parypinski, The Vodyanoy by Christina Sng, and Resurrection Points by Usman T. Malik are some prime examples of stories that entertained me by showing me a side of horror I hadn't been familiar with before.
Like any anthology, not every piece resonated with me, but I found the misses to be few and far between. Since the whole book reads like a story from cover-to-cover, it's easy to shrug off a story that didn't work for me in anticipation of what comes next. One of the biggest reasons that this anthology is an easy recommendation is the sheer number of stories that blew my mind with their underlying commentary, social or otherwise.
I won't go into detail about all my favorites because you should probably be spending your time reading Miscreations rather than a 7-page review of it, but I'll leave you with some of the stories that worked best for me: Operations Other Than War by Nadia Bulkin, You Are My Neighbor by Max Booth III, Spectral Evidence by Victor LaValle, and My Knowing Glance by Lucy A. Snyder.
Special attention to Josh Malerman for putting a really interesting and unique take on a werewolf story, and to Ramsey Campbell for Brains, which was hands down my favorite story in the collection. I bought this as a very satisfied Night Worms subscriber. If you aren't getting their monthly packages, what are you even doing?