BOOK REVIEW: FROM THE DEPTHS, AN ANTHOLOGY OF TERROR EDITED BY LYDIA PRIME

20/1/2022

Graced by an insightful Introduction by British horror icon Ramsey Campbell, this anthology assembles thirteen short stories and a little poem.

The quality of the included tales is mostly high and Campbell’s introductory remarks are actually a sort of a commentary on the single stories themselves, so I will just focus on my own favourite and I will give a collective honorable mention to the other authors.

“ Instinct” by Catherine McCarthy is an offbeat, complex tale of graphic violence where events of the past come back to haunt a man living with a bad conscience.
Sonora Taylor contributes “ Meet Me in the Cemetery”, a macabre story of love and death where nothing is as it seems, while Jill Girardi pens” The Roiling” a disturbing SF piece depicting a world dominated by nasty amphibians.

In “ Weeds” by Elizabeth Black - a mix of horror and SF- strange dandelions and toxic pesticides exert terrible effects on the human body.

“ The House of Legion” by Mark Allan Gunnells is a strong, vivid story about an exorcism with an unexpected twist in the tail.

To me the best story in the book is “ Missing Pieces” by Josh Darling, an exceptional piece of fiction where baffled policemen try to find the culprit of a series of recurring violent murders.

Other contributors are Brandon Scott, Lydia Prime, Nicholas Catron, Joshua Marsella, Alexander Shedd, Bobbie Lee, Marie Lanza and RL Burwick.

FROM THE DEPTHS, AN ANTHOLOGY OF TERROR EDITED BY LYDIA PRIME

Fourteen horror authors were asked to dig deep within themselves and bring forth the story that best represents their dark art. Dive in and find what lurks in the murky depths of a writer's mind..

With foreword by the Master of Horror, Ramsey Campbell

Edited by Lydia Prime