BOOK REVIEW: IN DARKNESS DELIGHT - CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

I was very excited to receive a copy of In Darkness Delight:  Creatures of the Night because I liked the first one, Masters of Midnight so much.  And while there were many good stories within the Creatures of the Night collection, overall, I didn’t find this collection as powerful as I expected it would be. 
 
This collection did expose me to authors I’ve never read before, which is always a good thing.  Some of the authors I’ve been hearing about since I started reviewing books in the horror genre, about 18 months ago.  Other authors were brand new to me.
 
I did have a few favorite stories that stuck with me well after reading them.
 
The collection opens with “The People in the Toilet” by Mason Morgan.  A young boy is convinced that there are bad people living in the toilet.  The boy is more afraid of the toilet than he is of his abusive father that makes the lives of the boy and his mother a living hell.  It was pretty unsettling to me at first, but I’d rather read something which moves than does not.  A strong way to open the collection, this story might have you think about toilets a little differently.
 
I also really liked “Scales” by Christopher Motz.  This one made me cringe with the gruesome accounts of a horrible flesh-eating infection that starts in his foot.  And plenty of maggots.  I’m not one who easily cringes, but when I put myself in the main character’s position while reading the book, I felt a little green.  I read this while waiting to donate blood, so mixing in a little body horror while waiting for the needle made for an interesting evening.  But then other lines cracked me up so hard, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.  I love to laugh, so if someone can mix humor with horror in a way I like, then I’m a fan.
 
“A Survivor” by Ray Garton totally blew me away.  One night, Robby’s father was bitten by a weird animal.  He said it’d had more than four legs and moved so quickly it was like a blur.  Then his father started changing, acting distant and sinister.  This story was expertly packed with a dark, foreboding feeling throughout the whole thing, and an unexpected ending that was hard to shake off.
 
“Hinkles” by Kristopher Rufty was another one of my favorites.  I liked it right away because the “creature” was an animate stuffed animal named Hinkles.  I watched Chucky at a really young age, so any sort of toy or doll that can move on its own really freaks me out.  We also always had sock monkeys growing up, so I just imagined one of our own stuffed animals coming to life, like in this short story.  There was a great mix of creepiness, violence and humor in this one.  Hinkles is quite the smartass.
 
Other stories I liked were “Gertrude” by Evans Light and “The Worms Turn” by Frank Oreto.
 
All of the pieces included in the anthology were well-written, so the quality of writing/editing was there.  They just didn’t resonate with me, personally.  It could very well be that the theme of the collection might not have been for me, but I’d hoped for more frights and scares than I got from the book.  It’s still worth checking out if you’re a fan of short story collections.
 
And while I may not have liked this collection as much as the other Corpus Press collections I’ve read, I liked how many of the stories conveyed a sense of overcoming something, or at least trying to overcome something.  The characters were trying to rid themselves of a past that haunts them, an infestation that simply shows up, or an evil creature that lurks in the night.  I know that can often be said about the horror genre - the MC is facing something dark and terrible and must call upon something deep inside to survive.  A number of these stories captured that deep sense of determination and willpower to fight. 
 
My rating - 3.5 out of 5 stars
 
Kimberly Wolkens