This was a quartet of stories by separate authors & I blew through the entire book as I didn't seem to really connect with any of them. But I wanted to finish it to give the review. There is plenty of dark, creepy, horror, scary vibes in the stories and descriptive so it was right on with the sinister quality and that is sure to please readers of those genres and the name fits perfectly. I have nothing bad to say about the stories but it just isn't one my favorites at this time.
I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion from NetGalley.

4 creepy fae stories. Liked all 3 AN UNKINDNESS by Jessica P. Wick . Is a brutal faeries story. No punches are pulled so not for the faint of heart.. Amanda J. McGee’s “Viridian will likely disturb people the most because it is set in world like our own. The Comforter” by Mike Allen is a dark and twisted story that should not be spoiled. C. S. E. Cooney, “The Twice-Drowned Saint.” Use the best use of referencing without being overbearing. It truly feels fantastical

“You have arrived to join us in response to our invitation. Your entrancement, your trepidation, your fatal curiosity is our delight. The prelude has ended, and we open out our secret symphonies to engulf your senses, to welcome you.“

A Sinister Quartet is a collection of four short stories, ranging from roughly fifty pages to one hundred fifty pages each.

‘The Twice Drowned Saint’ by C.S.E. Cooney is the longest of the bunch and the most epic in scale. You will find yourself drawn into the mythical city of Gelethel, surrounded by an impenetrable wall of ice and ruled by fourteen angels and their chosen saints. But trouble has been brewing in Gelethel, and revolution is on the way.

‘An Unkindness’ by Jessica P. Wick is a dark tale in which a young princess travels magical paths to a fairy world and finds herself doing battle for her brother’s soul.

‘Viridian’ by Amanda J. McGee reads like a fast (but never fast enough!) paced thriller with a supernatural twist and was creepy enough to give me chills even on a summer day.

‘The Comforter’ by Mike Allen ventures into the realm of weird fiction with strange inhuman things that terrorize whole neighborhoods and a quilt made of faces. Yes, you read that right.

There are no bad stories here. Each one drew me in and held me captive. The whole book is a strange fever dream of a collection and the stories will leave you thinking over their events long after you have closed its covers.

A Sinister Quartet is published by Mythic Delirium Books and released in paperback and ebook format on June 9, 2020.

I received a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review was posted to NetGalley, Amazon, Goodreads, Instagram, and my personal blog.

When offered the chance to read the anthology A SINISTER QUARTET as an ARC via NetGalley, I jumped at the chance. While I am not necessarily a horror fan, I do love the weird. I love beautiful words and unusual descriptions. I enjoy unique places and stories that linger. Every story in this anthology met those expectations and I highly recommend reading more of each author’s work.

The anthology begins with a short novel by C. S. E. Cooney, “The Twice-Drowned Saint.” This is a strange and imaginative tale about a sacred city of angels, their saints, the citizens of the city, and the pilgrims who vie for citizenship among these privileged few. It’s a reminder of how power can twist even the divine.

“An Unkindness” by Jessica P. Wick is a hauntingly beautiful faerie tale about a sister’s determination to save her brother from a dark and mysterious unknown. Something has changed her loving and lighthearted brother, and when she catches him sneaking out at night, it’s so much worse than she could have ever imagined.

Amanda J. McGee’s “Viridian” has a sinister mood from the very beginning and keeps that tension throughout. While this story is the most realistic one in the anthology, being based in a world like our own, that is most likely what makes it the most disturbing. A grief-stricken woman moves to a small town in Vermont, where she falls in love with a wealthy widower. He’s keeping deadly secrets, however, and has a plan for his newest wife.

The final story in this anthology is “The Comforter” by Mike Allen. The title is amusingly deceptive. This story has the most characters, and it takes time for the reader to see how their lives weave together into the complex web of the story. The images that will haunt me the most are a girl’s sketches in a notebook, and a flap of skin under a school desk attacking a teacher and then spelling the word, “Run,” in his blood. That does not convey the plot of the story, but I’m not sure anything would to my satisfaction without giving the story away. Suffice it to say it is a dark and twisty tale.

This truly is a sinister quartet, though the introduction itself is a powerful opening. Beautiful imagery, and a story unto itself - it’s very well-written. The “About The Authors” at the end are also worth reading, as they explain more about the stories, and their inclusion in the anthology.

A SINISTER QUARTET is the perfect anthology for those who enjoy haunting stories that will stay with you long after you put a book down.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3314405090


I was fortunate enough to read an ARC of this anthology from NetGalley. I snagged it because I was familiar with a couple of the authors' writing, and boy, am I glad I did.

First up was C. S. E. Cooney's short novel "The Twice-Drowned Saint." If you're familiar with her work, you would not be surprised to find a world of menacing angels, missing gods, and gorgeous wordplay. It's a story that manages to be bizarre and terrifying and at the same time a comforting exploration of love and family.

I've read Jessica Wick's poetry and had the benefit of her eye as an editor, but this was the first fiction of hers that I'd read. "An Unkindness" is a dazzling blend of motifs from several fairy tales that I love on their own merits, and together they made something greater than the sum of their parts. Courage and the elegant menace of Faerie combine in an enchanting story.

This book marks my first encounter with Amanda McGee's work, and if "Viridian" was the most solidly settled in a world very like ours, it was also the most viscerally disturbing to me. A modern-day take on the Bluebeard tale, it combines supernatural threat with the more mundane horror of grief, and I will definitely look for more of McGee's writing as a result of this introduction.

Lastly is Mike Allen's "The Comforter," with its echoes of religious imagery and his own style of nightmares from beyond. Every time I read one of his stories, he makes me terrified of something that used to look normal to me, and this time its stage curtains, which I at least meet less often than buttons in my day-to-day life.

All in all, a book that delivers on its promise of both unearthly beauty and unnerving chills. 4 1/2 stars.

A Sinister Quartet is a collection of novellas and a short novel by four established authors and let me say right from the very beginning, this book has some very beautiful writing.
However! Collections of short stories should always start strong and with the first story for me was just so filled with description and beauty, complicated and compact adjectives, I found myself struggling to get through one beautifully composed description, before I was hit with another. Plus you're dealing with a different world, so some of the terms were fictional and made-up and never actually explained what they were, so left me sometimes confused and having to re-read sentences to understand where it was going.
For me, the second story of the quartet was the most enjoyable with its tale of the saints and angels, that was most compelling.
Overall I did enjoy the stories, but they were hard work to get through. If you like beautiful descriptions and scene setting, the this is the book for you.