I liked all these stories, but loved the opening story of age and death. Some of the stories are fantastical, some are realistic, all are excellent.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this free ARC.

This is my first book by C.J. Tudor and I loved it! The short stories were just the right length and kept you thinking about them long after you finished reading them. I also loved how C.J. wrote where she got the idea/history of each story. I wish more authors did that.

The author of the great horror mystery book, The Chalk Man, writes eleven short stories showing us A Sliver of Darkness.

The tales were mostly written during the recent Covid pandemic and so are apocalyptic in nature. However, many also speak to the resilience of mankind.

I usually don’t like short stories because there is not enough time for character development to allow me to see events through a character’s eyes. However, in A Sliver of Darkness, the main characters are written so they feel like I am the main character myself. Obviously, I don’t need much introduction to myself. I’m not sure how the author achieves this effect because most of the stories are written in the third person. Another mystery to solve, I guess.

If you want a great little horror collection to send chills down your spine, look no further. 5 stars!

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

Short stories are hit or miss for me, but Tudor did an excellent job drawing me in with the very first story. I wanted more of everything- definitely can’t wait to read other works by this author

The author is a good writer, but I did not like her story collection as much as I hoped I would. It has moments, little glimmers, that felt satisfying but for the most part fell short of interesting for me and at times felt forced. I did like that she included little intros to each story. That was a nice touch.

This was my first short story collection and I'm happy to report that I did have a good time reading. It's a learning curve to accept that not everything will be complete, not all ends will be tight, so that did impact some of my experience with this book, but overall it was entertaining.

I expected it to be more scary - C.J. Tudor does body horror and creepy things very well, but this element didn't come through as I'd have expected. I didn't but this book down because I was scared, and I was hoping I would.

Another thing that somewhat impacted my experience was that in several stories the way women were described bothered me, as if being attractive was a more important character marker than anything else. In particular, this bothered me because it came from male characters written by a woman. I understand this is a strategy to make male characters more unlikeable, but still it doesn’t sit well with me.

My rating for each of the stories is:
1. End of Liner - 2.5 stars
2. The Block - 3.5 stars
3. Runaway Blues - 2.5 stars
4. Completion - 3.5 stars
5. The Lion - 4 stars
6. Gloria - 4 stars
7. I’m not Ted - 3 stars
8. Final Course - 5 stars
9. The Copy Shop - 4.5 stars
10. Dust - 3 stars
11. Butterfly Island - 4 stars

The book did start a bit slower and less interesting, but the final 4 stories are very good. I'm particularly curious about the potential in Gloria and the fact that C.J. said we might get more from her.

I'm looking forward to C.J. Tudor's next books.

A Sliver of Darkness is a short story collection focused on the creepy and weird.

I must preface this review by stating that I am not a huge fan of short stories. Tudor is an author I enjoy, so I thought I would give this collection a shot. It wasn’t wholly a success, but there are a few stories that I had fun with.

Of the 11 stories in the collection, these are the ones that stood out:

"End of the Liner"--a story about a 75-year-old woman forced to come to terms with "retirement".

"The Block"--this one is actually creepy and made me jump!

"The Completion"--a douchey salesman gets what he deserves.

Tudor’s introductions before each story elevated the collection for me. They provide insight into her motivation for writing them. I love her honesty, especially when discussing her successes and failures as a writer.

The stories are short and easy to read. Some are more engaging than others. A few of the stories felt forced, while others felt incomplete. My biggest gripe concerns the endings, which lacked nuance.

Overall, this was an entertaining, if not memorable, collection. On the plus side, it set me up to be excited to read Tudor’s next book, The Drift.

I received a DRC of this book from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.

Another author I have heard so much about. Thought I would dip my toes in with a short story collection. I'm not blown away. There are some good stories and some weak stories, nothing truly outstanding in my opinion. I enjoyed the author's introduction before each story - it was a good little getting to know you of the author.

One thing I hope is caught before printing - in one of her introductions she hopes we read the story in the voice of Denzel Washington's character from The Shawshank Redemption. Morgan Freeman was in that movie, not Denzel and it is a little cringey to mix that up. Hope the editors caught it in time.

A Sliver of Darkness is a collection of horror short stories from C.J. Tudor. She introduces each story and gives some background on the source. It's interesting to hear an author's experience and journey during the pandemic - all of the things that affected their ability to craft a story. There are several excellent stories here. My favorites are End of the Liner and Gloria. Gloria includes characters from two of Tudor's previous books.

Great choice if you're looking for some scary season reads.

Yes! I loved everything about this short story collection!! My favorite part had to be the short introductions before each story where she would explain where her idea behind the story came from. Perfect creepy stories for the Halloween season. They were all so good I can’t even pick a favorite. I couldn’t put this down. I will pick up anything and everything CJ Tudor will ever write.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"A Sliver of Darkness" is a great collection of dark, twisty, and suspenseful short stories. .

I love C.J. Tudor’s writing! Each of these short stories are filled with such detail and character. I’m so happy to have gotten this amazing ARC. Like I’ve said before, I will continue to read Tudor’s work and look forward to more stories! Thank you so much.

A Sliver of Darkness- Short Stories
by C. J. Tudor

I realize I'm not the right fit for these short stories. I do best with short stories connected to a long series, probably because the world and characters are already developed. Plus, I'm a horror story wimp and need my horror so tame it probably can't be considered horror. So for me, my favorite part of each story was Tudor's introduction to each story. I could probably read an entire book by her, full of story introductions and notes from the author.

My favorite stories from this selection were the first two but I do think that could be misleading. They were good but I might have liked more of them if I wasn't already feeling unconnected as I knew I was heading into the fray of meeting new people, new situations, and new horrors. Obviously I like to be stuck in a long book rut with the same old people and places for a longer time than a short story can provide. I do think this will be a big hit with most people and there are a wide variety to horrors to please the reader who likes them.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was a fun, quick read- perfect for spooky season! There were a few stories that I didn't fully get, some that I wished had been developed a little further, but ultimately, I think this is a collection full of short stories that pique the interest of the reader, resolving enough to feel satisfied & leaving enough open-ended to leave us wondering what could happen next in that particular universe.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC- this book releases to the public on November 8th, 2022.

A collection of short stories that ranged in darkness and depravity. Writing this review a little after the fact, some of the stories left a stronger imprint than others. The disturbing factor was there and the characters motivations were clear no matter how unappealing on moral grounds. All around a solid collection with some shining brighter than others. Definitely give it a read and find your favorites. Thanks netgalley!

Thank you to NetGalley and to C.J. Tudor for the ARC of A Sliver of Darkness. I will be COMPLETELY honest, I requested this ARC totally on accident, thinking this was Tudor’s newest novel that was to be released this year. Come to find out, this was a book of short stories! Short stories and memoirs, historically, are not my thing; however, I have loved everything I’ve read by Tudor and this was no exception. I love how the opening of the collection gave a glimpse into Tudor’s life and the reason for this collection instead of the expected novel and I truly felt for her which encouraged me to continue reading. The short stories were actually amazing and I was pleasantly surprised by my accident and I thoroughly enjoyed reading these. I think this may be something I actually pick up to read again which I’ve not ever done with a novel before…

An entertainingly spooky collection. No horror here just dread dread dread. Lots of good ideas woven into small tales. Hard to pick a favorite but I’d go with The Copy Shop which read like a classic Twilight Zone tale.

A 5-star collection of horror short stories! There wasn't a single story in this entire book that I did not like. Unfortunately, I have had a few bad dreams of a child who eats people. Lol! The first story was about people who were living on a cruise ship because living on land was no longer possble. I would have liked to have had an entire book on this story - I had so many scenarios I wanted to see finished. That's my feeling on a lot of short stories, though, wanting more.

There are 11 stories in this collection, C. J. Tudor's first short story collection. Every single one is worth reading. They are as follows:

End of the Liner
The Block
Runaway Blues
The Completion
The Lion at the Gate
Gloria
I'm Not Ted
Final Course
The Copy Shop
Dust
Butterfly Island

They are all memorable, which really amazes me since every short story collection I've read before has at least one story I didn't really care for - and this one doesn't. Each one is full of scary surprises. Butterfly Island left me hanging and full of questions, but I still liked the story. The Copy Shop, Runaway Blues, and I'm Not Ted were my favorites I think. The Block was the only one I felt was totally wrapped up and didn't need to be much longer. A couple reminded me of Stephen King. This is a great collection!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on November 8, 2022.

OMG C. J. Tudor is the new queen of short stories!! This collection of ten creepy, eerie, weird stories is so much fun!!

Each story has a foreword that explained her inspiration behind the story which I found SO interesting, My favorite story was probably Runaway Blues (this reads very Stephen King). The stories I didn't like weren't my taste, though they were so short it didn't bother me.

I highly recommend A Sliver of Darkness to any horror reader!

As with any collection, some of the stories included in A Sliver of Darkness were better than others. They all had a bit of a Twilight Zone feel which I liked and many of them left the reader pondering aspects of life and human nature.

Each story begins with an introduction from Tudor herself. I appreciated the personal touch and the background on how some of these stories came to be. It also gave us a glimpse into Tudor's personality and life and that was a nice addition to the stories.

There are ten stories included in this collection. Some are very short - only taking 10 minutes or so to read. Most of them are about 15 minutes, and a couple are about 30 minutes. They were just the right length to get through one or two in a sitting but I never felt a strong pull to read more than that at a time. For some of them, I really could've used more and I think they would've packed more punch if they hadn't felt rushed.

There were some similar themes throughout the short stories. I felt like many of the stories had apoplectic vibes and were more psychological horror than monster horror (although there was some monster horror!). Because the stories were so short, there really were no conclusions or explanations and that will work well for some readers and maybe not so well for others.

All in all, this was a good collection and one I definitely enjoyed during spooky season.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for a copy of this collection.