Enjoyed this one very much, a fantastic short horror story collection from author Richard Kadrey. Never disappoints, highly recommend!

I truly enjoy Richard Kadrey's writing style. He has not let me down at all. All the stories in this collection are amazing and well written. There is a broad range of emotions with these stories.

Thank you #NetGalley for #TheSecretofInsects.

Horror is my usual choice, but I thought I'd give this a chance, and thought it was OK. Some good writing here, and some creative ideas within the stories.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

Here’s a thing I love as a reader…when an author I know primarily through their novels wows me with a short story collection. Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim is one of my favorite series of all time, and his other novels—The Everything Box and The Grand Dark to name just two—are equally wonderful.

The Secrets of Insects is a collection of short stores that spans 20 years of Kadrey’s career, and proves, not that I had any doubt, that he’s just as comfortable at shorter lengths. Not surprisingly given his novels, Kadrey is mining a dark vein here. Killers, both supernatural and not, prowl these pages, along with ancient, murderous gods, a demonic carnival, a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, real life cannibal Ed Gein, and all manner of mayhem.

Kadrey never, ever holds back. There is horror here, dark fantasy, and suspense, and Kadrey has a real knack for grabbing you by the back of the neck and dragging you into places you may not be ready to go. His characters, whether human or not, whether good or evil (and let’s face it, most are some gradation of evil), feel like they actually exist, that Kadrey found them and dropped them kicking and screaming into the pages. They have a gritty, lived-in feel. Likewise, his settings are original and surprising, even if they are awash in blood.

For fans of Sandman Slim—and really, everyone should be—there are a couple of stories set in the Sandman Slim universe. One of them, Candy Among the Jades, appears here for the first time. It’s worth the price of admission all by itself. It features Candy and a whole bunch of Jades, and what else do you need to know?

The publication date for The Secrets of Insects is right around the corner, on July 31st. Pre-order today, so it’s waiting for you in your mailbox or on your Kindle!

This is an entertaining enough collection for horror fans, but Kadrey's short stories don't have anywhere near the punch his novels do. There are a few really memorable stories in the collection: "Black Neurology—A Love Story," a weird tale of rebirth; "Flayed Ed," which imagines serial killer Ed Gein as a priest of Xipe Totec; and the previously unpublished "Candy Among the Jades," where we catch up with one of my favorite characters from the Sandman Slim series.

Received via NetGalley.

This was fine. There were a few genuinely scary moments but most of this was meh. There wasn't anything that really kept my interest or gave me goosebumps. There wasn't enough scary moments to make me want to do a reread again.