A huge thanks to Inkshares and NetGalley for the ARC. As a midwestern girlie myself I thoroughly enjoyed this book. On the surface, each novella was entertaining and had characters I was excited to learn about. They were well developed, and I found myself emotionally attached to the outcome of their stories. Digging through the deeper layers I really connected with the discussion about the origins of “gothic” in the Midwest. The land is so important to us, and yet holds immense trauma. I also loved the small ways all the stories were tied together. It made you feel like you were sharing a secret with the author and helped the whole collection feel immersive. Definitely worth adding to your reading list this fall!

Before I even finished this I bought another Scott Thomas book. I even went back and reread another book from the author with a new eye. Basically, the stories are all in the same universe and connected at the seams. Everyone here in the 4 stories is having their worst day ever.

The first story, "The Door in the Field", sets up the feeling of the collection. It goes from mundane to violent to completely crazy. I loved the way the fictional worlds are woven together.

In "Wear Your Secret Like a Stone" a young woman who wants nothing more than to leave her small Kansas town but a small interaction with her boss and a customer complaint lead her to find out more about it than she ever thought was possible. And changes her life forever.

Then we have "The Boy in the Woods". This combines the theme of the land itself being the supernatural force with a good, old-fashioned summer camp slasher novella. This is an origin story. But not the one you are expecting.

Among those three it is hard to find a favorite. But it wasn't the last one. "One Half of a Child’s Face", was the only one I didn't fully enjoy. There is a lot at the beginning about a mother who cannot handle her child being a few yards from her for a short period of time. Unfortunately, it lacked the tension of the other three stories. It was kind of a let down way to finish the book.

That last one is probably a matter of taste and possibly of my own head space at the time. You may love it.

Kill Creek was one of my favourite reads of 2017 so I was keen to revisit Blantonville, Kansas. These four novellas were the perfect excuse.

The Door in the Field

Written by Ted Hollister, AKA Sebastian Cole, The Door in the Field describes an apparently indescribable creature on the other side of a … (you gusssed it) door in a field.

This story is told by 26 year old April Staudt. It’s about her father, Ray, whose anger gets him in more trouble than he anticipated.

“My father was once two people. This is the story of how he became a third.”

Wear Your Secret Like a Stone

Tara chose a T.C. Moore book as her contribution to her workplace’s Halloween display.

"I like my horror as dark as my coffee, and it doesn't get much darker than T.C. Moore's Puncture. It will disturb you in all the right ways!"

Her search for the woman who complained about this book choice leads Tara down a rabbit hole.

The Boy in the Woods

Summer camp may be officially over but it’s not for ten year old Eddie. He’s got one more night there and, boy, is he going to wish his parents had picked him up on time.

“He knew from campfire stories and fairy tales that the darkness welcomed things like him.
It was a place of monsters.”

One Half of a Child’s Face

Things have been weird in that apartment building since the painting arrived. Sienna should know. Her ex lives there and she people watches its residents from her home a couple of blocks away. What? That’s not creepy…

“Remember what you lost. But never forget what you still have.”

When I first heard about this book, the novella I was most looking forward to reading was The Boy in the Woods. My favourite read was Wear Your Secret Like a Stone.

While the authors who visited Finch House are all mentioned in these novellas, you don’t have to have read Kill Creek first. It’s such a fun read, though, so I’d definitely recommend it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Inkshares for the opportunity to read these novellas.

This is a collection of four stories set in the heartland of the Midwest. It is also my first Scott Thomas book. I can tell you I definitely enjoyed the writing style and the thought and imagination that went into these stories. Personally, I think I would have enjoyed all of the stories more if they were shorter. I found them all a bit draw out with extra content I didn’t think was needed. My own personal opinion!
—-
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱-
With a cosmic horror feel to it, this one follows a man named Rayland who suffers from a short temper post head injury. A coworker sees something in him tho, and takes him to a door in a field, and what he sees on the other side will forever change the course of his life.

𝗪𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲-
Tara works in a big box store and for Halloween, they have staff pick out their favorite books for a display. Tara picks a book more on the extreme side called Puncture, and after a complaint to the store, the manager askes Tara to pick a new book. This upsets Tara knowing there are far worse books out there and she expresses her concern to fellow employee Virgil. This takes Tara to dive deep down a rabbit hole of exploring the history of the local river stone and its deep dark history. This one started off great for me, but then it became really weird and I got a bit lost with some of the information and unanswered questions.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀-
A coming of age tale about a young man named Eddie that undergoes a tragic accident, leaving him with a lifelong facial deformity. Other kids call him a freak. After being sent to Camp Cottonwood for 2 weeks, he gets stuck there for an extra night after his parent’s flight was delayed, and comes face to face with a virus attacking the last of the terrified campers

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱’𝘀 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗲-
Sienna happens to live in an apartment building that looks down on her ex husbands apartment where he now lives with his girlfriend. She starts to notice strange things happening at this building, but no one seems to believe her, or tries to get her to forget about it. When children start to go missing inside the building including her own daughter, she fights to save her before it’s too late.
—-
Although I didn’t love this collection as a whole, i still liked it! And I loved a lot of things about each story and I was really impressed with the imagery. I definitely want to check out more of Scott’s work 🙌.

Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I had never read this author before and I was excited to get a collection of short stories, horror related at this time of year that many critics were harping over. With that being said, I was kind of disappointed with these stories as they are just not to my liking, being drawn out and too wordy, seemingly half of each story could have been edited out with no loss. I generally read before bed and if the storyline doesn't hold me awake, or I find myself skimming, we have a problem, which we did here. If you like stories more about human monsters than "monster" monsters, certainly give this book a read.

3 Stars

Many thanks to Inkshares Press, Scott Thomas and Netgalley for early access to this title in exchange for and honest review. The title and the cover hooked me on this. I was delighted to see this was a book of spooky, short stories. As a Hoosier (lol), I can acknowledge that aspects of our culture are horrifying: So frankly, this was this is top tier horror with some intensive creativity sprinkled in. I did really enjoy this; however, gore isn’t really my thing. Future readers be advised that this is pretty graphic.

These stories give serious Stephen King vibes. I did enjoy it and would recommend it, but it was a bit hard for me to read personally due to the gore. I also found some of the paragraphs to be a bit long-winded and my ADHD brain struggled to get through those bits.

This collection of stories checks all of the boxes on my horror checklist! Gothic, cosmic, slasher, there is something for everyone here. And to tie all of the stories back to authors found in his Kill Creek novel was a stroke of genius. This was a fun read and had me constantly wanting to keep reading late into the night. With the lights on of course!

I wish I would’ve read kill creek before this, I imagine the references were fun to catch. I liked the little ties connecting the stories.
Midwestern gothic is well done, but drawn out. Scott Thomas is a talented gore writer for sure and I was definitely squeamish at times. I just wish the stories had been edited down a bit. 3.5 stars.

A grimdark collection. As a Missourian I was drawn in by the title and cover, but I was lost in the references to the author's other works which I have not read.

Thanks to Inkshares and NetGalley for the eARC!

I really enjoyed this collection of horror/supernatural novellas! Each story is subtly linked, forming a fascinating web of haunts that doesn't indeed reveal itself until the final page. I gave each novella its own rating, averaging 4.25 ⭐️s.

The Door in the Field - 3/5 ⭐️s
(Unfortunately, the first novella was my least favorite. However, it is perhaps the most important part of the book's overarching message, so don't skip it.)
Wear Your Secret Like a Stone - 5/5 ⭐️s
The Boy in the Woods - 5/5 ⭐️s
One Half of a Child's Face - 4/5 ⭐️s

This was my second Scott Thomas book. While I enjoyed Kill Creek, I found it a bit overwritten and drawn out. His writing in Midwestern Gothic was vastly different (in the best way!). Thomas packed so much into these 100-page tales, and I know the characters and their eerie stories will stick with me for a long, long time.

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Reader Note: There are references to Thomas' novel Kill Creek in the novellas. I wouldn't say reading Kill Creek before Midwestern Gothic is necessary, but you may encounter a few minor spoilers.

4.5/5 stars

Midwestern Gothic was gucci. Chef's kiss.

The first story was titled: The Door in the Field. Five stars. This one played out like a movie in my head. Quite honestly, all of the stories in this collection did, but this one especially. I want a spinoff novel exclusively about the serial killer in this book stat!

Novella number 2 was Wear Your Secret Like a Stone. I loved the character relations in this one. Thomas really sold the dialogue and the humor for me. The best part about this was the meaningful conversations about censorship that I know this story will spark. 4.5 stars.

Story number 3 was my favorite in the collection and that was The Boy in the Woods. This felt like an origin story for Jason Voorhees, only cooler and creepier. I LOVED the setting and the urban legend style ending. A banger! Five stars!

The final story in this collection was One Half of a Child's Face. This was my least favorite in the collection, but I still really enjoyed it. It really makes you realize how little you really know what's going on in others lives even when you think you've got the full picture. 4 stars.

This is a terrific novella collection by the author of Kill Creek, one of my favorite horror novels ever! "Midwestern Gothic" includes references to the novel, which is a good thing if you've read the book (many easter eggs to enjoy!), but totally harmless if you have not. The tales range over cosmic horror and folk horror, contain some gore, but they're mostly examples of incredibly good writing (on several levels), four imaginative stories set over the Midwest (Kansas), many times starring the land itself, the element that provides the unifying factor throughout the stories. There's no need to pick favorites, all four novellas are spectacular and none of them disappoints. One of them, however, deserves special mention: "One Half of a Child's Face", deserves to be a novel; it's chock-full of deep insights on the Gothic, on the book itself, and on what makes horror so attractive in general; it should be allowed space to breathe and it should be given the chance to stand on its own, especially as an extended meditation on the theme of obsession. In sum, the collection is a must-read for all horror fans and I cannot praise it enough!

I absolutely loved each of these novellas! All scary and unique in their own way, this is the perfect book for fall. I liked how this touches on different aspects of horror that are all equally scary.

MIDWESTERN GOTHIC, is a collection of four novellas by author Scott Thomas. I loved the references to his novel KILL CREEK in these, but you do not have to have read anything else to enjoy these works on their own. The stories here range from mystical, to folklore, to just plain gory, and almost cosmic. The one common factor is that they all take place in the Midwest (Kansas), and the beginnings of early settlers who took over the land.

". . . Blood for blood."

In "The Door in the Field", a construction worker named Ray takes a trip with his supervisor and discovers some of the evils hiding in plain sight, that he is one of the very few aware of.

"Wear Your Secret Like a Stone", combines German Folklore and several Kill Creek references (a bonus "easter egg" for those who have read the novel). This was my second favorite of the tales. A clerk at a big market store has her pick for "Favorite Halloween Book" removed from the shelves, and goes about investigating who, and why this was so. The longest story here, I loved the Folklore, learning from the town's other residents, and the overall atmosphere. "There are shadows in the forest that cannot be trees. . . "

"The Boy in the Woods" addresses a particularly gory menace that just happens to be near a summer camp, and a scarred young man who is left dealing with the impossible.

"One Half of a Child's Face" was the last, and my personal favorite, story in this collection. Sienna, a divorced mother with one daughter, spends every other weekend on her balcony, overlooking an apartment complex down the hill, where her ex-husband and girlfriend reside. On those weekends where Maya, the daughter, is with her father, Sienna looks upon the windows of various tenants, making up "reality television" dramas out of the scenes she sees played out. When a mysterious antiquities van arrives one night, and a very peculiar painting is left in a previously empty apartment there, voices and images begin to haunt her. Is something truly after her daughter, or is she losing her mind? The cosmic-feel of this one really had me hooked into it, and the fact that Sienna is editing a manuscript about "The Midwestern Gothic" at the same time brings the images even more into focus.

Overall, this was a fantastic sampling of horror from author Scott Thomas. I enjoyed each story for its own merits, and loved the differences in each one while appreciating how they were linked by the land they resided on, alone.

Thank you to NetGalleyand the Publisher for an eARC of this book. All opinions expressed are uniquely my own.

I really wanted to love this but it just fell kinda flat for me but pls hold because you should prob still read it...

I'm a big fan of Scott Thomas, having read and enjoyed both Violet and Kill Creek, so when I learned he was writing some gothics (i.e. my fav subgenre) set in the midwest (i.e. where I grew up) I said sign me upppppp!

I did enjoy the opening exposition - what the gothic genre is and how a community relates to the history of the land they inhabit. I saw the threads throughout these stories and can appreciate Midwestern Gothic as an idea. But damn, I wish this was either four full-length novels or four short stories in a bigger collection. They somehow managed to feel padded with unnecessary information AND leave me underwhelmed by the ending. Every time I was just like, okay?? That's it??? (Actually, now that I'm on this train of thought I really like the idea of shortening these and including them in a larger short story collection that ends with One Half Of A Child's Face where all the vignettes come together as the neighbors that the main character has been watching instead of television)

Either way, Scott Thomas continues to impress me with his ability to write believable and unlikeable characters and weird ass gore. And for that I can't really fault him. This was worth the read and I will definitely be picking up his next release!

Individual ratings:
The Door In The Field - 3 stars
Construction site drama is SO midwest coded. Long toenails clacking on the floor. Foreign objects should not go in between your radius and ulna. Ew.

Wear Your Secret Like A Stone - 3 stars
(Not-)Walmart big box store drama, we love. Even more gore, WE LOVE!! Drowning is an underrated fear. Thanks for the reminder of my sleep paralysis demon.

The Boy In The Woods - 4 stars
Summer camp horror but like, not what you'd expect. Teenagers are GROSS and MEAN. This is the most disgusting and, obvi, my favorite of the collection.

One Half Of A Child's Face - 4 stars
Kids are creepy. Neighbors are nosey. It really doesn't get more midwestern than that.

AND THANK YOU NETGALLEY AND INKSHARES FOR MY FIRST EVER ARC I CRY 🥲

this book is a dnf.

i really tried to get into it, but every single time i was just not hooked.
i don’t mean it when i mark it a 1star book, but i don’t know how to mark a dnf any other way

This is probably one of the strongest companion pieces to a preexisting novel I have read in a very long time.

Midwestern Gothic exists in the liminal space between a sequel and spinoff.

While Kill Creek gives us a glimpse into the fictional authors (who are stand-ins for IRL authors and their respective types of horror), Midwestern Gothic is for their readers.

Thomas expertly weaves in the works of these authors into characters that really highlight the effects and manifestation of horror into the American midwest.

This was a really great book and I enjoyed each individual story!

They were all unique and scary - perfect horror reads.

The best thing about the four novellas in this collection are their uniqueness. Each one was interesting, engrossing, and devoid of the typical tropes that usually mar stories of this genre. I wasn't sure where the stories were going; I found myself genuinely curious as to how they would develop and what was coming around the bend. My favorite was the first story, which was odd because on paper it should been my least. But the author manages to make the reader care about the characters and the ordeals they are going through. Each character is unique and fully developed. The stories are roughly 100 pages each, but the backstory and development is rich and textured and immersive.

Which leads me to my one drawback to these stories. There was so much backstory and so much buildup that there were times I forgot I was even reading a horror story. In a couple of instances, it felt like 2/3 buildup and then a dash through the horror elements of the story. Like I said previously, the stories were excellent and well written, but there were times it felt as if a little bit of editing would have been beneficial. However, when the horror does come, it is effective and unlike anything I've read before. The reader thinks they know what is coming, but at least in my case, that's not what happens.

I would definitely look for more from this author. I know that his other works tie-in in some way and I would be curious to see how. I have not read his other work, and I was wasn't confused by missing information, so you can read this as a standalone.

These 4 novellas are excellent - 4 different genres of horror tied together by a common place. If you like Southern or Appalachian gothic type stories, you will love this. Highly recommended.