Note: I received a free unpublished proof of this book, for a limited time, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

This review features some spoilers.

As with many of the horror titles I review, this book contains a great deal of NSFW and violent content and is hence only appropriate for adult readers (18+). The book contains death of adults, children, and animals; violence, injury, blood, cancer, mental illness, dementia, suicide, self-harm, murder, cannibalism, torture, conversion therapy, Nazism, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, internalized biphobia, guns, knives, needles, fire, toxic relationships, bullying, child abuse, death in childbirth, sexual abuse, a few mentions of sexual topics, animal cruelty, and animal abuse. There is a lot of graphic gore with regards to most of these topics. Virtually every common content warning applies to this book.

This book was one of those rare books that restores my faith in the power of the indie press.

I don’t have anything against self-publishing. I think it’s great that more people can publish in this day and age, particularly as publishing, and even reading, used to be privileges for the wealthy, at least in some places and times.

However, I am sometimes critical of people’s reasons for self-publishing or going through a small indie press. I think there are many valid reasons to publish small, such as wanting as much creative control as possible, experimenting with format in ways traditional publishers usually won’t consider, creating your own cover design and illustrations, publishing material on topics that mainstream publishers might not find profitable, and publishing material as a marginalized person who has historically been underrepresented in publishing, whom mainstream publishers might discriminate against, particularly when the content is also about marginalized people and issues they face.

There are other reasons that aren’t as valid, like the time that Lani Sarem complained about the fact that people were upset with her for scamming her way onto the New York Times list with a book from a small-indie publisher, because she felt that people were “excluding her” or “not listening to her voice.” As a fellow white woman who writes fantasy, we are one of the most overrepresented groups in publishing right now. If I sent a fantasy manuscript into a traditional publisher and got rejected, it would not be because of “misogyny” or “sexism” or “creative people being excluded”; it would be because I’m just not that good at writing. Full stop. We are not excluded or oppressed from traditional publishing.

While I am personally in favor of self-publishing some of my work, that is not because I feel “marginalized,” “oppressed,” or “not listened to,” it is because these particular works are either a) the sorts of things where I want to do much of the book design and formatting myself or b) related to topics that are not particularly in vogue. Again—these topics are not being “censored”; it is simply a fact of the industry that if the public really wants books about, say, harp seals because of an excellent blockbuster about them that came out recently, they will choose a couple of good harp seal manuscripts over excellent works on polar bears, cane toads, and ibexes that they may otherwise have considered.

That said—this was actually a good book which I think merited indie publishing, mostly because it deals in some experimental horror that probably doesn’t fit publishers’ lists at the moment.

I’ll do this story by story, as per usual.

“Silver Dollar Eyes”—The consequences of profiting off of ghost stories, in a world where ghosts are definitely real. I find it kind of weird that the author had the person at fault here be somebody who genuinely didn’t have many other options—I feel character is better measured when one can take multiple courses of action—but the overall idea of it made sense. I just wish that disability were handled in a better way, and not treated as the reason someone would do something evil.

“The Resurrection Doll”—Sort of a “Black Mirror” type thing about someone getting a doll to replace their partner who died of suicide. It goes about as well as you expect it to in these kinds of stories. Very creepy.

“Angel Teeth”—Again, why are the people being punished for their bad choices in these stories always the ones being forced into it? I think that this one especially, and the first two, would say more about society if the viewpoint character were, like, Elon Musk or somebody, not some desperate person with no money or place to go. I also wish that the main character’s disability and situation weren’t treated as personal failures that caused them to do something bad. That said, unlike the first two, I thought the ending of this one was somewhat positive and uplifting. I like to imagine that in cases like this, the Christian God and his ilk can be forgiving.

“Transubstantiation”—More Catholicism references. I didn’t grow up Catholic myself, but both my parents did and my extended family is still religious so I know most of the lore. Basically, what if Communion, but absolutely definitely real and literal?

“In His Youth”—The horrors of possession and the obsession with one’s football glory days overlap. I don’t usually like sports stories but this one actually worked for me. I had some issues with how illness/disability were treated but the person in question was a bad guy for other reasons, so it didn’t bother me as much as the first and third.

“A Most Bulbous Congregation”—Homophobic parents, Catholicism, ticks, and smart teenagers fighting evil. Very gross but ultimately uplifting.

“The Last Summer”—Very short, very haunting, no explanation. I’ll leave it at that.

“Elevator Boys”—The classic “bad things happening to kids running around the neighborhood on their own” tale. I like that this one plays it as “sad and unfortunate” rather than the gross “well, they had it coming” angle that authors like Roald Dahl and David Lubar like to play on for some reason. The whole “listen to your parents or you will die” trope is one of my least favorites, not only because it’s antiquated, preachy, and ridiculous, but because, well, they’re children, Roald, not war criminals! Here you are actually supposed to feel sorry for them, which makes it, in my opinion, all the more dark and eerie.

“Dead Rain”—End of the world scenario. Food shortages. A father and son trying to survive. You know the drill. No doubt somebody will be looking for the title of this on r/tipofmytongue ten years from now, since it seems that every other post looking for a short story involves…well, if you know, you know.

“A Course Yellow Sea”—Epistolary format was neat. This one was honestly really depressing. Child abuse, self-hatred, there’s a bit of it all. Good story on real-world topics, but please don’t read this if you are already in a bad mood.

“What to Do with Grandpa”—Typical Generation Z climate nihilism, body horror, dark humor, bad ideas. Pretty gruesome, though. I didn’t necessarily think that sickness and disability were handled “well” in this one, but I, again, liked that it wasn’t treated as the reason he was doing bad things, which had taken place ages ago.

“A Creature Nailed Upon the Corridor of Time”—Palaeontologists discover a mysterious specimen. What could go wrong? You know how this will go. A bit anticlimactic though.

“The Strangling Ash”—I am drawing a blank. I even took note of the content warnings for each story and this one mentions “mother death in childbirth, verbal and physical child abuse,” which is good to know but I can’t remember the story. I think this was the one where a parent or child blames their kid or sibling for their mother’s death? Or a woman is abused, and then dies while having a baby, that may or may not be somehow supernatural? I even looked at Goodreads and NetGalley reviews and while somebody said that “it could be a Black Mirror episode,” I have no idea what it was about! The title implies there’s an ash tree, but I don’t remember a story with a tree in it. I don’t think there was any sort of fire in any of the stories either. I don’t remember any sort of technological horror stories fit for “Black Mirror.” “Strangling ash” almost makes me think of Odin hanging from the World Tree, Yggdrasil, but I don’t think there was a Norse mythology story here either. I am very sorry. I am sure it was at least slightly interesting but I can not remember anything.

“Floaters”—People start floating away and disappearing into the air for some mysterious reason, and of course mean people figure that we should just shoot them.

“Boning”—Somebody tries to get an evil skeleton monster to cure their cancer. Unfortunately, he isn’t a whole lot better than the US healthcare system.

“Heirlooms”—Again—I can not remember! I think this is the one where someone’s spirit still lives on in their house and/or items? Or somebody has items made out of their dead body parts to give to their relatives when they die? Or somebody finds parts of their dead relative’s body sitting around their house? I swear it’s some version of one of those things, and nobody said a thing about it in other reviews.

’Til the Sun Wheel Turns No More—Finally, a good old story about killing Nazis with supernatural means. It’s also related to music, which I liked as a music person, a person against fascism in music, and somebody who just reviewed a music-themed horror anthology. It’s kind of like the movie “Green Room” (2015) but a lot better.

“The Last of Her Kind”—A guy kills the last living member of an owl species for his roadside museum. Of course he’s going to get haunted.

Overall, this was a promising anthology and I’d like to see more from this author. I think the themes about LGBTQ+ issues and socioeconomic issues were interesting, though I’d like to see more stories considering topics like racism, misogyny, ableism, and other overlapping issues, and stories that handle topics like disability and poverty a bit more realistically and empathetically.

I also think that if you liked the sort of stuff in this anthology, you might enjoy Body Shocks edited by Ellen Datlow, an anthology dedicated to body horror, and a lot of the content over at Nightmare Magazine, which often touches on relevant social, political, and economic topics.

Story 1: Silver Dollar Eyes
A ghost/human reunion bop.
3.5 stars

Story 2: The Resurrection Doll
💔😭 whoa. Isaac loses his partner and buys a doll in his image to take his place. 5 stars

Story 3: Angel Teeth
Celine is a meth addict who is given the opportunity to experience immediate relief from addiction. But it comes at a cost. 4 stars

Story 4: Transubstantiation
LOL. To any and all recovering catholics out there, you'll dig this. 4 stars

Story 5: In His Youth
blah. sports ball. 2 stars.

Story 6: A Most Bulbous Congregation
More for my catholicism baddies. I feel like Raglin and I had a similar childhood. 4 stars

Story 7: The Last Summer
“Bad things happen when summer camp counselors have sex. Sometimes the vengeful mother of a drowned boy murder them mid-thrust.”
True, true. Super short and super hard-hitting. Oooooof. 4.5 stars.

Story 8: Elevator Boys
A group of boys go into an abandoned building with an old elevator shaft. Super short. Dark af. 4 stars.

Story 9: Dead Rain
Wait, how is this one even darker??? Apocalyptic father and son duo. They’re the last of their family to survive and the food supply is about to run out. 4.5 stars.

Story 10: A Coarse Yellow Sea
A letter from a man whose son is at the bottom of a grain silo. 3.5 stars.

Story 11: What to do with Grandpa
A grandfather has a creative idea for his future bodily remains. His grandchildren and lawyers respond in this interview-style short story. WILD. 5 stars.

This is a good October read. Bite-sized horror stories that are often pretty horrifying. He leans a little hard into gory horror, but for the most part, it worked.

give me all the weird and strange horror, push the boundaries of what fiction can do, which some stories in this certainly did, but others I completely zoned out during and the endings were pretty typical, but overall, an interesting and unique collection of stories

This short story collection does something that I thought was impossible - every single story is soo good! Recommend! I received a free eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.

(Rounded from 4.5)

What a strong, dark collection! Raglin does a really wonderful job of plumbing the human experience to investigate what is actually horrific. These stories were remarkably subdued, yet didn’t ever fail to creep under the skin. The title of the collection is really spot on, these are elegies. They are songs of loss and mourning and violent grief, songs that both lament and forecast annihilation.

The collection has a lot of religious horror and a lot of unapologetically queer horror, but the subgenres and outlooks/tones of the various stories are still pretty varied. Some of them are amazingly short, and I say “amazingly” because even in their brevity they are able to convey a strong sense of character and place, all while delivering a gut punch you don’t see coming. There is a vulnerability to these stories, a raw wound kind of intimacy that both repels and begets if not sympathy than at least connection. I don’t know if any of the eighteen stories totally floored me or took my breath away, but a few came close, and they were all better than “just good.”

These are really well-crafted short stories that highlight that the horrific doesn’t need to be inundated with graphic violence or gore (though this collection has a smattering of that here and there, too). They are contemplative and spine-tingling, taking up just enough mental space that you can’t quite sweep your mind free of some of them when you put the book down. It’s a definite recommendation, and I am glad I had the chance to pick it up!

I want to thank the author, the publisher Brigids Gate Press, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had a blast with these short stories, some of them were short indeed and I enjoyed most of them. My favorites are A course yellow sea 4.5, Transubstantiation 4.5, Angel teeth 5 and The resurrection doll 4. There is a lot of queer representation. Floaters- 4 stars was really fun and ridiculous story. Some of these stories are very weird. The weirdest in my opinion is Boning 3.5 stars. Overall I had a super fun time with this – 4 stars, just one DNF which was Til the sun wheel turns no more, I just don’t relate to stories revolving music bands.
Thank you to NetGalley and Brigids Gate Press, for providing me with this collection.

I do suggest reading the content warnings before you read! These stories are intense in my opinion. The stories are short and each story reels you in.