After reading the Never Whistle at Night anthology, I was excited to check this one out — and y'know, not that it's a contest or anything but I actually ended up enjoying this one more! While I definitely had some stand-out favorites ('Wahkohtowin', 'A Season for Everything', 'Mouthless', 'Black Silk Suit', and 'Offerings'), there wasn't a single story in this collection that I didn't enjoy. In their unique ways, they were all riveting and atmospheric, effectively creepy, and at times even laugh out loud funny.

If you want some heebie jeebies courtesy of some awesome Indigenous writers, pick this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author(s) for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hard to get into the wrong style but I enjoyed the content. I found it hard to get into a groove reading this.

Thank you NetGalley and Kegedonce Press for the ARC.

What a great collection of indigenous authors, each sharing an example of short story horror fiction. Every story in this collection is very different in style as well as the type of horror the author is trying to elicit. While I did not feel abject terror with most of these stories, all had a twist that required some thinking or processing afterwards.

Some were very dark, and showed the worst of humanity while at the same time providing hope for the future or acceptance of the present. All stories were very human. A few were very straightforward and the eeriness was found in the horror of what could be a mistake or an accident. Others were very supernatural or otherworldly, and forced me to attempt to understand what I had just read. The authors left me feeling that many lessons were meant to be taken from them and not only what is presented on the surface.

I typically find short story collections to be overall disappointing with only 1 or 2 great stories. This collection surprised me, none of the stories were bad and more than half were excellent. I have read some of these authors full length works and their short stories did not disappoint. I also found some new authors to begin to explore. Having multiple indigenous stories in one volume showcased worldviews from multiple people groups and time periods. As with most indigenous fiction that I have read, this book made me want to learn more about many of the peoples, myths and histories of those presented in the stories.

Zegaajimo is a collection of eleven indigenous horror short stories. While there were stories that truly terrified me with their unsettling descriptions, about half of them seemed to the mark for a horror collection. I wonder if I may have overlooked elements of cultural significance that would have made some of these stories make more sense, or if there was an implied terror I just didn't understand. Standouts from this collection are: Wahkohtowin, A Season for Everything, Mouthless, Interment, and The Harvest.

I am happy giving this four out of five stars because I really enjoyed the specific stories mentioned. They were all unlike anything I've read before, so that was a real treat!

Zegaajimo is Anishinaabemowin for "to tell a scary story." This collection features 11 stories from Indigenous authors that will burrow deep into your mind and challenge your perspective of the horrifying.

Inside, you'll find a mix of horror subgenres, from survival horror to supernatural horror to folk horror to sci-fi horror to realism and more. You'll read about hauntings, spirits, curses, revenge, aliens, mythological beings, and colonialism. While I didn't find myself "scared" during any of these stories, several elicited intense emotional responses that redefined what I find horrific. I felt gut-wrenching dread, full-body anxiety, red-hot anger, and, at one point, unbearable sadness and grief that left me sobbing and forced me to stop reading to recenter myself. Overall, these stories made me FEEL and feel intensely.

This collection is entertaining, horrifying, hopeful, and ultimately cathartic. It will leave you with the haunting reminder that all actions have consequences and that humans are some of the most terrifying monsters.

I have read a lot of Native American writing this past year, and especially within the horror genre. I could not however get into these stories, they did not have a compelling plot or characters. There was nothing to draw you into the conflict in the story.

I loved these delicious short horror stories with some gleefully dark stories and awesome vibes that i loved.

Thank you for this arc!

I’ve been extremely into short horror stories for this spooky season and this just scratched an itch that I have had! It has 11 short creepy stories that I absolutely loved! I don’t want to spoil anything for the readers but this is great for all horror lovers!

(Rounded down from 4.5)

This tight, eclectic collection was great. The eleven stories have different interpretations of what makes a horror story, or what precisely is horrific, and they come together in a dark, moody collection that is filled with passion and heart. I genuinely enjoyed each of these stories, with the last three being particularly strong but none in the collection being bad, only a couple I would individually rate as 3 stars and the rest all above that.

With a collection that is centered around the identities of the authors, not the style or content or theme of the stories, it is always interesting to see what each pulls forward, how they engage the horrific through the lens of their identity. There is a good diversity, from sci-fi horror to survival horror to cosmic horror to imperialist-folk horror to the quiet horrors just found in the mundane. There are genres absent, like body horror, and some that I would have liked to see more from, like supernatural horror, but with a collection this small that isn’t unexpected, and the collection doesn’t really suffer for it as the selected stories work well together. The explore a wide range of indigenous experience and creativity, and never feel like they need to be simplified for a general audience. None of the stories hit me as really “scary,” but many were definitely dark, a few inspired me to check over my shoulder, and they all gave me something to think on. The penultimate story, especially, is the farthest away from any sort of traditional horror that you might expect—its setup is a very traditional horror but where it goes is someplace different. I was left with chills when I finished it, realizing the actual horror that was being exposed in the story was maybe the most damning and terrifying suggestion in the whole collection.

Any story, or collection, that makes me think, encourages me to expand my understanding of the world, in all its joys and horrors, and entertains me while doing it is a definite recommendation in my book.

I want to thank the editors and authors, the publisher Kegedonce Press, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.