Short story collections are not my go-to, however, with the horror genre I find that it can be more effective that way. Consider this another great anthology of indigenous horror stories. If you enjoyed Never Whistle at Night, you should definitely also give this one a shot as this may even exceed your expectations!

I love a short horror story.
So this was exactly what I was looking for. Some of the stories were gruesome, some were slow burn and some were super thought provoking.

One of the most interesting parts of an anthology is the way the different authors incorpore whatever the theme is and this being a theme of indigenous author really lent for the stories to do whatever and it slapped.

Overall an enjoyable collection.

Thanks to Netgalley and Literary Press of Canada for an eARC.

This was a refreshingly eclectic mix of genres and styles, from deep-sea cosmic horror to a doomed bingo night. I rarely enjoy every single story in an anthology but that was the case for this one! Plus, I discovered some new queer horror authors to follow, which is always a plus.

This is the third Indigenous horror anthology I’ve read this year, and I continue to be drawn to them for their variety of authors and storytelling styles. If you’ve enjoyed Never Whistle at Night or Taaqtumi, this collection will be right up your alley. The stories are thoughtfully curated and showcase a range of perspectives and techniques that make for a compelling and chilling read.

My favorite stories were “The Keeper of the Bones”, “A Season for Everything”, and “Mouthless”—each stood out for their unique take on horror and their emotional depth.

Overall, I highly recommend this anthology as a showcase of Canadian Indigenous writers and their exceptional talent in weaving unsettling tales. It’s perfect for a spooky night in. Below are my ratings and brief thoughts on the individual stories. (Overall average: 4)

Individual Story Ratings

1. “Night Hawk” by Tyler Pennock – 3/5
While not particularly scary, this story sets the tone for the collection effectively. It uses the format of recounting a spooky experience, a method that aligns well with the oral tradition and history of Indigenous storytelling.

2. “Wahkohtowin” by Dawn Dumont – 2.5/5
The concept was intriguing, but I struggled with the plot and found the writing style hard to follow. With some refinement, it could be much stronger.

3. “A Season for Everything” by Francine Cunningham – 5/5
This story was thrilling, with excellent suspense and terror. The protagonist’s choice to ignore her grandfather’s warnings created a perfect tension, making me want to shout at the character to listen. A standout piece in the anthology.

4. “Mouthless” by Richard Van Camp – 4/5
The graphic and unsettling details of disease were chilling, while the aliens added an almost comical twist. Their use of pop culture references lent a unique and unexpected humor to the story.

5. “The River Gives What the River Gives” by D.A. Lockhart – 4/5
This story excelled in creating an eerie atmosphere. The discovery of a 200-year-old object unleashing horrors was tense and immersive. I could almost feel the chill of the fog seeping into the story.

6. “Water Torture” by Drew Hayden Taylor – 4/5
This was an incredibly well-written depiction of impending doom. The claustrophobic feeling in the protagonist’s final moments was palpable and haunting.

7. “Interment” by David A. Robertson – 3/5
The premise of being buried alive is inherently terrifying, but the story felt too brief to build full immersion or suspense. It had potential but lacked depth.

8. “Black Silk Suit” by Karen McBride – 3.5/5
I loved the writing style and the cozy depiction of bingo nights with friends and family, though the horror element—centering on the tall suited man—felt like an afterthought. Still, a beautifully written piece.

9. “The Keeper of the Bones” by Daniel Heath Justice – 5/5
This was a deeply moving and chilling story. The sorrow of losing one’s community, family, and people weighed heavily, and the protagonist’s care for their loved ones into the spirit world was beautifully crafted.

10. “The Harvest” by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler – 3.5/5
The writing style was engaging, but the plot became a bit muddled. I appreciated the subtle nods to lingering spirits and the unforgotten past, which added an unsettling undertone.

11. “Offerings” by Waubgeshig Rice – 4/5
Waubgeshig Rice never disappoints. This story was captivating, with a mix of humor and futility as David’s final bargaining with the Lord’s Prayer emphasized the inevitability of his fate. A strong and memorable entry.

Acknowledgment
Thank you to NetGalley, Literary Press Group of Canada, and Kegedonce Press for the ARC.

Thank you to Literary Press Group of Canada, Kegedonce Press, & NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read & give my thoughts on this book!

It was a mix of horror/thriller fictional stories by various First Nation & Metis authors across Canada. I honestly love books like these because they not only highlight different authors but also introduce you to different pieces of work that vary in writing style and cultural storytelling. I felt like every story was creepy, spooky, thrilling, and terrifying.

I enjoyed reading everyone's stories and if I had to choose favorites.... I think I would choose Black Suit Silk by Karen McBride & The Keeper of Bones by Daniel Heath Justice! Those were absolutely tragic stories that gave me goosebumps! They left the most impact on me, honestly.
I will also mention Offerings by Waubgeshig Rice! I have read his book Moon of the Crusted Snow, and I loved it. He was kinda the main reason why I applied for this book.

Overall, I believe this anthology has something to offer various readers and that everyone will find a story that speaks to them!

First off, I love this cover! The colors and design are so beautiful and I appreciated that the design was incorporated within the text as well. Overall, I found this to be an interesting collection of stories; some I did feel like were creepy or horrific, but others didn't really feel like how I think of horror. I really liked the introduction which gives some insight into the name of the collection. Most of these stories I liked, 1 was very much not for me, and 2 I absolutely loved.

Nighthawk by Tyler Pennock- good use of description. I knew where we were going with the story and I just felt like it took a little long to get there 3/5

Wahkohtowin by Dawn Dumont- an interesting story featuring a queer character. It was fine. 3/5

A Season for Everything by Francine Cunningham- I really felt the character's desperation and paranoia. One of my favs 5/5

Mouthless by Richard Van Camp- This one totally lost me. started out okay but the alien stuff is just really not for me. 1/5

The River Gives what the River Gives by D.A. Lockhart- creepy with a good atmosphere, kinda cosmic in a way. 4/5

Water Torture by Drew Hayden Taylor- scary and darkly humorous. 4/5

Interment by David A. Robertson- interesting exploration about life and death, 4/5

Black Silk Suit by Karen McBride- liked the mini history lesson. I would read a whole book about this topic. 4/5

The Keeper of the Bones by Daniel Heath Justice- an absolutely gorgeous and heart wrenching story. I saw that it was in the same world as his series that was already on my TBR! 5/5 the other favorite in this collection

The Harvest by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler- Unsure how I feel about it. I liked the atmosphere, but it was a really vague story that jumped around a bit and I was a little confused about the ending. 3.5/5

Offerings by Waubgeshig Rice- a really good monster story to wrap up the collection. 4/5

My overall rating comes out to 3.68 stars, but a 4 star feels right. I really love Indigenous horror stories.

I loved reading these Indigenous Folk tales. One of my favorite things to read are folk tales from other cultures and this did not disappoint!

I first heard about Zegaajimo thanks to Waubgeshig Rice. I'd read Snow of the Crusted Moon and several books by Native American writers. Diving into Zegaajimo was a great way to get acquainted with a broader group of First Nations authors.

The stories range from mildly scary and disturbing to terrifyingly real to almost comedic sci-fi crossover. Two stories in particular stand out for me: Francine Cunningham's A Season for Everything and Dawn Dumont's Wahkohtowin. In fact, A Season for Everything might be my favorite in the anthology. The main character is up against it spiritually and psychologically, and you don't know how much starvation is coloring her experience. It's palpable. and plays in your head like a movie.

Dawn Dumont's Wahkotowin makes you fill in the blanks at the end. And even though I know what happened, I was still saying, "What, no? That can't be the end! I want more!" But maybe that's because I enjoy stories where people get what's coming to them.

If you enjoyed Never Whistle at Night, definitely check out Zegaajimo. It's definitely got less of a commercial feel, but I can see them both used in lit classes.

Solid collection. Like every book of short stories from different authors, not all of them were a win for me, but the great ones balanced it out. My personal favourite was A Season for Everything by Francine Cunningham.

Thank you to Kegedonce Press and NetGalley for graciously providing me with an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This anthology was a wonderful blend of approaches to the indigenous horror theme. Each author brought their own culture and experience to create unique stories. Some of my favorites were:

A Season for Everything is a haunting survival story following a capable, strong woman.
Mouthless is just WILD. I mean, it made me laugh!
Keeper of the Bones is an intense historical fiction that is so well-written to make you empathize with the main character.
Offerings is well-written. I loved it! I needed this story to be expanded to a longer version.

This book was fun enough, and I enjoyed being able to see takes on various horrifying situations from an Indigenous perspective, but some of these stories either had strange stylistic choices or felt like they were more of an excerpt from a longer story. Overall, it was a middle of the road type read, ranging from meh to great.

Most of the stories in this book feel like they were written by newer more inexperienced authors. Like I mentioned, there were some stylistic choices that had me raising an eyebrow. Namely, Wahkohtowin and Mouthless were two where I feel like humor was injected into the story where it didn't need to be, and while it did give the characters more of a sense of personality, it just kinda gave the stories a tonal shift that felt really off and dampened the effect of what they were trying to go for. And back to my point about some feeling like they're an excerpt from a longer story, again, Wahkohtowin feels like it falls into this category. There's just so many POV shifts and an element that was added in within the last two or so pages that just made me feel like the story was supposed to go on for longer but needed to be condensed down. It felt like it ended so abruptly, especially after adding in elements and vaguely describing them and then it's just... over. Another story that I feel similarly about is The River Gives What the River Gives; there are just so many characters that are introduced within the few pages that we actually get to read about them that I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on, and it fell flat for me because it felt like it was all build-up no payoff, and really felt like there was more to the story than what we were actually giving.

Gripes aside, my favourite stories from this, in order of enjoyment, are:
The Keeper of the Bones
Black Silk Suit
interment
Water Torture
A Season for Everything

I know this is very nearly half of the stories but yeah, these are the ones that were the best of the bunch. Top three are like personal faves and the last two on my list are more like that it was very interesting.

While reading The Keeper of the Bones in particular, I felt on the verge of crying the whole time. The author really has a knack for conveying that sense of dread and despair at feeling powerless but still trying to do anything and everything you can to make a difference...
With Black Silk Suit, the author has a very strong grasp on dialogue and how to make engaging conversations. Even though not a lot actually happens, it still can hold your attention because the style makes it very easy to visualize everything that's going on.
interment and Water Torture both stand out to me personally because they both have a theme of "person gets buried alive" but are almost polar opposites tonally.
A Season for Everything I felt was a very strong story and does a good job at getting into the mindset of the character and the desperation of their circumstances.

There's three other stories from the book that I haven't talked about at all, but I've decided not to, because, well, I just don't have much to say about them.
It's a bit of a mixed bag, but worth a read if you're ever in the mood for something to munch on, I'd say.

3.75 ⭐️
Overall I found this anthology to be a really cohesive collection that very much plays into the horrors of living on this earth with some speculative fiction and indigenous folklore mixed in. I really appreciated that each story seemed to get across the point they were aiming for in such a short amount of time. This anthology has opened me up to some new authors that I would really like to read from in the future that I don’t think I would have found on my own. My favourite story in this collection was Water Torture and it is the one that has stuck with me the most since finishing this anthology.

Every single thing about this book is incredible. Short story collections are the best to find new favorite authors. I had personally never read anything by the participants and will be seeking out other works. The art is amazing as well. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley. I will be purchasing a copy for my home library..

My first Netgalley pre-release! Like most short story collections, the stories vary wildly. There's some great concepts here - I was particularly intrigued by the weaponizing of rare Covid against human-eating space aliens. Something for everyone here!

I received a advanced copy of this ebook from the publisher for my honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. I would recommend reading it to anyone and everyone. It is fast paced horror short stories.​ This book is in stores for $28.00 (USD).

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.