I absolutely LOVED this collection. Each of these stories is unsettling on some level and truly did give me the shivers! I already know and love Joe Hill, SGJ, and Grady Hendrix, but I’d never read Catriona Ward or Owen King before, and I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed them and want to seek out more of their work. Here are my brief thoughts on each story (brief because I don’t want to give too much away – I went into each of these stories blind, and I’m glad I did, so read ahead at your own discretion!)

Jackknife by Joe Hill (4 stars)

Jackknife is the first in the collection, and it’s a pretty good yarn. A guy finds a jackknife stuck in a tree, where it has obviously been used to carve some cryptic messages, and he decides to take it home. Little does he know, that jackknife was serving a pretty important purpose right where it was. This story is creepy and weird, and I had a good time with it.

The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones (4 stars)

We’ve all been spoiled with the sheer amount of SGJ content lately! I wouldn’t consider The Indigo Room to be among his best work, but that just means it’s more on a level with what other writers can do rather than leagues ahead of them. (Sorry, super-fangirl talking!) In this story, weird lighting in an office meeting room gives a woman what she thinks is a hallucination involving two of her co-workers. Or was she actually seeing a glimpse of their futures? This doesn’t feel like a typical SGJ story, but it’s still creepy and bloody, and I enjoyed it.

The Blanks by Grady Hendrix (5 stars)

This was definitely my favourite of the bunch. A typical American family heads off to their comfortable, decadent summer home in paradise, only to find that the perfect life sometimes requires a bit of a sacrifice. The Blanks is powerful, unsettling, and extremely timely in its allegory. It’s amazing what people can be willing to gaslight themselves about. This one will make you think.

Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward (3.5 stars)

My least favourite of the collection, but still a great short story. Night and Day in Misery follows a woman who is retracing the final hours of her dead husband and child. What she finds are answers to questions she didn’t know to ask. This one is haunting in more of a melancholy way than straight-up scary, but there are certainly some chilling moments. I really enjoyed Ward’s writing, but the story had much different vibes from the others, which does it a bit of a disservice by comparison.

Letter Slot by Owen King (5 stars)

My second-favourite of the collection. In Letter Slot, a 15-year-old boy, whose father is dead and whose mother is working two jobs while extremely ill, sends an anonymous thought-experiment letter through the mail slot of an abandoned house. You can probably guess what happens next, but you’ll probably be surprised at where this story ends up going. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it until the very last paragraph, at which point I had to give it 5 stars. What a perfect way to end this unsettling collection of stories!

Overall, I give this collection 4 or maybe 4.5 stars. I highly recommend checking it out!

•Jack Knife by Joe Hill: Five stars
I loved the setting and the imperfect characters. This short story would work very well being adapted into a film.

•The Indigo Room by Stephen GrahamJones: DNFed
Unfortunately, this one could not hold my attention, so I stopped about halfway through.

•The Blanks by Grady Hendrix: Four stars
My only real complaint about this one is that I think it would've worked better as a full length novel. Otherwise, I thought it was really spooky and atmospheric.

•Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward: Three stars
This one was just okay in my book. The story was really interesting, but the characters lacked depth.

•Letter Slot by Owen King: Three stars
This one was the opposite of Catriona Ward's for me. The story lacked depth, but the characters were really interesting. Not very likable, but I expect that in a story of this nature.

Horror short stories from my favorite authors never misses. I could read these forever. They’re the perfect mix of creepy and unsettling.

Thank you for the chance to review this collection!

Joe Hill’s - Jackknife and Owen Hill’s - Letter Slot were my favorites in the collection

Jackknife and Letter Slot were both 4 ⭐️ reads.

Jackknife was great. I will be questioning all trees the next time I go on a hike.

Letter Slot, wow what an ending! Owen definitely channeled his father with this one. Very reminiscent of Stephen’s The Answer Man. Letter was probably my favorite within the collection.

This is an outstanding collection of short stories, featuring some of the best names in horror and dark fiction. Typically, anthologies introduce me to new authors, but this time, I had the pleasure of revisiting writers I already love. Each story was a treat, delivering suspense, dread, and outright terror in unique ways.

Story Highlights

⭐ "Jackknife" by Joe Hill
Joe Hill never disappoints, and Jackknife is no exception. Following a man who is already spiraling into self-destruction, the story takes a classic horror turn when he ignores clear warnings and removes a jackknife from a cursed tree. Tension builds as the inevitable unfolds, and for once, I found myself rooting for the tree.

⭐ "The Indigo Room" by Stephen Graham Jones
Jones’ writing style took me a moment to adjust to when I first discovered him, but now I can’t get enough. The Indigo Room carries the same sinister and brutal edge that made The Only Good Indians and I Was a Teenage Slasher so gripping.

⭐ "The Blanks" by Grady Hendrix
If you’ve never read a Grady Hendrix book, let me borrow a line from Dave Grohl: Where have you been? Seriously, read My Best Friend’s Exorcism. The Blanks is set on a seemingly peaceful island hiding a dark secret. The townspeople ignore the signs of danger, but when they finally acknowledge it, it’s far too late. A deeply unsettling and suspenseful read.

⭐ "Night and Day in Misery" by Catriona Ward
Ward is an author I’ve only read a little from, but The Last House on Needless Street left a lasting impression. Night and Day in Misery delivers that same haunting and heartbreaking atmosphere. Poor Stella faces her past in a way she never expected—especially in room 17.

⭐ "The Letter Slot" by Owen King
I have the least experience with Owen King, which made it all the more surprising when this story felt oddly familiar. A teenager is tempted by a mysterious letter slot that promises a way to help his struggling mother. But, as always, there’s a cost…

A stellar collection of horror and suspense, featuring some of the genre’s best. Each story delivers something unique—whether it's creeping dread, brutal tension, or haunting tragedy. If you’re a fan of dark fiction, this anthology is a must-read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon for an e-arc of this collection in exchange for an honest review. Each of these stories were completely different from each other but worked well together as they all dealt with a grief of some kind. I liked some stories more than others but each story in this collection is above a four-star read in my opinion. My favorite story in this collection has to be Grady Hendrix's The Blanks. I thought the intrigue and pacing were flawless the whole way through and a large story was told within a small number of pages. I very much enjoy these horror-centric collections Amazon has been putting out in recent years with big-name authors and this one isn't any different.

Below you can find a shorties review of each of the five short stories included in the collection.

JACKKNIFE (3.25 stars)

This author was basically one of the main reasons I was tempted to try this horror short story collection. I finally discovered Joe Hill's writing last year, and he is quickly turning into a favorite horror author. I don't think this short story is his strongest work though. Jackknife is what you can call a typical classic horror story with a plot that is quite predictable. Its strongest aspect is without doubt the creepy and atmospheric vibe created both by the setting and its descriptions; then again the author always does this well. I can't say that I was a fan of the main character Dennis nor did I care what happened to him, but it's no secret that I'm never a fan of a cheating element in the first place. It was funny that I was actually somehow rooting for the sycamore to win rather than Dennis... Oh yes, he is THAT unlikeable. I was a bit disappointed by just how abrupt the ending was as well, and how it basically left things wide open. All in all not the strongest start of this collection.

THE INDIGO ROOM (2.25 stars)

I was honestly already a bit worried this would happen... My first experience with Stephen Graham Jones's writing wasn't exactly a positive one, and I've stayed away from his books since then as I was pretty sure his writing style just wasn't a good match for me. Still, I hoped The Indigo Room would prove me wrong... But unfortunately this short story has only reconfirmed for me that his writing simply isn't for me. The plot itself is surprisingly boring and it basically isn't scary at all. The writing itself is pretentious and way too much for such a short story... I'm not saying that the premise itself didn't have potential, but I wasn't a fan of how the story was developed nor how it ended. Even with just a couple more pages of fleshing out and taking the time to properly wrap things up would have much improved The Indigo Room. As it is, the story was just too vague to be able to hold my attention. I do hope the next short story will be better!

THE BLANKS (4.25 stars)

This is probably the short story I was looking forward most, and there is no doubt that The Blanks is my favorite story of the bundle so far! I tend to enjoy Grady Hendrix's books, and the premise of short story is simply brilliant. I'm amazed by just how much dept this story had despite the fact it only has a limited amount of pages, and it is one that made me wish for more. I wouldn't say no to a bigger story about the Blanks, that's for sure! Still, this short story offered plenty, and the descriptions were perfect to create that creepy and ominous atmosphere. This is without doubt the darkest or at least the most spine-chilling plot so far, mostly because it involves what are basically ordinary families in a place with a very dark secret that everyone seems to agree it's best to ignore. It is especially terrifying what the family has been forced to end up doing... I couldn't believe what I was reading! The Blanks definitely reminded me why I tend to enjoy this author's writing, and it has left me wanting to pick up his newest book ASAP.

NIGHT AND DAY IN MISERY (3.75 stars)

I've been meaning to try this author for a while now, and I thought this anthology would be the perfect excuse to finally do so. I do love a good motel setting, so I was immediately intrigued by Night And Day In Misery... And this motel makes for the perfect backdrop for this tragic story. There is just something about the writing style that really worked for me, and it has me looking forward to finally pick up one of Catriona Ward's books in the near feature. This short story is quite a dark read and focuses heavily on grief, child death, domestic abuse, alcoholism and suicide. There are some hints at the supernatural, although you are never quite sure what is real and what is just the consequence of the main character being in a delirious state... There were also some twists to be found along the way, and I liked how everything was wrapped up in the end. It's a story with a proper structure that answers all the important questions, and it provides you with a dark and creepy journey as you dive deep into the grief and misery. One of the best short stories so far of the bundle!

LETTER SLOT (4 stars)

This is another author I've been meaning to try, so this collection was an excellent excuse to finally do so. I was intrigued by the premise of Letter Slot with the moral dilemma of giving the name of someone you hate in exchange for a little good luck. This is one of the longer short stories of the bundle, but the extra pages were worth it as the slow building up of tension works better this way. I really enjoyed the writing itself, and it's definitely made me want to pick up more of Owen King's work in the future. The moral dilemma topic has been really well developed in Letter Slot, and there is a healthy amount of character development for such a short story. There is no doubt that this collection ends on a strong note with Letter Slot, and I really enjoyed my time reading it.

Jackknife by Joe Hill:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not my favorite by Joe Hill, but still really interesting. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought this was a Chuck Wendig story. The tone of it reminded be a lot of Black River Orchard. I didn’t really like any of the characters, but I thought the ending was great. Talk about Karma. Definitely Chuck Wendig meets Saw (just not nearly as bloody).

The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Leave it to SGJ to have such a fantastic first line! I loved the tone of this one despite how odd it was. It made me think of another short story I read about discarded office furniture that rose up against the sexist males in the office to defend the women in the company. (It sounds cheesy but it was really good!) This one was very different from everything else I’ve read from SGJ, but still interesting. I liked the main character but not the others. Cole wasn’t in the story enough for me to really form an opinion. What I really liked about this story is that it kind of took advantage of all the weird things our minds wander to when we are in those boring meetings. Coworker without a head? Sure. There’s a story for that!

The Blanks by Grady Hendrix
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story started off so normal and then took a wild left turn that I did not expect! I loved it. I would love to see this one extended into a full length novel some day.

Night and Day in Miseries by Catriona Ward
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I want to preface this one by saying I haven’t been a huge fan of her books previously. I was starting to wonder if it’s just her writing that I don’t get on with, but this story tells me that’s not the case. I really did love this story. It was so odd and so incredibly sad! I figured out what was going on pretty quickly, but watching it play out was rough. I had *feelings* about her ex. For those of you who have trouble with child deaths, you should stay far away from this one. But if not, and you want a spooky story that smacks you right in the feels, this one is the epitome of excellence.

Letter Slot by Owen King
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I loved the idea of a modern Faustian bargain and the story was well-written. But FFS, the political potshots killed it for me. Honestly, it was gross. I don’t care what your politics are. It was tacky. Not a fan at all.


Huge thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

The Shivers collection contains five stories from your favorite horror writers. But you will not find any light relief here. While all the stories are great, they are incredibly bleak.

Jackknife, by Joe Hill

I’ve loved Joe Hill since his first short story collection, and his short fiction always impresses. Jackknife is about a shamed, young college professor, whose text affair with a student ruins his career and his marriage. He has several encounters with a weird tree; is he losing his marbles? A really entertaining, bonkers story.

The Indigo Room, by Stephen Graham Jones

Oh my word, this story was so bleak! A struggling, newly divorced mother has to bring her kid to the office. Under the pressure of being a mother and an employee, she sees strange things in the shadows of the Indigo conference room. Absolutely harrowing.

The Blanks, by Grady Hendrix

I loved how this story unfolded. It starts on a sunny note, with a family starting their vacation in an idyllic cove on the East Coast. But why are they shunning their neighbor? We learn that this apparent paradise of this location has an unimaginable cost.

Night and Day in Misery, by Catriona Ward

These stories are so harrowing! A woman visits a hotel that holds significance for her. As we learn why she has returned, the horrors unfold. I love Ward’s writing, and this story is no exception.

Letter Slot, by Owen King

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as this story reminded me of Stephen King at his best. A boy makes a deal with an unseen penpal to get a better life for him and his single mom. It obviously goes awry, as we learn who exactly this penpal is.

SUPREMELY CREEPY!

This is a great collection of horror shorts. It isn't my usual genre but I did like these stories. They're each so creepy, scary and descriptively written.

Some of these had twists I loved. I liked Night and Day in Misery and Letter Slot best, these surprised me!
Some of them had ambiguous endings which I think lots of readers will love and others will hate, lol.

Giving 4 out of 5 stars as most of these I wouldn't reread but still enjoyed.

Several short stories that were fun to read. I liked that I got to read some authors that I have not read before. I have not read a lot of short stories in the past so this always puts a different spin on it, but leaves me wanting more. These stories got me interested in the authors and I will be looking for more books by them.

Love these stand alone short stories presented in sets of five by Amazon. These are just five scary ones, not limited to a specific topic with five great authors.

As always with a collection, these were a mixed bag. The stories by Hendrix and Ward were my favorites. The story by King was OK and I did not really enjoy the stories by Hill or Ward, which surprised me, because in the past, Joe Hill’s stories for this have been great. Everyone’s allowed an off day, though! Three stars for the five overall.

I've split my review into each story.

Story 1: Jackknife by Joe Hill - I REALLY disliked the main character in this one, I enjoyed the story, it was creepy and stuck with me, but I probably would have been more invested if I cared of the main character made it out alive.

Story 2: The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones - This one was short, but definitely shiver-y to read as a mom. I'll leave it at that.

Story 3: The Blanks by Grady Hendrix - oof. This was great! Feels slightly unhinged but normal until suddenly it doesn't. The turn is quick and unexpected and very good.

Story 4: Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward - This one was really hard to read. I figured out what had happened week before it was explained, but that didn't really change the horror of the story.

Story 5: Letter Slot by Owen King - I liked the premise of this one, but something fell flat. The end felt very abrupt.

Overall, great collection! I love short stories and these were excellent. 4.5 ⭐

Are these horror? Am I desensitized? Is this physiological horror? I gave most of these 3 stars one got two and one got four. Averaging them to 3 stars for the collections. These are not scary, maybe the point was that some of stories could actually “happen”.

Thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for this amazing arc!

I was so excited to get approved for the shivers collection because it contains short stories from several of my favorite authors including Grady Hendrix and Catriona Ward. It has five short stories that are part horror part paranormal and I enjoyed them all!!!

This was a great short story collection from some of the juggernauts in modern horror writing. I think The Blanks by Grady Hendrix was the star of the show but each and every one stands out for different reasons.

Jackknife: ★★★★☆
This 2025 story feels like it could have been written decades earlier. Very classic Stephen King feel, I wonder if Joe Hill knows the guy?

Scandalized professor Dennis is left trying to figure out what's next after losing his wife and teaching job after his text messages with a student come to light. While staying at a cheap AirBnB in the woods he comes across a strange knife embedded in a sycamore tree with an ominous message saying not to remove it. As any good horror short story protagonist would do he removes it and the consequences follow.

I enjoyed the ending, definitely left me with chills.

The Indigo Room: ★★★☆☆
In this short story an office manager has uncanny hallucinations involving her coworkers suddenly losing a head and arm during a slideshow presentation. What does it mean? Why did her ex have to drop her son off at work at the same time? And why is the boss suddenly unexpectedly on site?

I wanted to like this one, but the protagonist just was so unlikable and self centered that it made it hard for me to really care about her. It left me feeling like I missed the point. (And maybe I did) Was a interesting concept but it didn't seems fully fleshed out.

The Blanks: ★★★★★
A family makes a return to their island vacation home after staying away for several years. But there's an uncanny sense of something being off on the island, something the island's summer residents don't care to address. When Rachel's son Callum comes face to face with it their family is forced to address it.

This was my first time reading a Grady Hendrix story and certainly won't be the last. The story seems allegorical to a number of modern issues where people love to stick their head in the sand: COVID, climate change, gun violence, and a million more. People are happy to keep up the status quo and accept consequences for others, but when the consequences come for you and yours the realties of the issue sink in.

Night and Day in Misery: ★★★★☆
A grieving mother sets out to retrace the last night and day of her deceased husband and son. While staying at the same exact hotel room that they had, she begins to learn more about their final hours.

I liked the twists and turns of this one, it went a very different direction that I was expecting after the first few pages.

Letter Slot: ★★★★☆
A haunting story of a magical pen-pal, letters deposited in an abandoned house and addressed to his "pal" keep getting responses addressed to him as "buddy". Soon the mysterious pen-pal extends a Faustian offer: fortune in exchange for the name of someone hated. Our protagonist will have to see what the true cost is.

This was a good collection of stories. If you follow any of these authors, you'll definitely want to read these.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of The Shivers Collection.

This collection contains five short stories from Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward, and Owen King.

Each story is horror with a hint of the paranormal. All five stories are incredibly strong in my opinion, but my favorites-the ones that will likely stick with me-are Stephen Graham Jones’ “The Indigo Room” (mainly for its imagery) and “The Letter Slot” by Owen King, which was oddly touching and emotional. I also liked “The Blanks” by Grady Hendrix quite a lot, but I’d like too see it fleshed out a bit more into a novella and expand on the concept more.

All in all, this was a very strong collection and I highly recommend it!

I normally enjoy all these authors' work but none of these stories really captured me and I did not enjoy this collection.

Wow! Five star, completely loved this collection review! While all the stories were fantastic, My faves were written by Grady Hendrix, Owen King and Joe Hill.
Jackknife by Joe Hill is the story of a man whose poor choices and bad decisions just keep coming despite his ability to stop them. Self destruction at its finest. *slight trigger warning for animal death. Throwing this out there as it’s my only trigger. Still a great story!*
The Blanks by Grady Hendrix. Grady never fails to deliver the creep factor. And this one packs quite the punch. This story starts out all summery, sunshiney and fantastic. But just below all that sand, surf and sun lurks something dark, rotting and moldering. Will be thinking about this one for quite some time.
Letter Slot by Owen King brought me a new phrase - soul consequences. Maybe we should all be thinking a little bit more about “soul consequences” before we make decisions and choices. This one had an ending I certainly didn’t see coming.