The Map of Lost Places

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Pub Date Apr 22 2025 | Archive Date Feb 27 2025
Publisher Spotlight | Apex Book Company

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Description

A travel guide to hauntings and the haunted, to lands with their own power, and to the communities that spring from these strange realms.

What you hold in your hands is a travel guide to the strange and surreal. From arcades along a boardwalk and jetties at the edges of tourist towns, to a rural village in Pakistan and hollows hidden deep within a forest in Pennsylvania, strange things can happen no matter where you are. You can become lost in a city crowded with people, haunted within your own home, and slip from one reality into another in the space of a step.

With twenty-two stories by authors such as Brian Keene, Maurice Broaddus, Ai Jiang, Samit Basu, and KS Walker, editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner take readers on a tour of places where weird things happen. Places where ghosts are real, old gods are hungry, and towns are not as idyllic as they appear to be.

Welcome to The Map of Lost Places. Enter at your own risk.

Includes original fiction from:

Ai Jiang

Brian Keene

Beth Dawkins

Danian Darrell Jerry

Dimitra Nikolaidou

Fatima Taqvi

Ferdison Cayetano

Gabrielle Paniccia

Jenny Rowe

Joshua Lim

K.S. Walker

Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv

Maurice Broaddus

Muhammed Awal Ahmed

Octavia Cade

Oliver Ferrie

R.L. Meza

Rebecca E. Treasure

Rich Larson

Samit Basu

VH Ncube

Vivian Chou

With an introduction from Linda D. Addisona

A travel guide to hauntings and the haunted, to lands with their own power, and to the communities that spring from these strange realms.

What you hold in your hands is a travel guide to the strange...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781955765268
PRICE $27.95 (USD)
PAGES 306

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Average rating from 19 members


Featured Reviews

prettty well done set of short stories that i liked in general. i wouldn't say that they're all good, but i'd give it a probable 3.5. tysm for the arc.

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I like to consider myself a connoisseur of short story collections, and I particularly enjoyed this one! It was eerie and enticing and the writing styles of the various stories blended together very well. Some of the stories were more captivating than others (I particularly loved the first few stories)--but overall, a great collection.

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I loved the concept of this book, and knew that I needed to read it. Some of the stories I loved, some where okay, and some didn't really resonate with me. My favorites were the ones that seemed more like local folklore. The diversity of where the stories came from was fantastic. It felt like true lost stories around the world. I would still recommend it to others because you can skip around and read the stories that work for you. I'd say this is for fans of folklore, Black Mirror, horror stories, and science fiction.

Thank you Netgalley, all the authors, and the publishers for this EARC.

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I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that element that I was looking for from the description. The overall feel worked with the horror genre, and each story worked well overall in this universe. Each author worked well overall and was glad I was able to read this.

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This was great! Lots of short, intense stories, to enjoy again and again. I've never heard of any of the authors, but took a chance that at least there would be a few interesting tales. Pleasantly surprised that every story I read was worth the read! I haven't finished the book as yet, but intend to! Fantasy lovers are going to love this collection! I look forward to discovering new work by the authors.

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This anthology takes readers on a strange trip around the world (and further) to explore some of the creepiest and most unsettling corners, from ghost towns and murderous forests to mind-bending houses and virtual hellscapes.

The diversity of locations represented is fantastic, and I enjoyed discovering new, wonderful places. The stories themselves were well varied, however there were some repeating themes among the stories - cosmic horror, religious/cult origins and revenge motifs all feature heavily. A few of the stories were a bit too fever dream-esque for me, I had trouble following them, but most were interesting and engaging.

Some standout stories for me:

- Girlboss in Wonderworld, USA, Vivian Chau - A really solid start to the book, capturing a strong sense of place and delivering a cleverly crafted commentary.

- Three Ways to Break You, Beth Dawkins- I loved the unique premise, and it felt like there could be more great stories here.

- All Praise the Durians, Joshua Lim - Just a fun story!

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Well, like a lot of anthologies, some worked and some didn’t. My favorites were:

- Girlboss in Wonderworld, USA
- Three Ways to Break You
- All Praise the Durians
- Development/Hell
- Inviting the Hollow Bones

I absolutely LOVED Development/Hell by Samit Basu. It was such a cool concept and I could have followed the rabbit hole of horror layers down and down. Someone give me this movie now! I added a whole star just for this one.

Overall it was a fun read and some were genuinely unsettling

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“In the end, we all become stories.”

The Map of Lost Places is a short story collection featuring tales of off the beaten path locations and what you might find there. It’s full of surprises and twists and will keep you entertained. They are long enough to have some substance but short enough to keep your attention for a quick read.

Recommended if you like: mystery/thrillers, science fiction, short story anthologies

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Deliciously haunting, The Map of Lost Places, takes the reader on a road trip across a forbidden landscape of the world.

As far as anthologies go, The Map of Lost Places has been one of the better ones that I’ve read. Being themed definitely helped knit this one together, and what a fantastically spooky theme it is! (Sidenote: love the “A Guide to Finding Evil” tagline on the cover.) So, if it’s not obvious already, the cover and the description really sold me on giving this one a try. The introduction to the conception of the anthology gave a nice greeting, while giving the reader a roadmap of what to expect. “Surrender to the map this book provides” indeed.

Anthologies are always hit and miss. When books bring a number of different authors together, there’s always going to be segments that don’t quite click with every reader. But things this anthology does in particular that really work? I loved the mixing of background and ethnicities. The authors are from all over the world, and that really shines through in this book. Each story is set in a different location around the world (and some otherworldly ones as well). The editors did a great job in their selections, giving the reader a taste of a variety of different cultures, superstitions, and fears. The fact that three of the twenty-ish stories primarily featured salt in such contrasting ways really shows the diversity and breadth of the pieces.

I loved that each story began with the location and population; it really grounded the reader, firmly shutting the door on the last piece to bring them into an entirely new space. And my personal favorites? “Girlboss in Wonderland, USA”, “All Praise the Durians”, and “Notes Toward a History of LeHorn’s Hollow”, just for the record.

The things that didn’t quite work in this anthology? Like I said, some stories were just a miss for me. In fact, I found a lot of them to not be particularly scary. Most of them did follow the theme of unexpected or unexplained places, but I really lost the plot in some of them. I’m not going to discredit those particular stories as it’s entirely possible I didn’t pay enough attention because they just didn’t resonate with me. Some stories I wanted more from, some I wanted less, but overall, I was really looking for a lot more scares than I received. Even my favorites? Not particularly up there in the horror department.

Overall, this book wasn’t a miss for me. I stories that I liked inside, I really liked, and there were plenty more than just the three I listed here, those were just the ones that stuck out the most for me. It’s definitely worth a read, especially if you want some bite-sized exposure to new authors or area folklore.

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