Bookstagram is a great place to find new authors and I’m very lucky to be asked to read and review independently published books – case in point, Remnants by E. H. Regan. A slick collection of horror short stories, all offering unique insights, it’s as dark as it is engaging.
Whilst each tale is unique, ranging from video nasties (with a surprise) to violent retribution, there’s a connection between them all. Not just via the author’s voice but from perspective and, in a way, it makes the whole collection feel personal. Especially with a short such as Mèirleach Sìthiche that features a writer trying to find inspiration. There’s something offered in all these stories and the sense of catharsis or shared secret permeates the work.
From the opening it’s a gripping read. The first story, the eponymous Remanants, is a wonderfully spooky and somehow beautiful look at a woman imbued with the psychic power to read objects. But it’s Reel Movies where the collection really shows it’s teeth. Vicious and visceral, the premise is brutally creative. Yet, as vastly different as the two are, both consider how hard it is to fight urges and desires when presented with the opportunity to fulfil them.
Edging toward the splatter spectrum, You Melt My Heart is a razor sharp take on serial killers that drips with dread. It intersects perfectly with Like a Rhinestone Cowgirl; a brilliant and unhinged little story that captures the shock factor of horror with a deft touch.
But, it’s the modern takes on social media from a female perspective that show real ingenuity. Eye of the Beholder takes the dopamine chase for likes and flips it in such an unexpected way that it really gives pause to all those curated and filtered images we are bombarded with daily. However, just as the collection started so powerfully, it ends with a sledgehammer in The Day I Died. Wonderfully crafted and filled with detail, it takes a rough subject and sculpts it into a brutally effective story. The reality of unwanted DMs, trolls and objectification is tempered by the story of a woman meeting someone special only for their first time face to face to curdle into something awful. In a self aware look at Instagram, this is a story that captures truth and terror and hammers it into one horrifyingly effective piece of writing.
Dark, violent, insightful, Remnants is a great collection of short, sharp reads.
Review copy
Published independently
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