Bloodstones

A collection of horror stories, edited by Amanda Pillar. Part of my RIP VIII reading.

Table of contents
• Introduction – Seanan McGuire
• The Bull in winter – Dirk Flinthart
• Euryale – Nicole Murphy
• A small bad thing – Penelope Love
• A moveable feast – Jenny Blackford
• Dead inside – Pete Kempshall
• Smoke gets in your eyes – MLD Curelas
• Sanaa’s army – Joanne Anderton
• A mother’s love – Richard Harland
• Ferreau’s curse – Christine Morgan
• Surviving film – Thoraiya Dyer
• And the dead shall be raised incorruptible – Kat Otis
• Embracing the invisible – Karen Maric
• The bone plate – Dan Rabarts
• Cephalopoda Obsessia
• The foam born – Erin Underwood
• Skin – Vivian Caethe
• The skin of the world – Stephnie Gunn

Bloodstones is a collection of stories all about the less well known monsters. There are no vampires or werewolves here, no zombies. Instead you will find the supporting characters of monster-dom; lamia, kraken,selkies, toyol and many more. You’ll find gods and serial killers within these pages. Some you’ll know, some you probably don’t, but all have a tale to tell here.

I wasn’t familiar with any of the authors in this collection before reading it, it was Seanan McGuire’s name that attracted my interest when I saw it come in at work. She doesn’t write any of the stories, unfortunately, but she gives the introduction and a recommendation. I hadn’t hear of any of the authors collected here, but I would have no problem in picking any of them up based on what’s on offer here. I think my favourite stories were The Bull in Winter and Skin. Gods and selkies. But I there isn’t a story that I didn’t like something about, which is unusual in a collection of short stories.