Traversing the borderlands between terror and lush, fantastic beauty, Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales, Angela Slatter’s eighth collection of short fiction, gathers twelve tales of horror, the uncanny, and dark lament.
Here, you will find Lovecraftian terrors, Aussie vampires, fell magic, ancient wisdom, wayward children, and twisted moments of desire gone horribly wrong. 
From the otherworldly threats of “The Song of Sighs” and “Only the Dead and Moonstruck“, to the sand-blasted Australian outback of “Sun Falls“, to the shadowy secrets of the past in the “The Red Forest“, these tales are dark gems that will haunt you long after your first reading.

I enjoyed all but one of the twelve chilling tales contained in this collection. They cover a wide range of topics from abduction to zombies. The only things that they have in common is that they are well-written, have strong (but not always nice) women or girls as the central characters and they give new twists to old tropes. Some of the strongest stories focus on vengeance, particularly for offences committed against children.

My favourites were the darker ones:

Some made me smile: ‘Sun Falls’ and ‘The Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You‘. Some were gothicly creepy: ‘Only The Dead And The Moonstruck’, ‘The Song Of Sighs‘ and ‘The Way Of All Flesh’. My favourites were dark and chilling: ‘Cuckoo‘, ‘Home And Hearth‘, ‘The Burning Circus‘ and ‘Winter Children‘

To give a flavour of the collection, I’ve written spoiler-free mini-reviews for each story. Take a look and see if there’s something that appeals to you.

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Only The Dead And The Moonstruck

A fairytale of the grim cautionary type in which a very young girl lives with her guilt about the secret bargain she made with a monster. Then, the monster returns and she must face it to redeem herself.

The imagery was stark and as cold as starlight. The backstory was revealed entirely by how the girl reacts to the present danger, engaging me with her and slowly revealing the damage her first encounter with the monster had wrought and the guilt she carried for the decision she’d made. The girl is smart and brave and aware but still a young girl, so the boundaries between the magic and the real are hard for her to establish, especially when a real monster has already come calling. This way of looking at the world as somewhere where magic is something as dark and dangerous as a storm or as bright and beautiful as a moonrise made her acceptance of the outcome of the story perfect.

Cuckoo

This was very powerful and very unpleasant. The premise, a first-person account from a body-swapping avenging spirit hunting someone who had taken lives he wasn’t entitled to, was original and attention-grabbing. The execution was skilled: slick, fast, unflinching. The content was corrosive, contaminating and depressing. It also felt horribly true.

I loved the opening line of the story:

“The child was dead by the time I found her, but she suited my purposes perfectly.”

Slatter, Angela. Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales . Brain Jar Press. Kindle Edition.

I was won over to the vengeful spirit by its reflections rather than its actions. It remembers when evil was different, a black-and-white affair, evil or not evil, rather than a contagion that touches everyone. I loved this expression of regret:

“I miss that—the delineation of great evil from banal nastiness.”

Slatter, Angela. Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales . Brain Jar Press. Kindle Edition.

Sadly, I think I’ll remember this story for a long time.

The Burning Circus

This was a wonderfully chilling tale of betrayal, ruin and revenge. I loved the calm focus of this story. A single-mindedness so patient it might seem passionless but was really a channel for fury. I had the impression that not all of the main character’s memories might be reliable, that her mind had suffered and facts had become fables. Yet she understands the changes she’s been through and the price she must extract for it.

Home And Hearth

I love stories like this one where actions can be read as the result of a manifestation of something supernatural or as the distortions of a subconscious quickened by fear and burdened with guilt. The slow unfolding of the source of the guilt and the eventual acceptance of the extent of the guilt and the actions needed to atone for it produce a tale that is both sad and chilling.

Winter Children

Now I know how you make Winter Children. It’s a graphic image I won’t soon forget. This was a fast, tricky tale where I played Spot The Monster even though I knew I was going to lose. I liked that this was set in an old people’s home, with all the details needed to make it convincing, even disarming, and the plot turned out to be bloody and packed with surprises.

Pale Tree House

A short but sinister tale with a manifestation of a spirit of vengeance that made me smile but not in a nice way. This was dressed like a Victorian ghost story but went somewhere the Victorians would not have expected. I approved of the destination. If that makes me a harsh and unforgiving person, I can live with that.

The Red Forest

This one didn’t work for me. I think that was mainly because I’ve never liked or understood the fascination of the supernatural character this story depends on.

The Song Of Sighs

Normally, I’m turned off by any horror story that’s headed for Lovecraft country. The whole tentacled God thing leaves me cold. I thought that was where this story was going but the way it was written hooked my curiosity so I stuck with it and found that I was reading a solid Gothic tale with a clever twist and that I’d enjoyed myself.

The Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You

This is one of the most original stories I’ve read in a while. It’s certainly the most original zombie short story I’ve read. It did such a good job of making me smile that didn’t notice that we were headed towards the dark until we were deep in shadow. I loved the idea of a zombie story where it was the live folks who seemed most monstrous.

Sun Falls

This is the kind of modern vampire story that I like. One where the vampire doesn’t sparkle or suffer from existential angst. One told from the point of view of somebody who serves the vampire, knowing that she’s made a deal with the devil but that’s it better to have deal with the devil you know than to be a snack for the other things that come out at night.

This story has a desert road trip vibe that looks like it might become an Aussie version of ‘Deliverance‘. There’s a head in a cooler, a woman with a Katana, a vintage Holden with flames, go-faster stripes and fluffy dice and something that may or may not be a magic pool. And there’s a twist at the end that made me smile.

The Way Of All Flesh

This is a ghoulish delight, set in rural America some years after everything in the world stopped working. I loved the gentle matter-of-fact way the predatory main character was introduced. giving the story a folksy feel, a fairytale with sharp teeth. O liked the ending best of all. I didn’t see it coming but it made me smile when it arrived.

The October Widow

I love this title, now that I know what it means. This was a satisfyingly modern riff on ancient traditions on death and renewal. I liked that, despite its supernatural content, it felt solid and real.