First published 2019
This massive collection gathers thirty-three stories that probe the shadows lurking in ordinary moments. A doll develops malevolent intentions. Wedding preparations take a sinister turn. Subway turnstiles become portals to something worse. Pool parties reveal deadly secrets. The stories move from suburban neighborhoods to underground worlds, from childhood terrors to adult nightmares. Each tale finds horror in the familiar, whether it's ordering fast food, getting married, or simply loving life too much. The collection spans three previous volumes plus a bonus novelette about funeral customs gone wrong. These aren't ghost stories or monster tales but explorations of how darkness seeps into daily existence. The horror comes not from external threats but from the realization that evil lives inside the people and places we thought we knew. Douglas Clegg writes with surgical precision, cutting away comfort to expose the fear beneath.
Genres: short-stories, horror
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dark-secrets, unreliable-narrator
736 pages · Paperback · Alkemara Press
Content warnings: violence