by Paul O'Neill
First published 2021
Paul O'Neill delivers thirteen stories that drag readers into Scotland's most isolated corners where ordinary people face extraordinary terrors. A group encounters ancient slime creatures in remote highlands. Three friends discover that adding a fourth member brings deadly consequences. Summer visitors find themselves targeted by an unstoppable force. Characters descend into underground spaces where silence masks unspeakable horrors. Others become guardians of things better left unprotected. The collection moves between brief, sharp encounters with fear and longer explorations of dread, culminating in the novella-length title story where a nightmare tree becomes the focal point of escalating supernatural events. O'Neill uses Scotland's landscape as more than backdrop, making the country's forgotten places active participants in each tale's unfolding horror. These stories explore how isolation amplifies fear and how the familiar can become threatening when stripped of context and safety.
Genres: short-stories, horror, supernatural, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: supernatural-horror, unsettling
Setting: Scotland
230 pages · Paperback · Independently published
Content warnings: body-horror, gore