I’m so pleased to be sharing the first of my posts in Spellbound Books’ SHOctober blog tour today. I’m reviewing The Nightmare with thanks to Zoe O’Farrell and the team at Spellbound Books for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book

Blurb:

𝐀 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧.

I set the table for you, come sit.

I hope you enjoy my humble fare, a selection of only the darkest of delights. But make sure and pull your chair in closer to the hearth for the night falls and the wind blows wild muffling the sound of approaching footsteps. Something comes, something creeps ever closer. A nightmare thing.

Enter a dark place between fact and fiction.

On a cold winter’s night whilst crossing the frost covered field to fetch water, a child hears a sound on the air, an infant’s cry. But no baby awaits her hurried progress. 

A pensioner rapidly losing her memory exists in a twilight world where only a lost love can bridge the gap between past and present.

A young man at a boutique music festival discovers more than romance in the fading forest.

Something travels the cosmos, a creature of nightmare and terror. A veiled medium sits at a table in a Victorian parlour waiting.

Amongst the lamb, a wolf harvests souls in a bid for promotion.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐄 – 𝐀 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐅.𝐁. 𝐇𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧.

Review:

FB Hogan: The Nightmare 

The Nightmare is a collection of short stories that will definitely prepare you for Halloween! The writing in each one is simply brilliant and I loved the way that Hogan built the creepy atmosphere that made me feel unsettled throughout each story. 

What stood out for me in this collection is that although the stories are very creepy, many of them take place in every day situations that as readers we are able to relate to; for example, a music festival, an older lady in a domestic setting and a mother with a young child. The seemingly “normal” surroundings make the horror elements very effective.

As always with short story collections, there are stories that stand out for me more than others, however The Nightmare gives readers insight into Hogan’s writing style and I am encouraged to read more of her work in the future. 

The Nightmare is available from Amazon.

You can follow the first week of SHOctober here: