Oh, I love a good tale set in a marsh! There’s just something about marshlands that screams horror, and boy did this collection bring the horror! In Marshland Horrors: The Cellar Door Issue #5 edited by Aric Sundquist, we get some wildly dark fiction that delves deep into the horrors that haunt the depths of the swamp.
Content Warnings: Scenes of graphic violence, child abuse, childbirth, and miscarriage.
Let’s dive in!
My Thoughts on Marshland Horrors: The Cellar Door Issue #5 edited by Aric Sundquist –
First things first, I’m absolutely obsessed with the cover art by Mikio Murakami! It’s a perfect blend of eerie and captivating that sets a strong vibe for the collection, drawing you in before you even begin to check out the content. It’s like you can feel the mood shift just from the cover!
Speaking of the vibe… this collection was so darkly fun! The theme centered around the marshlands is so interesting. It’s a setting that I think is both beautiful and terrifying. There’s a tense and mysterious draw to it… the stillness of the water, the sounds of nature, but also the sense that something could be lurking just beneath the surface. And in this collection, many things were lurking!
Per usual, here are my notes on each tale!
Acknowledgments –
Ah, Aric! Too kind!! These collections are always so much fun. I’m honored to be able to read and review them! Thank you again for your patience with my delayed turnaround time now that I’m a mom!
ROUGAROU by Ashlee Lhamon –
Making a living by providing whatever his customers ask, he thinks he’s off for an easy day on the water. But then thoughts of a creature being to take over his thoughts and things don’t go as planned…
The TENSION! My gosh, what a tale to kick off the collection with. I was so nervous each second that passed while he was out on the water.
MY MAGGOT FILLED BROTHER by Matt Bliss –
Refusing to believe his father, this boy tends to his brother as his father tells him, but also goes against what his father says to try to teach him. One day, he breaks one of his father’s big rules and things go sideways.
Such a heartbreaking and terrifying situation! I felt terrible for all the kids involved!
THE HISS OF THE GLADES by Jennifer L. Collins –
Determined to learn from one of the greats, this deputy goes to try to learn some secrets. What he ends up learning is so much more than he could have ever imagined.
Oofh, the darkness here is short but incredibly sad. But the sheer determination and drive this man has was so fun to follow! I loved how he kept his cool on his quest for justice.
GUTS OF GOLD by Mark Szasz –
When these two find that their latest kills had gold bars in their guts, they try to learn more about why that could have been. Learning about some old stories, they go back in search of more.
There’s just something about a quest to find rumored lost gold that always gets me! That ending was so dark and so much fun!
CARNIVAL OF REEDS by S.R. Miller –
When she begins to see her patient in her dreams, she brushes it off as curiosity. But when the dreams start crossing onto real life, she knows where she needs to go…
This tale made me so nervous! There were so many red flags and this woman knew it, but her curiosity certainly kept winning.
THE GAST OF BLACKWATER by Martin Thompson –
When twin sisters with a complicated relationship go camping one night with a group of one twin’s friends, only one of them returns from the trip. But the other twin spends the next year preparing for the one-year anniversary of her twin’s death.
A twisted tale of grief and reflection.
THE COVE(N) by Alex Ebenstein –
Shocked when her boyfriend asks her to marry him after only a couple of months, this woman goes out for a solo kayak paddle. Curious about one specific area on the last that her boyfriend had told her about, she enters…
Oh gosh. The levels of terror here. As a female reader, the initial scene of the fast proposal kicked things off in a very tense way. I was so nervous to see what would happen from there.
RISEN by Richard Beauchamp –
After an event that they can only justify as the rapture office and later, when their father was taken, it’s not long before the family realizes they must risk it all to get to safety.
My god, this one crushed me. Reading tales like this as a still relatively new mom is difficult. That ending!!
A ROSEBUD, SWEET WITH MILK by Cassandra Daucus –
Oof. Big content warnings for this one (see the top of the post).
After losing her baby, this mother finds another being that she can support.
YES, THE RIVER KNOWS by Scotty Milder –
Generations of men within a family are required to carry out a brutal task each year. Without any excuses, they all learn and understand why they must do it. But this year, what they find when they go to complete their task is different…
Woof. Everything about this tale feels so dark! The family pressure, the lack of choice in the matter, the task itself… even being forced to stay where they are currently living feels dark. I loved the format of this one and how we get to learn more about why this family has to do this task while we’re living through the latest task in the present day. That ending was chilling!
My Favorite Passages from Marshland Horrors –
It was a cool day. Under the shade of the tupelo and bald cypress trees the water looked black, and it slid off Tommy’s oar like oil. The birds had not filled the lack-of-tourists-silence, as if suspicious said silence was a harbinger of worse things.
— ROUGAROU by Ashlee Lhamon
They cleaved into a civilization of cypresses. The trees jutting from the water looked like lightning had made a family tradition of striking them every Thanksgiving for the last several hundred years. Their deformed trunks gave the impression a nest of giant spiders had fallen onto their backs, drowned in the swamp water, their legs left bent, drawn, and moss-riddled above the water table.
— GUTS OF GOLD by Mark Szasz
We all-and by this I mean the whole of humanity across the ages-have an in-built fascination with the unknown. A fear, yes, but a fear that dances in step with a natural curiosity.
— CARNIVAL OF REEDS by S.R. Miller
My Final Thoughts on Marshland Horrors –
These tales were all so interesting! Dark story fans will love that they all have a stark boundary between life and decay, between known and unknown.
Thanks for reading!
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