Scary Snippets: Campfire Edition
Edited by N.M. Brown
What do you call an urban legend when it is not set in the city, but out in a remote forest or on an island? The Scary Snippets: Campfire Edition of course. I was truly impressed by the creativity and variety of effective ghost stories, interspersed with a few good old slasher tales, plus monsters, werewolves and vampires. The tales that employed dark humour were an especially good surprise – they truly put the “camp” in these campfire tales.
- In Loop by David Green, two boys wake up with headaches and no memory of how they got to the place. Turns out they are suffering from much more than a hangover. Very Clever!
- Merit Badge by Lamont Turner is a ghost story with a deadly difference.
- In Jesses’ Girl by Stephanie Scissom a mystery is solved.
- Welcome to Cottonwood Creek by Thomas Baker presents a camping disaster with a twist.
- Camp Cooking by J.A. Askew is a clever piece of science fiction involving subversive social commentary.
- Her Mother’s Eyes by Micha Castle is seriously intriguing and genuinely speculative.
- Lady of the Lake by Jaqueline Moran Meyer is an interesting take on an old myth legend that creates a not-so-urban legend.
- Dying Campfire Light by Radar Deboard is evocative and poetic. The fire is keeping the darkness away – but for how long?
- In the Light of the Moon by Alannah Roberston-Webb neatly presents a fatal moment of discovery.
- Where is the Were-Bear by Andrew Kurtz weaves a clever narrative that keeps the reader guessing until the end.
- One more Murder by C. Marry Hultman is an entertaining dark read that holds the reader’s attention.
- Hantoop Island by N.M. Brown reveals horror during a psychology session.
- When the Sun Comes Up by C. Marry Hultman is a thorough slasher, once again, with a really bizarre twist.
- The Trapper by Christo Healy is an original take on the tall tale coming true format.
- Deception by Christo Healy makes the most of love and revenge in a horrific little scenario.
- The Woods by Christo Healy develops a classic horror tale with atmosphere.
- Second Date by
David Green gives the impression the author may have a dark sense of humour.
Make or break – the second date is often a killer!
- Smile by David Green is a sort of misfit’s revenge, with a difference. Yeah – this writer definitely employs some dark humour.
- Sisters by Gabi Kenny involves hallucinations and creepy effects.
- Camp New Hope by Nicole Henning delivers something more than a nerd’s revenge.
- A Campfire Pact by Nicole Henning adopts a LBQ+ perspective as it mocks college snobbery.
- Dimples by Julia Skeen requires punctuation but is otherwise a powerfully told tale of psychological manifestation.
- Chocolate Covered Cicadas by Kyle Harrison creates a horror from nature, down to its cyclic rhythm.
- A Fool’s Moon by Marcus Cook shines as the animals treat a hunter as he deserves.
- Dancing Shadows by Micah Castle brings a transformation and an epiphany of horror.
- What We’re Meant to Be by Michah Castle is a scientifically created horror.
- Full Moon Camping Trip by R. C. Mulhare is a great were-wolf romp told with black humour.
- The Price of Success by Joshua E. Borgmann is well written and provides a paranormal metaphor for the rat-race of life.
- Gone Glamping by R.C. Mulhare combines a vampire story with a great closing pun.
- The Noise Among the Trees by Radar DeBoard is consuming horror in which the leaves are hungry.
- Couples Retreat by Scott McGregor: these couples really need to retreat, because the stranger has the best horror story of them all.
- The Third Night by Shannon Grant tells the twisted tale of some noisy campers.
- How it Burns by Stephanie Kubin develops a study in morbid curiosity.
- Be Careful What I Wish For by Tony Logan is an original grungy horror tale.
- Inside the Tent by Radar Deboard is a short tale you have to read until the final line to discover how truly clever it is.
- Homecoming by Joe Powers delivers a genuine creep as a ghost story.
- Nature Calls by Joe Powers cunningly revives the simple horror of going to an outdoor toilet in the night.
- The Bad Season by Eric Nirschel personifies nature as it implies there is something weirder than the wind in the coming storm.
- Devil’s Grove by Amber Keener starts as an urban legend and finishes with a serve of gross-out.
- Just Old Wives’ Tales by Thomas K.S. Wake delivers a shock while bringing an old superstition to life.
- The Sweetest Meat by Wayne Lee has two parts: at first, a monster speaks and then there is a news report. The clever reader makes a horrifying connection.
- What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Raz T. Slasher ingeniously recounts a close encounter of the hungry kind.
- The Tubal Cain Trail by Nicholas Rud skillfully generates an alien seeming landscape that attacks.
- Video Witch by J.M. Staley is one of the stand-out inclusions. Presented as a dramatic script, it ends with a cliffhanger. I could guess for ages!
- Rebeccas’s Fire by Jennifer Hatfield is another spooky story that conjures real ghosts.
- Better Safe Than Sorry by Nicola Kapron documents a grueling vigil against something just outside the light of the fire.
- Digital Detox by Charlotte O’Farrell makes you wonder what you might miss if you turned your mobile phone off. This is another great example of black humour.
- The Thinner You by Danny Nicholas tells one of the most bizarre weightless stories around.
- The Dinner Guest by Marcus Cook inevitably explores that forbidden subject – cannibalism.
- The Eyes Have It by Maggie D. Brace paints a compelling picture of eight-legged horror.
- Extreme Survival by Wendy Roberts is a journal-style narrative with a twist, and then another couple of twists.
- Look What the Cat Dragged In by Tamara Wenteen takes a child’s sweet longing for a pet to horrific extremes.
- Revenge of the Candalorian Coves by Sophie Wagner takes a local legend and turns it into a cycle of never-ending tragedy.
- Winter of the Wolf by Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer is my mythic contribution. Can a natural-born werewolf survive a human relationship?
- New Beginnings by Gary McDonough had a few exciting plot turns I really did not expect.
- Camp Go Green by Lisa Flanyack serves out the horror and ends on a safe note. It’s nice to find a little optimism, even in a horror volume!
- A Killer Camp Experience by Nerisha Kemraj presents a solid slasher tale that suits the genre.
- Sweet Real Estate by Marcus Cook modernizes the witch living in the woods motif.
- The Perfect Spot by Galina Trefil adopts an unusual point of view and packs a massive social message.
