Gemma Amor (editor). Titan Books, (320p) ISBN: 9781803369365. Horror, read 03/09/25, eBook ★★★★☆

Roots of My Fears

It’s my favourite time of the year once more, Autumn and that lovely lead up to Halloween, therefore it’s time to start reading spooky books once again.

This is a cracking anthology of short stories put together by Gemma Amor and one of the most interesting aspects of it is that the stories are from around the world, not just Anglo-centric.

I was really drawn to this anthology because of a few of the authors but the rest of the authors made a really strong anthology, but my favourite from the book was from Premee Mohamed, One of Those Girls, a well crafted tale of striving, familial tension, integration, and power. Loved it!

Also really loved The Saint in the Mountain by Nadia El-Fassi, the urgency and hunger in the story was reflected in the pace of the story telling.

And the growing horror of The Faces at Pine Dune by Ramsey Campbell was almost inevitable from the first few paragraphs, the story was still dark and creepy even though you were certain where it was going to go.

But I think the total creep fest that was To Forget and Be Forgotten by Adam Nevill hit all the buttons for me, not going to give much away about this at all but I’ll never consider being a night watch ever again.

This anthology takes you from Lovecraftian horror, through body horror, and more. Each tale looking at the roots of family, heritage, belonging and twisting that to a horror that creeps up on you more often than flat out slaps you in the face.

I received this from Titan Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.