Uncle Jake’s here to hook you up with some of the latest and greatest horror short stories available online right now. Stories that will challenge, evolve, and redefine what horror is, and what it will become. These are themed mix-tapes of fear, dread, danger, and gore, lovingly curated just for your reading pleasure.

February is Women in Horror month, and last year’s celebration opened my eyes to so many exciting and excellent female authors that I just knew I wanted to join in on the festivities this year. With so many brilliant horror authors out there now, I figure the least I can do is to shine a spotlight that brings others to the dance.

For this mix-tape I cribbed a title from an Elmore Leonard story and picked five of my recent favorite writers and their deliciously vicious stories. Whether dancing on the graves of the Old Boys Club that horror used to be, or just tapping their feet to the sounds of darkness, these authors are grooving to the future of horror and I’m damned glad I’m listening along.

Track One: Descent by Carmen Maria Machado

In this chilling, tightening spiral of a story, Death is always with us, all around us, and noticing Death is the worst thing you can do.

Track Two: In the House of the Hummingbirds by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In a colonial house in Mexico City, the night security guard warns a trainee about staying away from the well . . . but Salvador is too curious to heed the warning.

Track Three: Magdala Amygdala by Lucy A. Snyder

There are Four Types of the virus, and there are ways to cope with the disease, but there’s also the constant threat of things getting worse.

Hidden Tracks

Sometimes you’ve got to dig a little deeper. Pull a book down from your shelf, run out to the library, or order it from Amazon. Get a collection or anthology in your hands, crack the pages, and get into it. These “Hidden Tracks” can’t be found online (as of this publication), but are worth seeking out and devouring. Enjoy the thrill of the hunt by tracking them down.

Track Four: Wendigo Nights by Siobhan Carroll

This one is a haunting, infectious story that’ll get under your skin. Hui has a very, very bad problem in the cold of Northern Canada, and as the story unfolds you realize that you might have a problem, too. From Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow, this one is a stand-out story in a stand-out anthology, and still gives me the creeps even after a fourth or fifth reread.

Track Five: The Quiet Room by V.H. Leslie

Terry’s daughter Ava is distant and sullen, hiding in her room and only coming down for her piano lessons. The song she plays fills the silence of their home, and fills Terry with dread. Just one of the great stories in Leslie’s collection, Skein and Bone.

If you have a favorite story or two that celebrates Women in Horror, whether online or sitting on a shelf in your library, add it to the Comments below!

JAKE MARLEY

Buy Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow, featuring Siobhan Carroll.

Buy Skein and Bone by V.H. Leslie.

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• They Don’t Come Home Anymore by T.E. Grau
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