Summer Slasher Horror Anthology: Vol. 1

by Clay Anderson (Editor), Juliet Rose (Contributor)

You hold in your hands stories of horror, mayhem, and the macabre. Springer Mountain Press presents the Summer Slasher Horror Anthology, which offers sixteen frightening stories from some of the freshest voices in horror writing. You'll find unspeakable evil lurking deep within a mineshaft, a television broadcasting your worst nightmares, a knife-wielding killer stalking a summer camp, and many more terrifying tales. Read at your own risk, for what you'll find on these pages is sure to haunt you long after summertime is over.

Contributors: Greg Bhatia, Mark Braught, Emma Cariello, Alyssa Hamilton, Ann Hite, Annie James, Maria Klouda, Dawn Major, Bonnie Medford, Ben Meeks, Austin C. Nichols, Lincoln Reed, Kristen Reid, Juliet Rose, Jon Sokol

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Summer, Anthologies

151 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2021

About the author

Clay Anderson is an author and bookstore owner. He holds an MA in History and an MFA in Creative Writing. He is the author of the novel The Palms, which was nominated for Georgia Author of the Year in 2020. The Palms won the Reader's Favorite Award for Southern Fiction in 2023 and the BookFest Award for Domestic Thriller in 2023. His second novel, Though I Walk, was published in 2022.

Reviews

[Lucinda May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun selection of short horrors!
I really enjoyed this anthology, normally short story collections aren’t my thing at all.
My favourites were Television, A Stake Through The Heart, and Better Boy

[Lelouch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was annoyed that the title is Slasher Horror Anthology, but only 1-2 stories are actually slashers.

The stories I liked:

Sinister Faces In The Dark by Annie James
- a slasher!!

Cold Canaries by Kristen Reid
- miners start disappearing

Best Friends Forever by Mark Braught
- guy meets his best friend ever year

Walking With Strangers by Dawn Major
- little girl gets lost walking home

Torch's Fate by Ben Meeks
- werebear wakes up trapped by humans

Better Boy by Juliet Rose
- woman's husband has been missing for a year

Beneath the Boat by Austin C Nichols
- teenagers awaken a creature at the bottom of the sea


Other stories:

Television by Alyssa Hamilton.
- second person point of view. main character (aka you) sees himself appearing on tv.

A Stake Through the Heart by Ann Hite.
- Arlene is convinced her neighbor is a vampire.

Quell the Voices by Ann Hite
- time jumps. bess pritchard looks over her life

God's Will by Jon Sokol
- religious man feeds rats

Cabin 28 by Emma Cariello
- mom and son meet a man with a knife

Death at Weddings by Bonnie Medford
- poetry

Death Don't Kiss by Lincoln Reed
- fallen angel hitman

Death Comes in Threes by Greg Bhatia
- london is bombed and they help a man whose home was bombed

Playing with Dolls by Maria Klouda
- girl discuss sparkly vampires while making poppet dolls

[Austin Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Summer Slasher Horror Anthology is riveting from start to finish. Each and every story delves into its own world of horror. Without a doubt, this collection of short stories is worth checking out!

[unstable.books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book I read

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Summer Slasher Horror Anthology Vol. 1 is a collection of slasher stories, given the title. It's not; only one of these stories conceivably falls under that category. That doesn't mean it's not worth a read though. The editors have gathered an incredibly solid collection of horror stories here, especially so given that these authors are all fairly little known.

Aside from the fact they're not slashers, these stories have little in common with each other, apart from a generally high quality. Mark Braught's "Best Friends Forever" is a bittersweet Halloween tale, while "Intermission: Death at Weddings" by Bonnie Medford is dark poetry. The haunting "Death Comes in Threes" by Greg Bhatia takes place during the London Blitz, while Austin C. Nichols's "Beneath the Boat" is a creature feature set on the open ocean.

The two best stories are the longer entries, "Cold Canaries" by Kristen Reid and "Walking With Strangers" by Dawn Major. In Reid's chilling tale, a group of miners find themselves trapped underground and being picked off one by one. In Major's, the tension is ratcheted up as a little girl faces one obstacle after another trying to get home from school on her own. Terrors both fanciful and deadly real make this one truly harrowing.

Ultimately, Summer Slasher may not scratch your itch for a literary Friday the 13th, but it will introduce you to a collection of talented up and coming writers you might otherwise miss out on.

[Janelle Anakotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5⭐️ I was betrayed by the title.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soooo, torn again. This book looses a star right off the bat because there was really only one story I would call slasher and it was also super summery (Cabin 28), so the editor is a liar (said with love).

It looses another star cause most of the stories are just, meh. Meh because they were either not scary, not complete enough to be enjoyable, or far too predictable.

However, some are fun and worth a read: Best Friends Forever by Mark Braught, Death at Weddings by Bonnie Clemmons, Death Don’t Kiss by Lincoln Reed (might be my fav), and Walking with Strangers by Dawn Major.

[Taylor Keenan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had a bunch of short stories and I wanted more spooky, slasher type stories, but these were not Halloween specific. Just overall spookier stories. There was 1 I really liked “Better Man”, but most were just too short for my liking.

[Clay Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Horror Anthology that will keep you up at night.

[Teri Drake-Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little horror anthology! I'm a tad biased, but I loved "Better Boy" by Juliet Rose the best...I'll never look at tomato sammiches the same way again!

[Russell Holbrook · Rating 2 out of 5]

My friends from book club and I read this over the summer and I'm just now reviewing it as I desperately try to add all of my books before the end of 2022, which will be happening in about eight hours. Yikes!
This was a pretty fun book but it didn't deliver what the title promised. It's short on blood and violence and most of the stories don't have anything to do with slashers or the slasher genre. I honestly found the title to be misleading. But, the stories themselves are pretty solid. It gave me lots of Tales From the Darkside vibes. It was a nice, creepy summer read.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of the 16 I would say only 2 stories were written by authors who actually gave an effort to be creepy. The others are throwaways, however about 2 or 3 stories did have sadness to them in fact I would say half of the stories were more sad than scary. I appreciated the ones who did have the sadness because I looked at it as instead of delivering you scares they perhaps instead wanted to give you something to think about. Or perhaps I'm too generous, either way kind of a dud but this was fun to do a buddy read with my brother which was the main reason I read this. Thank you for reading.

[Janae (The Modish Geek)]

DNF @ 30%

Nope. Don't fall for the okie doke. These are NOT slashers. The majority of the stories I got through were paranormal. And not good. Sorry to the rest of these stories, there may be some hidden gems in here, but I can't stick around to find out.

[nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

there was not one summer slasher story?? and the one that had true potential was only, like, 3 pages?? am i being punked?? i am bewildered

[ALEEA M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series of shorts. Cabin 28 is truly disturbing!!! It’s about 2 pages long, but enough to completely creep me out! Loved Death Don’t Kiss! Also, Walking with Strangers. There was only one in the lot that wasn’t mediocre. I know this was printed as a summer series, but it would be good as a Autumn series too.

[Jennie Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's such a rare thing for me to read a short story anthology all the way through, but I zipped through this one with gusto. Lots of wonderful creepy stories. Not every one as good as the other, but all entertaining in their own way. I definitely recommend this!

[Rachel Lang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of these were pretty bad 😅 My favorites though were

- Television
- Cold Canaries
- Death Comes in Threes
- Better Boy

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, the title does not fit the collection of stories. Most of these were definitely not slashers and they did not all take place during the summer. I think Macabre Stories would've been a better title.
Unfortunately, most of the stories were meh, too short, or confusing. I did enjoy some of them, however, probably would only recommend to read those and skip the others. Book is very short, though, so it's a quick read either way.

My favorite stories were:
-"A Stake Through the Heart": so funny! It reminded me of True Blood with the humor and the names Arlene and Holly. I really thought Arlene was going to kill Holly by the end and that she would find out her friend wasn't really a vampire after that.
-"God's Will": a really nice set up and reveal with a bit of dun dun dun at the end. I thought this was well written. It gave me "American Psycho" vibes with all the rats!
-"Death Don't Kiss": very well written and very dark. Story wasn't predictable and kept me in suspense until the very end.
-"Beneath the Boat": I love this one! It's my favorite. It was a great atmosphere and set up. Great gory scenes, too. I wish there was more description of the creature.
-"Walking with Strangers": I've actually seen the original "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" and the remake, both of which are good, and so I knew more of the context for the creatures. Great creepy story with a good twist at the end!

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this but basically everything but Better Boy was unenjoyable. Not entertaining. Death Don’t Kiss was my least fav—an edgy fallen angel seeks redemption by being a hit man for god and it’s…hokey. The stories felt amateur; even if the author had a decent writing style, there were still issues (rushed endings, trying to mix too many plotlines in, boring/predictable events, etc.). There was a lot of “and it was scary because there was bloooood!”🩸 Also there were only 2 pages with a slasher, out of 142…
Sorry to the authors. I support you as artists but this one just wasn’t for me.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, not all the stories were as good as the others but I really liked Beneath the Boat and Better Boy!

[Melly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this was disappointing....

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I don’t think a good chunk of these stories - especially the ones in the beginning - are that scary, more so just a bit disturbing (which I guess is also an element of horror).

[Liz Gutierrez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ummmm Summer what Horror Anthology??
It's almost like false advertising 🤡