Three of the Come Join Us By the Fire Horror Stories

Hey, everyone! Night Fire is a new division focusing on horror novels and short stories that is joining Macmillan. Super excited as a horror fan to see that the genre is expanding. Night Fire has created a series of short stories released as 35 audios called Come Join Us by the Fire. I'm super intrigued by this new series and I want to listen to as many of them as I can (hopefully all). I'll keep you updated on my thoughts. All of the stories are free and they aren't too long. If you love horror stories, especially listening to a good one (because SPOOKY), then this is something you definitely want to check out!

And When She Was Bad by Nadia Bulkin

1 star

I'm always excited to support women in the horror genre mainly because there are so few of them and I'm trying to actively search out more women in the genre and read their work. Nadia Bulkin is a great example of women who stick to the sluts, whores, and guts trope of if you could potentially be branded by other cruel people as one of these labels then you deserve to die. The audiobook was nicely narrated, but hearing those two famous brands constantly used in regards to the heroine's "friends" who have died was cringe-inducing. I wasn't a fan of the story's route of progression. It was typical and it reminds me more of a creepypasta than a horror short story. It had promise, but I was just unimpressed. There are better horror short writers out there. Skip this one.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1
Villain Scale: 1
Whimsical Writing Scale: 1
Plotastic Scale: 1

Cover Thoughts: It's kind of nice, but nothing really striking.

My Body, Herself by Carmen Maria Machado

1.5 stars

This was not the best short story in the world. In fact, I don't care for it all that much, but I did like the ending which is why it's not a 1-star read for me. The writing is strong, but has a tendency to be weak in leaning towards the concept of being so sophisticated that there has to be an aura of not telling you what's going on. This kind of writing is prevalent with magical realism and I enjoy magical realism, but I'm not sure it works for a horror short story. Or at least not this one. I think this one is worth giving a shot.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1
Whimsical Writing Scale: 1.5
Plotastic Scale: 1.5

Cover Thoughts: Ghastly.

 

 

Black Bark by Brian Evenson

3 stars

I just really liked this one. The story follows two cowboys looking for a cabin that may not even exist. One of the cowboys gets injured and tells the story of Black Bark. I wish this was longer because it was excellently done and I think if it went further, I would've loved it even more. Alas, it didn't and it cut off at a part that I think did the story a disservice, but Evenson does a great job of creating a suspenseful and unsettling atmosphere through the injuries of the two cowboys. Pleasantly impressed and surprised.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 3
Villain Scale: 3
Plotastic Scale: 3

Cover Thoughts: I like the color palette, but it's an ugly cover.

 

 

Overall Thoughts: 

So far, this series is not a huge hit, but I'm enjoying the experience of listening to the stories. My favorite of the three is "Black Bark". Cowboy and westerns are not my thing, but I love western horror and its a weird subgenre I totally want more of. 

 

Have you heard of Come Join Us By the Fire? Will you be listening to any of these? Let me know down below in the comments!