I’m already a fan of Tudor’s writing and I absolutely love a creepy tale, so a book jammed packed with 11 of them was too hard to resist!

These are perfect to delve into on a dark and stormy evening. They range from creepy, to horrifying and even dystopian. Each one has something very different to offer, but each is a well crafted tale that brings a shiver to the spine. Most have a delicious twist at the end too.

It’s hard to pick a favourite but a stand out for me was The Lion at the Gate, about a piece of graffiti that may have a life of its own. I loved the originality of this one and the eerie feeling it left me with. As a Nottingham lass, I also loved that the introduction tells how it was inspired by a road I regularly drive along.

If you’re after a creepy collection for spooky season, this is a must!

This book is a collection of short stories that the author wrote during her life, but that might've not seen the daylight if not for this anthology. All the stories are creepy and weird in their own way. I really liked that at the beginning of every story the author wrote how she came up with the idea and what inspired her, that allowed me to have a glimpse into how C.J. Tudor gets her inspiration for the books. Here is the list of the stories:
End of the line.
The Block.
Runaway Blues.
The Completion.
The Lion at the Gate.
Gloria.
I’m not Ted.
Final Course.
The Copy Shop.
Dust.
Butterfly Island.
The stories are all different, some are quite unbelievable with magical elements, some set in a dystopian world, and some are just strange in general but all of them were scary and interesting. My favourites were End Of The Line, The Block and Butterfly Island.
To conclude, I don’t really know how to review an anthology, because the stories are quite short and I don’t want to spoil them for other readers. I really liked seeing this different side of C.J. Tudor’s writing, where she writes horror in different settings, and I think it is great! So if you want to add the second book to the one you are reading, this could be a great choice. Plus, it’s great for Halloween!

A Sliver of Darkness offers a glimpse into a dark and twisted world.
Written during the COVID lockdown, there’s a familiarity to the settings that belies their strangeness. The majority of the stories explore ideas of being trapped or taking unexpected actions in order to deal with an unforeseen event. As with Tudor’s novels, the King influence is clear, but this is a solid collection of stories.
While some of the stories are less memorable than others, some were chilling in their execution. I loved The Block and its ending. The end of the world dinner party was a timely reminder as to why sometimes it’s better not to resurrect the past. Ted’s test was a darkly comic story, but my favourite was the story of the fat man.
Throughout each of the stories I was struck by the sense of what was left unsaid, and sometimes I think that makes the stories more unsettling.
Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication, and I’m only sorry that I didn’t get to it sooner.

I'm normally not a fan of short stories because I like to get my teeth into a story but if the collection is by C. J Tudor it is a no-brainer! What an awesome collection of creepy stories! I also like the explanations at the beginning of how she came up with the ideas for each story.
Some of these spine-chilling stories are definitely not for the fainthearted!

Thank you to Netgalley and Michael Joseph, and Penguin Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A great Halloween read, published just in time to terrify readers everywhere.

This is a collection of short stories in the classic tradition that I remember from my youth. There are a variety of themes but they all share the darkness of horror, fear and gruesome. An unashamed inspiration from Stephen King, I also feel that some of these are reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and Hammer House of Horror from television, plus a bit of M.R. James thrown in. Yes, Tudor has this genre down to a T.

A nice touch is the introduction to the anthology, which is a very personal account of how the book came about. Then, each story has has its own introduction expressing how or why it was written. The appeal crosses ages, locations and nationalities and the narrative changes with each tale so always remains authentic. Hard to choose a favourite as they are all so different yet all with an unexpected surprise at the end. I like particularly The Block and The Lion at the Gate (this one is my favourite) for being about young people and set in Nottingham, and also because of the vivid imagination involved in the stories.

C.J. Tudor is a very talented writer and is a master of atmosphere and the macabre. Recommended for horror fans.

A collection of short, terrifying stories that will chill you to the bone!
A perfect read at Hallowe'en 🎃

This was fantastic!! C.J. Tudor does creepy so well. I’m not usually a massive fan of short stories but I thoroughly enjoyed this one and it was great to dip in and out of.
I was impressed with how Tudor builds up so much suspense within such a short space and I can highly recommend this book. It’s perfect for this time of year when you might be looking for some spookier reads.

A thrilling collection of short stories with a terrorising twist. Favourites include 'End of the Liner' and 'Runaway Blues'.

This was a bit of a mix for me, as is often the case with short stories, I loved a couple namely Runaway Blues & Butterfly Island, the others were varying degrees for me & we can't love them all.

I think I was expecting something a little more sinister overall but the two I loved have really stuck with me.

Runaway Blues for the voice of the narrator (CJ Tudor does an introduction to each short story & this one mentioned Stephen King, who I've criminally never read, but it has made me want to).
Butterfly Island could apparently become a novella & I will be here for that as it ended leaving me wanting more.

Thank you netgalley for giving me an advance copy of sliver of darkness by CJ Tudor in exchange for an honest review.

The opening to each story had a little introduction from CJ Tudor herself explaining her ideas for each short story which I really enjoyed! Each story was brilliantly written and built up throughout.

Here is a rating for each of the short stories:
End Of The Liner: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Block: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Runaway Blues: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Completion: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Lion At The Gate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gloria: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m Not Ted: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Final Course: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Copy Shop: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dust: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Butterfly Island: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

These short stories are a brilliant read for spooky season, thank you again netgalley for giving me an arc of this book!

A collection of disturbing short stories from the horror writer C J Tudor. Interesting, dark and well written, a book to read as the nights draw in.

A sliver of Darkness

Short stories are not always for me I quite often find myself wanting more than a short story can provide but this collection was brilliantly written and I loved the little intro to each one there were a couple of the stories I didn't enjoy as much with but as they were short was easy to get through those. Can't wait to get into C J Tudor next book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House and C J Tudor for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest Review

This is a fabulous collection of short stories written by the awesome thriller author C J Tudor.

I wouldn't necessarily describe them as dark and macabre as I find her full novels much more disturbing and scary but these stories are really well written with compelling plots that in some I wasn't ready for the story to end.

Perfect reading for spooky season!

A Sliver Of Darkness is a collection of ten short stories that worked well which was great as sometimes short stories just miss the mark.
A book of ten short stories that are all very different, written in a difficult time, with a lovely introduction to the book then an insight into where the story came from at the beginning of each story. I really enjoyed the insight at the beginning of the chapters to see where the idea came from and how it was developed. Ten very different stories that were very good reads.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Michael Joseph Penguin Random House for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been a fan of C.J. Tudor’s novels since her debut in January 2018 with The Chalk Man; it was one of the first books that I reviewed for this blog and it has become something of an annual tradition to review her subsequent novels. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a number of personal reasons, Tudor and her publishers decided to cancel her planned 2022 release in favour of developing next year’s book, The Drift. Luckily for me and my ongoing streak, they also decided to publish a collection of short stories to fill in the gap for this year!

Each of the eleven tales featured in the collection comes with a foreword that gives some context and motivation behind the story, many of which were written during the pandemic and have a post-apocalyptic feel to them. For the purposes of this review, I will give a short ‘micro-review’ of each story and a review for the entire collection as a whole.
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1. The End of the Liner
An odd hybrid of Wall-E and Snowpiercer, The End of the Liner features a post-apocalyptic society living aboard giant cruise ships after dry land becomes uninhabitable. Forced to follow the rules of “the creators”, those living on the ship must maintain the monotonous routine of a themed cruise for the rest of their lives until they are “retired” overboard.

A short, sharp jab of post-apocalyptic horror, The End of the Liner plays with the traditional murder mystery format, but adds a sinister dystopian twist. Within fifty pages, Tudor evokes memories of stories as diverse as The Handmaid’s Tale and I am Legend, whilst delivering an effective “be careful what you wish for” twist.
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2. The Block
Originally intended as a YA Horror novel, The Block feels reminiscent of a Doctor Who adventure (a fact that’s referenced in the story itself) with monstrous beings chasing a group of teenagers in an abandoned tower block. Tudor does a brilliant job at capturing the essence of her locales on the page, making this grimy urban nightmare come to life. The twist ending is somewhat predictable, but I enjoyed the sudden shift from typical teen drama to alien horror midway through the tale. Extremely visual and cinematic, it would have been a perfect fit for the classic “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” series on Nickelodeon.
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3. Runaway Blues
A haunting short story about love, music and betrayal, Runaway Blues shares a lot of in common with Tudor’s debut novel, The Chalk Man, particularly in regards to the ending. Tudor describes it as “her most King-esque short story” in her foreword, but I would argue that it’s the most C.J. Tudor-esque short story in the collection so far. She has always had a knack for blindsiding readers with that sudden knife-in-the-gut twist and it is on full-display here, even if it does feel a bit derivative of The Chalk Man’s shock ending. I really enjoyed the slow build-up surrounding the mystery of “The Fat Man” and I love how well she captures the narrative voice guiding the tale.
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4. The Completion
Possibly the weakest story in the collection, The Completion has an interesting build-up with the concept of an unscrupulous estate agent (is there any other kind?) attempting to con an elderly man into selling his house, only to have the tables turned on him. There are some effective moments – Tudor does a great job making readers connect with her narrators – but it is the final confrontation and resolution of that conflict that feels a bit weak, perhaps because it feels unearned and unfulfilling. The dialogue feels slightly off too; I get that the estate agent is meant to be unlikeable, but it seemed a bit too irreverent an ending. I’d have preferred a more serious and karmic ending for the character, in line with the film that inspired the final act; The Wicker Man.
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5. The Lion at the Gate
Ticking off many of C.J. Tudor’s regular motifs (teen nostalgia, urban horror, subtle supernatural threat, unreliable narrators), The Lion at the Gate is a genuinely creepy tale that leaves the reader wondering what is truth and what is fiction. Tudor builds up the tension nicely, turning a quiet cul-de-sac into a grim nightmare with horror lurking beneath the mundane. The sudden ending caught me off-guard, as did the ambiguous ending – without getting too deep into spoilers, my take is that the supernatural bits were imagined and the real threat was a lot more human in nature. Definitely one of the more impactful stories in this collection, The Lion at the Gate is a thought-provoking read – no matter which interpretation you take from the conclusion.
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6. Gloria
Acting as both a sequel from The Taking of Annie Thorne and a missing chapter from The Other People, Gloria unites the two titles together with a chance meeting between two characters from each book – effectively a team-up for the ‘Tudor-verse’. To be honest, I’d forgotten some of the key details from both books since it had been years since I’d read them, although the story can still be enjoyed without any knowledge of those prior novels. Gloria is an interesting character and I can see why Tudor was keen to revisit her – I’d have been intrigued to find out what her role would have been in the ‘novel that never was’. Less horror and more crime thriller, Gloria is a fun albeit slightly self-indulgent spin-off that creates continuity between Tudor’s books, and has a neat little sting in the tale too.
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7. I’m Not Ted
More humourous than any of the other stories in this collection, I’m Not Ted is a short morality tale that telegraphs its twist fairly obviously up front, but is no less enjoyable for it. I really enjoyed seeing Tudor’s lighter side and the back-and-forth between Not-Ted and his guide was extremely funny. Without giving much away, I liked the premise of the story and operation occurring behind “the elevation department” – for some reason, it reminded me of The Cabin in the Woods and the bureaucracy attached to something supernatural.
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8. Final Course
A clear candidate for expansion into a full novel, Final Course is the highlight of the collection and tells the story of an Earth plunged into darkness with eldritch creatures lurking in the shadows, and the story of a father and daughter attending a dinner party in this post-apocalyptic nightmare. At times feeling like an Agatha Christie whodunit thanks to its remote country farmhouse setting, Final Course is replete with enough twists and turns to leave the reader feeling dizzy. Somehow Tudor is able to condense a whole world of possibilities into fifty pages, leaving this reader wanting more from this universe.
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9. The Copy Shop
Similar in tone to I’m Not Ted, The Copy Shop is less of a horror story and more of a quirky supernatural tale with a twist. Originally intended for publication in a woman’s weekly magazine, this story has an element of domestic whimsy that’s not typically seen in Tudor’s writing and feels akin to something from Tales of the Unexpected. It was surprisingly wholesome (again, possibly due to its intended audience) and doesn’t have the same sinister aftertaste that the other stories have. Fun to read and an interesting glimpse into Tudor’s non-horror style, The Copy Shop is a light-hearted record scratch on this eclectic mix-tape of adventures (pardon my mixed metaphors!).
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10. Dust
Reminiscent of The Shining at times but with an ethereal eerie quality, Dust is another story that covers some of Tudor’s familiar motifs – most prominently, the unreliable narrator. The setting of an empty Spanish hotel covered in dust is extremely evocative and Tudor really digs under the skin of her protagonist, slowly revealing the dark secrets buried underneath denial and self-delusion. The plot is somewhat similar to I’m Not Ted, but wildly different in tone and the twist ending is expertly delivered at precisely the right moment. Again, this feels like it could be an episode of Tales of the Unexpected – bitesize horror that lingers in the mind long after the final page.
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11. Butterfly Island
With a Horror B-Movie vibe, Butterfly Island has an extremely engaging premise as a group of rag-tag adventurers make their way to an abandoned island where a reclusive billionaire once operated a butterfly sanctuary. Of course, the butterflies are flesh-eating butterflies and there’s a crazed killer roaming the island and well, then the action stops rather abruptly – so much so, that I had to check whether my eBook had pages missing or not. In her introduction, Tudor mentions that this is one short story she contemplates expanding into a novella, and I wholeheartedly recommend she does – I really liked the goofiness of the premise and think there’s plenty more of the story left to be told.
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Surprisingly eclectic for a horror anthology, this collection showcases a broader spectrum of Tudor’s writing styles although her recognisable authorial flourishes are still present in some form. For me, Final Course might be my favourite story in the book, although Butterfly Island was equally as enthralling and deserving of expansion into a full novel. I also enjoyed the creepy atmosphere of Runaway Blues and the Goosebumps-esque YA horror, The Block. One common theme through many of the stories was the apocalypse as a backdrop and human nature preserving despite of it, whether it be cruise ships continuing to operate, estate agents continuing to ply their trade or dinner parties in secluded farmlands. Having lived through the coronavirus pandemic, mostly by binging Netflix and working from home, it feels strangely relatable.

Overall, this is a fantastic little collection of stories and I loved experiencing eleven C.J Tudor stories in a bite-size form. A true master of her craft, each story excels in slowly unravelling the dark mysteries surrounding its protagonists and the situations they’ve found themselves in. A Sliver of Darkness is the perfect accompaniment for these long autumn nights.

I'd not read any CJ Tudor books before, and from the intro to this collection of short stories and learning the reason this isn't a full length novel (bereavement, pandemic) really resonated with me. Each story is so different to the next, but each has well rounded characters and draws you in so quickly. I especially like the dystopian nature of the cruise ship, it reminds me of the film The Island, and I could see this being adapted for film or TV.

I'm looking forward to reading more of CJ Tudor's work very soon!

Eleven short creepy stories to test the stamina and imagination of the reader, and they didn’t disappoint.
Each story has a short introduction by the author that tells us what the thought process was that led to the story. It could be the first cruise since lockdown, a painting on a garden gate, each introduction is intriguing and very instructive.
The stories gave this reader pause for thought, not all stories were Halloween scary, but when related to everyday events, made it all seem so real and plausible.
The end of the liner, where retirement is not an option is sad , because it raises fears about ageing and how other people perceive the wastage of resources upon the older members of society.
The Block is dark and made me feel quite nervous.
The Runaway Blues, genuinely evil and callous.
The lion at the Gate, a great cautionary tale, very well told.
Gloria, shows that redemption is over rated.
These were my favourites, the ones I could readily relate to, and still be thinking about them days later.
I am a great fan of CJ Tudor, and these will be a marvellous addition to the shelves of murder and mystery novels, perfect for Hallowe’en readers. A five star read.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers MichaelJosephUK, for my advance digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’m a huge fan of C.J. Tudor and to date have read all her novels, and although short stories aren’t something I tend to pick up often, but I knew I had to request this one. And I’m so glad I did, as I enjoyed these very much. Yes I enjoyed more than others but there were definitely none that I didn’t.

A Sliver of Darkness is a collection of 11 short stories that are all well written with twisty and unique plots. When it comes to short stories I always feel that the endings are rushed and left unfinished. However, C.J.Tudor does a very good job of tying things up. Yes, some of the stories are left open but they are left open in a satisfying way.

Again unlike other short stories I’ve read these short stories start with a brief explanation as to what inspired the particular story. I know some authors include these at the end of the book but I definitely prefered them at the beginning. I’m not going to go into detail about the individual stories as I feel it would lead to spoilers but I have given my rating for each book below.

End of the liner 💙💙💙💙
The Block 💙💙💙💙
Runaway Blues 💙💙💙💙
The Completion 💙💙💙
The Lion at the Gate 💙💙💙 1/2
Gloria 💙💙💙
I’m Not Ted 💙💙💙💙
The Copy Shop 💙💙💙💙 1/2
Final Course 💙💙💙💙💙
Dust 💙💙💙💙
Butterfly Island 💙💙💙💙
Overall a great read!! If you’re a fan of short stories and enjoy genres such as mystery, thrillers or horror then A Sliver of Darkness is definitely a book to pick up.

I can’t wait to see what C.J. Tudor has up her sleeve with the next book The Drift!!

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Michael Joseph for my eARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Eleven twisted tales seems like the perfect idea for a book which is due to hit the book shops in the month of Halloween when our minds inadvertently turn to the lure of the macabre. It has to be said that I enjoy this author’s work immensely and to have set of short stories, something she hasn’t released before, is an extra special delight.

Beautifully imaginative, each of the tales are perfectly proportioned to read in one sitting and the opening story, End of the Liner certainly gets the collection of to a cracking good start in a cleverly contrived little story about a cruise ship where none of the passengers can ever leave. The other ten dark tales are just as fascinating and I also found the introduction to each of the tales just as thought provoking as the author shares her thoughts on what inspired her to write the story to come.

Written during the pandemic which, as the author explains her introduction, was a particularly difficult time for her, the collection allows us a tantalising taster of her work before her next novel is published in 2023. A Sliver of Darkness is everything I wanted from this talented author, mysterious, macabre, spooky and deliciously dark it kept me entertained from start to finish.

A Sliver of Darkness ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a collection of 11 ‘twisted’ tales with the settings ranging from a cruise liner, deserted hotels and warehouses to a zombie apocalypse!!

I’ve not read any of her previous books and am a bit of a wimp when it comes to spooky reads but I’d say these are more disturbing than scary.

I really enjoyed the first and last stories which are more dystopian in feel and found the authors introduction to the book really interesting and honest. However some of the others had just a bit too much gore for me so the rating is based more on personal taste than the writing, would recommend to fans of her books to pick up over the spooky season