Thanks to netgalley & sourcebooksUK for allowing me to read this early!!

I am such a huge fan of Darcy Coates and the work she puts out!
So it hurts to say that this book wasn’t for me.

I really enjoyed the story of the “ghost camera” but the rest of the short stories just fell abit short.

But that goes without saying I will still be buying the physical copy of this for my shelf!

Overall it’s 3 stars!

I think like a lot of people I didn't know this was a collection of 9 short stories.

I was really looking forward to a fleshed out horror story about a ghostcamera as I reminded me of the old playstaion game Project zero! But as enjoyable as the main story was it ended very abruptly and without explanation. I was really hoping for something more solid.

Because of this I have rated each story individually and then will give an average for the overall book.

Ghost camera - 4/5
Payment for the dead - 4/5
Death birds - 4/5
The house on boxwood Lane - 2/5
The run to broken ridge lighthouse - 3/5
Remains - 5/5
Untamed things - 4/5
Cathedral - 2/5
A box of tapes - 5/5

Averging at 3.5/5 for the whole book.

An abandoned camera found in a lighthouse forms the basis for Darcy Coates' Ghost Camera; a compelling novella which explores the concept that the line between the living and the dead is wafer thin.

While I feel a little more of the characters' backstories would have been nice, the story certainly delivers multiple chills down the spine along the way.

A camera which captures spirits on film makes for a delightfully unsettling read, with echoes of Hideo Nakata's Ringu, taking us on a journey full of flourishes that will almost certainly prompt glances over your shoulder.

At 118 pages, this is a fast, punchy read and the good news is the inclusion of several short stories, some containing nods to M R James, William Hope Hodgson and Lovecraft., mixed in with refreshing author invention.

My own particular favourite concerns a plane crash and the subsequent desperate fight for survival but in truth, every story here has considerable merit.

Highly recommended!

Thanks to NetGalley, I managed to get an ARC copy of Ghost Camera (due to be released end of July).
This is a collection of 9 short stories - the title taken from the first.
Previously, I’d only read The Haunting of Blackwood House which was quite fun! In a similar vein, this was definitely a “cosy” horror.
Some stories stood out more than others - My favourite one being “A Box of Tapes”. This one was super creepy!

Some of the stories in this collection were really good, others weren't so good. It's an interesting little collection with really accessible writing however I didn't think there was anything particularly unique or terrifying about any of the stories (they were generally fairly predictable).

So far I have just read From Below by this author, which I really enjoyed and I have been impressed by this book too so I am very interested in exploring more books by this author now! They describe horror so well, its genuinely scary.

There were a small few stories that were just okay in this collection; Cathedral, Payment for the Dead and the Lighthouse one but the rest were really good. I especially liked Death Birds!

The story that the collection is named after was about a woman who finds a camera that captures images of the ghosts around her but it makes her visible to the ghosts in return. It's similar to the concept of the movie Ring. It wasn't a totally original plot idea but it was done very well and the descriptions of the ghosts were great and scary.

There is a variety of characters in each story and this keeps the whole collection interesting.

Ok first of all, this should really be called Ghost Camera and Other Stories because it is a collection of short horror stories, one being called Ghost Camera.

I absolutely love short story collections and this one has definitely made it into the all time favourites. There is not a bad story within this book and I really enjoyed a lot of them!

Ghost Camera was my favourite. It was so creepy! This is actually an old story from Coates that has been brought back due to demand from her fans! I'm so pleased this happened and I got to read it because I think it was one of the scariest stories I've ever read. I kept thinking about how I'd feel if it happened to me 😱

After such a strong start I was worried the rest of the stories wouldn't be as good but they really were! Some were quite short and to the point and some were a bit longer, there were some quite creepy ones.

This is the first book I've read by Darcy Coates and it was a firm 5 stars. Will definitely be reading a lot more of her books!

What an amazing book of short stories! It’s probably the best collection of short stories I’ve ever read. Truly creepy and unsettling, but beautifully written. Some of these stories will stay with me for some time… I will most certainly look into other books by this author!

“Did they feel pain? Fear? Is it possible to kill a ghost?”

Darcy Coates title novella is based on the character Jenine who whilst attending a wedding decides to get a shot from a higher angle, close by there is a lighthouse which would provide an usual and effective high angle shot of the wedding party below. As Jenine goes to take her photo she finds an old polaroid camera that appears to be abandoned. She takes a photo with it to see if it works. What she isn’t prepared for in the developed photo are the ghosts that appear amongst the wedding guests. This is only the beginning of her troubles.

Darcy Coates in this collection includes several more stories centred around ghostly and haunting experiences. The stories are delivered in a fast pace where the horrifying elements are quick and impactful.

As with many collections many of these were good and some I wasn’t too keen on.

Overall this was a good collection of creepy stories.

This is the second book I’ve read of Darcy Coates & I think it was more of a slow burn that I didn’t get to connect to the characters but I think I would have if this was more of a longer story. Overall an ok read.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this.
As I started reading Ghost Camera I was struck by how exaggerated the scenario seems to be, with minimal attempt to develop characters or make things seem plausible. Everything happened at breakneck speed. Then I realised it was a short story, which may have explained the pacing issue.
The remainder of the collection was a mixed bag. Some of the stories were entertaining, though none really grabbed me. I feel this may have been a case of not really knowing what I was getting before I started.

Darcy Coates is just SO good at fast-paced completely out there bonkers horror. This is brill. I loved it and was totally invested in the story.

I have enjoyed every single book by Darcy Coates and this was so exception what a brilliant and creepy story! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

This book jumped out at me. It was different with a unique title. The synopsis was intriguing too.
But I was halfway through the book when I realised that it was a collection of different stories. I thought it was all one and I was waiting for them to link together in a big twist.

Great stories but the first one really captivated me and I would have loved to have read more.

A quick, sharp and creepy read. This was my first from Darcy Coates and it did not disappoint. I finished this in one sitting. Will definitely be moving on to longer form works by the author after this one.

Firstly I would like to thank Darcy Coates , Sourcebooks Uk and NetGalley for providing me with a revised advanced copy of ' Ghost Camera ' to read and review. Due for Publication in July 2024 , I was very excited to receive this upcoming new release. Although this is the first Darcy Coates book I have read , I have heard many amazing things about her previous works as they have a very strong online presence in online horror fiction forums.

Originally written many years ago . Parts have been slightly changed and revamped for the 2024 publication release . Although I have heard about the author I hadn't heard of this title previously. The cover jumped out at me and piqued my interest. It is very visually appealing and with a title like ' ghost camera ' who wouldn't be intrigued.
My attention was captured within the first few pages and I felt it to be reminiscent of an old goosebumps tale . The cosy paranormal stories that I grew up reading.

I hadn't realised it was a collection of short stories and was thoroughly engaged and invested in the first story which namesake is the books full title when it ended quite abruptly and unexpectedly. I feel that it should be made more apparent that this is an anthology on the book's cover before release as there was nothing indicative of this .
I was gripped by the storyline and loved how atmospheric it was . The descriptions of the apparitions were so detailed and gave me a very uneasy feeling and sense of dread . It is the perfect short story to read at night in the early hours.
I would have loved the first story to be a full novel and would have liked to have heard more about the spirits and their back stories.

As with any anthology some stories were better than others and personally after being blown away by the first tale I was slightly disappointed with the ones that followed. Although they were very creative and imaginative , I just felt that there were lots of ideas and concepts but they didn't come together somehow. It felt more like a brain map of notes that had a lot of potential but didn't feel complete.

For me the book ended on a high with the best fiction I have read in a long time . The author certainly knows how to ramp up the tension and anticipation with characters that can just plague your thoughts long after the last page has been turned. I felt that it was very comparable with the movie ' smile' and was completely spine chilling.
I am an avid viewer of horror films and love the horror / Splatterpunk genre as a whole. Whilst not a lot phases me , this certainly gave the creepy vibe that everybody who reads this type of story craves.
Had the book just included the two main stories I would not have hesitated to give a 5 star rating . I would encourage readers to pick up this title for those two alone . Whilst everybody has diverse tastes , it is just my personal opinion that the other stories just felt like fillers and hence the lower evaluation . I will certainly be reading more of the author's releases in the future.

#GhostCamera #NetGalley

This sounded so creepy and intriguing. Which it technically was creepy. I was uncomfortable at times. But sadly I wasn't really intrigued. The story overall just didn't work for me.

Slightly weird blurb on this book as it’s actually a couple of novellas and some short stories.
Setting that aside, the short length is about right - the two novellas probably couldn’t stretch much further but there’s a nice pace and sense of dread in both.

The short stories also don’t outstay their welcome and are generally good fun. Coates’ style is perhaps the book equivalent of a Blumhouse quiet quiet bang film - it’s structured for shocks rather than a real sense of character development, but I needed a quick horror and this delivered.

I didn't realise this was a collection of short stories and the only reason that was a disappointment was because just when I'd start to get stuck in, they'd end! In saying that it did mean I got the chance to read through 4 creepy new wee stories which I loved. They're all well written and basically everything you'd expect fron the author! I just wish I could have had 4 full length books lol

I've been on a bit of a Darcy Coates reading streak recently, burning through her horror novels: my favourites so far are From Below and Hunted. I was attracted by the Say Cheese and Die! premise of Ghost Camera: two young women find a Polaroid camera that captures images of lurking ghosts, but also attracts their attention. The first thing to say is that this new edition is a reissue of the original novella 'Ghost Camera', but this only takes up about a quarter of the book: the rest of the book is made up of another novella, 'A Box of Tapes' (heavily inspired by The Ring/Ringu) and some short stories, which the blurb does not make very clear. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm not sure that Coates is as good at writing satisfying short fiction as she is at full-length horror. Some of these have brilliant premises ('Death Birds', for example, imagines a world where dark birds appear just before somebody is going to die, while 'The Run to Broken Ridge Lighthouse' is about a group of friends who deliberately trigger a deadly game of cat-and-mouse) but simply... stop after establishing their idea. Both novellas also fell a bit flat for me, although I preferred 'Ghost Camera' to 'A Box of Tapes', which was riddled with inconsistencies and poor character motivations. The stand-out is probably 'Unnamed Things', where a woman believes she is the sole survivor of a plane crash on a snowy, forested mountainside until she meets another mysterious survivor, Chloe, who tells her of the things that follow people in these woods. But even then, I'd have preferred an expanded version. This feels more like a scrapbook of good ideas for novels than a strong collection in its own right. 3.5 stars.