I love a good spooky/horror story, and cold winter nights are the perfect time for a book like this.

This book showcases sixteen spooky short stories written in the 1800s, 1900s and the last one in the 2000s. Some stories are shorter than others, but each story is a perfect standalone for anyone who loves to read scary stories. They are perfect for reading around a bonfire, or sitting on the couch wrapped up with a cosy blanket.

The book features stories about local folklore, and features tales from well-known authors like William Croft Dickinson and Shirley Jackson. At the start of each chapter is a beautiful illustration.

If you love delving into the spooky and supernatural, I highly recommend this book.

An excellent anthology featuring well known and new to me stories, all at high level.
A good book, perfect for the winter atmosphere
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I absolutely loved this collection of folk horror. It evoked a half forgotten feeling of devouring books of ghost stories and local myths and legends in my school library.

Richard Wells takes the reader on a journey through abandoned country roads, forgotten (or not so forgotten) megaliths, forests, secluded house and ruins of the British Isles (plus one in Brittany.) It's a beautifully curated anthology with a wide range of different protagonists, settings and styles, which nevertheless all share a sense of atmosphere, which felt akin to dry leaves crunching underfoot on a forest path as darkness falls and you realise you're no longer sure of the way home...

This is a must buy to add to my home library. Excellent collection and will be reading further.. thank you to the publisher for a copy.

Many of the tales here can be found in modern retellings through books, movies, and short films. The best part of this book aside from the eerie and haunting tales, is the artwork.

This is a really fun anthology of older horror. It was cool to watch the genre evolve, from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. I will say, though, this anthology is centered almost entirely around England, so do with that information what you will.

I think this is a wonderful collection of classic tales about haunted places. For someone looking for a bunch of eerie quick reads, this book is for them. The artwork and foreword also did well connecting each piece together into this one collection.

Folk horror as well as traditional horror fans are given a hell of a treat with no tricks in this fabulous anthology.

I think this was a perfect spooky season read, especially if you’re into folklore. It took your through, kind of, an evolution of horror folklore through the ages, showing the readers how it’s developed and progressed over the course of about 150 years. I thought that it was an intriguing kind of history lesson in a way that was told through fiction. It feels like a ghost story that you’d be told around the campfire. Each story had a charm to it that was unique. However, I will warn that if you are a true fan of old folklore and like to see modern iterations of those ancient themes, then this may not be the book for you. As someone who would classify themselves as one that falls in the first camp of people, aka a lover of ancient folklore, I will say that I had some trouble getting into the stories at first and some of it did feel the tiniest bit repetitive. That aside, I thought it was a fantastically enjoyable read especially something that got me through the halloween season.

DNF

Just wasn't for me, couldn't gel with the older styles of writing and (due to their age) it felt like I already knew all the stories and turns they were likely to take


I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

This was an excellent anthology and certainly this is the time of year to be reading it. The tales feel old, they feel like those your grandparents might have heard from family members trying to scare them - and some are genuinely very scary. I should say I’m a bit of a wuss though…

The authors were known and unknown to me and some whom I’ve read, I didn’t know could write such creepy tales. You might expect Shirley Jackson or MR James to chill you but I’ve never read such a tale from John Buchan like "No Man’s Land".

There is a lot going on here and it would make an excellent gift for Christmas.

I was given a copy of the book by NetGalley

Sixteen short horror stories organised from the oldest published to the most recent - to be honest they would have been easier to read if the chronology had gone the other way around, newest to oldest, as the older ones were harder to read, using language and sayings from so long ago it took longer to process them. Going back in time in small chunks would have made the process much easier. Great to see some of these letter known stories in print.

Despite that these were hugely entertaining spooky reads, perfect for Hallowe'en. The illustrations by Richard Wells are superb and add an extra layer of menace to the stories, I had fun using them to predict what was coming next! The collection has some of the usual tropes, hidden cottages, standing stones, the Hand of Glory, haunted hills and sinister wishing wells and the later is the one that left me with the longest gasp, as I imagined the ending all too vividly!

A suitably spooky read for the season! This anthology spans over 100 years, giving you an overview of how the genre and writing style developed in that time. However as many of these tales are written in the early 20th century, the prose style may be boring or difficult if you’re not used to it.

However for anyone who also shares a love for the Gothic, this shouldn’t be a challenge. In fact, one of the joys I had in reading this was seeing the influence the Gothic and finhad in the folk horror genre.

Unlike some more modern works, the stories in this anthology are often more overtly supernatural than psychological. Think witches, ghostly cats and animal omens, uncanny old folk on haunted hills, creepy woods that seem to trap you, and even ancient humanoids in the desolate and untouched wilderness. If you couldn’t tell from that, these tales are often more like old wives tales or fairy stories to keep children from wandering the woods at night. Each story is charged with old magic and a sense of warning, rather than unnerving. So although spooky, they feel safe. There is also a running theme of the wilderness, in ancient peoples, animals, or landscape in these stories and while theme of the genre I wonder if it was a choice by Wells. Answers on a postcard!

Wells work of selecting the stories is masterful, as each tale varies from the ones before. However it is his linocut illustrations that I loved, each haunting image setting the scene for the proceeding tale.

Overall a beautiful book, with some interesting short stories. For fans of the genre or the gothic, a great gift. But not for you if you’re looking for anything overtly scary!

I can only imagine how beautiful this book is in person. The art prints were wonderful to look at even digitally. I enjoyed the reading journey through time, space, and horrors and fears. I’m a little skittish about scary stuff, but I much prefer reading horror to watching it. A great companion for autumn/spooky season. It’s great to read cover-to-cover or to dip in and out of as your spooky heart desires.

A delightfully atmospheric collection of horror short stories! Initially I was drawn to this anthology because of Shirley Jackson's name being attached, but found the rest of the stories to be hidden gems. Particularly, I enjoyed "The Country-Side," "Morag-of-the-Cave," "Woe Water," and "The Man In The Woods."

Loved every tale in this book! Absolutely gems from all the classic authors, I mean what could go wrong? Shirley Jackson has always been a firm favourite and so I knew I needed to read this book! So good Im going to buy a copy! Brilliant!

I really wanted to like this one but I struggled to get through it and eventually had to DNF @ 30%. I believe this story is for someone else but not me and that’s okay!

i am completely obsessed with this book! i LOVE folk tales and i love horror so this was just perfect for me!! i can’t wait to get a physical copy and get to just read these over and over again

3* - generally enjoyable, decent writing:

This anthology collects folk horror short stories published during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries. However, many of these stories have older roots, and certainly the fears they prey on are older.

The majority of these stories are from the British Isles, and I personally enjoyed the coastal stories most.

The linoprints are a really interesting addition to the anthology.

This is a fantastic horror anthology! Perfect for the spooky season. This collection has some of the best classic names of horror paired with beautifully intricate images by Richard Wells. If you are just dipping into horror for the first time or have been reading it your whole life, Tales Accursed edited by Richard Wells is a must-have.

Side note: you can purchase copies of Richard Wells' artwork on his website.