Bloody Britain, <\/em>Anna Taborska shows us that its dark past is never really dead. In a disturbingly calm, conversational tone, Taborska reports the details of torture, murder, revenge, and punishment that evolve from familiar stories and settings into new short story plots with a contemporary feel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Some of the best stories in this collection find horror in the midst of everyday encounters while their innocuous titles belie the violence to come. Who would expect the nice man collecting money for a cancer charity in \u201cTeatime\u201d to be a serial killer who revels in making people suffer their greatest fears? What would make anyone think that a giant worm would be waiting for an opportunity to pop out of a church crypt like the monster in \u201cCyril\u2019s Mission\u201d does?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two of the most inventive tales, \u201cRockstar\u201d and \u201cDaylight Robbery,\u201d also give us something deeper to think about as we ponder the characters\u2019 behavior. When the singer in \u201cRockstar\u201d secretly pays an anonymous writer for lyrics that end up describing real murders, it calls to mind the bad choices some people make for fame and profit. \u201cDaylight Robbery\u201d also focuses on status. It paints the picture of a futuristic, divided society, one in which designer babies become privileged adults who drive around in electric cars wearing \u201csmart suits\u201d while poor immigrants are literally blind and persecuted as terrorists.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are also traditional ghost stories in Bloody Britain. <\/em>The ghosts include a woman who died in a meat packing factory (\u201cThe Haggis Queen\u201d), a young wife and her servant, falsely accused of being her lover, who were both murdered by her husband (\u201cThe Gatehouse\u201d), and even ghost dogs that roam around a pet cemetery (\u201cA Walk in the Park\u201d).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Although the events are rather predictable in a few of these short stories, they are still\u00a0 entertaining due to Taborska\u2019s writing style and skillful use of dialogue and description. For example, in \u201cNight of the Crone,\u201d a gang of degenerates gets what\u2019s coming to them when they disturb a monolith in a stone circle. There is also a man who gets into trouble when he dares to inspect a shipwreck at \u201cFormby Point,\u201d and an innocent person imprisoned in the Tower of London who has an encounter with the ghost of Lady Jane Grey. In \u201cThe Cat Sitter,\u201d a woman is targeted by a witch who haunts the woods nearby, and in \u201cThe Lemmy\/Trump Test,\u201d people of low social status are killed for sport. Even the curious student in \u201cOut of the Light\u201d can\u2019t avoid disaster when he becomes addicted to reading a fascinating, evil book he\u2019s borrowed from the bowels of the Bodleian Library.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, light the fire, lock the door, and curl up with a diverting story and a nice cuppa. Recommended.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Nova Hadley<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Editor’s note:\u00a0Bloody Britain<\/strong> is a nominee on the final ballot of this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bloody Britain by Anna Taborska, illustrated by Reggie Oliver Shadow Publishing, 2020 ISBN 978-0957296299 Available: Paperback\u00a0(\u00a0Bookshop.org ) The legends and lore of ancient Britain are an essential part of its history, and in Bloody Britain, Anna Taborska shows us that its dark past is never really dead. In a disturbingly calm, conversational tone,<\/p>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4856,4855,2474,357,700,83,4857,1526,2889,828],"class_list":["post-8527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anna-taborska","tag-bloody-britain","tag-book-review","tag-bram-stoker-awards","tag-ghost-stories","tag-horror-fiction","tag-reggie-oliver","tag-short-stories","tag-short-story-collection","tag-women-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8547,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527\/revisions\/8547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"cover](\"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bloody_britain_taborska.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n