*I received a free ARC of this book, with thanks to the author, Harper Voyager UK and Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Blurb: There’s a new horror behind every door…
Welcome to Silverweed Road – a once quiet suburban street where nothing is quite as it seems. In this macabre collection of twisted tales, were-foxes prowl, a swimming pool turns predatory, a haunted urn plots revenge, and a darts player makes a deal with the devil himself.
As the residents vanish one by one, a sinister mystery slowly unpeels, lurking in the Woods at the road’s dead-end.
Creepy, chilling, and witty by turn, Silverweed Road deals in love, loss, isolation, loneliness, obsession, greed,and revenge.
Come take a walk through suburban hell. The neighbours will be dying to meet you …
This isn’t really a horror novel, but a series of linked short horror stories, each set in a different house on Silverweed Road.
While each story is individual in terms of the horror it presents, they are linked not just by location but also by characters (as the residents of the street make non-chronological cameos in each others’ stories), recurring motifs (jackdaws and blackthorn trees), themes (love lost and various sins – greed, envy, wrath) and the short statements from ex-DCI Heath between each story, in which he summarises the official view and updates on any subsequent investigation of events.
After reading the first couple of stories here, I felt pleasantly creeped out and found myself noticing the eerie elements of everyday objects and events in real life. As I continued on down Silverweed Road however, and the stories became darker and more visceral, I found myself turning on lights and jumping at shadows, and by the end I was so affected that it overtook Clive Barker and Jonathan Sims in my annals of books most likely to disturb my sleep!
Those of a nervous disposition are likely to struggle with this book, as there are some very gory and visceral death and torture scenes, along with the psychological horror, body horror, ghosts, monsters, witchcraft, demons… a bit of everything terrifying and horrific, really.
My personal favourite story here is ‘No. 4: Cuttlefish, Cuttlefish’, which features some aquatic research gone very wrong, resulting in an unnaturally intimate relationship between the scientist and his subjects. The award for the story that nearly made me physically sick and required copious amounts of brain bleach would have to go to ‘No. 15: The Mogon’ which features some of the most disturbing body horror I have ever read (and I have read Clive Barker’s Books of Blood and followed Rusty Quill’s The Magnus Archives podcast).
Each of the ten stories is unique in style and content, and every story is very well-written, so it’s easy to lose yourself in Silverweed Road and there is bound to be at least one story in the ten that tickles your own specific horror-bone.
I would absolutely read more from Simon Crook after reading this collection and would recommend it to fellow fans of intelligent and varied dark disturbation.
Five years have passed since those wretched events, when I was scapegoated out of my job. Five years have passed like mud in retirement, and not a single case has been solved.
– Simon Crook, Silverweed Road
There were forty-one houses on that dead-end road, and a heartbeat was stolen from every one.
About the author
Simon Crook has been a film journalist for over 20 years, travelling the world visiting film sets and interviewing talent for Empire Magazine.
A new and exciting voice in domestic horror, he is perfectly placed to translate the recent
successes of the genre from the silver screen to the written word – while adding something new and wholly his own.
Twitter link: https://twitter.com/sicrook
PURCHASE LINK: Silverweed Road ON AMAZON
Don’t forget to stop by the other blogs on this tour (see the poster below for details) for more great content and reviews!
Bookshine And Readbows 