Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for sending me an ARC of A Sliver of Darkness in exchange for an honest review.

After four novels, C.J. Tudor is back with A Sliver of Darkness, a collection of eleven short stories. Each story opens with an interesting introduction where she explains her inspiration for the story. Most of them are a blend of horror and mystery, and almost all of them have a twist ending. But beyond that, there’s a lot of variety here in locations and subjects. Some are creepy, some are more gory/scary, and some are neither.

There’s not a bad story in A Sliver of Darkness, though I had several favorites:

—End of the Liner, in which passengers have been trapped on a Disney-type cruise ship for 50 years.
—The Lion at the Gate, in which a group of teens find a giant lion’s head graffitied on a gate, and the graffiti seems to be able to move.
—I’m Not Ted, in which everyone wrongly thinks the narrator is Ted, who seems to be living the narrator’s dream life.
—Final Course, in which a man takes his daughter to a dinner party during the end of the world.
—The Copy Shop, in which a woman discovers a copy shop that can improve upon the original.
—Dust, in which a woman seems to be the only guest in an old hotel.

I’m not usually a big fan of short story collections, but I certainly enjoyed this one. Recommended.

C. J. Tudor is the author of the amazing horror/mystery book The Chalk Man. Here she offers up a selection of short stories, some she wrote while she was trying to break into publishing.
I love a good collection of short stories, especially this time of year when finding time to read is a struggle. Nothing like little bite size morsels of horror to chill the blood on a hot night.
Usually I am happy if I like 60% of the stories offered, thats a positive recommendation from me. But here, I got the rare treat of liking every dang story she wrote!
I don't remember the last time that happened. Heck, has it ever? Anyway...
We have 11 tales, some pure horror, some straddeling the line, all pure fun.
A few of my favorites are;
"End of the Liner": The world has been devistated by desease and people are living on what was once cruise ships. Every day they pretend nothing is wrong and go about their day doing whatever you would do on a cruise....forever. I mean...forever. When you are 75 years old, you retire. Not hard to guess what the pension plan is like. This one creeped me out big time, because I can think of nothing more horrific then being trapped on some comercial B.S. cruise for the next 50 years. The end was just delicious.
"I'm Not Ted": perhaps a story of choices? A morality tale? You can decide but it was so much fun I was grinning by the end.
"The Copy Shop": A place where they can copy anything. Anything. And make it just a little better than the original. But be careful wht you wish for...

Run don't walk to get a copy of this collection. It will hold you nicely until C.J. Tudor writes her next novel.
Highly recommended.

Thanks to @netgalley, Randon House- Ballentine Books, and C.J. Tudor for the oppertunity to read the eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Not personally my favorite of CJ Tudors. I do really enjoy short stories so I was excited to read this. I did enjoy some stories but not all. Though I did like the authors intro to each story!

Since 2018, C.J. Tudor has released a new novel every year. I have heard really good things about her last novel, The Burning Girls, but I had not read it. As she notes at the beginning of A Sliver of Darkness, her novel for this year just was not working right so as an emergency move, Tudor decided to release this collection of short stories. Writing short stories is much different than writing a novel. You have to build characters, setting, tension, and plot in a much smaller space. Some authors can really pull off both forms, but some excel in one form or another. I do not have any of Tudor’s long works to compare her short stories to, but I feel like she might be a little better at writing novels than short stories.

I say this on the strengths of this collection. The three stories that really stick out for me, that are the most developed and have the best story are also the three longest. The book opens with “End of the Liner”, a story about the end of the world and the only population still alive are on cruise ships. This world building and plot are fantastic, and this is a five-star story. I love every minute of it, and if there were any of these stories that I would read again as a novel form, this would be the one I would be most excited about reading. “Final Course” is the second best story. Another apocalypse story, the world has gone dark, and Tom and his daughter are invited to a dinner party with some old schoolmates. When they get there, nothing is as it seems, and the scene unravels quickly. “Butterfly Island”, the last story in this collection, is about a group of people who travel to an uninhabited island and get more than they bargained for. All three of these stories have the end of the world as a theme, and it is interesting the differences that C.J. Tudor uses with each apocalypse.

This is not the say that the rest of the stories in A Sliver of Darkness are bad. I enjoyed all of them to some degree, but the longer ones seem to show off Tudor’s writing strengths more than the shorter pieces. All of them are pretty good, even the very short ones like “Copy Shop”, but as a whole, this collection makes me more interested in catching up on Tudor’s novels than anything. If they are nearly as good as “End of the Liner” then I am in for a treat. This is a good introduction to Tudor’s work, but her fans might enjoy this more than those who are reading her for the first time.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

End of the Liner- 4/5
The Block- 3 5/5
Runaway Blues- DNF
The Completion- 2.5/5
The Lion at the Gate- 2.5/5
Gloria- 3.5/5
I'm Not Ted- 3/5
Final Course- 5/5
The Copy Shop- 3/5
Dust- 3/5
Butterfly Island- 2.5/5

I skipped the introductions of every story because I didn't care about them. Overall, I like C.J. Tudors writing, it makes it easy to visualize everything that's happening. But, for the most part, I don't really like her stories or characters.

This is a book of horror/mystery short stories with a variety of topics, with the main subject being some kind of apocalyptic world ending scenario. Most of the stories are quite short but several of them are a decent length.

As of writing this review I’ve only read one of the authors full length novels so I don’t have much history with reading their work. I really enjoyed this though. My favorite stories were Final Course (the monsters were amazing and I need to read more of the adventures/survival of Millie and her dad), The Copy Shop (short and too the point, very well done), Gloria (I would watch and entire movie based off of this story), and I’m Not Ted (once again I need a movie based on this yesterday). Least favorite but not at all disliked were End of the Liner (predictable and underwhelming but not terrible; needed way more information about what was going on in the world outside the ship) and The Block (reads very young).

Overall I highly recommend this book. It’s well written and the stories are well paced. If you are a fan of mystery/horror short stories or are a fan of the author in general this is the right book for you.

CJ Tudor has a very casual way of writing. As a reader you are able to settle in immediately and enjoy the reading experience because the words flow so easily. Each of these great short stories begins with a little personal snippet from the author, and I found it really interesting that in one she referenced Stephen King, because he is the other author whose writing I find effortless to read. This is a fabulous collection of short stories that are full of twists and each one definitely leaves you thinking.

Great story anthology. I've enjoyed CJ Tudor's other writing and this was no exception. If you're a Stephen King fan check this book out for sure. I especially enjoyed reading about the author's inspiration for the shorts.

I' enjoyed all of Tudor's previous novels so I was interested to see how her short fiction was. Happily, it was just as good writing as any of her novels. While her novels sometimes come off as being more thriller and just horror-adjacent, for the most part the tales in this collection are hard core horror. Even the couple that weren't quite so, still had Twilight Zone-esque twists at the end. I at least liked every one of the stories in the book, with only a couple I found to be not quite as goo as the others, and my favorite being Final Course, which felt like it easily could have been extended to a full novella if not a full-length novel.

I love short stories and I love C.J. Tudor, so what could be better? I already had a taste of Tudor’s short story writing when three were tacked on to an audio that I listened to a couple of years ago…one of them showed up in this collection (The Lion at the Gate) and I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed it the first time. Too bad for the reader that the other two weren’t included in this collection because they too were great! One of them (The February House) was so beautifully written that I paused once or twice to savor the prose.

So, of course, I was a sucker for this book. Many of the stories are hilarious in a black and twisted way – I loved them all.

Since the book includes eleven stories and since they are short, I don’t think I’m up to the task of reviewing intelligently (do I ever?), so I will just say that they were comprised in equal measures of quirky, gory, zombie, flesh eating, cultish, horror, fantasy, futuristic, sci-fi, and even a dash of dystopian for good measure.

The stories:

<b><i>End of the Liner</i></b> – was my favorite, probably because of the ironic ending (I love irony). It’s the end of the world as we know it, survivors live out their lives cruising the seas on Ocean Liners. The extravagance and opulence is still in evidence everywhere on board, but needless to say, a little shabby after (circa) 50+ years. Our MC, Leila, is about to be “retired” at the age of 75 (out with the old, bring in the new). Her friend Mirabelle appears to be well connected; she’s been 72 for the past five years. Leila is still mourning the loss of her daughter Addison who was “lost” at the age of 18. Be careful what you wish for…
<b><i>The Block</i></b> – slum neighborhood with a large spooky boarded up monolithic building – kids break in – there’s a reason it is so spooky.
<b><i>Runaway Blues</i></b> – what do these men keep in their hatboxes?
<b><i>The Completion</i></b> – I’m thinking Lenny Bruce….tonight tonight somebody’s gonna get fried tonight….
<b><i>The Lion at the Gate</i></b> – You’ve never seen graffiti like this and if you get too close you might end up like my mates: Carl, Stiff, and Fallow.
<b><i> Gloria</i></b>– a sympathetic Cleaner/Hit Woman, going soft?
<b><i>I’m not Ted</i></b> – he'll get one last chance to withstand temptation and elevate.
<b><i>Final Course</i></b> – Don’t Open That Door! There’s a little of the Masque of the Red Death in this one
<b><i>The Copy Shop</i></b> – It can make anything as good as new…
<b><i>Dust</i></b> – How a Stepmother is rewarded for taking care of her stepchildren? …and, maybe a few others along the way
<b><i>Butterfly Island</i></b> – here’s my advice: stay away from anyone who says they have a great idea

One of the interesting things about this book was the introduction and the personal notes preceding each of the stories. I found it fascinating how some odd incident ignited the creative spark.

It has been said that CJ Tuder is GBs counter to Stephen King. So, if you are a King lover, this might be for you. Personally, I have never gotten through a King novel or managed to sit through a television or film version of his work (it’s not polite to boo), so I can’t compare. It could be the length of his novels with some weighing in at over 1000 pages. My eyes are always searching for another good read, so my attention span shatters at around page 280 unless in the midst of an exciting finale.

All of Tudor’s books fit my palate, so as soon as I saw this was coming up, I recommended to all my libraries in the hopes that I’d be one of the first to get my hands on a copy. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for not making me wait and for providing me with an ARC of this book for review. You probably noticed - I loved it!

Begins with a heart wrenching introduction about grief and trying to carry on. Talks about knowing when things aren’t right for you and I think we can all relate to that. Especially with reading. We have put so much pressure on ourselves as readers to finish a book that we just aren’t vibing with. And there’s nothing wrong with putting a book down and never picking it up again.

Some of my favorite stories in the collection: End of the Liner, Final Course and The Copy Shop

Short stories are fun because so much is left for your imagination. The author sets the story up but you have the ability to decide what happened in the long run.

I loved the introduction to each story that showed how even one sentence could inspire a whole world of possibilities.

Highly recommend if you enjoy spooky short stories! Thanks NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book
I have written this review voluntarily.

CJ Tudor is wickedly good

A Sliver of Darkness is a collection of shorts written by CJ Tudor. Her introductions to each story shares a bit of personal connection to the reason these stories exist, as well as why the collection exists. At different times in our lives, we’ve all adjusted the sails.
Sometimes those adjustments are exactly the right thing at the right time.
This collection is just that… PERFECTLY constructed, presented in a manner that holds our attention just long enough to … fully deliver.
“Back in the days when the world wasn’t supercalifragistically f*cked,” my attention might have held long enough to finish “The Stand.” Right now? A collection of macabre horror stories certainly fits the bill.
If you enjoy Stephen King, you are sure to enjoy CJ Tudor’s writings. Yep, I’m drawing that line, connecting them. I set “The Stand” aside to read this. She is the horror writer of this generation!
I can’t wait for the “Completion” of her next full novel. In the meantime, just might reread these tidbits to keep the Lion at the gate.

Thank you to Random House for the opportunity for an advanced reading copy, to CJ Tudor for sharing her amazing talent, and to NetGalley for the platform to access the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I really like the chalk man but didn’t like the other people. This started out strong but kind of fell off with the last few stories - overall I believe Tudor is a strong writer and will continue to pick up any future novels.

I just finished reading A Sliver of Darkness, and by this book it appears that irony is the new creepy. I kept waiting for the twist at the end, the horrific resolve that sends shivers down your spine, that cants your view of the whole story as you take in the horror…not so much with this one. But I’ve been spoiled by years of random horror tales from Lovecraft on, I just love that hook; you know the feeling. The stories here were good, but as I say, I like the jolt at the end.

I'm not usually a fan of short stories, but every now and then an author I really like puts out a book and I feel compelled to give them a try. I'm so glad I did this time! I really enjoy the way Tudor tells a story, and I'm pleased to report that the attention to detail, pacing, characterization, and suspense comes through every bit as strongly in the short story format as in the long-form novel. This was a really entertaining collection of creepy tales with fantastic twists that I really enjoyed!

A Sliver of Darkness is a fascinating collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors C.J. Tudor. Each tale begins with a short introduction giving insight into the authors inspiration for each story. Often times with anthologies, I only like a few of the stories in the collection however, I found each of the tales in this collection to be unique and entertaining. Below I have provided a list of the included titles with a short, spoiler free, synopsis...

End of the Liner- A post-apocalyptic tale in which the world becomes uninhabitable while aboard a luxury cruise ship. The story is told from the perspective of Leila Simmonds, an original passenger, who is now nearing her retirement.
The Block- A group of kids decides to break into a mysterious, seemingly abandoned, tower block only to discover that something sinister has made itself at home inside.
Runaway Blues- A young couple befriends a mysterious Jazz musician whose music is inspired by the love of his life. When she leaves him for another man his dark side emerges.
The Completion- A post-apocalyptic tale in which a corrupt real estate agent will do just about anything to finalize a deal...but this might be his last sale.
The Lion at the Gate- A group of kids cut through a forbidden area and find a sinister lion spray painted on the gate.
Gloria- Gloria, now retired, specializes in "clean up" is hired for a job when she meets a mysterious young girl named Alice and decides to intervene.
I'm Not Ted- A case of mistaken identity places one man in a moral dilemma when he is offered an upgraded life...all he has to do is say he is who they think he is.
Final Course- A post-apocalyptic tale in which a young girl and her father are invited to mansion for a 20th reunion where they are offered protection from what lurks outside...but the monsters may be closer than they think.
The Copy Shop- A woman discovers a copy shop that provides a unique service, one in which the reproduction appears to be better than the original.
Dust- A woman is trying to escape reality at a luxury hotel but is continually haunted by the sins of her past.
Butterfly Island- A post-apocalyptic tale in which a group of people decide to go to an uninhabited island, once a butterfly sanctuary, for safety but find themselves in danger from something much worse.

I love a new to me short author and story collection and was very excited to begin this. However, I soon discovered that most of the stories weren’t to my taste. Each story here, I felt, was missing something small but crucial.



eARC kindly provided by Ballantine Books / Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. Opinions shared are my own.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

I loved that she had an intro to each short story! It made them even more personal and relatable! Each story was done so well, and had just the right amount of detail. I wish there were more like this! They were long enough to get scared but short enough to hold my attention.

The second story totally reminded me of my favorite horror movie Quarantine, and I LOVED it!!! So much diversity in the stories too.

Highly recommend!

I loved the last book this author did and this one didn’t disappoint. Definitely had all the elements I was looking for in a book. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone

Tudor's work is SO hit or miss for me, and this was definitely a miss. I didn't love the majority of these stories, and they really didn't draw me in.