Thank you to NetGalley and to C.J. Tudor for the ARC of A Sliver of Darkness. I will be COMPLETELY honest, I requested this ARC totally on accident, thinking this was Tudor’s newest novel that was to be released this year. Come to find out, this was a book of short stories! Short stories and memoirs, historically, are not my thing; however, I have loved everything I’ve read by Tudor and this was no exception. I love how the opening of the collection gave a glimpse into Tudor’s life and the reason for this collection instead of the expected novel and I truly felt for her which encouraged me to continue reading. The short stories were actually amazing and I was pleasantly surprised by my accident and I thoroughly enjoyed reading these. I think this may be something I actually pick up to read again which I’ve not ever done with a novel before…

An entertainingly spooky collection. No horror here just dread dread dread. Lots of good ideas woven into small tales. Hard to pick a favorite but I’d go with The Copy Shop which read like a classic Twilight Zone tale.

A 5-star collection of horror short stories! There wasn't a single story in this entire book that I did not like. Unfortunately, I have had a few bad dreams of a child who eats people. Lol! The first story was about people who were living on a cruise ship because living on land was no longer possble. I would have liked to have had an entire book on this story - I had so many scenarios I wanted to see finished. That's my feeling on a lot of short stories, though, wanting more.

There are 11 stories in this collection, C. J. Tudor's first short story collection. Every single one is worth reading. They are as follows:

End of the Liner
The Block
Runaway Blues
The Completion
The Lion at the Gate
Gloria
I'm Not Ted
Final Course
The Copy Shop
Dust
Butterfly Island

They are all memorable, which really amazes me since every short story collection I've read before has at least one story I didn't really care for - and this one doesn't. Each one is full of scary surprises. Butterfly Island left me hanging and full of questions, but I still liked the story. The Copy Shop, Runaway Blues, and I'm Not Ted were my favorites I think. The Block was the only one I felt was totally wrapped up and didn't need to be much longer. A couple reminded me of Stephen King. This is a great collection!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on November 8, 2022.

OMG C. J. Tudor is the new queen of short stories!! This collection of ten creepy, eerie, weird stories is so much fun!!

Each story has a foreword that explained her inspiration behind the story which I found SO interesting, My favorite story was probably Runaway Blues (this reads very Stephen King). The stories I didn't like weren't my taste, though they were so short it didn't bother me.

I highly recommend A Sliver of Darkness to any horror reader!

As with any collection, some of the stories included in A Sliver of Darkness were better than others. They all had a bit of a Twilight Zone feel which I liked and many of them left the reader pondering aspects of life and human nature.

Each story begins with an introduction from Tudor herself. I appreciated the personal touch and the background on how some of these stories came to be. It also gave us a glimpse into Tudor's personality and life and that was a nice addition to the stories.

There are ten stories included in this collection. Some are very short - only taking 10 minutes or so to read. Most of them are about 15 minutes, and a couple are about 30 minutes. They were just the right length to get through one or two in a sitting but I never felt a strong pull to read more than that at a time. For some of them, I really could've used more and I think they would've packed more punch if they hadn't felt rushed.

There were some similar themes throughout the short stories. I felt like many of the stories had apoplectic vibes and were more psychological horror than monster horror (although there was some monster horror!). Because the stories were so short, there really were no conclusions or explanations and that will work well for some readers and maybe not so well for others.

All in all, this was a good collection and one I definitely enjoyed during spooky season.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for a copy of this collection.

I don't read a lot of short stories, but this collection by the author was an absolute treat. For readers who have come to love the author's work, this gives you a taste into the author's mind and then leaves the reader to fill in what happens next. Let your imagination wander . . . into dark territory.

Some stories are creepier than others, specifically The Block and Butterfly Island. But all intrigued me in just a few pages.

I also loved that the author included why she put this collection together, a very honest admission on the struggles as a writer. And she included what inspired each short story.

Whether you are looking for a spooky fix or just a fan of the author, this collection is a MUST!

I really enjoyed this anthology. Most of the stories were full of suspense and some were pretty scary.

This was a DNF for me. I try to be into short stories but this missed the marked for me. I barely got through the first one, and then I gave up. I still like this author but short stories are not my thing which I discovered here.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchanged for an honest review.

I thought that this collection was alright -- I didn't really think that the preface to each story was necessary. I thought the stories themselves ranged in creepiness and potency of horror -- some were really frightening and some weren't so much. But I think that it was an interesting collection, though not very cohesive.

3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the early read.

I follow C.J. Tudor on social media and know she was going through a hard time and I am amazed she still managed to publish a book this year. She even gives a personal introduction explaining this. She even gives a brief "here is what was going through my mind" before each story.

I am not always a fan of short stories, but I am a fan of C.J. Tudor. I flew through these stories. Some were darker than others, but all were original, well thought out and creepy. She ended most of them well, some I was left wanting it to go further.....but short story collection.

Fans of Stephen King....pick it up and enjoy.

Since reading several of Tudors’ novels in the past, when I saw a short story collection, I jumped on the chance to peruse it and am not disappointed. The twists were amazing, the storytelling was great and almost every story can give you that squirming sensation in your chest. Here are just a few of my favorites:


“End of the Liner”:
What if you spent your entire life on a luxurious cruise liner?
This is the first story you get to read and it started the book off with a bang. The concept of it really made me reflect. End of the world and I get to be on a relaxing cruise for all of it? Sold! Well… until you ACTUALLY start to think about it. Never stepping foot on land again, the same day over and over again, and what happens when there are too many people for such a limited space? Perhaps it isn’t as nice as it might seem.


“Runaway Blues”:
Even the seemingly sweetest people can have deadly secrets. This rings true as you read this story of a couple who meet a man with a voice to be remembered and his little hat box. I adore this story. Starts you off with a relaxing bar scene and some great music and ends with widened eyes and goosebumps.

“The Copy Shop”:
This is the story that I’d considered the least spooky in terms of content but it didn’t stop me from being absolutely horrified at the concept. Once your possessions are “damaged”, would you be willing to give up the original to get a perfected copy and how far would you take it?

Overall, this a great collection of stories that will give you chills, thrills and what ifs.

I received a free copy to review from Net Galley.

4.5 Stars

C.J. Tudor has become a favorite author of mine reminding me of early Stephen King, who I once greatly enjoyed. I was immediately drawn in by her introduction to this book of short stories where she shared the health challenges of her parents during the pandemic. This stressful time adversely affected a book she was writing, which was ultimately shelved. That's when she decided to change paradigms and express her love of writing through the short story medium. I never seek out short story compilations, but made an exception here because I really admire this author.

Tudor prefaced each short story with her real life experiences that inspired her to write them. I enjoyed reading tidbits about her life in Nottingham, England where she once worked as a dog walker. She was a natural writer without any specific school training for it, and marveled at the compensation when her short story offerings would be accepted by magazines and such. It could amount to weeks of dog walking!

Tudor's stories were often relevant to current events, swirling around possible apocalyptic endings, involving the usual evil tendencies of corruption, greed, self-preservation, apathy- and more. She has her finger on the pulse and pulled me into her terror vortex during almost every single story. She is a prescient, intuitive, masterful spinner of tales. As I finished each story I immediately summarized each one to possibly include in my review, but I think it's much kinder to allow the reader to go in blind and savor every bloody drop all by themselves.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

C.J. Tudor is one of my favorite authors, and while I definitely think she shines in her novel writing, for the most part these stories did not disappoint. I enjoyed that each story got a mini introduction and I think it helped explain why some might have felt a little less expanded on than others. Lots of apocalyptic/pandemic themes, which seems fitting after realizing many were written in the last few years… there’s just something about the way she writes horror that’s so accessible and really works for me. If you’re a fan of her previous books, I can’t see you not enjoying at least some of these stories. My favorites were “Final Course”, “Runaway Blues” and “End of the Liner”.

A Sliver of Darkness
by C. J. Tudor
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️





• Thank you to #RandomHouse/Ballantine and #NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is November 8, 2022.

#StoryGraph: fiction horror short stories dark mysterious tense medium-paced
256 pages | first published 2022

This is a bone-chilling and macabre debut collection of ten short stories — creepy and perfect for the season.

• End of the Liner: Everyone left alive live on cruise ships that have been traveling for 50 years, never landing on a destroyed Earth. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• The Block: Five kids break into a condemned apartment building and some crazy half-human monster are chasing them. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Runaway Blues: The “Fat Man” sings at The Blue Flamingo where you go to drink pink Martinis. He lost his voice then he lost his girl. But, she’s back and will never walk away again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• The Completion: A real estate agent makes the deal of his lifetime … or is it the apocalypse? ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

• The Lion at the Gate: A graffiti lion painted on a gate actually mutilates a boy … but, wait … now it’s changed into a ... ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Gloria: Gloria is a “cleaner-upper”. She breaks murdered bodies down into manageable parts, stuffs them into heavy black sacks and scrubs and bleaches the crime scene. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

• I’m Not Ted: Not-Ted has been chosen to be “elevated” — to live in luxury beyond his dreams. Ok, I am Ted (he succumbs to temptation. But, he’s not Ted and it all disintegrates before him. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Final Course: What could be more terrifying than a dinner party at the end of the world. What could be more apocalyptic than the world being mysteriously cast into darkness? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• The Copy Shop: Can a copy ever be as good as the original? Yes, sometimes even better. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Dust: Calima winds bring sandstorms to the volcanic desert reducing visibility to near zero, transforming the landscape into something altogether more alien. Another world. Which was just what Olivia needed right now. To escape reality. To forget her life. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Butterfly Island: And to top it all off, enter the flesh-eating butterflies. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a book of short fiction stories with the first story in the book being the strongest and from there the others slowly became less interesting to me. The problem with these short stories is that they have endings that don't make sense. The formatting was done poorly with each chapter starting with a big letter covering words.

I really liked that Silver writes an introduction to each short story - it made me invested in each story! It is hard to rate a book of short stories - some were very intriguing and others weren't as enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I always think that short story collections show a writer's range in a way that full-length novels don't, and C.J. Tudor's debut collection A Sliver of Darkness is no exception. Featuring unsettling stories about cruises that never end, apocalypses of various kinds, heinous rituals, and murderous graffiti animals, this collection takes us into the darkest depths of Tudor's imagination. Tudor guides us the entire way, beginning each story with an introduction about how the idea for the story originated -- and I loved that she did this, because it always fascinates me to get a glimpse into a writer's mind.

My favorite stories in the collection were "End of the Liner," "Runaway Blues," and "Final Course," but all of the stories worked for me on some level. Although all of the stories stand alone, most of them center on common themes like survival, redemption, retribution, friendship, and love gone wrong -- all viewed, of course, through a horror lens. So much of a short story is about the way it ends, and Tudor totally nailed the endings of all of these stories.

A Sliver of Darkness is a creative, disturbing, darkly funny, and thought-provoking collection of stories. Although I'm excited for another full-length novel from Tudor next year, I hope she returns to the short story format at some point in her career.

I’ve been chasing the high of reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ever since I was a kid, so horror anthologies are an immediate yes for me. Add to it the fact that it’s a horror anthology by CJ Tudor and I’m definitely on-board. While these stories were more creepy than actually scary, I found myself thoroughly enjoying myself while reading this book, even though not every story was a hit for me. I also really loved the introduction section of each story where the author mentioned how she came up with the inspiration for it because I love knowing what makes an author’s mind click into story-writing mode.

I love C.J. Tudor. She can do no wrong! I usually stay away from short stories because it always seems like there are more misses than hits. But this collection struck all the right notes - fun, creepy reads. I will read whatever she writes. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publisher for a free netgalley.

Really enjoyed this short story compilation. Most stories were intriguing, but all were well written.

My top 5
1. Final Course
2. Dust
3. Butterfly Island
4. Jazz
5. Block