Cover Image: Tales of Nightmares

Tales of Nightmares

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Member Reviews

While I enjoyed the book during the reading of it, I have to admit that none of the stories really stuck with me after. Still, a decent, enjoyable, and fairly quick read.

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In this short anthology of short stories, the reader is taken on a tour of nightmares, from a strange cat-woman who comes into your room at night to a satanic cabal of nature haters to a man who's learned the art of maintaining supermodels with superglue.

This anthology consists of nine stories, each written on the theme of nightmares. Otherwise the authors have ranged far with their tone and subjects, making for a pleasingly eclectic collection. Some stories are paranormal or ghost stories, some take on the flavor of urban legends, and some are straight up horror. All the stories felt on par as far as quality goes, which is a rare achievement for anthologies.

My favorite stories are "The Dark Watchers" by E.S. Magill, which is about a wilderness guide who ends up taking the wrong client out to the California mountains and must fix his mistake, and "The Haunting of Mrs. Poole," which combines the supernatural with metaphysics that feels very apt for the historical setting.

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Spooky! I love the variation of the stories. Multiple sub-genres are explored and I enjoyed the different voices throughout. Recommend when you’re in the mood for short stories!

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Horror is not my usual genre, but these are good stories. There is a nice variety and different writing styles. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free review copy for review!!

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This book was a page turner from beginning to end. Amazing collection of horror stories. As with most collections some are better than others but overall was super great! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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Thank you to NetGalley, the editor Loren Rhoades, & Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for a copy.

I love the concept Loren discussed in the introduction, the Wily Writers Group and the anthology series they are putting together! “Tales of Nightmares” is the second of the series, following “Tales of Dread”. There are at least four more books on the way!

All the stories within these pages were hair raising, although my favourite was “Twenty Questions” by Jennifer Brozek.

Thank you again to the authors for “inspiring nightmares” as Loren so eloquently put it.

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3.5 stars rounded up

This is a pretty solid collection of short stories. As with most short story collections you’ll have the good and the bad. My favorite was 20 Questions

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I sadly only had this book for a day in my netgalley app so I only got to read a little bit of this but from that I really liked it.

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Excellent read, especially I ally for the upcoming Spooky Season.
Great authors that keep you drawn in.

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Tales of Nightmares | Loren Rhoads
⭐️ 4

Honestly, I was hooked at the intro.
"Dear Reader, I don't want to wish you sweet dreams. For you, I wish inspiring nightmares."

I thought a collection of short stories would be a great way to mix up my reading list, and this book really impressed me! The length is perfect, a short read but so full of excitement and suspense.
Tales of Nightmares #2 provides a little bit of everything, including folklore, ghosts, monsters and disappearances. Whatever you're into, you're guaranteed to find a new author that you love.
My Favourite story was "The Dark Watchers" by E.S. Magill, but I liked so many of them.

Wily Writers Presents Tales of Nightmares is a captivating anthology of short stories.
As someone who usually reads novels, this was a fun change and I will continue to read collections moving forward. Can't wait for the next one and I highly recommend to anyone who likes scary stories!

Cover: Creepy gravestone, It's hard to encompass all of the stories in 1 cover. 7/10

Genre: Horror/Thriller

ARC: Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review

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The book overall comes out more to a 3.5 but I rounded up for enjoyment. I love anthologies for the fact I can find new authors and read so many different styles of stories. Some of these stories genuinely creeped me out while reading while others really stick out in my mind. I often can forget what a short story was about, but reading each title I can tell you each plot. I overall had a great reading experience, I will be looking into picking up other in this series. Thank you NetGalley for having this ebook available after the release date or I would have never known about this book.

La Japonesa by Lisa Morton - ★★☆☆☆
Into the Quiet by Alison J McKenzie - ★★★★★
The Dark Watchers by E.S. Magill - ★★★☆☆ (2.5)
Recall by Yvonne Navarro - ★★★★☆
Twenty Questions by Jennifer Brozek - ★★★★★
The Haunting of Mrs. Pooleby Angel Leigh McCoy - ★★★★☆ (3.5)
Glue and the Art of Supermodel Maintenance by Weston Ochse -★★★☆ ☆ (wft???)
Elle a Vu un Loup by Loren Rhoads - ★★★★☆ (the writing though wow will pick up Unsafe Words)
The House on River Road by Bill Bodden - ★★★☆☆ (side note I grew up off River Road so extra creepy points for that)

please keep in mind these individual ratings are based more off enjoyment than anything else

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First, a thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc.

I don't really have much to say about this collection, which is pretty disappointing. Nothing really stood out. Nothing really raised my hackles.

I had high hopes for "Twenty Questions" - that one started strong, but quickly petered off. Due to the lackluster showing of everything before it, I wasn't sure if this was <i>actually</i> good, or if it was just standing out due to everything else around it.

I am not necessarily against gore, but I am against being gross for literally no purpose other than for the shock value, so I blatantly skipped "Glue and the Art of Supermodel Maintenance". Just... nah, not for me. If nothing else is compelling other than your descriptions of someone being tortured... pass.

I was pretty bummed out since most of the other reviews have been pretty positive for this collection. Oh well, on to the next one...

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First of all. Thank you so much for the chance to read this ARC. The creep factor in this book is ridiculous. In a good way. When I was done I was so sad to put it down. And that shows a book is truly awesome.

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3.5/5 Stars

This short story collection was fun! As it is with other short stories, I preferred some over others. Some of my favorites included “Twenty Questions” by Jennifer Brozek and “The Haunting of Mrs. Poole” by Angel Leigh McCoy.

I appreciated how some stories had ambiguous endings. It made the stories more thrilling not knowing how they could have resolved. I also felt like the stories fit together very well. Despite the different writing styles and plots, each story was complimentary to one another. It is obvious all the authors are talented writers and are exceptional at descriptive imagery.

Overall, I would recommend this book to those who want a light horror read. These stories were quick and well-crafted and I am interested in looking at other works by some of the authors.

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Excellent selection of stories. I got lost in them. This book will be a perfect read for the upcoming Spooky Season.

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Oh my gosh! This anthology is beautiful. A Gothic delight, commuppance is served. A Halloween cursed with something worse than fright. A wolf, a beast and Ghosts that find Cruelty entertaining.

Tales Of Nightmares was a quick satisfying read for me. The range of stories kept me interested. I would highly recommend. I adore a good anthology. Great way to find new authors to consume. Hmmmmm....No pun intended. Bwahahahahaha.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review

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Thank you so much to SFWA and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

This collection has 9 short stories from authors of all walks of life. I'm going to include all the title names + authors, as well as a one sentence summary of each story.

La Japonesa - Lisa Morton
A woman writing a book on local folk tales discovers the story of a Japanese cat-woman. 4 Stars.

Into the Quiet - Alison J. McKenzie
A worn out mother is tormented by what she believes are hallucinations.
I loved the writing in this. Definitely want to check out the author's other work. 5 Stars.

The Dark Watchers - E.S. Magill
A man who worked as a guide for hikers until a terrible accident comes out of retirement when he's offered a hefty sum. His three clients give off red flags though, and he will soon find out exactly what that entails. 3 Stars.

Recall - Yvonne Navarro
A cop is haunted by the fact that he wasn't able to save his parents during a home invasion. 4 Stars.

Twenty Questions - Jennifer Brozek
Mixed media format. A woman agrees to play the game 20 questions with an online stranger. 2 Stars.

The Haunting of Mrs. Poole - Angel Leigh McCoy
A woman is haunted by a spectre that seems to be warning her of atrocities to come. 3 Stars.

Glue and the Art of Supermodel Maintenance - Weston Ochse
A man creates his own love dolls out of supermodels. 2 Stars.

Elle a Vu in Loup - Loren Rhoads
A woman heads to Mackinac Island to take care of a werewolf problem. As someone who grew up in Michigan, I loved the setting. 4 Stars.

The House on River Road - Bill Bodden
A house that appears once a year may be the cause of a multitude of disappearances. 3 Stars.

Averaging my ratings brings it to a 3.3. As you can see this collection started off very strong, and I am interested in checking out the first Wily Writers Presents, as well as the others yet to come. I like that this is kept short, as I sometimes get overwhelemed when it's 20+ stories. I had only heard of one of these authors before, so I enjoy how short story collections introduce me to authors I may not have picked up otherwise.

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A randomly selected anthology made up of authors I’ve mostly never heard of and what an awesome read this turned out to be.
Reader, beware: behind this fairy generic title madness lies. Madness in form of well-written, atmospheric, literary frights. Dark, dark as the night itself.
Such an impressive quality, one after another. This book is a product of something like a literary collective, Wily Writers. I was misremembering it as Wily Women until just checking it to make sure, because majority of the authors featured are female. In fact, when you get to the first (one of the only two maybe?) male-authored stories, you might notice it doesn’t really work at all with anthology’s overall tone and ambiance.
But either way, this was a very good read and an absolute genre fan’s delight. A slender volume that manages quite a punch to the psyche, this one might indeed induce nightmares as designed. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

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This is my first book from Loren Rhoads but it will not be my last! Tales of Nightmares is a perfectly curated collection of short stories that can be read in one sitting (which is my preference as I have a very short attention span), This book is chock full of scrumptious creepiness!! I sat on for awhile after having finished it trying to decide which story was my favorite, but I honestly don't have one as I loved them all equally. Usually when I read a book of multiple short stories, some will be 5 stars while some might be a 2 or 3 star (and worse-1 star!) but that was not the case here.

The atmosphere is full of dread and foreboding and some of the twists left me speechless where I stopped, looked at the wall and said WHAT???!!. Some of the stories are more uplifting than others, so don't think that this is going to be a book full of terrible endings for everyone. I already want to re-read this already but want to try to hold out until Halloween although I don't think I'll be able to wait that long haha. DEFINITELY give this book a shot.

SOLID 5 stars.

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These nine stories are designed to induce nightmares. They build the story, bit by bit until you cannot keep from jumping. While reading, I still heard that creepy music that tells you something is about to happen.....and I still jumped.

I love anthologies. Short stories by skilled writers who take the reader from a to z and sometimes back again. I find many new authors to add to my must read list through anthologies. I see some of my favorite authors flex a favorite character to find a side we never knew existed. Join these writers as they scare the whatever out of you too.

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