The title story is the last story, and truly had the most potential world building. It was chaotic and unique. My favourite of these stories was Petting Zoo because it felt like real glimpses of my own potential lost memories of childhood mixed with fictional theme parks. The first story ended so suddenly and a few of these stories had a tiny connection that I hoped to see more of. Overall these were mostly original, somewhat creepy and had potential to grow into more, but none of them blew me away.

Imaginative short stories with a 2022 feel. The final story was a bit meandering and ended abruptly. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a review

First and foremost I want to say a huge thank you for the list of triggers at the very beginning, broken down by story. This definitely helped, especially since a few of them were something that get to me so I was able to prepare myself.
I was a little put off because the first story wasn’t super scary. A little disturbing sure, but out of all the stories it’s the least scary. The other stories on the other hand get creepier and creepier. A few even had my stomach rolling a little bit, but in a good way because these aren’t feel good stories after all.
I do also like that these were queer stories. It made them even more terrifying for me, especially the ones that dealt with homophobia and transphobia. These hit different because of it and found myself reading more and more.
A really good read for spooky season.

Overall a collection of very unique ideas, however, I believe that some of these stories would have benefitted from a longer format than just a short story.

This is a short collection of stories by A Disaster of Dokojin and Amethyst author, Jesse Nolan Bailey. The book is a collection of six tales of that explore nightmares made real.

Before I start with the stories themselves, I would like to commend Jesse Nolan Bailey on providing a series of content warnings. Recently, I have seen various heated discussions about this topic, but me personally, I do appreciate it when they are present. It gives the reader an informed choice of the media that they consume.

So, lets talk about the first story, Digging.

Digging tells the story of Greg and his son Seth. In an effort to firstly give the boy some purpose and also to develop an interest, Greg sends Seth off to look for archaeological treasures in the wooded expanse that they live in as he recalls his own interest as a child when he did something similar.

Unexpectedly, Seth does indeed find something. The bones of a seemingly extinct creature that looks like nothing they have ever seen before.

Meanwhile, as a husband of a deployed soldier, Rob, Greg is finding his life increasingly lonely and isolative, and with Rob being away for nearly a year he has found some measure of solace with Billy. However, there is also some level of infidelity due to Greg’s loneliness.

Dealing with loneliness and guilt the story follows what happens. It’s not hard to guess and we know that there will be an inevitable conclusion. In this story, Nolan gives the repercussions of Greg’s guilt and infidelity a physical form that inevitably tears the family apart, and we quickly get to the tragic consequences of a family broken.

Throughout the story, Nolan gives a good story centring around the microcosm of family life, slowly injecting unease into the story. I liked this one!

The second story in the book is Deathshed. I liked the ambiguity of this tale. Nothing is as it seems, even the title! I mean is it Deaths Hed or is it Death shed? Either way it gives that feeling of uneasy ambiguity. The story tells the tale of Deja (vu?) and her partner Lisha.

Picking up the post, she comes across a magazine, starkly white, but with what looks like an Inkblot on it that reminds Deja of a Rorschach Test. The magazine assaults her with disturbing headlines that sicken and disgust her.

Thinking this a mistake, wind up or something to do with her partner, she attempts to get through to the publishing company to report the mistake and cancel the subscription that she did no t know she had made. When she finally gets through to the company she is assaulted by a bizarre test. This test leads to a series of bizarre events.

Mixing in elements of cosmic horror, we are never entirely sure what is happening in this tale. Dealing with unbidden information that assaults our senses on a daily basis through various forms of media. It also forces you to change your opinion of the narrator, particularly when we discover that she has experienced a period of psychosis and delusional behaviours previously. Leading you to question, is this real or some hallucinatory sequence of a larger mental health issue.

Well, let's get on to story three, Garage Doctor! I have got to say that I found this one to be quite, quite disturbing. The story revolves around Junaid and Hasan, a happily married couple who have moved to the sleepy suburb of Blightwood. Upon getting there they are constantly told of the miraculous Dr Drake who works wonders.

After accepting a dinner invitation, they are subsequently held against their will and treated for their perversions against God and violated with some form of supernatural entity that produces boils. The only way to escape their punishment is to denounce themselves as abominations.

I found this story very disturbing and it is like The Stepford Wives crossed with Lars Von Trier, with a dose of Brian Yuzna body horror in there. It's an ugly story that deals with conversion therapy and you can feel the palpable sense of anger coming off the page.

I have to say from the outset, Petting Zoo was one of my favourite stories in the book.

The story revolves around Adelaide, a young woman who experiences depression and has to go back to live with her mother. The move is a difficult one due to the fact that for some reason there was some kind of fractious split in the family. One of the things that we learn is that due to her medication, it has resulted in Adelaide gaining weight which also causes difficulties between her and her mother, who passively, and aggressively comments on this throughout the initial part of the story.

One evening whilst looking at photographs Adelaide comes across a photo that has an extreme reaction. Following this unsettling discovery it turns out that when she was a child she was taken to this place called Noah's Petting Zoo by her parents. Adelaide has no knowledge of the experience, but the image distils in her a feeling of utter revulsion. After putting it out to the collective knowledge of the internet she discovers it's name and location.

I loved this one, and like I said earlier I think this one was my favourite. It is a really good piece of weird/cosmic horror and bears a resemblance to Brian Hodge's brand of weirdness. Jesse Nolan Bailey, steadily piles on the tension with unease creeping in until it builds to its crescendo. Not only that, it lives in the same universe as Deathshed, death shed, whatever!

The penultimate story is a short sharp shock called Torture Device, about a man who sees his current boyfriend giving the eye to a local muscle bound bit of totty.

His insecurities and anxieties lead him to trying to beef himself up at a local gym. Not quite sure how he is to use the machines, he comes across an exercise machine that promises to tone his body in one go. However, he gets more than he bargained for when the device takes hold.

This is a shorter story than most in the collection and subsequently comes to its denouement in a short amount of pages.

It's not hard to spot the satire in this story and the wicked humour. I mean we have all felt insecure at one point or another haven't we?

The final story in the book is the title story, Defilement. Again this has elements of weird fiction reminiscent of some earlier mentioned authors. However, what this one does is completely take us out of this reality.

Now, I don't want to go into the plot too much as it will spoil the story.

The story revolves around Trev, his girlfriend Krissy, and her brother Caleb. When we start the story, Krissy is being railroaded by her mother to take her sibling along to get ice cream. Krissy doesn't want to and it seems that she is being rather peevish about it. However, we find out that there are more deep seated reasons for her dislike of her brother.

Trying to get to the truth of the matter, Trev has a chat with Caleb, who then starts to come out with racist, transphobic and any other kind of -obic, or -ist diatribe that you care to mention.

However, things soon take a sinister turn and Trev finds himself way out of his comfort zone!

So, this is the finale of the book and with this Jesse Nolan Bailey pulls out all the stops. There are elements of dark fantasy mixed in with the horror. He carefully builds the tension in this story until it reaches its climax. Mixing a claustrophobic sense of the unknown, with elements of dark fantasy and ultimately body horror, this story works well. You are never entirely what is happening and he carefully keeps that sense of disorientation going for quite a while until the reveal about midway through the story. This was such a good story to end the collection.

On the whole, I found this to be an excellent collection of short stories, that at times are creepy as hell, thinking of Petting Zoo here, to brooding horror. There is a good dose of the cosmic and weird running through the stories which always appeals to me, and I have to say. I really enjoyed this one!

Defilement and Other Stories by Jesse Nolan Bailey.
A boy and his father find impossible fossilized bones in their backyard…The disturbing contents and origin of a mysterious magazine conjure paranoia… Neighbors welcome a new couple by bragging about a miracle doctor who works from his garage… Memories from childhood fail to reconcile an old photo featuring an unidentified cryptid…Archaic gym equipment proves treacherous… A teen boy is plunged into a nightmarish realm known as Eden… In these six stories, evil abounds, ready to defile.
A very good read. I loved the cover. 4*.

Wow! There are so many things that I loved about this book. Each of the stories are completely different, but they are all engaging, haunting, and memorable. The imagery was so vivid that I still have clear impressions in my mind—snippets from each story in the book.

Another thing I especially loved about the book were the LGBTQ+ representations throughout. Not only is this a socially relevant subject, but these character models elevated the stories by offering a distinct sense of modernity.

Dark, twisted, beautifully haunting stories that are sure to leave a lasting impression.

First time reading this author. Very interesting style.
This collection runs the gamut of emotions.
Very imaginative.
Warning, a couple are gruesome.

I do enjoy a horror anthology, particularly between larger books. A horror palate cleanser, if you will.

Defilement and Other Stories did not disappoint. What I really enjoyed was the elements threaded throughout that brought the genre into the modern day - but without making it too obvious. So subtle, in fact, were the LGBT references, that they just went under the radar. Like life (for those of us with open minds).

The six stories were varied in subject matter and length and all had a pretty satisfying conclusion (for me, not always a happy ending) and all had me intrigued from the outset in all of them.

I recommend it as a speedy read, and dip into the subgenre and generally for all horror short stories fans.

This was a fun collection of short horror stories, some better than others and some more horrific then others! I’m quite new when it comes to short story collections but this one has made me realise what I’ve been missing out on! If you’re looking for a good variation of scary tales, give this a go!

This brief read, which includes gruesome and startling short horror stories with a clear queer bent, would be ideal for fans of Sam J. Miller or Clive Barker. As we approach the beginning of Autumn and soon, October, the height of the literary spooky season, this short anthology is ideal as an appetizer.

As with every anthology of short stories, some stories are better than others. Although I preferred the first three stories—Digging, deathshed, and Garage Door—the book seemed to lose some of its momentum as it progressed before picking up again at the conclusion (of the later entries, Petting Zoo was my favorite premise, Torture Device was a bit of a miss for me, and Defilement was compelling if disorientating and a bit of a slog at times). But when considered as a whole, this new novel is well worth a read, and I'd be interested in reading anything more the author releases.

This horror anthology was a lot of fun to read! These six twisted stories feature queer characters in a wide range of horrifying situations - from finding strange animalistic bones in their backyard, to experimenting with new exercise equipment. They are all fairly short but definitely pack a punch with plenty of gore and interesting characters; the writing is engaging and creates a creepy atmosphere, though I will say that at times I had a hard time figuring out exactly what was happening in a scene.

Many thanks to Netgalley for my gifted ecopy in exchange for my honest review!

All of these stories were scary, and put me on edge. I really enjoyed the first one, it was incredibly creepy especially with a kid involved.

The cover alone is enough to stop a person in their tracks and wonder what could be written upon the pages.

The stories within are hair-raising, and at times, appalling. Each centres around a person or couple and the supernatural horrors that they encounter.

I loved the imaginative stories, however some of the main characters were hard to relate to at times; often putting themselves and others more at risk through their choices and actions.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author & BooksGoSocial for a copy!

Defilement and Other Stories is a compilation of short horror stories by Jesse Nolan Bailey. Ranging from creepy magazines to an abandoned petting zoo to a horror of another parallel universe, this book covers all nightmare sequences in a new and interesting way. I love how the stories build up from the first to the story of Defilement which is in the title.

For readers that want a fresh take on horror and short stories, this is the perfect book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and experiencing these stories and recommend this book.

This is a collection of gory horror short stories. Lots of detailed, graphic violence and gore. If the reader is prepared for that, then this is an enjoyable read.

I like the dark, dystopian and pessimistic views that come across, even if this is a work of horror fiction. We live in dark times, it resonates. Some of the horror are not caused by supernatural creatures, but humans. Perhaps it is most chilling when the hatred, cold-heartedness and cruelty behind gory acts of violence originate from others of the same species.

My favourites are “Torture Device,” “Garage Doctor,” and “Petting Zoo.”

This is a wonderful selection of new horror stories based on some classic themes. Fun, freaky and at times incredibly gross and gruesome. A very entertaining (and a bit disgusting) package.

My favorite tales in this collection were 'Digging' for its suspense and great ending, 'Garage Doctor' for its tantalizing mystery and chill factor, but most especially 'Defilement.'

The LGBTQ+ aspect of this collection was so refreshing. It added emotion, originality, and big twists to these tales. But fair warning, the the title story is liberal. I loved it for that very reason and I'd hate to see this collection get bad reviews because readers weren't forewarned. The writing is clever and flowing. Every character had personality and purpose. Plenty of chill and shock between these pages.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an ARC to review!

3.5 stars.
This book is a collection of short horror stories. I am still somewhat new to the horror genre, but I think this was a good one to dip my toes into. However, while some stories in this collection are incredibly strong and drew me in, there were several that fell flat and left me unsatisfied as the reader. Fans of gore and physical horror will probably enjoy this more than I did, but there is probably something in this for everyone.

I also appreciated the diverse cast of characters throughout the stories, and the different kinds of relationships presented. Something that I hope continues within the genre!

1. Digging-- The premise of this was cool, but felt incomplete by the end. I didn't feel a throughline of the plot and overall was not a super strong start.

2. Deathshed-- Ominous in tone, but again lots of loose ends that didn't really make sense to me as the reader, and felt unsatisfying. I think if more explanation had been given, it would have been a stronger story, while the way it is I was confused.

3. Garage Doctor-- One of the stronger stories in the collection. This one truly felt horrific in a lot of ways. **CW// Islamaphobia, homophobia, gore** A clear storyline, villain, and theme wrapped up really nicely. I like that the horrific elements of this one stem from real-world issues making it all the more real and scary.

4. Petting Zoo-- Definitely my favorite in the collection by far. Great story, love the use of cryptids with its own spin on the lore. This one I could see being an awesome short film-- spine-tingling and gave me the sense of those old horror films you'd watch as a kid. Or even an R.L. Stine Goosebumps book.

5. Torture Device-- pretty forgettable and didn't really do it for me.

6. Defilement-- Another pretty strong story, though weird. The longest one in the collection, which allowed us to form more of a bond with the characters-- and a cliffhanging end that left me wanting more. Another one of my favorites in the collection.

Highly recommend it to those who love short horror stories, especially ones that are more "physical" in terms of horror. Some of the stories reminded me of those found in King's Night Shift, so if you're a fan of King's short stories this might bode well for you.

Thank you again, and happy reading!

These are interesting and subtly scary short stories. They slowly build up to a terrifying ending. Great for reading out loud while camping.