Cold, Black & Infinite (light spoilers!)
By Todd Keisling

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received this title in exchange for a review from NetGalley.

Disclaimer: Historically speaking, I am not the biggest fan of short story collections. I AM, however, a big fan of slow burns and I don’t think you can appropriately chip away at one’s sanity and resolve when you’re trying to keep your chapters under 3 pages.

I wasn’t even going to request this book the first time I saw it on NetGalley. I already knew it was a collection of shorts, and given my stance that I alerted you, dear reader, to earlier, I had already decided that I’d be better off looking for something else.

That was until I read Devil’s Creek.

Todd Keisling, in my opinion, is one of the top 5 writers in the game today. And I don’t just mean horror; I mean all of it. His command of the English language and his ability to write some of the most beautiful and poetic scenes of pure chaos is astounding.

It’s been a few months now, but I want to say it’s chapter 16(?)of Devil’s Creek, remains the best piece of writing I’ve had the pleasure of consuming all year.

With that in mind, I re-examined my want of this title and sent my request to NetGalley.

I dove in immediately upon receipt and I was not let down at all.

While I don’t find all of the stories herein to be all that “scary”, they do all fall under the broader “horror” umbrella.

Again, the real star here is Keisling’s writing.

Opener “Midnight in Southland” lands nicely and showcases Keisling’s outstanding, and, at times lyrical, writing.

Further standouts include “The Happytown Yuletide Massacre” which imagines what would happen if a Hallmark Christmas movie went postal.

Y2K - a trippy, new-age Twilight Zone (which is a reference I feel is beginning to date me).

Black Friday - probably my favorite zombie tale of the last 2 years.

Holes in the Fabric - another beautifully written cosmic horror tale involving our favorite Kentucky town.

Gethsemane - a wildly original retelling of the account of Judas. This one came out of left field and became one of my favorites in the whole collection.

The Gods of Our Fathers - an occulty, rapey jaunt into the occult that, though it resolves in an unexpected and ultimately rad way, left me feeling gross.

But if I had to pick one that stood above the rest it would have to be The Smile Factory. Anyone who’s worked a job that they don’t care for, for someone or some company that they liked even less, this story should resonate loudly.

My biggest takeaway from this collection is that Keisling manages to take my primary criticism of short stories (that they inherently can’t be scary as they’re too short to truly build terror) and throws it clear out the window.

Keisling consistently lands “scary” and “creepy” punches, regardless of the length of his chapters or sections, while never losing the almost lyrical flow of his writing.

Cold, Black & Infinite gets a solid 4 out of 5.

“What brings you out tonight, Lonely Traveler?” Todd Keisling’s short story collection, Cold, Black, & Infinite, brings a shared experience to horror fans. For short story collections, you might love, like or dislike a story. My favorites are “Annie’s Heart Is A Haunted House” and “Gethsemane”. For the time you’re reading it, you won’t feel alone and that might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what ideas follow you into your nightmares. Thanks to Todd Keisling, Kevin Lucia, Cemetery Dance Publications and NetGalley for the ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Once again I've found an author that I'm going to look out for from now on as this collection of short horror stories was a fantastic journey into a weird and wonderful mind!

The collection is divided in three parts reflected by the title: Cold, Black and Infinite. Each of the 19 stories gave me very strong feelings, either chills, a sense of real dread and discomfort, despair or horror. It struck me that there isn't gore or lots of blood but I'd label some of the scenes pretty horrific in terms of the emotions evoked. There are zombies, eldritch creatures, cosmic horror, slasher, revenge, mental health.. Everything but with a unique perspective!

Todd Keisling's writing style is one that I really liked, straightforward and searched at the same time, but I can't stress enough the ability to really make you feel inside the stories. In addition, although rationally fictitious, when transported solely by the writing, I could honestly believe those worlds could exist and that I could wake up in one of them and it would feel absolutely normal, albeit terrifying!

I loved that some of the stories are connected and either depict the before or after, without feeling repetitive or without boring the reader, actually always surprising!
This is another great example of how short stories can really show the skills of a writer, being able to create something special in a handful of pages!

Thank you to Todd Keisling and Netgalley for the opportunity to read it and this is my honest review.

If you haven't read anything by Todd Keisling, this collection is a great place to start.  And if you're already a fan, be sure to add this to your reading list!  This is one of those collections where every story shines in its own way.  I was invested in the characters, instantly drawn into the stories and settings.  There were some pretty dark topics so be sure to check out the content warnings at the back of the book.  A very strong and varied collection, highly recommend.

The horror genre runs the scale from "yucky" to "spooky" to "creepy" to "fantastical" with so many adjectives in between. Todd Keisling manages to touch each one of them briefly in these short stories. Short stories give readers an excellent view of a writer's skills as they start and end in a few pages what normally would take many chapters, flexing their abilities to scare us along the way. Keisling has proven he's a master, you will NOT forget these stories quickly. I for one am sharing with my reading group. Why should I be the only one with nightmares?

Todd Keisling is an auto buy for me!

I don’t always love short stories. For me, they either leave me hanging or don’t have enough detail to keep me engaged.

Keisling’s collection sucked me in and never let up. The stories are wildly different but interesting.

I won’t go through each one but the standouts-
Midnights in the Southland - so moody and the perfect story to kick off spooky season reading.
Annie’s Heart is a Haunted House - I had some of the worst nightmares of my adult life. This one really hit me.
The Happytown Yuletide Massacre - this is a fun one!

Overall, a solid collection that left me spooked and satisfied!

Cold, Black, & Infinite by Todd Keisling is a collection of sixteen short stories. They are not disappointing or quick stories but rather have some depth to them to satisfy the reader. I enjoyed nearly all of them. Some are heavier horror than some readers may be accustomed to, so I’d recommend this anthology to fans of horror/dark horror.

Thank you to Cemetery Dance Publishing for supplying me with a copy to read & review.

This is a great collection of horror stories. They are gruesome and disturbing but very entertaining. My favorites were 'Afterbirth' due to its unique premise, 'The Gods Of Our Fathers' due to how creepy and disturbing it is and how it will stick with me for awhile, and 'Solve For X' due to how unique it is and how it has some genuinely creepy moments. I would recommend this to those who enjoy horror. Special Thank You to Todd Keisling, Kevin Lucia (Cemetery Dance Productions) and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy prior to publication in exchange for an honest review.

Middle of the road collection, nothing really stood out and nothing was bad to the point of making it terrible to the point of stopping reading the whole thing entirely.

This collection of horror stories leans towards actual horror rather than the creepy or strange: the occult, body horror, child-eating and child death, graphic descriptions of zombies eating people, and the like. Also themes like rape and suicide. It’s really for those who have a taste for that kind of thing, so steer clear if you don’t.

However, as with most short story collections, there were good stories, and ones I didn’t enjoy. The spooky story We’ve All Gone to the Magic Show was really interesting, although bewildering (which is fine, as it’s part of a larger story). 2.45 To New Xebico was very cool: who hasn’t had that feeling of weirdness and out-of-time-ness in a bus station or airport in the wee hours of the morning? Anything could happen. Solve For X has a wonderfully creepy child, although the ending was terrible (spoiler: mauling of a toddler). I liked the structure of The Smile Factory, about the everyday horror of corporate life. My favourite, though, is the delightful Midnight in The Southland, about dead-of-the-night talk radio, and a ghost ferry.

The main reason for my rating of ⅗ is that the writing isn’t always tight, and there’s a dependence on gore to carry the story forward. As this is not my favourite genre, you may find you get more mileage from this collection than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Cemetery Dance Publications for access.

Short stories seem to be a hit or miss for me. I am usually left feeling unsatisfied or wanting more but these were pretty good. Some good enough that the horrors will stick with me for a bit.

“What brings you out tonight, Lonely Traveler?”

“This year Santa had brought a plague, and we were all on the naughty list.”
Todd Keisling is known for giving life to true horrors, and for not shying away from unpleasant topics. Cold, Black, & Infinite is the perfect example of this, and it’s one of those books I couldn’t take in all at once, having to take a break from the darkest regions of our mind and humanity. I’m not surprised this author was not only an Indie Book Award finalist in Horror & Suspense (2013) for The Liminal Man, but also a 2020 Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel, thanks to his work Devil’s Creek. If you pick up this book, you’ll know why.

On a personal level, some stories worked better than others, which is absolutely common with a collection. What all of them had in common, though, is the fact that they managed not only to give me goosebumps, but as I mentioned earlier, they forced me to resurface and take a break – no matter how strong my curiosity was. A sign that a horror author got the assignment right.

“Reality is a bitch. It doesn’t take prisoners. All it leaves is a body count.”
I’m relieved that this book comes with a section about trigger warnings for every single story – it could spoil the fun of being suprised while reading, but it’s so important that Todd Keisling thought of sparing some readers further trauma. It’s not a courtesy so widespread amongst authors.

Another point of appreciation goes towards the section containing the ideas for the stories – I always find it interesting to see what prompts authors’ creation, and there are not many collections (or books in general) that do that. Off the top of my mind, I can think of The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales by Angela Slatter. Unfortunately, not as good as book.

Final Thoughts
Cold, Black, & Infinite is the perfect book for those whom love the horror genre, but also gore and dark stories. Todd Keisling does a great job, assuring him to stand out of the crowd, and giving some good nightmares to readers.

"It’s like I told you, as Mr. Drake once told me: We’re all slaves to entropy, everything rots, and even reality runs threadbare in places. I think I agree with the last part."

One of the best short story collections I've ever read. On par with my favorites of King. Some stories are fun Black Friday romps with zombies, while others will rip your heart out and feed it to said zombies. This is a masterclass in short fiction and I can't wait to begin sharing it with fellow horror readers. This is Keisling at his absolute best. Highly recommend.

Todd Keisling’s last novel, Devil’s Creek was an unsurprising hit. The plot is good, the characters are interesting, and the writing is superb. I did not connect with the novel like some other readers, but it was more my taste than the book itself. This is why I am thrilled to give Keisling another deserved shot. His short story collection Cold, Black, & Infinite: Stories of the Horrific & Strange is a much more appealing representation of his work. The sixteen stories are broken into three different, distinct sections, each with a different markedly different themes. 

The first section “Cold” has five stories, all but one of them taking place on a holiday (if you include Black Friday as a holiday). Each of these stories also have an element of the paranormal and otherworldly. My favorite of these stories, and possibly my favorite story in the collection is “The Happytown Yuletide Massacre”, a story about Angela returning to her hometown on Christmas Eve, possibly to be swept off of her feet by a hometown suitor. This is perfectly setup to echo Hallmark Christmas movies, but of course this one goes very wrong. The ending is very much turns the entire story into a cosmic horror. 

The second section, "Black", contains five stories that are motivated by revenge. My favorite of this group is “Tommy The Destructo-Bot Vs. The Bullies from Future Street.” The story stars Tommy Slone, a handicap kid that is being picked on by the neighborhood bullies. When he meets Old Lady Future, part witch, part mad scientist, she promises him revenge if she can turn him into his favorite comic book superhero. 

The final section, “Infinite” contains six stories. All of them have a darkness or infinite void that the characters are either facing or jumping into. My favorite of these, “The Smile Factory,” is about the promotion of Marty Godot from cubicle worker to management. In this apocalyptic world, everyone is falling apart, and the higher you climb in the corporate structure, the less human you become. It reminds me of the Zach Galifianakis movie, Visioneers (2008), a little frightening with very dark humor.

Of all three sections, I love every single story in the first two. The third section was a problem for me because I but did not really connect with the stories. The themes of darkness and facing the void are not as interest to me as the overarching themes in the other two sections. Of course this section could be another reader's favorite because it's a theme they love. The last section falls into the same problem that I had with Devil’s Creek: the stories are good but they are not my favorite type of stories.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great anthology. Short story collections can be hit or miss, and hard to review as a whole, but I really enjoyed almost every story in this collection. There's a great variety of different kinds of horror stories that keep things interesting. I'm a true Keisling fan now, and I'm looking forward to whatever he releases next.

"Okay, so let me tell you about 'Cold, Black, & Infinite' – it's like a bunch of super creepy, totally captivating mini nightmares, and seriously, not a single one falls flat.

Now, I'm a bit of a horror short story fan, gotta admit. I've delved into quite a few of these collections, but this one? It's got that extra sprinkle of special. I kept getting blown away by how darn good these stories were. The ideas? Crazy smart. The way they're brought to life? Expertly done. And the writing style? Talk about painting a vivid, spine-tingling picture. You know how usually in these short story bunches, there's like a story or two that don't really jive with you? Well, guess what? Not here.

So, if you're into horror stuff or dig short stories – seriously, check this out. It's like the ultimate example of both. Just a heads up, though, some pretty weighty stuff comes up, but don't sweat it – the author's got your back. They put a list of content warnings at the back of the book for anyone who wants a heads-up. Cool, right?"

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC and this opportunity!

It's an interesting collection of 17 wild, creepy stories. The book is divided into three parts: Cold, Black and Infinite.

The writing is good and imaginative. There were some stories that I didn't really enjoy but this book was overall an engrossing and intriguing read.

Stories I really liked are: Midnight in the Southland, 2:45 To New Xebico, The Happytown Yuletide Massacre, Y2K, Tommy the Destructo Bot…, Annie's Heart is a Haunted House, Solve for X.

Read it if you enjoy reading dark, mysterious stories and if blood and gore don't trigger you.

This is a collection of some of the creepiest short stories I have read to date.

I find it can be hard to rate collections like this, because most of the time I will like a few of the stories but not enjoy the rest. This collection, however, blew me away. Though there were possibly one or two I skimmed over as they did not interest me, the majority will leave your skin crawling.

Divided into three sections: Cold, Black & Infinite; these short stories are fast-paced and progress from eerie to outright gruesome. Many times I found myself pulling the words away from my eyes so I could take a deep breath before continuing.

If you are a fan of the macabre, this is most definitely the collection for you!

Also a big thank you to NetGalley and Cemetery Dance Publications for this eARC, which I have reviewed honestly and for free.

So many great stories! Long lost radio waves transmit tales of people traveling dark roads, zombies during Black Friday, a little boy gets new enhancements and revenge on his bullies and a town is terrorized by creepy mannequins.

Some of my favorites:

Midnight in the Southland. Creepy world building and isolation. A man on a night time drive here’s a radio show from his youth and follows the voice of the dead radio host.

We’ve All Gone to the Magic Show. Small towns can be creepy. An old building (the magic show) is in the process of being repurposed. But then citizens start disappearing and showing back up as mannequins. They all have eerie notes attached “You’re Invited to the Magic Show”

My first experience reading Todd Keisling came via his 2021 novella ‘Scanlines’, which notably shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses found here in ‘Cold, Black, & Infinite’ — which overall can best be summarised, in my view, as “okay”.

Keisling has some great ideas, and particularly shines as a writer when he is willing to lean more into existential horror and a wielding of the horror genre as more of a question mark than an exclamation point. There are some solid examples here of this, with ‘Y2K’ being one which comes to mind with moments that demonstrate the best that Keisling has to offer. But these efforts are then let down by nauseatingly superficial turns such as ‘Happytown’ and ‘Black Friday’, which read as more amateurish or sloppily put together, and are hard to finish as a result despite their shorter length.

Ultimately, ‘Cold, Black, & Infinite’ never feels like the sort of story collection that horror fans are likely to feel regret for having read if they do decide to take the plunge, but it just also never feels like the kind of collection those same fans are likely to regret not reading either.