Cover Image: Howls From the Wreckage

Howls From the Wreckage

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Member Reviews

This wa an interesting short story collection - some were hits and some were not; standard for a short story collection. I’d read more and I liked the diversity of the stories and authors.

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An excellent collection of disaster horror by mostly indie authors. This made me realize how much I enjoy the sub-genre. I liked every story in the book. A few a bit more than others but none of them was less than very good, imho. The disasters ranged all over the board from natural disasters to ends of relationships to bodily harm. An extremely solid four stars and highly recommended.

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This short story collection was a genius idea! I’ve never read disaster horror before and this book was a great eye opener to the sub genre! With a variety of stories and events, it’s written to keep the readers entertained and spooked out! I highly recommend this book to all!

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The best horror stories are the ones with details that dig into your brain like a parasite, becoming intrusive thoughts that haunt you & make you remember when you least expect it. Howls From the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror is FULL of these little brain parasite stories! I was predestined to love this anthology as I lean towards disaster stories & I was not disappointed. The great thing about an anthology is that there is a little bit of something for everyone, a full range of what “disaster” could mean. Topics include natural disasters, tech invasions, supernatural, biological mysteries, aliens, environmental collapse, children snatchers, & the scariest of all…horrible human beings.

While every reader interested in this anthology will find at least one story that they like, each reader will probably not like every story. I did skip through one or two stories, but I won’t be mentioning those as that’s a reflection of my own preferences as a reader & not a reflection of the author or their writing. However, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed some of the stories with topics that I may not have picked up if it was a full-length novel, which is such a great benefit of an anthology that introduces you to a diverse range of authors & writing styles in bite sized pieces that are easier to digest. Despite the fact that many of the stories will haunt my nightmares, I still wish I had more with some of these! Not more like the stories were lacking, but more as in these should be full length novels that can help resolve all the solid “WTF” moments I had throughout my reading.

The stories that stood out to me the most were: “(>EXECUTERELEASE_)” by P.L. McMillan; Son of Yokozuro” by Caleb Stephens; “You Shall Return” by LP Hernandez; “The Richardson Family Reunion” by Ryan Marie Ketterer; “Casualties of a Predictable Apocalypse” by Joseph Andre Thomas; “Unzipped” by Bridget D. Brave; & “The Children of the Event” by Carson Winter.

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Very seldom that just about EVERY story in an Anthology crawls so deep under my skin. Phenomenal collection. I will be recommending this to anyone and everyone that will listen.

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I love anthologies! The chance to read short stories by authors that I'd not discovered while enjoying these extra tales in those moments when there's no time to read a complete story. These authors flex their writing skills, giving readers a complete story in just a few pages. The ability to grab a reader's attention and build an entire reading experience is not for the less adventurous writers. In HOWLS FROM THE WRECKAGE, these writers best known for their horror titles give us a peek into worlds through the eyes of characters that we meet and leave quickly. I recommend anthologies whenever someone asks for something new or different. And these authors.....well let's just say they've added many new back titles to my TBR list. Enjoy a few for yourself.

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This was a brilliantly edited book with great stories inside. I was a big fan of how each story flowed so well into one another as well as the diversity represented within. The editing was superb. My favorite part of the collection was how each story never really explained the horror. All we got were snapshots, and it worked brilliantly. The stories were chilling at all the right times, even if there were a couple I wasn't a big fan of.

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Maybe it's a reflection of my worldview, but I've been consuming more horror in 2023 than ever before. Disaster horror is one of my favorite sub-genres, too. I know post-apocalyptic fiction is all the rage, but sometimes I really want to know, in minute detail, how a character is handling the apocalypse or impending doom as it happens. This anthology has so many amazing stories of people in peril. The creativity is outrageous and far- ranging.

Standout stories for me were The Richardson Family Reunion by Ryan Marie Ketterer, Fleshies by Thea Maeve, and Detritus by Lindsey Ragdale. I can't wait to read more by all these amazing authors, and I think it's incredible that so many of them in this anthology are women. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to review this advance copy.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook ARC for Howls From the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror. This review is my honest opinion.

I love reading horror anthologies. This collection stood out to me with the art and the “authors as agents” concept. I highly recommend this book for horror fans, especially people who enjoy being freaked out or creeped out while reading. Some of the characters make disastrous and morally questionable decisions, leaving the audience with something to think about, and that only enhanced my reading experience. My only minor complaint is that the digital version I received made it to where the stories might stop mid-page because there was art coming up, but on a digital screen, there was no way to know that, so I kept thinking the stories might be abruptly ending, as some horror stories do, only to be faked out over and over again, because there was art spliced into the stories. Despite that though, I suggest you give this one a chance!

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The mix of stories covered multiple ideas and thoughts surrounding the idea of disasters and the kind of fallout that comes with it. This anthology is full of brilliant voices.

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In this horror anthology Howls From The Reckage you get everything from true horror to sci-fi even paranormal activity. You have a sea monster want to be blogger and a woman who risk life and limb to find her precious cat Pekoe and so much more this is one of the most unique horror anthology‘s I think I have ever read. I can usually tell by the first page if I’m going to like the story and for the most part every story in this anthology is worth buying the book for autumn my favorite was Forever Home by Chelsea pumpkins but I also love Fleshiest, Employee Of The Month and The Last Sermon Of Father Grimm but irregardless of which one you read I think they are all great on their own into something for everyone this is one bad ass Anthology and I highly recommend it a definite five star read and that isn’t an easy reading to give when there’s so many different people contributing to make a whole book but it is definitely deserved in the case of this one. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

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This book contains a series of short stories revealing human nature's dark and twisted aspects. Some of them lean more toward sci-fi than horror, but they all have a creepy and unsettling impact on the reader. They are similar to the episodes of Black Mirror, where technology and society create disturbing situations that test our morals and values. The stories are not bloody or extreme, but they still evoke a sense of horror and fear. I liked some of the stories more than others, but overall I found the book to be captivating and interesting. The writing style is not very refined, but it fits the mood and setting of the stories.
Overall an enjoyable collection of stories with a few standout pieces.

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This wasn’t my first HOWL anthology, and once again, the Horror-Obsessed Writing and Literature society did not disappoint! ‘Howls from the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror’ is surely among the best anthologies released in 2023, and it’s chock-full of gems. The stories have been selected with the finest criteria and it shows. The opening story, “Don’t Play in the Closet” by David Worn was simply stunning and set the tone for the whole collection. “Son of Yokozuro” by Caleb Stephens offers a much needed lighter Kaizu story, one that can be read to a young relative, whereas “Unzipped” by Bridget D. Brave definitely cannot – a very creepy story! “You Shall Return” by LP Hernandez is another disturbing tale; the doppelgänger theme never ceases to unsettle me. The style of the stories varies widely: ”Crickets” by Solomon Forse has Reddit entries, “The Children of the Event” by Carson Winter has footnotes! Whereas Nick Cutter’s introduction nicely mixes the factual with the personal, pointing out the broader meaning of disasters for horror fiction.

My personal favorites were “Unzipped” by Bridget D. Brave, “Forever Home” by Chelsea Pumpkins, “Heavy Rain” by TJ Price, “A Thing of Habit” by Cassandra Khaw, and of course “Don’t Play in the Closet” by David Worn. A truly memorable HOWL anthology!

Thank you to NetGalley and HOWL Society Press for an early copy!

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A solid set of stories, with only a few missing the mark for me a little. Most of them were great and I loved the theme.
Thanks for the chance to read and review.

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Overall I thought this was a pretty solid collection of stories. There were a few that just did not do it for me and felt pretty rushed. I also thought there were a few that were absolutely amazing. I definitely recommend this to any reader that wants to experience several different types of horror as this collection had a little bit of everything.

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Howls from the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror is the latest collection of short story collections released by the Horror-Obsessed Writing and Literature society. The stories were the result of the annual HOWL online writing workshop, highlighting what the editor felt were the strongest stories submitted. There commonalities are plots driven by disasters both natural and supernatural and the frailty of humanity.

The variety of stories, settings and plot narratives gives this book an episodic, Twilight Zone feel. Beginning with an introduction by Nick Cutter to set the scene (and reflect on his own life and influences) we enter the world of the HBI (HOWLS Bureau of Investigation) with each story presented as a caste study with the authors information at the end of each selection given as a dossier.

As with any collection, some stories stand out as stronger than others. Many of them rely on familiar tropes of horror/mystery/fantasy such as a story told, then a jump back in time to a different perspective until the narrative meet; a group dying off one by one or children the root of the issue or target of mysterious forces.

Some of the stories that stood out to me:
- Don't Play in the Closet - A song heard only by young children draws them to dark spaces where they disappear.
- Execute Release - A programmer tries to fix her biggest blunder with delivery drones
- Casualties of a Predictable Apocalypse - An earthquake survivor grieves her losses from the disaster as mysterious creatures from the sea effect other survivors.
- A War in Hell - Demons escape the center of Earth thanks to a mega disaster, but those with the knowledge of libraries fight for survival.
- The Children of the Event - A Kaiju rises from the sea and ingests many, but they are expelled still alive and help in the disaster recovery, changed.

I'm looking forward to investigating other anthologies by HOWL and will be considering joining their online reading group.

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I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first venture into any of the HOWL anthologies. I’m sorry to say, I hadn’t heard much about it before. That said, I’m glad for this introduction to them.

A collection of short horror stories, spanning all the kinds of horror you could possibly think of, and incorporating all the kinds of terrible and wonderful ways to torment characters and their worlds.

Every single story was good and most were excellent. Some of them worked perfectly the way they were and some genuinely had me desperate to read a full novel based in that world.

Really, really good read.

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I'm not generally a horror fan, but these stories are pretty good. I didn't like all of them but that is pretty common with anthologies. Nicely done overall.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

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A brilliant collection of short stories, some were morbid and horrifying but most was shocking. I liked that there was a lot of apocalyptic and dystopian tales.

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With most anthologies there are several I do not end up vibing with, but I really enjoyed the whole collection in this book! Loved the uniqueness of how it’s presented to the readers (as case files). I think Crickets is my favorite one, but Forever Home have me ALLLLLLLLLLL the feels! I was absolutely wrecked after reading the story, and it’s not often a book can make me cry! Overall, loved this original horror collection!

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