I fell completely and totally into this book and only resurfaced when I had finished the last story. It's perfection!! Exquisitely dark vibes from beginning to end, all expressed through different styles, themes, and voices. Not a dud among the group, which is impressive considering the sheer number of stories included in this anthology. The stories here are all very different, but they all include Native characters and an unsettling premise, whether it's straight-up slasher horror or a more psychological brand of suspense.

Personally, I prefer short story collections where the tales are told by different writers, rather than a group of pieces all by the same writer. Never Whistle at Night includes so many of my current favorite Indigenous storytellers, and it introduced me to several new authors to obsess over! I cannot wait for more people to get their hands on this book so we can debate favorite stories — mine were Navajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth, Tick Talk (MY LORD), Snakes Are Born In the Dark, Before I Go, Dead Owls, Collections, and Limbs. It's a lot, I know, but it's so difficult to pick favorites out of all these great stories!

This anthology is coming out just in time for spooky season, and I highly recommend adding it to your shelf if you're into horror and dark suspense. Thank you so much to all the included authors (especially editors Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.), Vintage Books, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy!

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst is a collection of some of the most creative and unsettling tales I have ever had the opportunity to read. Covering a wide array of chilling topics, you never know what will be served up next.

My favorites from the collection included

Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller
Wingless by Marcie R. Rendon
Before I Go by Norris Black
Night in the Chrysalis by Tiffany Morris
Behind Colin’s Eyes by Shane Hawk
Night Moves by Andrea L. Rogers

This collection had so many names I didn’t recognize. I’m honored to have been given the chance to not only read this book early but to also now know of many of these new-to-me authors so I can go read more of their work!

Horror lovers, this anthology is a must-read!

You may close this book and walk away at the end, but you can’t walk away from the content. These stories are going to stick with you for a long time, floating around like spirits and popping up every now and then to make sure that they aren’t forgotten.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am absolutely blown away by this anthology! First off, the cover is gorgeous. But more importantly…single story was epically written and just about every story scared the heck out of me. This book is perfect for the upcoming fall season, and honestly I’d read it any other time of year too. Highly recommend!

I’m still wavering between a 4.5/5 with this one. I think, with time, it’ll solidly as a 5. I want to give it 5 stars alone just for the cover.

Never Whistle at Night was a truly unique short story collection and sitting in my top 3 short story collections of all time. This is a dark anthology, so a majority of the stories do have heavy elements and themes, along with horror elements. The stories are all written by indigenous authors, and focus largely on indigenous culture, colonialism, survival, and family. It’s intermixed with elements of indigenous folklore, beings, and stories.

It’s important to remember that these stories are supposed to have abrupt endings, as mentioned by SGJ isn’t he foreword; otherwise, I’m sure readers may be disappointed. I really loved a majority of the stories. Even my least favorite are exactly that - just my least favorite. There wasn’t one story where I was bored or just trying to push through it. And this isn’t a collection to speed through, it’s best appreciated at a slower pace to really absorb. I think this is an essential read for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Publishing for an eARC of this book. Opinions are my own and freely given

I did enjoy this anthology, some stories more than others, which is to be expected with a collection of stories and unsettling is definately the word to describe them. I do wish that I had more knowledge about the various myths and legends behind the stories and I think that would have added depth to my enjoyment of them.

4/5 Stars

TL;DR - A truly haunting collection of Indigenous horror stories that will stay with me for a long time to come. From supernatural creatures to the evils of racism and colonization and everything in between, this anthology has something for every horror fan. Perfect for Spooky Season, or for anytime you’re needing something to keep you up at night! (Don’t be me, don’t read this at night.)

Big thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for providing the ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!

***Trigger warning for gore, racism, eugenics, child abuse and neglect, body horror, mentions of drug use, domestic violence, violence towards animals, murder, child sexual abuse and grooming, boarding school trauma, suicide, and torture.***

‘Never Whistle at Night’ is an anthology collecting 26 horror short stories from Indigenous authors, those already established and some debuts. The subjects are varied, but all revolve around the subject of night, and all the horrible and terrifying things that can go wrong in the dark. And hoo boy, does it deliver!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of late summer/early fall. I was legit over the moon when I got approved for an ARC, and it did NOT disappoint! There’s something for everyone here (well, everyone who likes spookiness!) - monsters, spirits, legends, giant bugs, feral children, haunted houses, and more. Also throughout, there are stories of family drama, mental health struggles, and deep explorations of character that are all incredibly well-written and captivating in their own right. There’s also a lot of really searing and poignant depictions of the racism and historical trauma Indigenous folks contend with everyday, which is definitely more horrifying than any ghost story. This is by no means a light book, but you will experience a lot and come away with new perspectives - I certainly did.

There’s nothing about this anthology that I didn’t like (aside from the obvious racism ick, which is putting it VERY lightly), but rather, it didn’t have as much of what I like, as I would have liked. I know horror is a diverse genre that doesn’t always include supernatural elements, but I was under the impression that all of the stories would be of a supernatural nature. Out of the 26 stories in this collection, only 8 are what I would consider overtly supernatural in nature, 10 are ambiguous enough to be potentially supernatural, and the remaining 8 are more thriller/psychological horror. Not a bad mix, just a little less on the weird-spooky side than I was anticipating.

My personal favorite stories in this collection are “Hunger”, “Behind Colin’s Eyes”, “Scariest. Story. Ever.”, “Dead Owls”, and “Uncle Robert Rides The Lightning”. The rest are all certainly good in their own right, but these five really struck me in particular.

Final Thoughts:

Loved it! Shouldn’t have read it at night, but here I am with too many hours til dawn. Adding it to my list to buy a hard copy of, for sure!

This was my most anticipated read of the year ! The stories blew me away and this is the perfect read for spooky season .

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc .

3/5

A collection of short horror stories by indigenous writers that touch on a great variety of fears with a fresh and different perspective. Horror is a very wide definition here, I think everyone will find something they like whether gore or ghost stories, and both supernatural and very real life dread. I enjoyed the mix of folklore and tradition with the modern world but, as it happen with almost all anthologies, this was very much a mixed grab bag. Some of the stories were a bit too long for a collection like this and some of them, while good, were upstaged by far more polished tales and writers.

There were a couple of clear standouts for me like White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse, a story that managed to touch on a myriad of issues (like racism, eugenics, privilege and poverty) with subtlety, and in a very short amount of pages, showing her experience and mastery of the craft. D.H. Trujillo's Snakes Are Born in the Dark is another interesting one that is a bit cheeky, funny, and has the right amount of gore to tie it all together. I found Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power to be a heartwarming bittersweet ghost story and Amber Blaeser-Wardzala's Collections a chilling portrayal of power dynamics. Generally, I think no one will be disappointed by what they find in this collection.

Right off the bat, I gotta say, I LOVED this book. Going into it, I was a little worried that some of the stories might blend together or have too similar plots since that's been the case in a few other anthologies I've read. I should have had more faith because all of these were super unique and handled the horror elements in such different ways.

I can't think of a single story in here I didn't like. There were stories in this book that made it hard for me to sleep, some because they stuck in my head and others because I stayed up all night reading. It's hard for me to pick just one favorite so here are the ones I especially enjoyed:

Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller
Najajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth by Conley Lyons
Wingless by Marcie R. Rendon
Hunger by Pheonix Boudreau
Tick Talk by Cherie Dimaline
Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning by Kate Hart
The Scientist's Horror Story by Darcie Little Badger
Limbs by Waubgeshig Rice

Thank you NetGallery for the ARC review.

I really wanted to like this collection of short stories - they’re engaging, unlike other books I’ve read, and written by POC. But the messages on colonialism and racism weren’t nuanced, and the preachy tone didn’t follow the show-don’t-tell rule. After a couple stories, they became pretty repetitive.

All in all, still a solid collection of interesting stories!

Never Whistle at Night
By: Shane Hawk and multiple contributors.

Never Whistle at Night
Is an indigenous anthology of dark fiction & horror. This was a beautifully put together work of indigenous authors that will haunt your dreams and dare to dig deeper into the worlds real first horror storytellers. I absolutely cannot wait to check out more work from all of these incredible authors! Run do not walk to preorder this book.

I'm still REELING. These stories were so immersive, so fun. A fantastic anthology that leaves you with a deep sense of unease in the best way.

Overall, I loved this collection of indigenous horror stories - as with most anthologies, some hit deeper than others, but the variety of tribal lore represented was fascinating. You could see similarities intertwined between some of the stories, because so much of storytelling comes from a universal place. I felt appropriately unsettled after the majority of the tales!

I gasped when I got this approval! I was so excited to read this anthology and it lived up to the hype I had for it. This book includes so many amazing Native writers with stories that unsettled me and had my skin crawling.

There are many different writing styles and types of horror, so there is something for every kind of horror fan.

I loved every story and a few of my favorites were
•Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller
•Snakes in the Dark by D. H. Trujillo
•Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth by Conley Lyons
•Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

After reading this I need more anthologies!

Really fantastic anthology featuring a wide range of voices and stories. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I'm very partial to anthologies that don't adhere too closely to a specific theme or niche subgenre—this anthology said 'dark Indigenous fiction' and every story delivered.

Like all anthologies, there were some hits and misses. Some of my favorites were:
- Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller
- White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse
- Navajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth by Conley Lyons
- Scariest. Story. Ever. by Richard Van Camp
- Snakes are Born in the Dark by D.H. Trujillo
- Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning by Kate Hart
- Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

Also, shout-out to the foreword by Stephen Graham Jones. From the first paragraph, I knew I was in damn good hands.

I need to say: there are definitely some 5 star stories in here! I got to a three star rating by averaging out my rating across stories. A couple were 5 star, but most fell into the 3 star range. I think anthologies are not for me - they are so difficult to get right. It's hard to tell a story in so few pages.

This was good overall, and I don't think any of the stories were "bad"... it's just that I really struggled to care/get into some of them. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys short stories, especially ones that are creepy! I was never truly scared, but I do feel like some stories absolutely nailed the creep factor and set the scene beautifully.

There are a few authors from this anthology that have sparked my interest and I'll be looking into their full length works. Definitely worth the read!

_Never Whistle at Night_ is a great collection of horror stories told by Indigenous writers. Legends mix with contemporary horror, and will leave the reader unsettled. This anthology is very captivating, with a variety of stories that reflect the lives lived of the story tellers.

I loved this story collection. A great collection of indigenous authors. Every story was great and stuck with me. I hope they do more just like this.

From the beautiful cover art to the exciting line-up of authors and the enthusiastic forward by beloved contemporary master of horror Stephen Graham Jones, I had high expectations of this right from the start--and I was not disappointed. Never Whistle at Night is an outstanding gathering of eerie stories that speak to an expansive range of indigenous experiences, exploring the darker aspects of their history and culture. This felt like a thoughtfully--even lovingly--curated collection of tales, involving both everyday, mundane horrors of colonialism, identity, and power dynamics as well as fantastically supernatural curses, creatures, and monsters--the monsters calling from both within the house and outside in the darkness. Though there were some offerings I liked more than others, I enjoyed almost every single one of them, with a good handful of them I would have liked to have seen in longer form because they were just that incredible. But I say "almost every single one" because there was one that bored me stiff after a few pages and I gave up. That story aside (and who knows, I may give it another try) this was a phenomenal anthology.

I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical of this book after seeing that it had an introduction by Stephen Graham Jones, who, while objectively a great writer, is not my taste. I gave it a chance because despite this, I love both horror and learning more about different indigenous cultures, traditions, and folklore, and Never Whistle at Night did not disappoint.

This short story collection, focused on horror, blew me away. Not only each individual story fantastic, but it felt like a truly cohesive collection, with different modes of storytelling and types of horror perfectly balancing each other out. I loved the mix of classic, gory horror, next to paranormal, next to suburban hell.

I would definitely recommend this anthology to any horror fan!