Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny by K.C. Grifant is such a fun collection of stories! The tales are all over the place when it comes to plot elements, creating a thrilling reading experience where surprises abound, promising both spookiness and enjoyment at every turn!

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny by K.C. Grifant –
I’m so excited I was able to snag an early copy of this one via NetGalley. While I took my sweet time reading though since my reading time was very scarce, I was so grateful for these short stories each time I picked up the book to read one when time allowed.

Right from the first tale, I knew this collection was going to be a hit for me.

My favorites include:

Gifting
Terror on the Boulevard
Just Another Apocalypse
The U Train
Puddle of Comradely Despair
Per usual, here are my thoughts on each tale!

Introduction –

This intro gives readers a peek into what’s to come in such a spooky way! And the last sentence… are you kidding me?! I was even more pumped to dive in after that! However, I paused for a moment to ask myself if I really wanted to start reading right before bed. (I did)

Vermin –

Determined to get pizza, but not wanting to wait in the long line, this crew decides to follow a creepy man into a tunnel after he promises them quick access to the pizza.

Following a creepy dude into a tunnel is never a grand idea! All the alarm bells were going off here but they were just too blinded by the smell of the food! Ugh, the claustrophobia this one gives for a bit!

Gifting –

Finding an old beat-up jewelry box in a shop, this woman is immediately drawn to it as she is a bit battered herself. Finding an impossible item inside, she’s shocked to find that’s not the only thing the box provides.

My heart hurts for this poor woman. The grief and blood-boiling unfairness makes the ending that much sweeter!

All Aboard –

When a sickness runs rampant, extreme quarantine measures are taken to keep people safe. But will this group of exposed be safe?

Oh my gosh, this is too real-world terrifying! Illness already terrifies me, but mob mentality especially freaks me out!

Terror on the Boulevard –

While on the set of a true crime film, this woman decides she has had enough of the expectations of sexual favors. When an unusual being appears, she’s offered another path.

Ugh, men that expect sexual favors. Congress! The turn this tale took was wonderfully satisfying! I would love a whole book dedicated to this woman and what comes next for her!

Just Another Apocalypse –

After getting picked up while hitchhiking, this character has bonded with the couple. But when a zombie sneaks up in them, will they stick together or split?

Oh my gosh! This is such a fun twist on the zombie element. I’m obsessed with this tale!

What Storms Bring –

When a terrible storm approaches, a man appears on her doorstep. Knowing that he needs shelter, she lets him into her basement to ride out the storm. But as soon as he’s through the doorway, strange things begin to occur.

How quickly things go sideways here is absolutely terrifying!

The Color of Friendship –

While on a weekend away, things with this group are tense. When the woman who organized overhears her friends talking about her, she finds a new friend to confide in.

Oh, this was so eerie! I love not knowing how to feel about the main character!

Lonely Arcade –

When a girl burdened with far too much is shown a dark path, it’s up to her to see which way she will go.

My heart broke for this poor girl. So much grief packed into such a short tale!

The Sighting –

Determined to prove that Bigfoot is real, this woman plans one more trip. If she doesn’t find anything this time, she promises she’ll move on.

Ah but of course she finds more than she hoped. That ending! It just begs for more! How did this end?!

The U Train –

Stuck waiting for the train, this random bunch soon realizes that they can’t leave and are about to be put to the test.

I loved this spooky real-world tale so much! Waiting certainly is the worst, but what came next for these folks was of true nightmare.

The Perfect Gift –

While out in his “space condo,” this man makes a connection with another life form. He thinks this will be his ticket into popularity with a better light, but he gets way more than he bargained for.

Anything around AI in horror tales freaks me out. This one continued that trend. The ending is terrifying.

Unrest –

Sent to finally allow a place to rest? This being must stay strong and do what needs to be done.

Oh, your blood will just boil over this man saying he just can’t help himself.

The Night Call –

Escaping his apartment and his fighting parents, this young man plays with his butterfly knife. When it slips and he feels it cut him, he waits for the pain to subside. While waiting, he gets a visitor.

Oh my gosh, I was so nervous throughout this one! As soon as he cut himself, I feared the worst.

Better Halves –

While away on a trip that’s supposed to be relaxing, this woman is more stressed than ever. When she feels that something g is off, she’s drawn to a mirror in their honeymoon suite…

This tale is such a quiet and slow-burn horror! I was so ready for something big to happen at any turn, but the pacing continued to crawl and add more and more unease!

From Sea to Shining Sea –

While fishing for jellyfish, this character gets a warning for something that may be to come.

Everything about this one is fast! Phew, what a tale!

Blessed –

When an invasion reaches them, one woman believes she is safe. Even swept up by the survivors, she keeps telling them she will be soared, but they don’t share that same faith…

What an intense start! I loved that we slowly learned what was going on!

The Circus King –

Working a strange and unusual circus with peculiar clowns, the Circus King is surprised when the act suddenly doesn’t go as planned.

Puddle of Comradely Despair –

Finding himself stuck in a helpless state, he begs anyone to help. When someone finally pauses to look at him, he promises them a wish.

This was so unsettling, strange, mysterious, and exciting all at once! I had so much fun reading this one. I’d love to see what these two got up to next!

Macabre Elves –

When a group of elves appears but are never quite captured on camera, these two teenage boys are intrigued. Whether they’re a gang or something else, the boys don’t care, they just want to join them. But little do they know, these elves have more with them than just their knives.

I love a good holiday-themed tale! This one reminded me of the year we had clowns randomly showing up in random places, just creepily standing there. The dark interest in learning who they are is strong!

The Peerlings –

Trying to start a colony in a new world, this crew soon learns that there’s something already there. As they start disappearing, the mayor is forced to face the beings or deal with the backlash from their people.

Oh my gosh, this one had a killer claustrophobia element to it mixed perfectly with the suspense.

My Favorite Passages from Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny –
It’s amazing how even in a span of two days you can get to know someone well enough that you don’t have to talk to communicate. One of the few perks of being in constant life-or-death situations, I guess.
— Just Another Apocalypse

They say waiting is its own kind of hell. Whoever said that was probably familiar with the NYC subway system.
— The U Train

So at night, we all pretend to be asleep though we’re far from it, willing ourselves not to peek as the buzzing intensifies. The curiosity almost kills you as much as the fear itself.
— The Peerlings

My Final Thoughts on Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny–
I can’t say enough how much fun reading this collection was! Each tale was so wonderfully unique. I’m already eager to delve into more of this author’s work!

Preorder your copy today!

Shrouded Horror by Casey Griffin, usually when reading a book summary it either exaggerates the story, it can also be misleading I think the summary for this book was spot on. The stories definitely reflect twilight zone, dark mirror, Creepshow ET see there was even one for all the feminist about an actress who gets tired of being hit on by the creepy group of men she’s forced to work with to be an actress. There’s one about zombies and found families which I think was my favorite but they had so many good ones I know a short story is good when I want it to be longer and that happened more than once with this book. I love short stories and think I would rather read a book of short stories than a full length novel and I think this one was an awesome one. A book I definitely recommend to all the Horror fans who also love short stories.#DragonRoostPress, #NetGalley, #CaseyGriffin, #ShroudedHorror,

This little short story collection has a wide variety of sources. Do you like ghosts, Bigfoot, aliens, etc? You will find something interesting here. My favorite was the group of people waiting for a train in an empty station they couldn't leave... Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

A great anthology of short stories! I felt like the last one went on and could have been cut down a bit but overall another solid anthology you want to add to your shelf!

This was a refreshing collection of weird and unexplained events that didn't try to explain itself or insist upon its logic. It was simply a series of bizarre vignettes and the reader is along for the ride, which I really enjoyed. I love horror/weird fic that's set in everyday situations and locations, and this certainly shines in that area -- from a subway station to an Instagram-famous pizza parlor, there is nothing out of the ordinary about these settings, which highlights the weirdness of the occurrences (and characters).

KC Grifant is one of my favorite short story writers. One of their strengths is that no two stories are alike. Personal favorites in this collection are: Just Another Apocalypse (because who doesn't love zombies and balloons?), The Color of Friendship (with friends like those, who needs enemies), and The U Train (they say hell is other people, but maybe it's also found in subway travel). There isn't a bad story in the bunch.

Pretty good anthology of horror! A lot of things stories were really awesome and creepy. A few were a big long winded for me, especially the last 3. The zombie one was my favorite though!

What a gruesome and well written collection of short stories. Each story is wildly different. My favorite had to have been the story about the subway and the 4 riders who found their own personal hell.

I highly recommend!!!

I enjoyed this one a lot. It was dark when it needed to be dark.
It mixed a few different genres.
And just overall a good package of goods that kept me involved.

I loved all of these short stories they were all so unique and terrifying in their own way. I could have read these all in one go but I decided to savour them by reading one each night before bed and most nights I had nightmares haha.

Highly recommend these short stories I absolutely love being scared. I will definitely be checking out this authors other stories ready for spooky season!

Thank you to NetGalley, Dragons roost press and K.C. Grifant for this arc in return for an honest review

Actually 4.5 ⭐️

I loved this collection of short stories! I think the author did an incredible job incorporating serious themes (def check the TW before jumping into the book) to suspenseful, creepy and bloody scenarios.
My favorites were GIFTING, UNREST, THE NIGHT CALL and PUDDLE OF COMRADELY DESPAIR. The others were graleat too bit those are the ones that resonated with me the most.

Thank so much NetGalley and Dragon's Roost Press for allowing me to read this book in advance

A really good collection of short stories, with a wide range of subjects and settings. Every story left me wanting to find out what happened next, from the shorter snapshots to the longer more involved tales.

I particularly enjoyed Just Another Apocalypse, and The Peerlings. Def going to look for other books by the author to see if they are just as good.

Before I start this review, please remember this is my opinion on this book so please take it with a pinch of salt.

I’d like to start this review with the positives first and foremost. I’d like to start off by saying I would always take the opportunity to read horror books when I get the chance so when I came across this book it was no exception. The blurb had me curious and the fact that this book has multiple sorts of short stories that can easily be read in one sitting really sold me on this book. The cover gave me horror vibes too and captured my eye. While reading this book, I found myself quite immersed in each of the stories that I had read in this book.

I have no negatives to say about this book, so I’ll be keeping this review quite short this time.

I’d rate this book five stars. It was really good.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to be able to read this early!

Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny by: K.C. Grifant is an anthology of horror/scary stories. It kind of gave off the vibes of an adult Goosebumps story mixed with watching an episode from Tales from the Crypt. While some stories felt as though they ended a little unsatisfactory, it really didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of reading this book. It still came across as a four star read for me. It still left me having a good time (A good time for a scary story, I feel the horror movie watchers and readers will understand what I mean). This book is perfect for the autumn season and get some spooky tales in for Halloween. I am also very impressed with some of the creativity in some of the stories given to us. Some even had an outcome I didn’t even expect. I’ll for sure be thinking about these stories I consumed for a while.

This book is expected to be released on July 11, 2024! I can also really appreciate the really cool cover now that I have been able to read this.

“Shrouded Horror” was an amazingly eerie collection of stories. There is a fantastic range of horror from cosmic, monsters, apocalyptic and more. No two were anything alike, but many of them gave the reader a sense of creeping dread and “wrongness”.

My favourite has to be “The Circus King”, everything about this story freaked me out.

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Grifant’s work, as this collection and other books I’ve read by them have been fantastic!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Dragon’s Roost Press for a copy.

I absolutely loved this book! I'm a huge anthology enthusiast and these stories delivered!

Each short story was as captivating as the last. I find these days, a lot of authors are trying to write these big, gigantic, epic fantasy books and it was so nice to read such amazing short stories for a change. It was like a breath of fresh air. There's something so satisfying about a short story- especially when done right!

There was such a great creep factor, and I love how the author was able to freak me out in just a few pages! The stories were so well written that I was fully immersed and satisfied in just a few pages- which can be so hard to do since you're spending so little time with the characters, setting, and plot. Very well written!

"Vermin" was a great story to start with to get the vibes of the book going! It really hooked me in and got me excited for the rest of the stories. My favourite was The Circus King! Followed by Puddle of Comradery Despair, which read right after The Circus King! In my opinion, these two stories really had the depth and development that I crave in a story. Again, which is hard to obtain in a short story! But Grant nailed it and gripped me. I honestly loved all the stories, but those two were stand outs as my favourites!

I honestly would rate this more as 4.5 stars, rather than just 4. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars was because I wasn't fully immersed the entire time, and some I enjoyed more than others. Coming from an epic fantasy nerd, immersion is key for me! So anthology series' are quite difficult to get a full 5 stars in my eyes- but Shouded Horror was so close to 5 stars. I HIGHLY recommend. Especially to lovers of thriller and horror stories.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Dragon's Roost Press for the opportunity to read, rate, and review Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny!

an anthology of horror stories

each story was extremely well written and is a perfect spooky season read, if you like short horror tales.

i enjoyed that there was a lot of variety in the horror styles so there was something for everyone.