Thought it would be fun due to the description, some parts were but as a whole I just wasn't that into it.

The Map of Lost Places is a horror anthology of 22 short stories. This one took me a while. Girlboss in Wonderworld, USA is my absolute favorite of the bunch. With such a strong start, I did expect to enjoy the rest of the book more than I did.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Map of Lost Places completely captivated me from start to finish. Each story felt distinct yet beautifully connected through its sense of mystery and atmosphere, and I loved how every author brought their own voice and imagination to the collection. I found myself lingering on details, savoring the twists, and being genuinely surprised by the emotional depth throughout. It’s the kind of anthology that feels magical and unforgettable—a true treasure for anyone who loves immersive, thought-provoking storytelling.

The Map of Lost Places, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner, is an anthology about haunted places. The stories, for the most part, are not scary but involve some supernatural element. The stories selected are a mix of metaphysical and narrative storytelling. I prefer narrative storytelling, but I enjoy metaphysical elements when the story attempts to make sense or has a strong theme. The Map of Lost Places anthology has some diamonds in the rough. However, most of the stories I encountered felt rough. I have had a lot of reviewers DNF (did not finish) this book. Which is sad because there are some good stories in this collection. This collection also featured a lot of international authors that I would not have read otherwise. The drawback with having international authors is that the rhythm was off on some of the stories, so I would have to read quite a few chapters over again to understand the story. Chuckle Wet, Chuckle Low by R.L. Meza was my favorite about a group that sacrifices tourists to the tides. The story was a great back-and-forth narrative with a lot of conflict. This was the only story that I wanted more of, and I think the author should expand. A Realm Alive After Dusk by Ai Jiang was my second favorite, a story of a concubine and Enoch, who are brother and sister and work for the emperor. They scheme to get more power and find it in death, with a clever twist. The Map of Lost Places has a new story by Brian Keene, which, if you see my review for Ghoul and Blood on the Page, you know why I selected this book. I want to thank Netgalley and Apex Book Company for giving me The Map of Lost Places to read and review.

My Favorite to Least Favorite Stories: I broke the stories down by adding a small summary and how I felt about each story. I included the story and the author broken down in my favorite to least favorite order.

5-Star Stories:

Chuckle Wet, Chuckle Low by R.L. Meza is a story about a mother teaching her son about a sacrifice and what it will provide. The story is great with a few twists and turns. This is the first story I would want expanded. There's plenty of room, and the story left it open. I like that the story is told from two perspectives, the mother's and the son's.

A Realm Alive After Dusk by Ai Jiang is a story of a concubine and Enoch, who are brother and sister and work for the emperor. They scheme to get more power and find it in death, with a clever twist. The story was well written, beautifully described, and clever. This story feels more fantasy than all the others.

All Praise the Durians by Joshua Lim is the best story, so it is well-paced and focused. The story is about a lover of durian, the spikey fruit. He tries the best durian he has ever tasted, but lies about it to win a bet. Before the bet, he swore to Bota, who blesses the durians, that he would not lie. Later, he finds out there was a deal made, and it might just take his life.

Notes Towards A History OF Lehorn's Hollow by Brian Keene is a history of the hollow feature in his novels Dark Hollow and Ghost Walk. It also discusses a short story on the hollow. The story connects to his Labyrinth series as well. The story is told in journal form and interview form. The story is long, but it flows. I know Keene's works and was entertained. I feel like new readers will be interested. Some readers could feel lost, as there is a lot of history about the hollow. The end is good.

4-Star Stories:

Codewalker by G.M. Paniccia is a story in the future. Where a gamer wants to play games that feel real. There used to be games that could kill you; they were so real. He finds a set of games that feel so real, he starts messing with it, exposing the flaws. The game resets, and player life does too. Where he now can't tell where the game ends and his life begins. Great ending, very effective. Slow start to the story, though.

The Promised Void by Dimitra Nikolaidou is a story about a woman compelled to come to a place looking for a mural in her dreams. But when she arrives, there is no mural. She feels faint and is injured in the fall. She wakes in a place of healing, or is it? The body horror was good. The imagery was terrifying. I could have used a little more background to connect more to the character. I liked how the story ended. It felt perfect for the story.

Development/Hell by Samit Basu is a story about a woman who keeps getting trapped in different bodies, about to die from different creatures. The character rolls with it at first, then fights it and finally questions it. The ending is up for interpretation, but I have a good idea of what is going on. The story flows well and has some good twists. There's a nice bit of humor.

The (Lost) Tribe of Ishmael by Maurice Broaddus is a historical/cosmic horror. The following is a student doing a dissertation on a free black community in Indiana in 1860 that disappeared. The tensions in the past echo today as the town wants to be gentrified. The cosmic element came a little out of where, but it worked. The story is good, but a little slow.

Three Ways to Break You by Beth Dawkins is about a town that you can not leave, unless you successfully lie, cheat, and steal. It is a metaphor for the only way you can escape where you're from is to be a horrible person. I enjoyed this story up until the end. I don't understand why it was so quickly escalated, without due cause. But I do like how she is still in the same place at the beginning.

Place of Lost Stories by Rick Larson is about fleshing out a story. Flesh means both to sift and skin. In this story, they're the same thing. The plot is a big metaphor for writing a bare bones story. Some parts of the story you keep, and some parts you kill. I liked the horror elements, and I was bummed we only got glimpses. This story has the most promise. The ending was okay. I think this story won't be for everyone, and I wish it were clear. But I think the story mostly worked for what the author set out to do.

Salt by K.S. Walker is a ghost story about a black family moving to Michigan from Alabama. The imagery was very well done. The dialogue was great, the way it nailed the southern dialect. I like what salt represented in the story. The story was decent but a bit slow. The ending was crazy but good. I rated it 4 out of 5.

Three Stars Stories:

Hulderhola by Oliver Ferrie is a story that takes place in Norway. The story is about a legendary magical creature called the Hulder. Think of a forest neff. The Hulder is beautiful and naked. She can marry you, she can defend you, and she can destroy you. I loved the folklore of the Hulder. I liked the ending; it was a little too vague, but I think I figured it out. This story flowed very well.

Silverheels by Rebecca E. Treasure is a ghost story. It starts with a girl getting out of a tent in the middle of a graveyard of a ghost town. She hears a violin being played in the distance. Then we jump back in time when a stagecoach arrives, and a young violin player arrives. The story parallels the two stories, with the ghost trying to protect the girl from a similar fate. The story had a good idea, and I liked the flashbacks. The present-day story was okay, but the sexual assault seemed a little out of nowhere. I would have wanted to see one more scene before it, where he tried something. Or it could be that the spirits wanted the same fate.

Girlboss in Wonderland, USA by Vivan Chou is about a girl who comes up short with her tickets for a prize and makes a deal with the woman behind the counter. The girl keeps returning throughout the years, but the price for the prizes increases. The prizes are now succeeding in sports and getting a promotion, but what she has to give up increases. It started innocently with an eyelash, and now it is a piece of her liver and an ovary. The story started very strongly and had my attention. The end was okay. It is vague. I think it was about making a monster with self-doubt. I do feel the story is an allegory of divination and card reading. I wish this story had nailed the ending.

In Nobody's Debt by Jenny Rowe, a story about Nathan, who is worried about his missing brother Marty. Marty usually hangs out in warm South America, but his last video has him in cold Sweden. Nathan travels to Sweden to find out. He meets people who have seen him but seem not to know him. A woman, Frega, brings him to the lake, and he hears the same song on his brother's video. The story is predictable but well told.

Inviting The Hollow Bones by Octavia Cade is a story about what it takes to be a legend. The story is more philosophical in nature until the end. I love the ending of the story. But the way the story was told took me a while to understand. I read it twice. It is the shortest story so far. I think the story idea is good, and the twist at the end.

Two-Star Stories:

This Side of Living by VH Ncube is about a distant cousin who visits her family in KwaNtuthu, which means the place of smoke. She meets every cousin but one, who is missing. Her diary is found, and they learn a legend of the place: if you do not leave before you turn 17, you will remain forever in the town. She starts hearing screaming every day at 3:00 towards the woods. I liked parts of the story. I enjoyed the lore of the town.

The Death of Black Fatima by Muhammed Awal Ahmed is a story of djinns and enslavement. The djinns used to be free, then started helping the white man, who saw their power and wanted to enslave it. Fatima is a djinn, but they make her bathe with black soap to hide it, until she becomes sick with the power and visions. The story had beautiful language. But bounced all over the place and was hard to follow. The ending was good.

When I Was a Cowboy in Puuwaawaa by Ferdison Cayetano is about a Hawaiian cowboy who is in Wyoming for a rodeo competition. He can't seem to cowboy the way he did in Hawaii. He gives up but finds his spirit animal on the way back. The story is a bit confusing about what is real and what is not. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. The story was unique. I did not like the ending.

The Salt Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv is a story about the end of the world and the start of a new one. The book leans heavily into the Old Testament text. The story of Lot and how his wife turned toward Sodom and was turned into salt. The story was very slow and hard to get into. The ending was the best part of the story and pays off some of the long setup.

You Have Eaten of Our Salt by Fatima Taqvi is a story of a grandmother raising her grandson. She has visions of his death and salt. Salt is her job to gather it where a sea once was. The story was okay. The ending was okay. The story had some good language.

Blood in Coldwater by Danian Darrell Jerry is a long short story about a man who wants to get revenge on a town that he almost drowned in when he was 12. The story started way too fast. Within the first page, we learn about the drowning, the revenge, and the town buried beneath the lake. For such a long short story, it could have taken its time. The best parts are when the story slows. The end was okay, but it felt rushed, and it did not have to be. I felt the dialogue was too similar, especially between the men. I could not tell them apart. This story has potential, but in the end, I just did not like it.

Recommendations: The Map of Lost Places was sometimes a slog to get through. There were some great stories that I would never have been exposed to before. I did enjoy reading some international works; I do not read enough or seek them out. The authors that I did give 5 stars to, I will seek out, and a handful of 4-star authors as well. The Map of Lost Places as a whole, I can not recommend to my followers to read. This anthology did take me months to get through the beginning stories, which were horribly paced.

The Map of Lost Places, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner, I rated 2.9 out of 5.

The Map of Lost Places offers a tapestry of horror stories that traverse cultures, geographies, and the boundaries of reality. While not every tale may resonate with all readers, the anthology provides a platform for diverse voices to explore the myriad ways horror can manifest in our world and beyond. It's a recommended read for those interested in global horror narratives and the exploration of the unknown.

Thank you to Apex and NetGalley for providing this digital ARC.

This exceedingly spooky--and often nostalgic--collection explores losing and getting lost in all manner of ways and from a wide swath of worldly perspectives. I applaud the editor's decision to make this a globetrotting sort of horror adventure, though as with any anthology, some stories will hit and be found to be effective for different readers. The Map of Lost Places is no exception.

The ones that grabbed this reader the most tended to explore the bounds of the liminal in an almost Twilight Zone or Black Mirror sensibility. Indeed, I could easily see several of these pieces adapted for television. Vivian Chou's "Girlboss in Wonderworld, USA," Rich Larson's "Place of Lost Stories," Joshua Lim's "All Praise the Durians," Samit Basu's "Development/hell," G.M. Paniccia's "Codewalker," and "found footage"/epistolary Brian Keene's "Notes Towards a History of LeHorn's Hollow" all struck that particular chord for me, that unsettling chime that all good horror shorts ring out in us. Does that mean other stories in the collection weren't good? Absolutely not. They maybe did not grab the bell inside me and make it rattle, but that doesn't mean they won't make it shake for you.

I encourage readers to give this collection a look-see, get lost in its pages and see where you find yourself on the otherside.

A wonderfully creepy themed anthology about finding ourselves in lost places. There’s everything in between physically and metaphorically lost. I love a good themed anthology.

We can all relate to the fear and unease. A great read for when you want to get lost.

From Norway to small town Michigan, these 22 stories describe lost worlds, hauntings, and read like good Twilight Zone episodes. Many are eerie and atmospheric. 4 stars

Thank you so much to Apex and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title!!

This collection of short stories was at times enough to make me stop reading, put down my kindle, and just think about what I’d read - I find it truly amazing the abilities some writers have to convey so much thought, emotion and feeling in so few words.

However, a few too many of the stories just didn't feel cohesive to the theme that is meant to bind the stories together, and took me out of the enjoyment for a moment. There were also one or two of the stories that were just slightly Unpleasant in general to read.

Overall I enjoyed this collection, I just wish it would've trended more slightly to staying on topic!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the authors for this ARC of The Map of Lost Places. In exchange for the eARC I leave my honest review.

I've never been a big fan of anthologies, but after reading the premise of this book, I thought I'd give it a try. While I appreciate the authors for their hard work and for the amount of detail that went into each story, especially in regards to the countries and their cultures, it did not catch as much attention as the summary. I do not like to dnf books, so I finished it to some extent. There are some stories that caught my attention more than others. I felt like I was watching a tv series and a few filler episodes made their way in. But that shouldn't take away from the stories that did catch my attention. There are some stories that made my want to read a full length book of them.

Anthologies are always such a hit or miss and I appreciate all of the authors' hard work.

This book was not for me. Honestly it felt like the common theme of these stories was not horror, but diversity. There are many different cultures represented in this book and the settings were incredibly diverse, but I only found a handful of them interesting or mildly scary


2/5 stars

I’d like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

A Map of Haunted Places is a spooky collection of twisty tales that keep you guessing. I’m a huge fan of anthology books since there is something for nearly every reader & I liked the range of content in this collection. Some stories were a little tougher for me to engage with but that’s okay! Many of the stories weren’t scary but just generally off putting. I get the these are all short stories but a few of them were underdeveloped to a point that I was just confused. 2.5/5
Thank you to Net Galley & Publisher Spotlight for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love the idea of this. I love how varied the stories are and how they're based in so many different countries, with various cultures being represented. But while I did really enjoy a handful of the stories, overall the collection didn't quite hit the mark for me. I really struggled to get invested in some of them and some of the ones I did still like just felt too short. While short stories are a fun way to read about something new, not every story can be as detailed as I'd like them to be in that format so sometimes I was left wanting more plot, more emotion, or more world building. I do know I'm very picky with short stories though, so if this is a format you find yourself liking often, the variety in this collection is likely to be a good fit for you then!

I think this was a really solid anthology. Girlboss in Wonderworld was a fantastic start to the book and a great choice for the beginning of the anthology. It really set the tone of the stories going forward. I didn’t know any of the authors going into the anthology but several are now on my radar. The stories has several recurring themes throughout but not to the point of being indistinguishable. There also weren’t any stories where I didn’t understand why they were part of the anthology either. Silverheels was one of my favorite stories overall but they all ere pretty great. Overall, this was a really fun, solid, horror anthology.

This was my first anthology, and I really enjoyed it! There was a lot of diversity to the stories - some gave me goosebumps while others were truly unsettling. There were a few I loved and a few that didn't quite land with me, but I thought the overall collection was perfect for readers who enjoy quick, haunting tales.

Considering the topic, I expected to have far more here that I liked. It is always a bit of mixed bag with short story collections because of the variety or authors, but I had a hard time even finding any that I’d give four stars to, let alone any five stars. Let me be clear though, it isn’t the writing. These are well done and executed and failure is more in what I was hoping to get versus what’s actually here. If you are interested in this book I’d suggest giving the first couple stories a try first if you can, and if you like those then you’ll enjoy the rest.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t read very much horror, but I really enjoy liminal space stories. There’s a lot of overlap between the two, so I was cautiously intrigued by The Map of Lost Places, a dark fantasy and horror anthology edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner. But I’ve enjoyed plenty from both editors, and the table of contents was littered with authors I knew I liked, so I decided to give it a try. 

As I said, I don’t often read horror, and there are a couple reasons. First of all, I can be squeamish about gore and body horror. And honestly, that wasn’t much of an impediment to my enjoyment of this one. There is some of each, but not an extreme amount. But I also often struggle with the difference between horror story arcs and those in more familiar-to-me fiction. The inexorable march toward an untimely end certainly ratchets up the tension in the reader, and when it’s done exceptionally well, even I can appreciate it. But the times that horror really hits me hard are usually when it’s used either as a psychological deep dive into the mind of the lead or as a way to shine a harsh light on the ills of society. We see a little of both in The Map of Lost Places—though 20 of the 22 falling short of novelette length makes the former a little more difficult—but I often found myself wishing either to be pulled a little deeper into the stories or to be genuinely surprised by the way they develop. 

The anthology is not grouped in any obvious way, and I can think of few instances where I read two consecutive stories with especially similar approaches, which helps keep the anthology from feeling like too much of the same thing. Perhaps the most common sort of story is the classic “venture into a dangerous area, slowly realizing just how dangerous it truly is.” Those stand and fall on the writer’s ability to build the tension, and one story of this type is so expertly done as to be my favorite in the entire anthology. Codewalker by G.M. Paniccia imagines a world in which plugging into virtual reality programs is highly regulated, with safety concerns limiting the options to slick, corporate products. But the lead and a few online friends treasure any instances in which they come across hidden gems by basement coders. It’s dangerous, but they’re careful. Can the reader see where this is going? Of course. But a truly nightmarish beauty makes this one of the few stories in the anthology that I’d wake up the next morning still thinking about. It’s excellent. 

Depending on how you group stories, you could also make an argument that the actual most common type in The Map of Lost Places is the comeuppance story. Sometimes that’s on an individual level, with quick and vicious punishment of hubris, and sometimes it’s on a societal level—there’s certainly more than one tale of the supernatural striking out at humanity for environmental sins. These sorts of stories are pretty familiar, even for someone who doesn’t read much horror, and my most common response was just wishing I couldn’t see everything coming. But the quality of Fatima Taqvi’s writing in societal comeuppance tale You Have Eaten of Our Salt makes it stand above the others, reminding me in some ways of Shiv Ramdas’ Hugo finalist “And Now His Lordship is Laughing.” 

But the social commentary isn’t limited to comeuppance stories, and my favorite in my back-of-the-envelope taxonomy is the social commentary story about being trapped in an unpleasant situation. In Beth Dawkins’ Three Ways to Break You, it’s being literally and supernaturally trapped in a small town with little social mobility and a corrupt criminal justice system. On the other hand, in Vivian Chou’s Girlboss in Wonderworld, USA, it’s being metaphorically trapped in the race to achieve a certain sort of lifestyle. In the former, the lead is flailing against so many outside forces that it’s impossible to get out unscathed. The latter also has societal pressures aplenty, but it’s the lead who, in the face of a series of unfair expectations, responds with bargain after bargain that leaves her literally losing pieces of herself to sustain her lifestyle. Both are plenty compelling. 

There are also a handful of split timeline stories, and while those aren’t necessarily groundbreaking, there’s something about a split-timeline ghost stories with uncanny resonance between the present and past that really hits for me when executed well, and Silverheels by Rebecca E. Treasure really delivers. It’s an Old West/ghost town story about women fleeing from creepy, entitled men, and it’s executed well enough to make it my second-favorite in the whole anthology. Another split-timeline tale, When I Cowboy in Puuwaawaa by Ferdison Cayetano takes a more daring approach in the way it disorientingly blends the narratives together, and while the cleaner Silverheels clicked a little better for me, both are quality reads. 

Of course, there are some stories that aren’t afraid to get a little bit weird, perhaps none more than Rich Larson’s Place of Lost Stories, a disorienting and grotesque metafictional story that is at least in some ways about creating art, with a whole lot more under the surface. It’s one of those where I wanted a little bit more at the end, but it’s engaging throughout and shows the kind of ambition that I love to see in short fiction. Samit Basu’s Development/Hell is also willing to get a bit weird and meta, mashing up horror tropes in a haunted house story that shifts wildly from one iteration to the next. It’s another one that’s well worth the read. 

There are others that don’t neatly fit into any of the above categories, and there are lots in the anthology that I haven’t highlighted here—including a couple that I liked pretty well. But while there are plenty here that I found highly engaging and one that really stuck with me after reading, there are also a lot that just never clicked for me. Admittedly, most of my short fiction reading involves me picking and choosing individual stories out of a publication based on familiarity with the author or the degree to which the first few paragraphs grab me. It’s unsurprising that I won’t find as many favorites when reading cover-to-cover as when I pick and choose based on what looks like favorite potential. But The Map of Lost Places didn’t have quite as many standouts as I would’ve liked. There’s certainly plenty to make this worth picking up and reading a couple of stories. But there are also a lot that go about how you’d expect, and on the whole, it doesn’t hit the level of the magazines edited by either Thomas or Conner. 

Recommended if you like: horror anthologies.

Overall rating: 13 of Tar Vol's 20. Three stars on Goodreads.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I tried to give the book a try, but 100 pages in (roughly 1/3) I am completely bored and will DNF. It is an anthology that is supposed to be about traveling around the world to different areas and reading stories on surreal and supernatural occurrences in them. I can see the surreal and some of the supernatural, but it is being conveyed in such an obscure and uninteresting way to where I am bored and not really caring to read the rest of the stories even though they are written by different authors.

Some of the stories were a little convoluted as well (the third one mainly) to where it didn't really make sense.

Anthologies can be pretty hit or miss, due to the nature of having a dozen different writers, but unfortunately, this one leaned more towards miss. None of these stories did a great job holding my attention or living up to the promise of the intriguing premise.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Anthologies are always hit or miss for me and this book is no different. There are some stories that stand out (I especially enjoy Ai Jiang's short story) but some stories are really just not my vibes. Overall, this is still a fun read. Though I would recommend to savor this book slowly. You have to be in the right moods for certain stories so it's best to space it out.