5 stars

If these stories truly are based on real-life events then I am NEVER going back to Sarnia again!!

Seriously though, as a fellow Southern Ontario small-town girl who's a big fan of horror and also deals with multiple chronic illnesses, I felt absolutely seen by this author as I read this book. And being able to immerse myself in the nuances of the rural setting, as someone who also lives close to Lake Huron, made these stories so much more of a visceral experience overall. I love that each of the stories are loosely bound together by time and space (and that's all I'll say about that.) The descriptions of the horrors that descend upon these characters in each story are terrifyingly vivid and deliciously scary.

Thanks to NetGalley, author Mallory McCartney, and Anuci Press for granting me access to a free digital ARC of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own and are provided here voluntarily.

I enjoyed this read. It is not for the light of heart, It is both heart wrenching and reflective. When I picked this book I didn't realize it was going to be comprised of short stories.

Fantastically horror-filled and incredibly well-done. McCartney is masterful in the way that she can create an unsettling atmosphere and tell an equally disturbing and compelling story. Bonus points for the song playlist, I think that many writers use music as a muse and this was an excellent way to share that part of the process with the reader and provide an extra level of immersion within the story.
Overall a great collection, I will be looking forward to more work from this author.

Usually when I read a collection of short stories I always find some of them boring. This collection was all good! Great creepy horror short stories.

I have mixed feelings about this collection of short stories. I really liked and appreciated how all of the short stories had a connection, which wasn't something I initially expected. I didn't love the super strong connections to chronic illness, especially in the first and last stories. They were just a bit too triggering for me, personally, but others might feel a strong connection to their message. I also felt like the last story was a bit too long for being a short story. I found myself hoping to get to the end and it seemed to just keep going and going. Overall, these could be some fun spooky short reads, but they would need to be directed at the right audience. I just don't think that was me! 3 stars overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Anuci Press for an ARC of this collection of short stories.

This book was made up of multiple horror stories, and each story was connected.
I found the stories to be very emotionally driven. While the author managed to create some very scary situations, she also created so much of an emotional roller-coaster that it was actually exhausting to read.

I really did appreciate the creepy world that the author created. I also appreciated the fact that one MC had Fibromyalgia, a very painful chronic condition that I also suffer from. It was nice to see my pain reflected in this book. I felt seen, and that's a very rare thing.

Altogether, I enjoyed these stories, but it was a lot to get through emotionally. I gave this 3.5⭐️

As always, I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this collection! It's not just focused on the scares but also good characters and a depth to the stories that is not that ususal in horror novellas.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eArc in exchange for my honest opinions.

this book kept me glued to my seat. i just could not stop reading. this author really knows how to tell a story and i want to read more.

The Exchange & Other Calamities is a sharp, suspenseful collection of horror stories that blend the supernatural with emotional depth. Mallory McCartney delivers eerie, fast-paced tales with memorable twists, grounded in relatable fears and real-life struggles. A solid pick for fans of accessible, character-driven horror.

DNF@ 30% Some excellent ideas but too much telling, not enough showing. Repettitive, disjointed, draggy in spots. I'm not a fan of writing yourself into a corner and then skipping ahead years or decades as the way out.

ARC Review: The Exchange & Other Calamities by Mallory McCartney
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

Mallory McCartney’s The Exchange & Other Calamities is a feverish, haunting plunge into horror — but not just the kind that lurks under your bed. This short story collection is drenched in metaphor, shaped by the author's own lived experience with chronic illness, and offers a powerful, often unsettling window into what it means to live with invisible pain.

Told through five interconnected horror stories, each tale explores a different facet of fear, from urban legends and supernatural hauntings to the psychological toll of illness and trauma. Yet beneath the monsters, demons, and cursed artefacts, a deeper horror unfolds — the medical gaslighting, misunderstanding, and isolation so many with chronic illness endure. McCartney doesn’t just write about nightmares — she writes from them, channelling the surreal and fragmented quality of chronic pain and fatigue into stories that feel both otherworldly and emotionally raw.

As someone with chronic illness, I found the metaphorical depictions of pain incredibly relatable. When you’re unable to articulate the intensity of your suffering, the mind paints pictures: claws in the dark, shifting shadows, distorted realities. McCartney captures that perfectly. Her prose reads like the kind of fever dream you fall into during a flare-up, migraine, or total burnout — unsettling, surreal, and impossible to forget.

At times, the pacing and scene transitions were disorienting, with the plot jumping unexpectedly — but this felt more like a deliberate echo of the chaos that chronic illness can bring, both physically and mentally. The fact that the stories intersect while also standing alone adds depth to the collection, and makes the reading experience more layered.

Horror fans will also appreciate the many nods to classic horror novels and films, cleverly woven into McCartney’s own twisted worlds. From ghost hunting to sleep studies gone wrong, she taps into familiar tropes but infuses them with personal vulnerability and urgency.

I devoured this book in just a couple of sittings — not only because it was compelling and creepy, but because it resonated. McCartney’s unique voice and personal insights give weight to each page, blending emotional depth with imaginative, spine-tingling horror. I hope that this book helps to raise awareness globally of the impacts of chronic illness, and helps people to empathise and understand the experiences of those suffering, and battling through the pain every day.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Mallory McCartney for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Exchange & Other Calamities in exchange for an honest review.

The Exchange And Other Calamities
By: Mallory McCartney

5 Stars

This was a genuinely good book with stories that legitimately were spooky, gory, and spine tingling. I find it hard to get spooked, especially with short stories, but this book did it. I found myself drawn into the vivid imagery of each story. So much so that I found myself with chills one minute and shivers from being so grossed out the next. The Bite was a bit disturbing and totally gave me the creepy crawlies, which probably made it my favorite. Each story was good in its own right, but all together, they present a real spooky horror show of a read.



*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

A compilation of short stories, with creepy, frightening themes. A number of the short stories were interconnected and white I enjoyed this aspect, I found a number of the stories a little too ick for my enjoyment (I prefer my horror to leave more to the imagination). I also found the forward at the beginning quite confusing and didn't understand it's relevance to the collection. Once I finished the collection and read the acknowledgements at the end, I had a much better feeling for what the stories represented - a fictional interpretation of the author's personal journey. Quite cleverly done, once you understand the context.

Thank you to NetGalley and Anuci Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
⭐⭐⭐.5

This book was a collection of shorts stories, but they all connected to each other which was a cool concept. I reallying enjoyed reading this. The author wrote this based on living with chronic illness and made it into a horror book to describe what she's gone though. definitely worth the read. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The book releases on July 22nd.

I really liked this book. I loved how all of the stories were interconnected and in the same universe of horror in Ontario. As someone who lives in Ontario, I recognized a bunch of the spots and felt like it made it even more creepy.

I enjoyed how brutal these stories are and the body horror. A few times I was like oh yuck. If you don't like body horror this isn't the book for you. I feel like some of the horror I've read builds up a lot of suspense and draws it out but Mal did a great job at setting the stage for the story and then things go from bad to worse for the characters. I appreciate and value the chronic illness representation. I feel like it brings an extra layer to the stories and it's deeply moving.

As someone who also struggles with health related issues including chronic pain I felt validated with the anger I've felt and grief I live with trying to come to terms that this is part of my life and it might never go back to what once was. Living in a body, grieving your life, living in pain, medical gaslighting when all you want is to get better and dealing with a broken medical system is horror.

Thank you to Netgalley, Anuci Press, Mallory McCartney and BookBuz.net for the opportunity to read this book and provide my voluntary review.

The Exchange and Other Calamities is my first read from Mallory McCartney, and I really enjoyed it. This collection of five short horror stories was a creepy, atmospheric ride. The writing was strong—easy to get into but still vivid and unsettling in all the right ways.

To begin, a thank you to NetGalley and Anuci Press for the opportunity to enjoy this eARC title.

I am somewhat hard pressed to explain how I feel about this title. Overall, I enjoyed the stories, but at the same time, I wanted something more. I think part of my disconnect is that I am not a huge fan of short story collections by singular authors where the stories are all interconnected. Those works always seem like novel cheats because the author has lots of great ideas but just can't figure out the connective tissue to make them a singular story. Each story, taken by itself, was very well done. The body horror element that suffused nearly every story was captivating without going for just the cheap gross-out. McCartney definitely has a very bright future ahead in crafting more great short stories. However, when the whole collection of stories is taken together, I feel like the story connections became distractions rather than enhancing the work. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for new works by McCartney, although I hope they will be in multi-author collections, magazines, or maybe a series of wholly unrelated stories in another collection of just her works.

This was overall a good read! Unsettling but intriguing. My mom has fibromyalgia and I never really understood it so seeing it from this view helped me not be judgmental. Also, I love horror books!!

Thank you for the ARC Netgalley!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating.

This book is a collection of horror stories. I didn’t hate this book but I didn’t love it either. The plots of the stories did not captivate meme. On another note, I felt the author showed they are imaginative in the stories. My favorite story was The Exchange because I enjoyed reading about the monster the main character was tormented by.

Thank you Netgalley and Mallory McCartney for letting me read this ARC!