If you’re looking to ease into spooky season with some familiar names in horror, The Shivers Collection is a great pick to add to your September or October TBR. This horror anthology brings together short stories from some of the genre’s most beloved authors—including Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward, and Owen King—each contributing their unique flavor of fright to the mix.

While the collection doesn't quite deliver the spine-tingling fear the title promises, it still offers an enjoyable and engaging ride through a range of creepy concepts and unsettling tales. Though not terrifying, The Shivers Collection is undeniably fun and perfect for readers who enjoy short, eerie stories that are more about atmosphere and weirdness than full-blown terror. It’s a solid anthology that might not keep you up at night—but it will keep you turning the pages.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Originals for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really solid collection overall, I would rate it a solid 4/5. Each short story was very unique in their writing style, subject matter, and execution, but the common threads that bound them together were themes of anger, revenge, loss, and uncertainty that sometimes got pretty dark. There are some trigger warnings for child loss, abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, so do be a aware of that, but in most cases those were central ideas of the story and the authors navigated those issues really well.

The stand out stories in this collection (for me) were "The Blanks", and "Night and Day in Misery", but all of the stories were strong.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

5 horror stories to keep you up at night
dark, disturbing and sad. i was on the verge of tears for most of Night and Day in Misery
Cursed trees, modern political workplace horror, islands with secret inhabitants, a supernatural hotel and a dangerously anonymous letter, i couldnt expect more from some of the best authors in horror!

I really, really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Of course, anyone who knows me could just look at the list of authors and guess that I would. Ha.

But honestly, I'm not usually a short story person. I've been reading Stephen King for 20+ years and have read everything he's ever written -- except several of his short story collections. I'm just not that into them. I've been remedying that over the last couple of years and decided to branch beyond King and into this collection which, admittedly, includes works from two of his sons.

Overall, I thought the collection rated an easy 3.5 stars -- maybe even 4.

SGJ's story was the weakest of the five (see my review for it here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229214157-the-indigo-room). And even so, I still thought it was a solid 3-star story. I gave 4 stars each to the other four stories.

My favorite in the collection was Owen King's "Letter Slot," follow closely by both Catriona Ward's and Grady Hendrix's stories. (I couldn't choose between them. They were both excellent.)

To be short stories, all five were well-developed and full of the kinds of twists and turns that make old-school horror fun. If you like the things that go bump in the night, this one is a must-read.

Since the Creature Feature collection a couple years ago, I’ve been hoping Amazon would do another one of these! It’s great seeing Joe Hill back, who wrote one of the two stories I liked best from the aforementioned collection — my impression of his stories has not changed, it seems, though I can’t say it’s overly favourable. It’s also great to see another Grady Hendrix story, even though I usually don’t end up loving his works (my relationship with his books is a true love-hate situation).

The present Shivers collection, I have to be honest, did not give me any. And this is coming from a self-confessed coward who freaks out big time when it comes to paranormal horror. Don’t get me wrong, I love supernatural horror that I can read without losing my sanity to utter fear for months, but these did not provide the thrills either. If anything, I’d say this should have been the Sorrow collection, as it’s the overarching theme across these stories — if not the sorrow of the main character, there’s at least the sorrow of the side character (looking at Jackknife by Joe Hill).

Viewed from that lens, my impression of this collection becomes much more favourable, as I love sad stories: the more emotional, the better. I also do not ever mind such a take on horror, it might even be my favourite!

In short, I would not recommend this collection to those seeking scary horror that will send chills down your spine or will dwell on the horrific (most of the time it’s closed door horror, or quickly skipped), but I would recommend it to those seeking an expression of sorrow through horror.

In Joe Hill’s Jackknife, a disgraced sociologist faces a tree poisoned by an evil not too far off from his own offences.

In Stephen Graham Jones’s The Indigo Room, a working mother faces the grim fates awaiting people around her.

In Grady Hendrix’s The Blanks, a family faces the one risk they thought they could evade while thriving in a social paradise.

In Catriona Ward’s Night and Day in Misery, a mother faces the tragic loss of her child almost a decade ago.

In Owen King’s Letter Slot, a teenager faces the mortality of his mother and the prices he’s willing to face not to be so down on their lucks.

Sorrow barges into the characters’ lives under a variety of forms, leaving the reader emotionally impacted in their wake.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #AmazonOriginalStories for the collection of stories #Shivers by #JoeHill #CatrionaWard #StephenGrahamJones #GradyHendrix and #OwenKing. I love horror books and this definitely hit the spot. Loved it! Each story told a scary instance that sends chills up your spine.

A nice mix of short stories dealing with loss and grief in different ways. The final story by Owen King was a surprise having never read any of his prior work. Looking forward to more collections like this.

There were no shivers. The concept behind The Blanks most intrigued me and the rest had interesting plots but felt lackluster. There's only so much suspense you can put in stories as short as these though.

The Shivers collection was a fun romp through the minds of some of my VERY favorite horror authors and to say I was excited about reading this collection would be an understatement. I think each story will appeal to different horror fans but I will list them in order from my most favorite to least and then you can read and decide for yourself (although I enjoyed them all)!

1. "Letter Slot" by Owen King - 4.25 stars. As the cowritten book Sleeping Beauties is the only work of Owen King I have read (and did not really enjoy) I never would have guessed that he would have my favorite story in the collection. In "Letter Slot" high schooler Blake is worried about his mom's declining health and money problems. One day on his walk home from school he drops a letter with his concerns in the letter slot of an abandoned model home in his neighborhood and is surprised to find a response on his bed the next day. Can his mysterious friend "Pal" save his mother or just bring more death and destruction to his life?
This one would be GREAT to discuss in book clubs because I feel like once you find out more about Pal the greater implications would make for a fascinating discussion. The open ending is one of those that everyone could debate about for a long time as well.

2. "The Blanks" by Grady Hendrix - 4 stars. Hendrix and Ward are my two favorite horror authors so this list was extremely hard for me to rank. And while I maybe enjoyed reading their stories equally at the time, "The Blanks" just stuck with me a lot longer. In "The Blanks", families leave New York City for the season to enjoy their summer homes and schmooze with their neighbors. Everything is perfect except for those "blanks" that no one is allowed to talk about. But if you don't look at the blanks or think about the blanks or walk near the blanks what are your chances of being hurt by one? These summers of bliss far outweigh anything you could encounter from a blank. This is another one that would be great for a book club discussion. A lot of things could be said about people of wealth "looking the other way" in order to be comfortable with their surroundings. Grady Hendrix always seems to have themes of social injustice running through his stories, but if you just want to be creeped out by a story and not think any deeper, that works for this one as well!

3. "Night and Day in Misery" by Catriona Ward - 4 stars. I also very much enjoyed this Catriona Ward story - grief horror about a mother who travels to the hotel where her 2 year old son died eight years ago in order to confront the mistakes she made that day. The story travels back and forth from current day to the day that her son died and all of this is a bit hard to read but very well done. Like many women in abusive relationships, Stella still blames herself for all of the things she could have/would have/should have done to change her husband's behavior on the night of her son's death. The tragedy of this story is balanced by the touching relationship with Stella and her sister as well as by dreams of a small boy in her hotel room. This one is heartbreaking and touching more so than scary but there are still some spooky moments for sure.

4. "Jackknife" by Joe Hill - 3 stars. Similar to the previous two stories, I had trouble rating which of these I liked better (especially because The Only Good Indians by SGJ is one of my favorite horror novels), but I think Jackknife just stuck with me a bit more (no pun intended).
In Jackknife a college professor is dealing with a scandal with one of his students and has been kicked out of his home. While staying in a nearby rental property he encounters a tree in the woods that appears to move to different parts of the trail each day. As more and more things in his life begin to spiral he pulls an old jackknife from the tree and things go from bad to worse.

5. "The Indigo Room" by Stephen Graham Jones - 3 stars. In "The Indigo Room" the main character, Jennifer, is a newly divorced mom who is trying to juggle her cutthroat career with parenthood. One day in a staff meeting in the indigo room, Jennifer has a vision of several coworkers with missing body parts and proceeds to have a bit of a meltdown. As her day unfolds and the drama builds I definitely felt the pressure of the "work/life balance" that often feels impossible for all of us to achieve.

All of these stories deal with loss/tragedy/grief/longing/heartache and could make for a bigger discussion or just be a creepy story to read in bed at night. This was a very enjoyable collection.

I absolute love all these authors and was delighted to read this collection! It did not disappoint,

#NetGalley

A collection of five short stories from writers of horror, this is an uneven but entertaining collection of speculative and imaginative ideas.

#1 Jackknife by Joe Hill where an unlikeable man who’s lost his job and his wife due to a sexting scandal is walking in the woods in despair when he comes across an old gnarled sycamore tree covered in engravings and warnings. What follows is creepy and very unsettling in this atmospheric and eerie tale.

#2 The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones sees horror enter the workplace as A female manager sees something bizarre in the middle of a meeting, which foreshadows a series of horrific events. But as horrific as those are, there’s even worse than that foretold for her own family’s future. This is quite a disturbing story, which definitely gave me the shivers!

#3 The Blanks by Grady Hendrix features a family holidaying, as they do most summers, on Jeckle Island. It sounds idyllic with it’s comfortable, run-down houses and sunny beaches, but there is something darker on the island, whose rules the visitors must respect and never speak of unless they are ready for the consequences. Fast paced, very creepy and heartbreaking. Would make a terrific novel.

#4 Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward tells of a mother visiting the total room where her husband and little boy spent their last night before they died eight years ago. It’s a sad and harrowing tale with a spooky touch of paranormal, but heartbreaking more than horrific.

#5 Letter Slot by Owen King is my personal favourite. A teenage boy worried about his mother’s failing health and her ability to meet their bills despite working two jobs, finds a way to make good fortune come their way. Definitely too good to be true as he soon discovers in this dark and twisty Faustian tale. Clever and unsettling!

Jack Knife

This is a good psychological horror/nature horror that will get under your skin.

The Indigo Room

I think this was one of the weakest of the stories in the bunch. Just didn’t like it.

Night and Day in Misery

This story fell flat for me. It wasn’t even creepy. This was more of a story of a mother losing her son in an accident that she uncovers. This novel shows her emotional hardship through out the book.

Letter Slot

This book wasn’t that scary but it did have a dark twist to it. Still a great story that had dire consequences.

The Blanks
by Grady Hendrix is apart of The Shivers Collection. This short horror story is about the things that people ignore to maintain the lives they want to live. The supernatural part is you don't see them until the very end.
I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

Jackknife - 3 stars

Dennis, staying at an Airbnb after an extramarital affair with his student has him kicked out by his wife, finds himself somewhat haunted by an aggressive and deadly sycamore tree.

I wish this was a little longer and didn't end so abruptly. It was fine and set up an eerie atmosphere well but I didn't find myself caring for any of the characters. It is giving classic horror short story vibes though

The Indigo Room - 1.5 stars

The Indigo Room follows Jennifer, a single mother who starts seeing things no one else can see after the lights go out in a corporate meeting. Is it a trick of the light or a vision of the future?

This story is short and not so sweet. Whilst it has a hint of intrigue and potential it misses the mark from a genre perspective.

A good horror story has tension, atmosphere and real stakes. Unfortunately, this story has none of the above

The Blanks - 4 stars

The Blanks follows Rachel and her family as they vacation at their holiday home on Jeckle Island. Picturesque and serene they relax with their friends and neighbors until her son sees something he shouldn't and their lives are forever changed.

Hendrix does well in creating a spine-chilling atmosphere that raises the hair on the back of the reader's neck. Written in 1st person perspective you really get a feel for Rachel's fear and sense of despair.

My only real criticism is I wanted more. This could easily have been expanded into a full length novel and I would have eaten it up.

Night and Day in Misery - 5 stars

Night and Day in Misery follows Stella, a grieving widow and mother retracing her late husband and son's last steps before their tragic deaths, 8 years after their passing. She intends to follow them to her grave, but on her journey she discovers the truth of what really happened that fateful day.

I would say I am quite an emotive reader, but even so it is rare that an author can inspire such a visceral reaction from me in just 35 pages.

As a reader you get such an inherent feeling of dread, knowing Stella's intentions but with the almost dramatic irony of knowing there was more to the past than what Stella knew. On more than one occasion I got full body goosebumps as the twists were slowly revealed.

I wouldn't necessarily call this horror in the sense that it wasn't scary, though there are paranormal elements to the story.

Letter Slot - 3.5 stars

Letter Slot follows Blake, the son of a struggling single mother. After he pours his feelings into an anonymous letter and posts it through the letterbox of a show house, he receives a reply from an interested party offering a deal that seems too good to be true.

Letter Slot is a pretty middle of the road short story, fitting that this is my 3rd favourite of the 5 stories in this collection. It lacks a true eerie atmosphere but makes up for that with tension and slight gore in a story about brutal consequences.

I wouldn't say you necessarily root for the character given his arbitrary reasonings for some of his actions but King manages to make the reader truly empathize with Blake and his circumstances.

I wasn't expecting the twist near the end, but it didn't really add anything to the story.

Average 3.4/5 rounded down

As with all short story collections, this one was mixed. I think my issue with short stories is always that I want MORE. The premise of these stories are all interesting, but all of the stories are quite short (like less than 50 pages each?) so they all sort of left me thinking about how they could have been expanded? I'll be honest and say that none of these really blew me away, but that being said it was a fun little collection.

My favorites were the ones by Grady Hendrix and Catriona Ward, which will surprise no one, lol.

More detailed thoughts on each story:

<b> Jackknife by Joe Hill </b>
I think that Joe Hill’s story in this collection actually worked the best for the format (ie as a short story). I don't think that necessarily this would have been better if it were longer, which is not how I felt about some of the other stories in the collection. It's a little surreal which I liked, and definitely creepy. I did like this one, but it wasn’t my favorite of the bunch. I would probably give this one to 3.5 out of 5 stars


<b> The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones </b>
I love SGJ but this was not for me. It kind of made me feel like i just didn't 'get' it, lol. Like, huh? Probably 2 stars.

<b> The Blanks by Grady Hendrix </b>
This one was unsettling, haha. This was the type of story though where I feel like if I had a little bit more detail about what was going on on this island I would have maybe appreciated it more. that's just how I am as a reader, I really like to have a background fully flushed out and to kind of understand the lore of the creepy thing that's happening. That being said, readers who don't necessarily care so much about that kind of detail will probably really love this one. 4/5 stars.

<b>Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward</b>
I love a good ghost story. This one felt more sad than scary but i still loved it. 4/5 stars.

<b>Letter Slot by Owen King</b>
I liked this one too but again, wished it were longer, with more detail and lore!!! 3/5 stars.

I enjoyed the Shivers Collection from Amazon. In each story, something isn't quite 'right' with reality, whether it is vindictive tree or a haunting for example. The story by Catriona Ward is my favorite in the collection. I also like how each story takes less than a hour to read, perfect to fit in here and there during the day. 4 stars.

Jack knife by Joe Hill- 3 ⭐️s
The Indigo Room by SGJ- 3 ⭐️s
Blanks by Grady Hendrix- 5 ⭐️s
Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward- 4 ⭐️s
Letter Slot by Owen King/ 3 ⭐️s

Worth it for Hendrix’s story alone but I enjoyed them all.

As always, collection of very solid short stories.

I really enjoyed this set, the selected authors were fantastic! I’m looking forward to the next collection.

This was fun!
I think these stories don't start off super strong but definitely get better and better as they go on.
I really enjoyed coming back to this collection every few days just to inject an ensured bit of spook into my day.

Thank you Amazon Original Stories & Joe Hill, Stephen Graham, Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward & Owen King.

I look forward to this collection every year, A team of horror authors who no doubt keep me hooked from start to finish. This collection I read a mix of ebook and audiobook.

This collection was definitely a mixed bag for me. Below are my ratings & details -

Jack knife - Joe Hill
3.5/5 Stars

Provided some spooky moments and it was quite fast paced. Felt I enjoyed but didn't love. Was missing something to take it to the next level but overall was a decent read.

The Indigo Room - Stephen Graham Jones
3/5

Felt this could have been so much creepier, I was a little underwhelmed. Some spooky moments but in some parts I did find myself drifting.

The Blanks - Grady Hendrix
4.5/5

My fav of the whole collection. This one was unsettling and finished off so well. It was creepy in the best ways and the ending did give me shivers!

Night & Day in Misery - Catriona Ward
4/5

See audiobook review for more details

Letter Slot - Owen King
3/5

See audioook review for more details

OVERALL I give this collection a 4/5. Some goodies and some just ok. But a solid horror collection that'll appeal to a range of readers.