What a ride! This collection of dark fiction totally brings the suspense and creepy vibes I love. From cursed knives to spooky office hallucinations, each story was uniquely terrifying in its own way. Some left me with chills, others made me squirm—like the one with the family returning to their island vacation home... Yikes!

There’s definitely something for every horror fan in here. A few stories stood out—The Blanks by Grady Hendrix? Absolutely wild, in a good way! And the ending of Jackknife by Joe Hill? A solid punch. I loved how the authors mix dread with those unexpected moments that keep you glued to the page.

A total must-read for dark fiction fans. Big thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Thank you Amazon Original Stories and Netgalley for this ARC! I give five short books an average of 3.75 ⭐️s
Book 1- the Jack Knife by Joe Hill, great story line of Dennis Lange loses his job and wife having an inappropriate relationship with his student, since moving to an Air B&B and walking thru the woods he comes across an evil tree, would love to give 4 stars but TW for animal abuse ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Book 2 - Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones, least fav of the set; during a work meeting when the lights go off and in total darkness, Jennifer can foresee incidents that will happen later that day, writing was very disjointed ⭐️⭐️
Book 3 - The Blanks by Grady Hendricks When Rachel’s family goes to their summer house on Jackel Island it time to see friends and neighbours. When her son sees a Blank no amount of ignoring and pretending it didn’t happen will make this better great writing! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Book 4 - Night & Day in Misery by Catriona Ward - when a woman decides to end it all at the hotel her son died in with her ex husband; how can she see she is worth saving and it’s not time yet ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
book 5 - Letter Slot by Owen King - what if getting out of your shitty life by just writing down someone you hate and you get a little sunshine in your life? What are the consequences? How would you feel? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall average rating: 3.52 stars.

Jackknife by Joe Hill

3.4 stars. Well, I can't say that I exactly enjoyed this one (and not just because a cat dies), but it's kind of creepy in an old school horror sort of way. And of course by “old school horror” I mean classic Stephen King, but I just read a whole thing about how Joe Hill doesn't write under his real name because he wants to “rise and fall on [his] own merits” and not his father's, so it feels wrong to immediately turn around and compare the two. Anyway, I'm not going to say that the sycamore tree is the hero in this story because it obviously has some serious aggression issues to work through, but at the same time I can't bring myself to feel a whole lot of sympathy for Dennis either.


The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones

3 stars. I guess this was entertaining enough, but it's certainly not my favorite Stephen Graham Jones short story (that would be “The Backbone of the World,” which is amazeballs). The scariest bit is probably the boss showing up on a day when she's not supposed to be in the office, because that's some real-life horror right there. Jennifer has a vision, bribes a subordinate into babysitting, and then goes home. The end. Well, okay, maybe there are a few unsettling details that I'm neglecting to mention …


The Blanks by Grady Hendrix

4 stars. Ooh, this one was good in a creepy, disturbing, full of horrifyingly bad decisions sort of way. I loved the way everything was so perfectly normal, just a story about a happy family visiting their summer vacation home, and then … BAM. The (not-so-minor) sacrifices we make in order to live the dream, amirite?


Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward

3.5 stars. I don't know if I'd quite call this one horror? There are supernatural aspects, sure, but mostly it's just sad. Trigger warnings include child death and suicide. A grieving mother retraces the final steps of her child and husband with one goal in mind, but things get weird (and more than a little heartbreaking). I do find it hard to believe that Stella (view spoiler), but I suppose it's not impossible? Still, this is a decent story that's worth the short amount of time it takes to read it.


Letter Slot by Owen King

3.7 stars. This story isn't really scary but it's decently creepy, kind of Stephen King and “The Monkey's Paw” combined, a little predictable but still entertaining. I certainly won't be sticking random letters into the mail slots of derelict houses any time soon, that's for sure. Surprisingly, this is the first thing I've ever read by Owen King, but I'm definitely looking forward to picking up one of his full-length novels soon.

Horror fans can rest easy knowing that there is a collection of stories put together like The Shivers! Five of the most well-known horror authors have contributed a story to the collection.

Joe Hill and Stephen Graham Jones are always hit or miss for me. Not bad stories but not exactly my style. But I loved the other three. Grady Hendrix and Catriona Ward can do no wrong for me.

The stories are bite sized tastes of each author's writing. I highly recommend checking it out if you want to discover some new favorites! I have really enjoyed the past horror collections that Amazon has put together.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward, Owen King, and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read The Shivers. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

A decent collection of stories by some very well known horror writers. I found these stories to be lacklustre compared the these authors other works but worth a quick read. Standouts were The Blanks and Letter Slot. Both definitely fit the creepy vibe the best.

Love a great short story, and better yet, this has five! While not every story was quite a swing and a hit for me, I really liked the majority of them, making this a solid five star average for me. Short stories just fill a great spot for me— they’re JUST long enough to entertain without too much unnecessary fluff and filler. I thought the eerie dread built up in Joe Hill’s story was excellent; the slow burning “something is just not quite right” horror in Grady Hendrix’s story was incredibly satisfying, and I’m somewhere between “this was my favourite Hendrix to date” and “I want a whole novel about WHAT did I just read?”. Owen King’s story was fantastically hair-raising, and Catriona Ward, who was new to me, was one of the high points for me— I loved this idea of bringing readers back to the idea that ghost stories don’t have to be synonymous with evil. The only miss for me was Stephen Graham Jones’ story. It wasn’t bad, I don’t have any major complaints, but I think I missed the point of the ending because it just fell flat for me. I would have liked just a little more plot advancement out of it, and too many unanswered questions were set up.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

The Shivers collection gathers short stories by Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward and Owen King, and all share the ‘hiding supernatural’ as one of their characteristics. That is to say, the irruption of something supernatural in an otherwise common place or situation.
The collection starts with ‘Jacknife’ by Joe Hill, where our doomed main character realizes a sycamore tree seems to be moving. It is a very atmospheric story and the author really makes you feel the same insanity the main character does. However, the treatment of women is kind of problematic and it bears the same curse of his short story in the Creature Feature collection. It could have been, maybe not a full-length novel, but maybe a novella.
Stephen Graham Jones’ ‘The Indigo Room’ was kind of disorienting, which was perfect for the stuff that was happening around the main character. This meeting should have been an e-mail, indeed.
I was very pleasantly surprised by ‘The Blanks’ by Grady Hendrix, because he was amazing at describing a very mundane scenario that suddenly turns creepy and eerie. I really like it when the characters know something the reader does not and the way they react to something that have seen happening before.
As a huge fan of Catriona Ward, ‘Night and Day at Misery’ was a very good character-driven story, full of twists and more than one heartbreaking moment. Her way of making the reader aware of all the sadness and then making them confront the main character’s decision was just perfect.
The last story in the collection is Owen King’s ‘Letter Slot’, which had very similar vibes to The Monkey’s Paw but managed to be its own, independent, story. It also reminded me of a parallel universe version of Pen Pal, so the mix was both intriguing and spooky.

In general, a very eerie and interesting collection of short stories, and an amazing way of adventuring into the wor(l)ds of some of the best horror writers of the moment.

(By the way, Creature Feature collection, 5 men, 1 woman; The Shivers Collection, 4 men (two that already appeared in the Creature Feature), 1 woman)

"For them, good luck and bad luck are like twins that have been separated at birth, and they only ever meet the good one." - Letter Slot by Owen King

The Shivers collection features five authors that bring us stories deep within the realm of the supernatural. Featured are:

📚Jackknife by Joe Hill
A simple knife imbedded in a tree is the beginning of our main character's descent into madness.

📚The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones
The horrors of the modern workplace meet actual horror. When the lights go out and the slideshow begins, middle manager Jennifer has a disturbing vision: a headless colleague right across the boardroom table. Is it a trick of the light, or a vision of the future?

📚The Blanks by Grady Hendrix
Residents have an unspoken pact with the island’s unnatural inhabitants: ignore them, live happily. But Rachel’s son comes face to face with a terror they dare not speak of, she must prepare for their perfect world to change. Forever.

📚Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward
In the gloom of her hotel, a mother readies to rejoin her past. Room 17 was the last stop on her husband and son’s journey. Eight years after their deaths, Stella books the same room to stop her suffering. But as she tries to sleep, disturbing and urgent visions blur the lines between reality and the supernatural.

📚Letter Slot by Owen King
Sensing his mother’s failing health, a struggling teenager pours out his worries in a letter and drops it through the mail slot of an abandoned show house. He’s surprised when a response arrives, promising good fortune for the price of just one name: someone he hates. He’d give anything for his mother. But the true cost may be more than he’s willing to pay.

Honestly each one of these stories were gripping and exciting. They all managed to mask the supernatural in seemingly ordinary things. I have to say two left me speechless but overall this was a dark but entertaining collection to read.

Jackknife- Joe Hill (2 stars)

It gave me the shivers, sure, but I wish there was more about the tree. I wasn't a fan of how the characters talked about the women in their lives. Really just not a story for me.

The Indigo Room- Stephen Graham Jones (3 stars)

My favorite read out of this collection, it was eerie and tense. Loved the story and it had a twist midway through I didn't really expect. Utterly heartbreaking at the end.

The Blanks- Grady Hendrix (2 stars)

Incredibly devastating. I could barely finish it. It was written well and the author obviously wrote the characters well for me to become so invested, but it was really a struggle for me to keep reading.

Night and Day in Misery- Catriona Ward (2 stars)

A very sad story about what a woman would do to reunite with her son after a tragic accident. I thought the jumps from what we thought were reality to her dreams was interesting, and the ending was a little creepy. It was okay!

The Letter Slot- Owen King (3 stars)

I really liked this one! Not super shiver-worthy but definitely gives spooky vibes.

This was a very solid collection of 5 short stories that each had an emotional core and lots of creepy imagery. I think my favourite of the collection was 'The Blanks' by Grady Hendrix, which had a great sense of impending dread throughout. I also enjoyed 'The Indigo Room' by Stephen Graham Jones and 'Letter Slot' by Owen King, which had a good monkey's paw vibe.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Based on my individual story ratings, I’d say overall this was about 3.5 stars for me. There were a few stories that weren’t for me, but that’s totally okay! That’s the joy in reading a collection of short stories, hopefully there will be something for everyone.

My favorite was The Blanks. It reminded me of the Red Tide story from AHS Double Feature.

The Shivers collection brings together some of the best and most original voices in horror and delivers chills directly to the heart of readers!

Joe Hill - Jackknife
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’re a fan of the Saw franchise then this might be the best story for you!

Joe Hill writes his characters in such a way that it isn’t hard to hate them, but I think that is part of the point! The character in this story isn’t the best morality wise, but readers get a chance to explore that and decide how to interpret. However, this was a great heavy impact story for a short story!

Stephen Graham Jones - The Indigo Room

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Never would I have expected a Final Destination-esque story from Stephen Graham Jones but he delivered! This story was creepy, intense, and the end delivers an emotional sucker-punch. Fans of Stephen Graham Jones are going to love The Indigo Room.

Grady Hendrix - The Blanks
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grady Hendrix has such a talent for suburban horror. The Blanks brings Jeckle Island to life on the page. Idyllic, but with deadly secrets for any who dare to see the Blanks and are seen in return. This was a surprisingly emotional story. It was dark and the end of this story made me uneasy. It’s a disturbing and excellent story!

Catriona Ward - Night and Day In Misery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Catriona Ward knows how to write characters on the brink. Night and Day in Misery is soul crushing. It’s hopeless and disturbing but also full of hope and beautiful. Following a mother truly on the brink, this story had twists and turns galore for a short story. Definitely excellent and glad it was in this collection!

Owen King - Letter Slot

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Owen King delivers a short story with a punch like Stephen King’s The Monkey mixed with Pen Pal by Dathan Auerbach. It’s chilling and creepy, and made stare at the shadows in my room for too long. It’s a slow build with disconcerting feelings and suspense, and the last sentence had my jaw on the floor!

This is such a powerfully collection! You absolutely have to check these out because these stories are going to be the TALK of the Spring season and you don’t want to miss out!

Big thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this excellent collection of longer short stories from some of the most respected writers in modern horror. I’ve read books by both Stephen Graham Jones (Only the Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw, Grow Up Dead In Texas, Buffalo Hunter Hunter) and Catriona Ward (Sundial), but I’ve never read anything by Owen King, Grady Hendrix, and Joe Hill. I have books on my to-read shelf by all of them, but haven’t had the chance, so this collection provided me with an opportunity to get a shorter glimpse of their work, and it definitely doesn’t disappoint. I typically love short story collections, even when they are by different authors. Although the stories are somewhat longer (between 35-50 pages), the stories are all engaging and exciting. I was constantly turning the page, and the plot development throughout the stories, along with some interesting characters made me want to continue the stories. Although these stories are linked within the horror genre, I wouldn’t say that they are all true horror; rather, some of the stories are more like weird tales, akin to something you’d see on the Twilight Zone (Graham Jones’ “The Indigo Room” and King’s “Letter Slot”). Other stories deal with a kind of creature or monster horror (Hill’s “Jackknife” and Hendrix’s “The Blanks”), while Ward’s story “Night and Day in Misery” was a ghost story, but one more like the Nicholas Roeg film Don’t Look Now, which is based on Daphne du Maurier story. In fact, the story is almost about grief and sorrow that follow the death of a loved one, and the desire to communicate with them once more. In addition to genre similarities (or lack thereof), the stories almost all focus on death, especially deaths of children or loved ones. It’s definitely somewhat upsetting, but at the same time, it might make you appreciate your loved ones even more after reading some of these stories (especially Hendrix and Ward).
Overall, this is a great collection, but I do think that some of the stories stand out more than others for different reasons. Furthermore, all the writers have different voices, and the stories are also tonally different. The first story, “Jackknife” is by Joe Hill, and it is about a flawed man, Dennis, whose mistakes cost him his marriage and his job. He’s been exiled to a dilapidated rental home in rural Maine where he encounters a strange tree that appears to be moving as he contemplates his next moves in the wreckage of his life. This story had both humor and horror. Dennis was just a mess, and it was interesting to see how as his life is unravelling, he somehow confronts an evil tree. I know it sounds strange, but the tree details are really creepy, and Hill is able to create an eerie and strange vibe in the woods. While I didn’t really feel bad for Dennis, he wasn’t a completely evil person, but there were points where readers are left wondering whether all of the changes may have left him mentally unstable or whether there really is an evil tree outside of his window.
The next story, “The Indigo Room”, was more like a Twilight Zone episode, although there is some blood and dismemberment in the story. I definitely enjoyed the ending, and Graham captured some of the workplace office environment well. I also appreciated that he left a note of thanks that explained how the story came about. Jennifer is a manager in an office, and she’s been through a divorce. During a meeting, she witnesses something strange with some of her co-workers during a colleague’s presentation. This ultimately disrupts the meeting, and her son, who needs to be picked up early from school, further threatens to disrupt her day. However, due to office policies, employees are not allowed to have children there. She ends up having to bribe one of the people she manages to watch her son. During this time, she gains some clarity around the visions she witnessed during the meeting. I almost felt like this story was more cinematic than written, and I think that this would work well as a short episode in a horror anthology.
“The Blanks” by Grady Hendrix was the next story, and the narrator of this story is a mother of 2 who is departing for a summer vacation with her family on an island. Most of the story seems relatively normal. The family talks about their plans, and the narrator is especially looking forward to the seasonal rituals of being on vacation. She’s particularly protective of the children. While the island seems ideal, something happened last season with her neighbors, and now no one will talk to them. They don’t even let her on the ferry. It’s strange and not explained until a later event in the book. This story had a dramatic twist, and kind of shifted in its tone towards the end. I enjoyed it, especially since we see what seems to be a fun and traditional vacation spot where people engage in common summer rituals, but something under the surface is strange and dangerous. Like “Jackknife”, there’s not much explanation for “The Blanks”, but I think that makes the story all the more mysterious and strange. It’s left me with a lot of questions and opportunities to draw my own conclusions, which I really enjoyed about this story.
“Night and Day in Misery” was probably the most emotional stories I read. I’ve only read one other book by Catriona Ward, and it was so thrilling. This story isn’t as exciting, but it still has a large emotional impact. I was finishing the book at the gym, and I was afraid I was going to cry. Stella is a widow, who lost her child and husband in a car accident. She plans to spend the night in the motel where they stayed right before the accident and visit the scene of the accident 8 years after it happened. Stella reflects on her last conversation with her husband, and how it ended with a fight, making their deaths even more tragic for Stella since she blames herself. However, when she visits the hotel, she begins to experience some strange events, seeing the ghost of her son. I was blown away by this story, and I felt like this could be in almost any kind of anthology since it has that kind of dramatic revelation at the end that is so powerful and really makes you think about not only the events in the story, but also about events in your own life. This story was probably the least horrifying, but at the same time, it is a tragic and sad ghost tale.
The last story also had some irony in it. Owen King’s “Letter Slot” was also an interesting story that kind of reminded of stories like “The Monkey’s Paw”, where people learn to be careful what they wish for. The story follows Blake, a high school sophomore, and his single mother, Wendy Price, whose health has been compromised due to an accidental fall down the stairs. This accident and the injuries she sustained cause Wendy to lose her job, her health insurance, and eventually her home, where they have to move into a smaller and more run-down apartment. Blake encounters an old house with a mail slot, and he sends a writing assignment about a letter to an advisor about his life through the slot. This initiates a responding letter from an unknown writer who shares that “good luck and bad luck are like twins that have been separated at birth” and that events can change over time, and in Blake’s case, with the help of this mysterious correspondent. This was also a great read, and I was really surprised by the end. It was interesting to see how this event and learning about the power of the mail slot and the house transformed Blake, in some ways. Blake, and the story, also raise important questions about the cost of happiness and equality in our society. Again, another story that presents some interesting ideas that made me continue to think about it even after reading the story.
I really enjoyed all of these stories, and even though the topics are dark, many of the stories made me think and question some ideas and conceptions about the events in the stories, characters’ motivations, and my own experiences with my family. This is probably not a book for everyone, but if you look weird horror tales, then this is a great book for you. Many of the stories seem familiar, but also take readers into new and compelling places, whether it is through the plot, the characters, or the setting.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Wow, it's rare to go through a short story collection where every story is a real knockout, but I should have expected as much with this all star cast! Some were more impressive than others of course, but I really enjoyed these.

This is a nice collection of work, but out of the five stories in this collection, two (Jackknife and Letter Slot) were exceptional and merited five stars. These are the type of creepy, morally gray stories that I find intriguing. Would love to see more collections like this!

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this book!

The Shivers Collection brings together a powerhouse lineup of horror's most acclaimed voices—Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward, and Owen King—for a chilling, unforgettable anthology. Each author brings their signature style to the table, from Hill’s haunting storytelling to Hendrix’s dark humor, Jones’s raw intensity, Ward’s gothic mastery, and King’s eerie imagination. Whether you're a longtime horror fan or new to the genre, this collection will keep your heart racing and your lights on. A must-read for anyone who craves the spine-tingling thrill of expertly crafted horror.

I absolutely LOVED this collection. Each of these stories is unsettling on some level and truly did give me the shivers! I already know and love Joe Hill, SGJ, and Grady Hendrix, but I’d never read Catriona Ward or Owen King before, and I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed them and want to seek out more of their work. Here are my brief thoughts on each story (brief because I don’t want to give too much away – I went into each of these stories blind, and I’m glad I did, so read ahead at your own discretion!)

Jackknife by Joe Hill (4 stars)

Jackknife is the first in the collection, and it’s a pretty good yarn. A guy finds a jackknife stuck in a tree, where it has obviously been used to carve some cryptic messages, and he decides to take it home. Little does he know, that jackknife was serving a pretty important purpose right where it was. This story is creepy and weird, and I had a good time with it.

The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones (4 stars)

We’ve all been spoiled with the sheer amount of SGJ content lately! I wouldn’t consider The Indigo Room to be among his best work, but that just means it’s more on a level with what other writers can do rather than leagues ahead of them. (Sorry, super-fangirl talking!) In this story, weird lighting in an office meeting room gives a woman what she thinks is a hallucination involving two of her co-workers. Or was she actually seeing a glimpse of their futures? This doesn’t feel like a typical SGJ story, but it’s still creepy and bloody, and I enjoyed it.

The Blanks by Grady Hendrix (5 stars)

This was definitely my favourite of the bunch. A typical American family heads off to their comfortable, decadent summer home in paradise, only to find that the perfect life sometimes requires a bit of a sacrifice. The Blanks is powerful, unsettling, and extremely timely in its allegory. It’s amazing what people can be willing to gaslight themselves about. This one will make you think.

Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward (3.5 stars)

My least favourite of the collection, but still a great short story. Night and Day in Misery follows a woman who is retracing the final hours of her dead husband and child. What she finds are answers to questions she didn’t know to ask. This one is haunting in more of a melancholy way than straight-up scary, but there are certainly some chilling moments. I really enjoyed Ward’s writing, but the story had much different vibes from the others, which does it a bit of a disservice by comparison.

Letter Slot by Owen King (5 stars)

My second-favourite of the collection. In Letter Slot, a 15-year-old boy, whose father is dead and whose mother is working two jobs while extremely ill, sends an anonymous thought-experiment letter through the mail slot of an abandoned house. You can probably guess what happens next, but you’ll probably be surprised at where this story ends up going. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it until the very last paragraph, at which point I had to give it 5 stars. What a perfect way to end this unsettling collection of stories!

Overall, I give this collection 4 or maybe 4.5 stars. I highly recommend checking it out!

•Jack Knife by Joe Hill: Five stars
I loved the setting and the imperfect characters. This short story would work very well being adapted into a film.

•The Indigo Room by Stephen GrahamJones: DNFed
Unfortunately, this one could not hold my attention, so I stopped about halfway through.

•The Blanks by Grady Hendrix: Four stars
My only real complaint about this one is that I think it would've worked better as a full length novel. Otherwise, I thought it was really spooky and atmospheric.

•Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward: Three stars
This one was just okay in my book. The story was really interesting, but the characters lacked depth.

•Letter Slot by Owen King: Three stars
This one was the opposite of Catriona Ward's for me. The story lacked depth, but the characters were really interesting. Not very likable, but I expect that in a story of this nature.

Horror short stories from my favorite authors never misses. I could read these forever. They’re the perfect mix of creepy and unsettling.

Thank you for the chance to review this collection!

Joe Hill’s - Jackknife and Owen Hill’s - Letter Slot were my favorites in the collection

Jackknife and Letter Slot were both 4 ⭐️ reads.

Jackknife was great. I will be questioning all trees the next time I go on a hike.

Letter Slot, wow what an ending! Owen definitely channeled his father with this one. Very reminiscent of Stephen’s The Answer Man. Letter was probably my favorite within the collection.