Things That Go Bump: A Review of Horror Short Story Collection “Long Division”

The short story collection, “Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse and Bad Manners” is an incredible collection from independent publisher, Bad Hand Books. A shivering delight from start to finish, each story plays on the different fears and unsettling creep of societal breakdown. This anthology pulls you into the darkness, quickly and fiercely. I was a massive horror reader for the longest time, I don’t think there was a Stephen King or (going back now) R.L. Stine book I didn’t read. I don’t typically gravitate towards horror now, even though I love it and my own short fiction writing is quite dark. I’m really happy “Long Division” landed in my inbox, because it was such a fun, heart pounding, sometimes disturbing read. 

Featuring tales from familiar voices like Chuck Palahniuk, there were new to me voices like Anna Taborska with “Third-Time Lucy” and Lora Senf with “Blight.  Palahniuk’s “Celeste” is raunchy, absurd and everything I think you can expect from a Palahniuk romp.

Anna Taborska has created a bleak and dim world where classism has gone completely awry, she builds incredible tension and confusion. She explores the impact of dehumanization and how notions of class and worth are still upheld as the infrastructure of our known world collapses.

“Blight” is a story of a mother’s sacrifice and the ways men will destroy everything around them and ultimately the world with their own hubris. The little girl with the fortune telling skin is fascinating with lyrical prose that pulls the reader into this mysterious world.

Cynthia Pelayo’s Mrs. Darling  in “Fire of Roses” is delightfully ominous, I think this was my favourite short story in the collection because of the way it builds and plays with the reader. Horror doesn’t always have to be gory bloodshed, in fact it’s more effective when the horror comes from how people behave.

I really enjoyed Andy Davidsons “The End of the World, After All” for the fluidity in the writing style, it has a feel of Stephen King’s “The End of the Whole Mess”. Deeply flawed people greeting the end of the world in some of the only, typically damaged and damaging, ways they know how.

Recommend to horror and short fiction lovers!

Thanks to Bad Hand Books for providing an early copy for me to review! As of publication (6 November), you can pre-order “Long Division” via their site, it’ll be available to order 12 November.