NOTE: The publicist graciously gave me a copy of this book and asked me to write a review.

To paraphrase that well-known philosopher, Forrest Gump, “An anthology is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” That’s especially the case when the subject matter of the short stories in the anthology is quite broad and somewhat ill-defined. And that’s especially, especially the case when the authors of those stories are relatively unknown. Yet, even though “The Outcast Hours”, a collection of 25 short stories edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, manages to check all the cautionary boxes, this anthology proves to be quite tasty indeed.

The theme of “The Outcast Hours,” as the editors explain in their introduction, is the night, or, more specifically, people who live their lives primarily at night. However, the individual authors don’t always stick too closely to that central theme (there’s nary a vampire to be found); in fact, in several of the tales, the lack of sunlight plays at best a minor part in the story. And while the tone of many of the stories is somewhat dark, there are a couple of more humorous ones to be found as well, including one of my favorites, “The Dental Gig,” by S.L. Grey, which turns the familiar children’s legend of the tooth fairy into a case study of a ruthless corporate big business run by those very same fairies.

What struck me most about “The Outcast Hours” wasn’t the time of day that the action, with a couple of rare exceptions, takes place, but, rather, the tremendous breadth of these stories, both geographically and in terms of theme. These tales take place all over the world, from New York to Los Angeles to Vancouver to Karachi to Cairo to South Africa to Austria to England and all parts in between. These varied locales shouldn’t come as a surprise to readers since the authors themselves and their editors similarly hail from the four corners of the world. As far as genres are concerned, some might expect “The Outcast Hours” to contain a heavy dose of horror, considering the theme, but that’s surprisingly not the case. The book includes all sorts of stories, from action thrillers to real-life dramas to speculative science fiction to fantasy, with, of course, a few chillers thrown in for good measure.

It’s always a good idea in an anthology to get off to a strong start, and the editors lead with one of the best stories in the collection, “This Book Will Find You,” by a trio of authors: Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen. It’s a variation on a very familiar theme in occult fiction, that of bringing someone back from the dead. The narrator of the story is a young woman whose lover has died recently and who can’t cope with the loss. One night (yes, this is one story that fits in with the nighttime theme), she finds a book at her door with a multi-step spell that, if followed precisely, will return a dead person to life. Naturally, she tries to use the spell to revive her dead lover. But, as anyone who has ever read a similar story can tell you, these spells never work as the spellcaster intends. What makes this story fascinating, however, is just how things go wrong, and it’s not one big shock either. Instead, the authors have dropped some subtle clues into the narration that gradually reveal the entire story surrounding the loved one’s death, leading to a shocking twist at the end that delivers quite a jolt.

Author Jesse Bullington explores another familiar horror theme (and one that’s definitely associated with the night) in “Above the Light.” This one is a story about two childhood friends who enjoy taking long nighttime hikes together. As one who has done his share of daytime hiking, I can tell you that many outdoor trails can be treacherous after dark. Still, these two friends have been doing it for over 20 years, planning their annual vacations around new locales to explore. Their latest venture takes them to Austria, where, thanks to oodles of foreshadowing, they learn that several hikers have disappeared in the last few years from this small town, and several of the locals even go out of their way to tell the pair that nighttime hiking is illegal. Here, the surprise isn’t that they encounter something bizarre (that’s pretty much a given), but what that bizarre is, which turns out to quite different from what I expected.

For a change of pace, as well as for proof that a good writer can build a story around virtually anything, Sally Partridge’s “The Collector” does involve collecting, but not of the morbid variety one might imagine from having seen a few too many horror films. Instead, the title refers to e-bay collectibles, which a South African security guard acquires from flea markets, yard sales, and the like and then sells at inflated prices to those wanting, say, an authentic My Little Pony doll. But when Bennie, the guard, tries to sell the toy, he gets ripped off by the would-be buyer. That winds up being a poor decision on the thief, part; let’s just say that the buyer didn’t realize who he was trying to rob. "The Collector" is a taut, hardboiled story built around as the most innocuous McGuffin imaginable.

Then, there are the stories in “The Outcast Hours” that I really can’t talk about too much without completely spoiling them, including “Gatsby” by Maha Khan Phillips. The titular Gatsby here is the F. Scott Fitzgerald character, and Fitzgerald’s book serves as the theme for a lavish Roaring 20s-themed New Year’s Eve party thrown in, of all places, Karachi. The host, like Gatsby, is a mysterious businessman who has recently come to town, and a bored party guest runs into him sitting by himself away from the hubbub. You’ll have to read the story for yourself to find out what happens next, but I will say that the story diverges considerably from the plot of Fitzgerald’s novel, and in a direction I never expected.

While many of the stories in “The Outcast Hours” seem to exist in different sorts of alternate fictional night worlds, a couple of the tales hit on very topical and all-too-real themes in this world (all of the stories were written in 2018). “It Was a Different Time” by Will Hill looks at the #MeToo movement from a different perspective, as a fading, former big-time actor talks with a night clerk at a Hollywood hotel at length about the actor’s “romantic” experiences in the Tinseltown of old. As the story unfolds, it’s clear to the clerk that this man in his heyday would have given Harvey Weinstein a run for his money. Equally topical is “This Place of Thorns,” by Marina Warner, a story about a Middle Eastern woman trying to flee the all-too-real terror of civil war, only to find her way blocked by a boundary fence in the middle of the desert. Both stories present thought-provoking fictional perspectives on two very real, pressing issues of the day.

“The Outcast Hours” is certainly not a perfect anthology. There are three or four duds mixed in, as well as a couple of tales that start well and then fizzle out by the end (of course, as with any collection, an individual reader’s opinion about these stories may vary). Still, about three-quarters of the stories range from good to excellent, and that’s a pretty good ratio, considering the nature of the book and the wide variety of authorial backgrounds. The editors are to be commended for their skill and judgment in assembling a group of stories that include several that will stay with readers for quite a few nights. The tales in “The Outcast Hours” may take place at night, but they make for good reading 24 hours a day.

Short stories with one theme to tie them all together - the Night.

As with short story anthologies, some I liked much more than others, but they were all interesting.

Anything Frances Hardinge is good by me! A shame I couldn’t get to this before the cutoff date, but so it goes.

This book earned a spot as one of my favourites. It got me out of a huge reading slump and was just amazing. I love the world and characters and plot. The book did drag for like the first 150-200 pages but only due to world building and the such. Once you get through that, it is unbelievable. The found family is just heart warming .

A fun collection. It took me awhile to make my way through it since a few of these stories were misses.

A Wildly Mixed Bag

Different styles, different genres, different tones and colors, there's a little bit of everything in this collection. It's a fine book for dipping and skimming, and there are a few gems, ("The Book Will Find You", "Blind Eye", "Ambulance Service"). Of most importance, this is not like many anthologies that hide a few decent stories amongst a slew of second rate or amateurish tales. While you're almost certain to rate a couple of tales above the others, almost all of them have at least something interesting going for them. In the world of lightly-themed anthologies that strikes me as about as good as it gets.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

It’s difficult to give feedback on anthologies as there are lots of different stories by various authors. However I DNF’d this at 48% as I was not enjoying any of the stories. The short amount of pages they got was not enough for these stories and I felt like they were cut off before they started to make any sense.

My Rating : 3.5🌟
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Kindle / Netgalley/ April 2020
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<i> Thank you so much Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way. </i>
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This book is an anthology that covers stories based on the concept of night time. With tons of genres to read about, this book is every reader's dream come true (As in you find your element and favourites)
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First, I love the fact this book has a common plot theme to it. A lot of anthologies covers single genre but I haven't seen any that does a concept like this. There were a lot of stories I found that was done really well even when it was in a setting I don't usually read. For example, Sci-Fi, but I loved it in this !
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Second, I loved that not all stories were short per se and had it's own twist to it. 'What happens during a night time' seems to be the common concept, but there were a lot of different perspective and tone in each story that it did not feel monotonous.
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Overall, I would definitely recommend if you are new to Anthology or short story !

Quite a lovely anthology! I usually am not a fan of short story collections but this was incredible!! Every story is about the night, and they're all wonderfully unique perspectives on this theme!

A collection of stories which take place at night. That's pretty much it; yes, they do tend towards the genre rather than just being plotless epiphanies after sunset, but there's even room for one or two of the latter. The writers are an impressive selection, though – Lavie Tidhar, Marina Warner, Lauren Beukes, M Suddain and many more. Plus, scattered between the stories proper, little page-long pieces by China Mieville, which have some of the same feeling of overheard nocturnal strangeness as Chris Morris' Blue Jam. One of these, about the real war for which the more famous Transformers are covering, might well be my favourite piece in the whole book. Though I can't be too definitive on that point. You see, the problem is that, particularly with reading this on my 'phone, I soon reached a point where I felt it worked best if I read it at night. And not just commuting after dark over winter, but while doing something at least vaguely on the stop-out continuum. Except even then, one tends to be reading something else at the time, or with someone, or just a bit sleepy. On top of which, I have another strictly nocturnal book vaguely underway on there, hungry for the same times (and still far from finished, because that one isn't subject to the impatience/politeness constraints of being a Netgalley ARC). Meaning that it took me ages to read this, and mostly when I did I was at least a little tipsy, so my specific memories of the stories are often not as specific as they might be. Still, I have resonant flashes of tooth fairies who are oddly short on sparkle, a Gatsby riff, a strange location outside town which only a local can find. And somehow that feels more fitting than a full and calm analysis. Or at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I loved this anthology. From Lavie Tidhar's awesome and brutal noir Bag Man to Lauren Beukes, Sam Beckbesinger and Dale Halvorsen's collaborative and chilling story, this collection features a load of authors, some of whom I'd not heard of, on the top of their games.

Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin previously put together another great collection called The Djinn Falls in Love, and this is a great continuation. I'd recommend keeping an eye out for anything else they work on together.

The Outcast Hours, a collection of short fiction from brilliant editors Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, is all about the night. And just like the night, the stories that populate it are frequently unsettling, and full of not-very-nice people. But it’s also full of freedoms—people (and not necessarily people) finding spaces beyond the ordinary in which to stretch and grow. It’s a place without judgement, a place beyond sight.

A liminal space

The microstories provided by China Miéville weave through the collection, dancing around the themes of the stories between which they appear. Slipping into the liminal spaces between stories, these weird fragments embody the spirit of the book: homeless, strange, occupying the between-spaces and no-man’s-land.

Fear in the dark

Some of the stories in The Outcast Hours are downright scary. Makes sense, right? The night is where the monsters live, when the creature from under your bed slips out and into the world of the seen. Some of the monsters in this book really are supernatural, like in Francis Hardinge’s 'Blind Eye', where a childminder for shady people finds herself looking after a child that’s not quite human, and very dangerous.

But others are nothing more than human. Maha Khan Phillips’ ‘Gatsby’ is one such story, where a sense of threat pervades and in the end the outcome is exactly the sort of creeping fear people, mainly marginalised people, carry in the backs of their minds at all times.

In the in-between place, you have stories like Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 'Sleep Walker’, where despite taking care not to see what’s out there, the main character still needs to fear what lives in a derelict house in her near-future small town. In Celeste Baker’s ’Not Just Ivy’, in which a woman holidaying in the Caribbean near the island of her birth finds herself infected by something alien, it’s up to the reader’s imagination whether there really is something monstrous menacing the protagonist.

There are things out there in the dark, dangerous things, that we rightly fear. But that’s the nature of the night—it’s a space outside of the everyday, where the unusual can come to the fore. Sometimes the unusual has teeth. But that’s the price you pay for absolute freedom.

Honesty and freedom

When you cast off your quotidian self, you expose your own truth. So many stories in this collection are about finding yourself in the darkness. Mind you, that self isn’t always nice or good.

Sometimes that means monstrous, as in Jesse Bullington’s ‘Above the Light’, where a man and his friend encounter something that’s long been on their trail on a night hike in the Alps, or Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen’s nauseating opening story ‘This Book Will Find You’, in which a lover discovers that she may not in fact be the hero of her story.

Sometimes your true self is as simple as a kid who doesn’t have to be likeable or responsible or mature, as in William Boyle’s ‘Lock-In’, or a harrassed woman working at a bar who takes matters into her own hands in ‘One Gram’ by Leah Moore.

Whether the characters in these stories are monstrous themselves or threatened by monsters (or both), they are rarely good people. There are stand-out exceptions though. In Yukimi Ogawa’s ‘Welcome to the Haunted House’, Ogawa shows us love and courage and family amongst monsters. And ‘Dark Matters’ by Cecilia Ekbäck follows a girl as Death comes to live in her house, and she learns how to live with it.

The many faces of night

I can’t begin to cover everything I want to cover about this collection, so I’d better leave it there. All that remains to say is that The Outcast Hours has as many faces as the night, which is as many as those who prefer to roam between sunset and sunrise. Anyone can find their truest self in the darkness. Whether or not that’s a good thing is a judgement that belongs to the daylight hours.

https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2019/3/30/the-outcast-hours-edited-by-mahvesh-murad-and-jared-shurin

There have been jobs and times of my life when the night was much more my world. Lots of verrrry early shifts as a shop worker; insomnia and just sometimes the night would be the only place I could switch off. And it is a different world – you recognise your fellow travellers (online and offline). The night can be more relaxed, a tiny bit dangerous and it has its own rules. I sometimes miss those hours and the sights you would see and what it did to the imagination. But in this anthology, all based around the night Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin have created an intriguing mix of fantasy, horror and noir to give everyone a taste of what happens when the sun hides from us all.

As always in a collection (especially one as large as this) not all stories worked for me, but I think there was a high degree of quality

This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Havorsen – a lover performs a ritual to bring back her deceased girlfriend. A story that moves from loss to something darker and nastier as the relationship is exposed from start to finish. This one really grabs you by its bloody teeth.

It Was A Different Time by Will Hill – On a rooftop hotel an employee finds one man sitting in the pool at night holding a gun on him. This story looks at Hollywood, the Me Too movement and the monsters that are all too very human. Really captures that mercenary quality of those in films.

Ambulance Service by Sami Shah – Welcome to Karachi and a very unusual night ambulance crew that deals in the supernatural. The kind of story where you make a lot of sudden turns that when you look back are all very logical. Absolutely fascinating premise, you just want to know more about how that world works.

Blind Eye by Frances Hardinge – A babysitter for criminals gets a child to watch over who she must not let sleep. Trademark Hardinge by which I mean weird, dark, poignant and brilliant. Moving from real world to the weird seamlessly. One of my favourites in the collection.

Sleep Walker by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – A tourist asks a local to take him to see one of the mysterious local attractions. This is a brilliant story matching the life of the local woman in the town and her own desires to have a life of her own and the tourist who wants to experience the strange and gets much more than they asked for. I loved how the story works on making the reader fill the gaps in rather than making everything explicit.

Bag Man by Lavie Tidhar – In Israel a criminal gets robbed and spends the night tracking down who caused him this inconvenience and he is not to be trifled with. Very much a noir tale with bosses behind bosses all painted vividly with a streak of violence while still gripping.

Gatsby by Maha Khan Phillips – Back to Karachi and a party for the young rich done in the style of Gatsby held by a mysterious newcomer whom Ra ends up talking to. A story where the apparent luxury of the wealthy soon turns to pure terrifying horror and one ending that is really haunting long after you finish it.

Swipe Left by Daniel Polansky – A serial online dater decides to go for one last spontaneous date, but the hunter may also get hunted. Almost darkly comic how such a nasty shallow person who clearly doesn’t listen to his dates finds out why paying attention is a good idea.

Everyone Knows That They’re Dead. Do You by Genevieve Valentine – This is an uncomfortable apparent ghost story where after each scene of the narrative the reader is asked questions about their judgements and values. A reminder that sometimes our love of the supernatural mean we miss the real horror in front of us. Very good!

The Collector by Sally Partridge – Another noir tale but this time in South Africa where a My Little Pony sale over the internet goes horribly wrong and descends from humour into something much more disturbing as a man finds he cannot be pushed around anymore. That move from funny to crime thriller is done superbly and it catches you by surprise.

The Patron Saint of Night Puppers by Indrapramit Das – A woman goes to her Halloween night shift at a place that minds dogs in Vancouver. She sees a man with a dog mask on who may or may not be following her. A strangely uncomfortable story that shows you a woman reflecting on her life and the air of something weird around the city. No firm answers but just a story that sucks you into a character’s world well. Another of my favourites.

Tilt by Karen Onojaife – This might be my favourite as it gets that theme of the night being a place for reflection, desperation and sometimes hope. A tale of a Shepherd’s Bush casino becomes something much more mythic and ultimately redeeming. A writer I will look out for in future.

In the Blink of a Light by Amira Salah-Ahmed – This looks at three characters who work at or visit a nightclub. A story of clashing cultures, generations and how the desire to be someone other than yourself can often have unfair repercussions. Poignant and sad.

The Dental Gig by SL Grey – For me the funniest in the collection exploring the tooth fairy industry and a healthy poke at sexism in the workplace. Read this one for the surprises and how you can find a way to cheer on someone when you probably shouldn’t (wink to camera).

One Gram by Leah Moore – A woman has a horrific night shift in a pub dealing with men who feel entitled to control and assault her. It very much puts the reader into the skin of how women can be treated as objects hence when she sees a chance to redress the balance the reader is fully behind her. Compelling.

One overarching theme was that each story was never quite clear on hat type of story it would end up being. As with the night everything is often unclear until you look more closely. Its not the warmest collection and most of these stories are at the darker end of the spectrum but it’s a good way to hold up a mirror to humanity and show us the face we don’t like to expose in the sunlight. An excellent collection and one you should look out for.

The Outcast Hours is an amazing anthology of stories thematically tied to the idea of night- something that we cannot escape because eventually it comes for all of us. The authors range from fantasy, YA, historical fiction, romance, mystery, and literature. The night is both freeing and limiting, and The Outcast Hours contains stories about people who embrace darkness and what it has to offer.

This is the first anthology that I've read in a while, where I like every story. There was not one selection that did not follow the theme of the book or feel out of place. If you like urban fantasy, or authors from any of the genres listed above, then I would check it out. Most of these authors are emerging voices and you could find a new favorite in this anthology.

This novel contains stories that take place at night. As such I assumed most of the stories would be horror based as when I think of nighttime stories I think of things that go bump in the night. However that wasn't the case as most of the stories seemed just to feature average citizens during the night doing normal activities.

My favorite stories was Blind Eye by Frances Hardinge with This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauran Beukes and Dave Halverson, Ambulance Service by Sami Shah and Sleep Walker by Silvia Moreno-Garcia being my second favorite. The rest of the stories were okay to good. I liked how some stories tried to feature everyday things or events, like blogging or the MeToo movement. I was hoping for more scary stories and as such I found the novel overall just alright.

<b>This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauran Beukes and Dave Halverson</b> ★★★★★
A dark story of a PhD student who tries to bring her girlfriend back to life. The reason the relationship fell apart was slowly teased out which was perfect. The story took a different ending than I expected which made it great. One of the better stories in the anthology.

<b>It Was a Different Time by Will Hill</b> ★★★★
A hotel employee and an old actor cross paths at a hotel pool after it's closed. I loved the actors anger at how social views have changed forcing his past misdeeds to come to light and forcing him to face them. A great story that mirrors the MeToo movement.

<b>Ambulance Service by Sami Shah</b> ★★★★
Interesting story of an ambulance driver/exorcism expert. Some of the ghosts the main character encounters I didn't fully understand (as I think they're middle eastern culture based) so I felt like I missed out on parts of the story. Still a great story with a good plot, vivid background and dynamic characters.

<b>Blind Eye by Frances Hardinge</b> ★★★★★
This was the best story in the anthology. When I think of stories based upon the dark of night this is definitely it. It follows Erin, a late night babysitter, who is asked to babysit a six year old girl who cannot be allowed to sleep. It was scary and spooky with an epic conclusion.

<b>Sleep Walker by Silvia Moreno-Garcia</b> ★★★★
A tourist travels to a city to see a show. The reader is never told or hinted at the truth behind the show, we are only told about it through the tourists shock afterwards. Great way to write a story.

<b>Bag Man by Lavie Tidhar</b> ★★★★
Great story about a man's journey to retrieve a briefcase stolen from him. This story has tons of action. The main character is so despicable he's awesome.

<b>Gatsby by Maha Khan Phillips</b> ★★★★
A woman at a party meets a man with an antique collection. The beginning was slow but the ending was great. Although I saw the "twist" I loved the rationale and reasoning. I actually found this story a little scary due to the characters helplessness at the end. Title does not match the story.

<b>Swipe Left by Daniel Polansky</b> ★★★★
Awesome story about a blind date. The ending had an amazing twist that strangely had me giggling.

<b>MiDNigHT MaRAuDERS by M. Suddain</b> ★★★
A new guy opens another dispensary in a small town. Everything is fine until he starts to spread lies so a group of people get together to exact revenge. Okay story but it had no big twist or reveal. Just an average day in an average town in an average story.

<b>Everyone Knows That They're Dead, Do You by Genevieve Valentine</b> ★★★
A ghost story involving a house that goes through three owners. I liked the story overall, especially the mystery surrounding each death. I just wish the story was scarier and less factual.

<b>The Collector by Sally Patridge</b> ★★★★
Great story about a man and his side business. I loved the ambiguous ending. Main character was well written with great depth and complexity.

<b>The Patron Saint of Night Puppers by Indrapramit Das</b> ★★★
Story features a woman who works in a dog hotel. She keeps remembering her childhood dog and contemplates if she should get another dog. Story was kind of boring as nothing thrilling happens.

<b>Tilt by Karen Onajaife</b> ★★★
Alright story that starts off with a woman in a casino and ends with her making a choice of a lifetime. I didn't like the beginning as I had no desire to read about casinos. It started to pick up in the middle.

<b>In the Blink of a Light by Amira Salah-Ahmed</b> ★★★
Omar has a crush on a woman which causes him to be distracted at work. It was a good story, just a bit slow.

<b>The Dental Gig by S.L. Grey</b> ★★
Strange story about a society of tooth fairies. It was alright but nothing special.

<b>One Gram by Leah Moore</b> ★★★
Bette is at work in a bar on an average day. She hates her boss and dislikes her job. The story was very well written but anticlimactic. The ending was lame but I enjoyed reading about Bette's everyday struggles: sexism, a crappy boss, favoritism and a general unhappiness.

<b>This Place of Thorns by Marina Warner</b> ★
Insanely boring story featuring a girl living in a refugee camp. The story focused too much on the meaning of a village and a place within a place. Story felt too pretentious.

<b>Not Just Ivy by Celeste Baker</b> ★★
As hard as I tried I couldn't get into the story due to the Caribbean grammar. I hate bad/weird grammar in any story and this story had tons of it.

<b>Dark Matters by Cecilia Ekbaick</b> ★
Death has come to reside in a young girl's household after her father was resurrected. As hard as I tried I couldn't get into the story as I didn't like reading it through the girl's POV.

<b>Above the Light by Jesse Bullington</b> ★★★
The MC decides to go on a night hike with his best friend where they meet a nightmare come to light. The beginning was far too long as unnecessary past events or thoughts were added. The ending was great as it was both mythical and scary.

<b>Welcome to the Haunted House by Yukimi Ogawa</b> ★
Super strange story that I couldn't get into. It felt too childish and bland.

<b>Rain, Streaming by Omar Robert Hamiliton</b> ★★
The MC participates in an online game to win a prize, Britney. He's hoping to increase his online followers. I didn't like the story, the plot or the prize (women are people not prizes to be won). I liked the addition of online ads invading people's freedom.

<b>Lock-In by William Boyle</b> ★★
A teenager is stuck at a lock-in with some nuns but yearns to be free. The plot was boring as nothing exciting happened.

<b>The Night Mountain by Jeffrey Alan Love</b> ★★★
Not entirely sure what this story was about... broken dreams maybe? It features a box, a mountain and a man.

<b>A Partial Beginner's Guide to Lucky Temerlin House for Broken Shapeshifters by Kuzhali Manickavel</b> ★★
Seven rules to follows for life in this house. The rules didn't make a whole lot of sense as there wasn't enough context. The story felt like seven random ideas strung together to make a story.

The point of darkness that resides between sunset and sunrise has always fallen pray to the terrors of mankind. "Night comes for us all" is the terrifying truth told in the introduction to this fantastic collection of short stories that are linked together by there venture into the night and the world of darkness.

This private time away from social standards has been expertly explored by several authors, screenwriters, artists and illustrators to create a collection that will see you traverse every unnatural feeling you can link to the terrors that creep in the dark. These stories are written well and capture a wide range of evocative emotions that play with the senses and set the nerves on end.

If a foray into the depths of darkness is something that intrigues you then look no further than this collection. These stories will lurk in the back of your mind for years to come.

When choosing an anthology to read, I usually look for an author I know well or it includes a off shoot story from a series I enjoy. Not so with this book. I haven’t read any of the authors work so I am coming into this with fresh eyes. Lets talk about the introduction to the book. Now I am guilty of skipping these but I urge you not to do that with this book. It was powerful, thought provoking and leaves you in no doubt as to what this book will contain. I embarked on the rest of the book with excitement and maybe a hint of trepidation.
There are a great mix of genres here so there really is something to suit everyone. I was naturally drawn to the more paranormal/supernatural stories. If you read my blog you’ll understand why. There are some crime stories, mysteries, thrillers and some gentler stories. What I love about a book like this is every story has an edge of tension about it. The author has to pull you in quickly and make you believe in the characters. This makes for some great reads.
I enjoyed most of the stories here, some just weren’t to my taste but I know others would have liked them. Every story here though does fit extremely well into the theme. There is something about the darkness. I’ve seen quite a lot of the early hours with my non sleeping toddler, and you do feel as though you are the only one awake. The possibilities at that time are endless and these stories touch on this. People change in the dark.
This is a great book to keep in the car or your bag. Some stories are as short as 15mins, brilliant to pick up when you need to kill a little time. I really enjoyed this anthology and I will certainly be looking some of the authors up. One story in particular, I am hoping those characters feature in a full novel. Overall a definite hit and one you should go and grab.
Many thanks to the publishers for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review

What an interesting anthology!  I'm always here for short stories, especially when I can't devote myself to an entire book or section of a book before bed.  This was was eerie, freaky, and strange.  Which basically means it's right up my alley.  Perhaps my favorite story was the first--"This Book Will Find You".  Oh, man!  That one really set the precedent for the rest of the tales, and what a good precedent it was.  

The amount of genres this book encompasses, sexualities, races, ways of life.  There's mothers and children and babysitters and nuns.  So.  Good.  This book is perfect for a cold winter night when you're by yourself with a warm blanket and a good cup of tea.  There's much to be unfolded in this book, much to be discovered.

I'm grateful to the publisher for a free advance e-copy of Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin's new anthology themed around night and the dark, via NetGalley, so that I could take part in the book's blogtour. When I heard this anthology was coming out, I knew I would have to read it!

Why did I want to read these stories? Not only do the editors have a seriously impressive track record - and look at the authors' names! - but the theme, night, is something that's always intrigued me and fired my imagination. One of the stories here notes that "By the time you're twelve you have a pretty good idea of whether or not you like the night". I think that's right. Old enough to get over - or mostly get over - the terrors of childhood, not old enough to appreciate some of the darker realities: your view can be set then, only to be moderated, not erased, by subsequent experience.

Me, I love the idea that, while I doze in my warm bed, there are people in neon lit spaces working; travellers make their way by nightbus or midnight train to who knows where; restless people sit in airports surrounded by their luggage; a pack of Nighthawks out of Edward Hopper's dreams prop up a bleak bar; and so forth. Recently I read about a woman living on the edge of London who, when she can't sleep, gets the nightbus into town and visits a particular Soho cafe. Respect to her for that - I'm not so much of a night owl myself though I will stay up reading but I'm fascinated by the idea of the night. It's just fuel for the imagination and positively drips with atmosphere, sentiment and anticipation.

Of course, that attitude may reflect a degree of privilege on my part, as a man with a secure home who lives in a safe and sleepy English village (even if we do sometimes appear in Midsomer Murders). Other perspectives are available and often, of course, the night is threatening, especially for women ("not for all the gold in the world would she have stepped outside the car in that moment" states the unnamed young woman in Sleep Walker by Silvia Moreno-Garcia "Because the night was yawning.")

So, all that said, what about the stories? The book contains 26 full length stories arranged into nine sections, each unopened by an enigmatic "microstory" by China Miéville. The stories in the book engage with all aspects of the theme: some are, perhaps only "coincidentally" nighttime stories, and might as easily be set in day (or are even notionally nighttime, as one set during the long Northern summer so while it is chronologically "night", actually it's as bright as day), others demand the nocturnal in some way, featuring security guards or a woman on shift at a dog hotel - while still more have that "something of the night" about them. In genre, they range from horror, to crime, science fiction, fantasy, noir and romance and everything in between.

This is, overall, a strong collection of stories. I had my favourites - for example Everyone Knows That They’re Dead. Do You? by Genevieve Valentine is a well-turned out ghost story, whose twist is that it's a very meta, self-aware story which stops every so often to ask the reader questions, point out what's happening structurally ("Susan has invoked the past, one of the early warning signs of a ghost story") and discuss where things might go. That sounds as though it shouldn't work, but the interventions rather add to the tension, giving the whole things a taste of preordained doom. It also has some neat characterisation, especially of reigned women mixed up with unpleasant men ("She's pretty sure she doesn't want to actually marry Greg any more, now that she knows he's a fucking grave robber...")

Or Indrapramit Das's The Patron Saint of Night Puppers which examines the life of a young woman surviving the gig economy in Vancouver, living from task to task. As she sets out to a night's work at a dog hotel one Hallowe'en we sense Kris actually doing something she enjoys, and gradually learn why her lonely life is completed by spending a night with these loyal, abandoned animals. A sad story yet one with real feeling and heart, it gives a chilling sense of a young woman's everyday fears when on the street alone after dark ("she hoped it wasn't a man, because it wasn't easy to cross over to the other side of the road on Terminal") as well as the fears and hopes of the dogs she cares for ("The dogs surrounded her in worship and terror, begging for guidance. They loved Kris. They feared Kris. They asked only that she love them like their human families once had, only to abandon them here for who knew how many forevers...") I know it seems weird to quote those passages together but the way Das weaves together Kris's approach to the dogs and their vulnerability with her own life.

And there's SL Grey's The Dental Gig which reminded me of Terry Pratchett at his best. This non-so-sweet little fantasy revolves around the lives of the fairies who collect children's teeth, but it's far from being a soothing fairytale as we see the worst features of the modern workplace feature, not least a very dubious product resulting from all the activity. Another of my favourites, not only for the weird but successful mashup produced here but for the sharp characterisation, the credibility of the whole thing and a surprising ending. Or One Gram by Leah Moore in which Bette, an alienated young wage slave, scratches a living doing nightshifts at a pub where the customers are unpleasantly hands on ("Bette's attention was dependent on which of the customers were acting like pricks") and the management pitiless. How much can Bette take? And what will she do if she decides she's had enough? A naturalistic story where the nighttime breathes off the page and the moment to moment tasks Bette must complete jostle with her feelings to produce a tension that crackles off the page.

But there are so many strong stories here. The very first story in the book, This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen is out and out horror, fitting for the hours of darkness. Something must be done at 3am - not before, and not after. Focussing on a woman driven to the edge of reason by what she's encountered, this was a chilling opener to the anthology.

Picking up the vibe of the #MeToo age, Will Hill's It Was a Different Time is set amongst the tawdry glamour of fading Hollywood, staging a nighttime encounter in which an abuser rails against the inevitable.

Sami Shah's Ambulance Service describes Nazeem's ("Karachi's only exorcist") nighttime shift at the Edhi Ambulance Centre, which serves the more esoteric emergency needs of the city's night hours. In what reads like a taster for a longer novel (please!) we see a range of supernatural crises defused with skill and aplomb and I enjoyed reading about these from a quite different religious/ mythical perspective to that with I'm familiar.

Sleep Walker by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of those stories that intrigues by what it doesn't reveal. Why has the city fallen on hard times? (Or perhaps they all do, in the end?) What is the mysterious, nocturnal "show" that eager men drive so far - to such a place - to see?

Francis Hardings's Blind Eye picked up a different aspect of the nighttime economy - wondering who looks after babysitting for the less... regular... nighttime workers. And then it takes an even darker twist. I enjoyed reading about Erin and the way she's found of making a living.

Bag Man by Lavie Tidhar is something of a romp, setting a noir-ish gangster ridden tale in the scruffy backstreets of an Israeli town, spinning a tale worthy of Hitchcock as hoodlums, youths and, perhaps, terrorists vie for possession of a veritable McGuffin of a briefcase.

Maha Khan Phillips' Gatsby alludes to her original both in the theme of a lavish 20s- themed party thrown for Karachi's gilded youth by the mysterious Saqib, and in the role that Saqib himself plays in relation to Ra, a young woman who's missing her friend. Evoking a real sense of 20s decadence and even wickedness, it left a thrill of terror with me.

Swipe Left by Daniel Polansky brilliantly blends the dating adventures of a rather self-absorbed young man (the story punctuated by his online evaluation, selection, and assessment of potential partners) with an older form of hunting behaviour. Nicely done horror.

MiDNIghT MaRAuDERS [sic] by M. Sudan would be striking as cli-fi even if it were no more than that. Set in a Russian town in the Arctic Circle post some unspecified future disaster, there is mention of the Water Wars in Africa, sea levels have risen, towns been submerged and "Families with radios search for voices, or music, or some other sign the world still exists" it focusses on Lidya and her family's involvement in a dust-up between two rival chemist/ drugstores - both rather splendid establishments but caught up in a struggle involving local politicians, the Mob and the happily drunken, drugged-up townsfolk. It's great fun, with a bit of a bite (13 year old Lidya seems old beyond her years).

Sally Partridge's The Collector rather chillingly distils the essence of an unreconstructed young man working as a security guard in a Cape Town gated community ("He stopped talking to the residents after a while, in case he said the wrong thing about the Jews or working mothers"). It's one of those stories where a minor incident suddenly sends everything off the rails, revealing a real sense of rage and entitlement. A chilling story.

Tilt by Karen Onojaife opens among the peeling romance of a suburban casino in West London. Iyere has suffered a loss and drifted into gambling, something that wakes her up and gives her a thrill. A meeting with a new croupier reveals Iyere's past and present her with a choice about her future. A sad story, which presents Iyere with a choice.

In the Blink of a Light by Amira Salah-Ahmed is another story in which lives change in an instant. Contrasting the parallel lives of a wealthy young party girl and the pair of poor, if devout, young men who run the light and sound decks at the events she attends, it seems to show worlds, cultures, classes in collusion. And that never ends well.

Marina Warner's This Place of Thorns is a story of the present or near future Middle East focussing on the lives of desperate refugees, people who just want their lives back. The thorns of the title are bushes that yield myrrh, in what is only the first of a series of Biblical parallels. A tender, sad and touching story.

Not Just Ivy by Celeste Baker is a nice fantasy, which Baker tells partly in her protagonist's Caribbean island patois (dipping in and out depending on setting and who she's speaking to). Arriving for a mini break in the sun, the unnamed advertising exec whose job is selling dubious remedies has what amounts to a spiritual experience which, as in Warner's story, seems to be mediated by plant life. It's a story where the experience is more important, I think, than the consequence - a moment of changed life with the future left uncertain.

Dark Matters by Cecilia Ekbäck is set in Finland, where a family of Seventh-Day Adventists is abut to meet a challenge that tests their picture of the world. Featuring Death, Resurrection and a perspicacious older woman, the story very clever shows us events through a child's eyes, leaving much unclear but creating a moving and true through-line, even if the ending is a bit sad.

Above the Light by Jesse Bullington is my favourite story in this volume. Exquisite in detail, it describes the lives of two young people who have taken to a strange hobby - night hiking. As they grow older they meet yearly to pursue this, becoming more and more proficient and taking greater and greater risks. As the demands of adult life crowd in, escape to the moonlit hills or the woods becomes more and more (and moor!) precious - but how long can this go on? If you've ever walked at night and felt that something else is moving around you... or wondered whether you were in a dream or waking remembering a dream... or just felt life closing in... then this story is for you. Just wonderful.

Yakima Ozawa's Welcome to the Haunted House teases by hinting that the point is for the collection of bizarrely animated household objects introduced as characters to, somehow, achieve freedom and safety. But actually it's darker than that and there is real horror here.

William Boyle's Lock-In is a tender story about a young girl growing up in a New York suburb in the 80s. Over the course of a night she has an opportunity to strike out on her own - a creepily effective section, especially when she's alone on the subway train with a man she doesn't know - but also has to reassess what she thought was secure in her life. An enjoyable story, where the night does seem to catalyse a change - but what change?

Jeffrey Alan Love's The Night Mountain is a gloriously obscure take, whether dream quest, spirit journey or account of real travel isn't clear. perhaps it has aspects of all three. Perhaps it's about fatherhood. In any case there is a true sense of the night as an uneasy place that must be got through. Whatever it means this is an effective and haunting story.

A Partial Beginner’s Guide to The Lucy Temerlin Home for Broken Shapeshifters by Kuzhali Manickavel is a delightfully bizarre set of instructions - or warning - for dwellers in the eponymous Home. Conjuring up a vision of Hogwarts' evil twin, this is funny and scary and operates by prodding all those buttons from other forgotten stories that tell you how such a place might operate. Clever and beguiling.

China Miéville's microstories, while never less than fascinating, had less of an obvious link with the nighttime theme. All of them made me want to know more about their wider worlds or characters, though, leaving me receptive for the theme stories that followed - so they served a purpose in stimulating the imagination among the longer pieces.

Finally - that cover catches both the tawdry nightime glamour, with its neon-sign vibe, and the idea of moonlight, setting up the perfect mood for these stories. Close the curtains - is that something moving across the street? Probably not - settle down in your chair, open this book, and experience the darkness...

Short stories are great they keep the reader engaged for a brief amount of time and are the perfect thing to pick up in between longer books to cleanse the literary palette. Co-edited by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin they have collected a wide range of short stories based on the hours after dark, known as The Outcast Hours.

The short stories cover a wide range of genres and some are not suitable for the faint hearted, but the beauty of reading an anthology of short stories is that should you not like one of them for whatever reason, there are plenty of others that might whet your literary whistle.

I enjoyed the majority of the short stories, but a couple of them were not up my street. It was the subject matter of the story that I wasn't keen on that's all. There was one thing in common though they were all well written.

I gave this an 8/10 or 4 stars.