This was such an interesting collection of short stories, quite unlike anything that I've ever read. Each story had a distinct personality and vibe that went along with it, yet they all flowed neatly from one to another. Since these are short stories, I obviously can't say much about them specifically without getting into spoilers, but do know that each story has its own, complete depth. For the most part, all of the stories were very interesting, and several were fairly dark as well. A few of them were a little boring, but it wasn't anything that made me not like them. With all short story collections, you will like some more than others. "This Book Will Find You" and "It Was a Different Time" were probably my favorites. They were actually the first two stories in the collection and they just completely grasped my attention.

The Outcast Hours is the new anthology edited by Jared Shurin and Mahvesh Murad, a duo that previously worked on the acclaimed anthology The Djinn and Other Stories (Solaris, 2017). Though I haven’t read this particular anthology (yet, I have a copy), it was shortlisted for a couple of awards and received glowing reviews.

When I saw that The Outcast Hours was their new work and that it contained stories from authors I already know and love (Lavie Tidhar and China Miéville for example) and from ones I never heard about, I decided to give it a go!

The Outcast Hours is a collection of 25 stories all set during the night, during those dark hours where the worst as well as the best things happen. Following monsters, babysitters, exorcists, children, collectors or couriers as they go around living their life in the deep of the night, this anthology compiles a variation of stories playing around this theme.

This collection isn”t focused on a single genre, most of the stories contain speculative elements (mostly horror and dark fantasy) but quite of few of them don’t. I definitely liked this variety of stories and even if I had a slight preference for the genre stories, one of my favorite story doesn’t have any speculative twist.

I usually review every single story when I review an anthology but considering this one has 25 stories plus a couple of flash fiction pieces, it would have been too tedious to write or to read so I decided to focus on my favorites.

I made a selection of nine stories that I really, really liked and that I consider to be the best in the entire collection. However, even if a story isn’t on the selection, it doesn’t mean that I found it bad by any means. I gave the majority of the stories a 3 or a 3.5 rating. I rated two or three stories 2 stars (which for me means the story was just okay) but I didn’t go any lower. For me, this anthology didn’t have a single bad story. Even if I didn’t connect with a few of them, I could understand why all the stories were chosen.

However if I had a single thing to complain about it would be that this collection had too many stories for its length. It’s less than 400 pages which isn’t a lot for the 25 stories. Most of the stories were on the shorter side and some of them would have worked a lot better for me and they had been longer.

Most anthology are “mixed bags” and I’d say that The Outcast Hours fit the description since it has so many different stories and isn’t set around a particular genre. However, it’s a good one, I’m sure everyone would be able to find at least a few stories to their liking. At the same time, this variety makes it hard to recommend this anthology to a specific audience.

Indeed, if you just want to read horror, dark fantasy or literary fiction stories, you might be a bit frustrated by this collection. However if you want to read an eclectic collection, sample the work of 26 authors and see what can be done in short stories, I would recommend The Outcast Hours.



Highlights



This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen – 5/5

A woman’s lover is dead and her only way to bring her back to life is to complete the 6 steps of a mysterious book in less than 66 minutes.

This story was a great opening to the anthology, it has a lot of elements that I like, it’s start off pretty light (well as light as a story about a dead body can go) and we slowly unravel the circumstances of the death. It’s quite morbid but the pacing and the writing are excellent. I couldn’t help but to empathize with the main character even if she wasn’t a good person at all.

It’s about love, the consequences of love and how it can slowly change you for the worst.



It was a Different Time by Will Hill – 4.5/5

A young man works in a hotel in LA. Contrary to what’s almost expected of him, he doesn’t aspire to become an actor or a musician, he just want to be left alone. On one of his night shift, he encounters an old man relaxing in the pool when it’s supposed to be closed. What he doesn’t see at first is that the old man has a gun.

Inspired by the #MeToo movement and how it shattered the “old Hollywood” where it was usual for young girls to be assaulted behind the scenes, this story is about how the perpetrators have to live with their acts being made public. It Was a Different Time is a fascinating little story, very much of our time. The main character was very relatable in how angry he was at the entire world. This story doesn’t have any speculative elements.



Ambulance Service by Sami Shah – 5/5

Following an ambulance in a night shift in Karachi, what starts off as pretty regular story slowly shifts as we learn that the main character is an exorcist and that he deals with strange creatures haunting people.

It managed to take me by surprise quite a few times which I wasn’t expecting considering how short it is. The ending was fascinating, I really grew to love the characters and I would love to read other stories set in this mysterious Karachi.



Bag Man by Lavie Tidhar – 4.5/5

Like a lot of Tidhar’s works, Bag Man is set in Tel Aviv. Max, a man who used to work in the military is now working for the mafia. His latest mission is to deliver a bag to his client, he doesn’t know what’s inside and doesn’t care very much to. However, he wasn’t prepared to be assaulted by a gang of angry and high teenagers during his working time. And he doesn’t like when people stole what’s his.

This is a wild ride, the main character is quite the unlikeable old dude but I have read enough of Tidhar’s stories to know most of his male characters are this way. Bag Man is about the absurdity of violence and how it transforms people. In this story, all the brutal acts are done almost with boredom or unwillingly, it seems the perpetrators are forced to be this way not because they want to but because it’s their only answer to their problems..

It’s not my favorite of Tidhar’s work but I found it strong nonetheless in the depiction of the absurdity of violence.



Gatsby – Maha Khan Philips – 5/5

A girl is invited to Great Gatsby themed New Year’s Eve party in Karachi. She just lost her best friend and she’s definitely not in the mood for partying. She doesn’t even know the host, she only know of him: he’s filthy rich, from the USA and he invited about four hundred people to his party.

While she’s trying to stay far away from the festivities, she meets him. He’s nice, too nice perhaps but he has laughing lines and he’s kind, very kind, until he isn’t.

This story is one of my favorite from the collection, everything is so unexpected, it’s full of twists and turns and that ending was very unexpected. It’s very dark and creepy but memorable for sure!



Tilt – Karen Onojaife – 4.5/5

A woman who has lost everything spends her night gambling in a casino. She likes it there especially in those late hours because it’s the only place where she can forget about her daughter who died in a tragic accident.

One night she meets the new courier, a mysterious woman who seems almost attracted to her pain. And this woman will leave her with a terrible choice.

I very much liked the way the speculative elements were introduced pretty late in the story, it was very well written, the atmosphere and the slow built-up were done masterfully.



The Place of Thorns – Marina Warner – 5/5

Set in a refugee camp in Syria which seemed to suddenly appear one night on the border and surrounded by huge thorns, this story follows a young girl and her grandmother. The grandmother had a vision about the thorns and a battle coming and she is waiting for it to come true.

I’ve read mixed reviews of this story but I loved it very much, it’s a quiet story but it really touched me and the ending was beautiful.



Dark Matters – Cecilia Ekback – 5/5

A young girl tries her best to keep her family from falling apart when her dad keeps on dying and resurrecting, messing up their quiet family life.

In this story, Death is a character who tries and miserably fail on killing the father. Death is very frustrated because people are not supposed to resurrect and it definitely wasn’t part of the plan!

This story is delightfully quirky, the characters are all fascinating, I have to make a special mention to the grandmother and Death who were both amazing characters. It’s on the longer side compared to most of the stories of this anthology but I wouldn’t change or remove a single word.

Having always been fascinated by the night and darkness The Outcast Hours was a no-brainer. We are all so used to reading books in which events take place in the light of day, but, here, each story takes place under the cover of darkness; it really is quite refreshing and makes this collection rather introspective in nature. There is a diverse range of contributors from all around the world, and some of the writers included are China Mieville, Will Hill and Francis Hardinge, but as with all anthologies, some tales are more compelling than others. However, all are well written and intriguing in their own way.

There are stories that are creepy, powerful, original and thought-provoking, and the fact that this is a cross-genre collection means that there is something here for everyone - fantasy. thrillers, horror, science fiction and contemporary, to name a few. The authors hail from all over the globe, and their shorts include diverse characters with LGBTQIA+ backgrounds, so if you are looking to challenge yourself to move out of your comfort zone and try to appreciate a multitude of genres and new authors this a great way to do so.

Many thanks to Solaris for an ARC.

The Outcast Hours brings together a large variety of contributors, most I haven’t heard of before. As a result we get an incredibly diverse range of tales. We have a couple based in America, but most of them are set in the Middle East or Europe.

Each tale encapsulates an aspect of the Night. Depending on the writer it could be a horror story, a tale of things that go bump in the night, a tale of redemption, even a tale of facing the ugly side of ourselves.
There are a lot of what I consider, strong stories in here. They grab your attention and pull you along for the ride. The good stories where so good, that I didn’t mind wading my way through a couple of not so good ones. There was only one story in there that I would give a 1 star.

One story that jumped out at me was It Was A Different Time by Will Hill, a scathing look at Hollywoods history and the way the old school men who are now having to answer for their actions, might see the #MeToo movement. The arrogance of John Barker reminds me so much of my Grandad. (I should add my Grandad isn’t that type of creep, just an asshole.) This story was written really well. It is relevent and invoked a rage in me. Damn I wanted to punch John Barker in the face.

Ambulance Service by Sami Shah was fucking brilliant. It was like a super cool version of Ghostbusters. The magic, the characters, I loved it all. This story more than any other has stuck with me until the end.

Outcast Hours has something for everyone. It includes stories by Frances Hardinge, Daniel Polansky (It was everything I was hoping for), Yukimi Ogawa, Lavie Tidhar and many more.
If you like anthologies, dark reads and trying new authors than this is definitely worth a look.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed reading this. Some of the stories didn't do it for me but they had merit. I will list below my review of each.

The microstories throughout the book by China Mieville - 0/5 terrible

This Book Will Find You, Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen - 4/5 stars

It Was a Different Time, Will Hill - 2/5 stars - good setting but fizzled out

Ambulance Service, Sami Shah - 5/5 stars omg this was amazingly good

Blind Eye, Frances Hardinge - 2/5 stars meh

Sleep Walker, Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 2/5 good concept but lacking

Bag Man, Lavie Tidhar - 5/5 one of my faves so far

Gatsby, Maha Khan Phillips - 4/5 fun

Swipe Left, Daniel Polansky - 1/5

MiDNIghT MaRAuDERS, M. Suddain - 4/5 should be a longer story. Great

Everyone Knows That They’re Dead. Do You? Genevieve Valentine - 5/5 beautiful

The Collector, Sally Partridge - 5/5 lol

The Patron Saint of Night Puppers, Indrapramit Das - 4/5

Tilt, Karen Onojaife - 3/5

In the Blink of a Light, Amira Salah-Ahmed - 1/5

The Dental Gig, S. L. Grey - 1/5 Great concept, fizzled out

One Gram, Leah Moore - 1/5 didn't connect with me

This Place of Thorns, Marina Warner - 2/5

Not Just Ivy, Celeste Baker - 0/5 I have no idea what I just read

Dark Matters, Cecilia Ekbäck - 5/5 damn near perfect

Above the Light, Jesse Bullington - 4/5 very unsettling

Welcome to the Haunted House, Yukimi Ogawa - 5/5 !!!! So good

Rain, Streaming, Omar Robert Hamilton - 0/5 no idea what was going on here

Lock-In, William Boyle - 2/5 Betsy is horrid.

The Night Mountain, Jeffrey Alan Love - 4/5 nice atmosphere

A Partial Beginner’s Guide to The Lucy Temerlin Home for Broken Shapeshifters, Kuzhali Manickavel - 4/5 entertaining

All in all I think this collection has something for everyone. Give it a try.

A real dark and disturbing set of short stories.
I've only read the first couple and have decided to save the rest to savour at leisure.
I love collections like this as every story is so completely different. I'll definitely be recommending this one.

This is actually 3,5 stars, but let's just round it up to 4, because when this anthology is good, it's GOOD.

A common problem with anthologies, this also was uneven, and the sheer number of stories (24, I think) didn't help. I ended up having to consult the table of contents to remember the stories, apart from my two absolute favourites, "Ambulance Service" and "Above the Light". Especially the latter, it was absolutely brilliant.

2.5 Stars

The Outcast Hours is not my typical read. First, it falls on the darker side of things and then, it is an anthology. I generally don’t read a lot of those since usually they have a short story by one or two authors I know and the rest aren’t as important to me. But I thought I’d give this a try, based of the darker side of life premise.

There are twenty-five different stories in this, which just seems like a lot. What happened for me is the stories I’m interested in were too short and the ones I was not interested in were too long. Plus jumping from short story to short story was all a little disjointed. They all have a similar theme but some funny dark, others ewe dark and a few had a Tales from the Crypt vibe. I think you get what I’m saying.

The good thing about this anthology is every story is a single complete tale. There are some gems in here a few of my favorites were:

The Book Will Find You – Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes & Dale Halvorsen
It was a seriously creepy tale of a same sex relationship gone so many shades of wrong and the extremes one partner was willing to go to in order to bring back the person they lost. It was creepy, sad and utterly disturbing.

Blind Eye – Frances Hardinge
Think about a babysitter for criminals and this is her tale of one very special job she takes with a child that the caretakers warn her to never let fall asleep. It was a quick story steeped in the supernatural and I really liked it.

MiDNIghT MaRAuDERS – M. Suddain
Set in a different culture and time it is the story of a smaller town that has a new drug store pop up. It appears that the town is just not big enough for the two of them and they go to war with one another. It is a well-paced funny story with some great shenanigans in it. This is what happens when armatures try to break into places.

A Partial Beginner’s Guide to the Lucy Temerlin Home for Broken Shapeshifters – Kuzhail Manickavel
This is a funny list of things to do and not to do upon arrival to the Home. It is really short but just made me want to know more about this world. I would totally read a full-length book about someone just getting to this home and all of the challenges they would face in it. I was so sad that it was over just as it was beginning.

All the other stories for me were okay, some more memorable than others but each definitely dark. There aren’t many happy endings and there were some that you really wanted the main person to just die for being so awful a person. A few tried to have some sort of significance to the world today like using Tinder or the MeToo movement. But most kept it to move of a UF/fantasy realm.

The real question, is this for you? Well if you just want a few quick stories to read before bed and set aside perhaps to come back to every now and again, then probably yes. If you like ambiguous endings or ones that are not happy in nature, then again probably yes. But if what you are looking for is a real connection to characters and feeling ‘in’ the story then probably not. Like I said, these are short and there are so many it was really hard to feel attached. Only a few stories even stick in my mind a week after reading it.

I love reading anthologies. The outcast hours was perfect. I really liked the night theme. Stories were vivid, creepy and interesting. Definitely worth to read.

I really enjoyed this compilation of stories. While some weren't exactly my cup of tea, enough were well-written and plotted enough to keep me reading. I especially enjoyed the deliberate focus on non-Western/non-North American cultures and writers, and on speculative writing from unique points of view. Many of the ideas--a babysitter for especially difficult children and parents, a story you think will end in gore but has a radically hopepunk ending instead--are new to me and fun to read.

Oh anthologies. They are often hit or miss with me, sometimes I love all the stories and sometimes only some. But anthologies are wonderful reads for in-between other books.

This anthology has the theme of the night. Or, perhaps people who are generally at their best at night. I can certainly relate with that! I am one hundred and fifty thousand percent at my best at nighttime. So, of course, I couldn’t resist this one.

I’ll admit that I picked it up mostly for China Miéville’s name being on it, as I love his work. He has 9 ‘microstories’ in this one, that are sort of peppered throughout the book in between chapters. If I’m honest, these were more confusing than anything because with them being only a page or two long and with no real context or titles or anything, they seemed like remnants, almost. They were, however, very well written all the same, but I was still a little iffy on them… but I did find a whole bunch of stories in here that I ended up really liking!! I like how this anthology brings together a bunch of ideas from people of different cultures or backgrounds to tell stories on a similar topic.

Here’s a bit of a close up on some of my favorites!

This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes, & Dale Halvorsen
This story is about a girl named Kara who finds a book on how to raise a dead lover just in time for having to actually raise a dead lover. It was from the point of view of Kara herself, which was an interesting way of seeing a ritual intended to raise the dead. I thought it was quite well written and interesting, and it took some really interesting and unexpected turns. I was engrossed from start to finish.

Ambulance Service by Sami Shah
The story of Nazeem, who is an ambulance driver in Karachi, and his apprentice Bilal. What made this story interesting is that the calls that they respond to make them more like exorcists than paramedics (though, really they’re something like both). Fantastically written and had me hooked from the very beginning.

Bag Man by Lavie Tidhar
The story of a man named Max in Tel Aviv who is a transporter. He is taking a briefcase from point A to point B when he is robbed of it by a group of thugs, which starts a pretty epic adventure of trying to get that briefcase back. A quick, exciting read!

Gatsby by Maha Khan Phillips
This one was a really enthralling story about a woman in Karachi named Ra who gets invited to a Gatsby themed party at the estate of a wealthy financier who is new in town. And some real shenanigans go down. This one was so hard to put down once it got going. Great stuff!

Swipe Left by Daniel Polansky
A story about a dude named Matt who goes on a Tinder date and it goes… pretty much like a first date goes… until it really, really doesn’t. A short and quite engaging read that had some twists that I wasn’t expecting.

The Patron Saint of Night Puppers by Indrapramit Das
This is the story of a chubby white Canadian gal named Kris who works the night shift at a doggy hotel. Now… as a chubby white Canadian gal named Kristen who in fact loves her some freakin’ puppos, you can imagine I found it rather easy to relate to the main character here… and you’d be right. :)

The Dental Gig by S. L. Grey
Frankie Bell has mouths to feed, and works very hard doing what she does, which is very careful extracting teeth from under the pillows of children. Yep, she’s a tooth fairy, and one who works for a rather strict company. This was a wonderfully unique story and I wished it was even longer!

Dark Matters by Cecilia Ekbäck
This is the story of an eight year old Swedish girl named Irma whose father dies an awful lot. Recently, Death has come to live with them, as has Resurrection, and Irma just seems to take it in stride. Interesting story with an interesting twist!

The Night Mountain by Jeffrey Alan Love
This is the story of a man who takes a journey with his wife and son up a mountain that lives in the night. They are urged to do so by his wife’s brother, a beast-faced man. The man telling the story isn’t that surprised about that part, given how he met his wife. This tale was one of magic and it left me curious for more, and yet satisfied with the end.

The Partial Beginner’s Guide to the Lucy Temerlin Home for Broken Shapeshifters by Kuzhali Manickhavel
This reads like exactly what it sounds like. Rule one: avoid corridors infested with thunderstorms. The thunderstorms aren’t there for research purposes, they’re there because we don’t know how to get rid of them. This was a neat story and it had me laughing more than once. This was my favorite story of the bunch!

All told, I really liked this one! More stories that I liked than didn’t like. Truth be told, I didn’t dislike any of them, though I found one or two of them to just not be for me, but that’s bound to be true of just about any anthology that there is.

Thanks to the authors, editors, and Solaris via NetGalley for the review copy! :)

The Outcast Hours is a curious collection of shorts, filled with strange nights and even stranger stories. You’ll find horror stories that start off in the mundane world and end on a surprisingly terrifying note. Fantasy stories that feel like a dream intermixed with stark reality. All of them are shrouded by the mysteries of the dark, by the late hours when strange things happen and no one sees. I found myself mesmerized by the mix of simple settings and characters who lead to complex, terrifying conclusions. At the end of the collection, you’ll be steeped in thought, wondering what’s waiting out there in the night.

A Couple of Favorites

The Night Mountain, by Jeffrey Alan Love

The Night Mountain is deeply profound, diving into a world filled with dark magical realism as a man attempts to stay with his wife and newborn son who are not what they seem. The narrative haunts in the best way, leaving full comprehension just out of reach. You’re left in a dream-like haze, confused by pictures of a strange pseudo-reality that reeks of magic, fairy tales, and horrors best kept in the night. It was mesmerizing, to say the least.

Sleep Walker, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Sleep Walker stands between mystery, horror, and fantasy, sending us to a show that is never explained. The story starts as a simple enough slice-of-life, following a girl and a man as she guides him to a show everyone knows about but nobody acknowledges. The final destination is terrifying in its simplicity. You’ll feel a slight unease begin to settle as you desperately want to see inside, to know the secrets hidden within the story.

I am a huge fan of short stories but I found in some the purpose was lacking. However one story really outdid the others and made the whole anthology worth so much more.

Blind eye was the best short story I have read in quite a long time and that's not easy for me to say as I am a fan of short stories.

All told the book while not the best it was good and because of the stories which were stronger it has raised my opinion of the entire book.

3.5 stars

Thank you Netgally, Rebellion Publishing and Solaris Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
This is a story who are members of the "outcast hours", the hours under the moon, stars and neon lights. AKA the witching hour. The poets, authors, waiters, gamers, policeman, the lonely and the lovers.
The idea of the "outcasts" of society always intrigues me. There's something fascinating about the creative, the brilliant, the weird and I think this book mostly delivered on this.
It's a bit of a mixed bag. Some stories are amazing, some are pretty weak, but this is to be expected with an anthology. It has diverse characters and the writing is very good. Short stories aren't typically my thing, because I like to really connect to characters and short stories don't typically allow for this. This book I enjoyed a lot more than I expect to though. My favourite story was "A Partial Beginner's Guide to the Lucy Temerlin Home for Broken Shapeshifters". It was a lot of fun!
3.5/5. Some stories were 4.5 for me others 2. I'm giving it a 3.5 as an average based off of all the stories.
I recommend this to scifi fans and fans of short stories. If you only read one short story anthology this year, let it be this one!

How does one review a short story collection? Specifically, a large anthology with a wide selection of authors and styles, encompassing both speculative and mainstream fiction? I wasn't entirely sure, and had never tried to write such a review before (especially spoiler-free; what would one talk about when there is no over-arching plot?) but wanted to give it a go anyway.

I started out keeping notes on each piece, and making lists of my favorite stories, but about halfway through I put that list aside and decided to try and reflect on my thoughts in a more holistic way.


There is a lot of content in Outcast Hours, and I took longer than I usually do to read a novel of comparable word count. Part of that was down to Christmas rush and other deadlines, but partly I found that I enjoyed reading a few stories, taking a break, and then coming back for more. Some of the heavier stories required reflection, or sometimes the style of a particular piece didn't suit my mood, so I would instead return to the collection a few days later.

With an anthology of this size, it is likely that not every single story will appeal to every reader. However, every reader will certainly find something they enjoy, and the pieces are well-selected. The anthology creates a kind of mental mosaic of a thousand different humans in a thousand different situations, passing through the shadows of one long night. The experience reminded me of setting off into a vast metropolis, late at night, and encountering a dizzying array of characterful people. Some you like, some you love, a few you loathe--but all are interesting, and all have something important to say.

In short, Outcast Hours is a startling and visceral snapshot of humanity's darkest moments, captured from voices all across the globe. I very much enjoyed it, and found the collection intriguing.

I was unsure whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars for a bit, but ultimately landed on 4 because:
-I love the diversity in these stories not only in the traditional sense but of genre
-the difference in prose between them kept me reading through them at a rapid pace
-I love little snippets into people's lives and that was fulfilled in reading this.

There are quite a few stories in this anthology that will stay with me due to their beautiful prose, wonderful ideas, or haunting imagery. Saying that some of the stories did not strike home, which is bound to happen within any anthology. There were a few stories that didn't have a strong plot and others that left me wanting a lot more than they could offer in their small packages. But, at the end of the day, I'm not sorry I read this one bit and I'll definitely be recommending it to others.

As I was reading The Outcast Hours, I remembered why I don't like anthologies. The short stories are too short, and everything seems disjointed. The premise of night people and creepy shadows is intriguing, but this one is not for me.

This anthology takes the theme ‘people who are awake at night’ and collects a real variety of stories, most of which are horror-tinged. It’s a mixed bag, as many anthologies are, but there are a few gems in there…

The good: My favourite story was the first one in the collection – “This Book Will Find You” by Sam Beckbissinger, Lauren Beukes, and Dale Halvorsen. It was a great one to set the tone for the rest of the collection, combining an interesting voice with a slowly dawning horror at what the protagonist is actually doing. I also really enjoyed Frances Hardinge’s “Blind Eye”, about a babysitter who takes jobs for rather difficult clients, and ends up in over her head. Will Hill’s “It Was a Different Time” was a really compelling read which resonated strongly with me, since it focuses on a film director accused of inappropriate behaviour with women – deeply creepy and deeply relevant. For a breath of humour, I liked the peek into the Tooth Fairy business with “The Dental Gig” by SL Grey. It reminded me of some of the classic 70s sci-fi in those yellow-spined “best of year” collections.

The meh: I surprised myself by not particularly liking Marina Warner’s story, as normally I’m a big fan of hers – I just found it a little bit boring. Daniel Polansky’s “Swipe Left” was well-written, but entirely predictable. We’ve been pulling off that particular twist since the first minutes of Buffy. “The Night Mountain”, by Jeffrey Alan Love, seemed pulled directly from r/creepypasta – I’ve very much enjoyed scaring myself with the stories there about national parks which aren’t what they seem, and this could easily have been posted there. This isn’t exactly a criticism, as a lot of those stories have great writing, but it just felt a little samey. I really, really disliked the inclusion of China Mieville’s micro-fictions between the stories. I couldn’t work out if they were meant to be linked; very few of them seemed to have a point, and they just distracted from the other stories for me.

The rest of the anthology was pretty forgettable to me. None of the other stories held my attention once I’d finished them – but then, that’s not unusual for anthologies. There are gems to be found, but you have to dig for them. I never thought I’d say this, but I would have preferred a little more horror, to counteract the dreariness of some of the stories. So, overall, The Outcast Hours started strong, but failed to grip me. I’ll be looking for more of Will Hill and SL Grey’s work, though. I think three out of five stars is fair – you may well find you love some of the stories that didn’t grab me, or hate my favourites. You have to prepare for a mixed bag!

THE OUTCAST HOURS is an anthology of tales that happen at night, featuring monsters and death and things that lurk in the shadows. And while the premise and cover were enough to draw me in, I happened to forget my love-hate relationship with contemporary short stories.

Many of the stories in this anthology I did not enjoy, making for weak, non-compelling reading experiences. Either they were written with a narration style I found too crude and unfitting to the night motif to be effective, or the concepts were simply dull, poorly executed. I was forced to skim. Some others, such as "Dark Matters" and "Above the Light," however, were gems in the rough. A small handful of stories were eerie and well-written, gems among the plain, and boosted the work as a whole.

Overall, though, consistency was a problem, one which is inevitable when it comes to anthologies. Such is the nature of collaborative works. I look forward to the day an anthology that delivers arrives.

Most anthologies are mixed bags, however this one was a particularly good mixed bag.

The theme of the book was NIGHT. So most of the stories either take place at night or have night as a theme. So great. There are a mixture of genres but with a theme like "night", the best stories were thrillers.

The goal of the editors was to have diverse writers with diverse characters, and I think they really achieved this. There were LGBT characters, there were biracial characters, there were stories from non-Western cultures, this collection has it all! It is also a mix of genres, some thriller, some

I think my favourite story was the first one (This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen), it really gripped me and set me up for what was to come. I also liked The Night Mountain by Jeffrey Alan Love.

I wasn't a huge fan of the microstories by China Miéville, but maybe I wasn't in the right mindset to read them.

I would definitely consider rereading this anthology. Lots of fun.