Beyond the Veil is the second non-themed horror anthology from Flame Tree Press edited by Mark Morris, following on from last year’s After Sundown. I had a enjoyable time reading the first book so I approached this one with a great deal of anticipation. I’m pleased to say I was not disappointed.

There are 20 stories in Beyond the Veil, 16 of which were commissioned from some of the best writers working today, with the remaining 4 selected from an open submission window in which Morris invited the public to send stories into Flame Tree Press for consideration. This is an ideal way to balance ensuring both a good foundation of quality to the book’s contents, whilst also allowing a way to foster fresh talent from emerging writers.

An anthology stands and falls by its stories. And yet it’s only reasonable to expect that not every story works on the same level for each reader, and so this review comes with the age-old caveat that the stories that I preferred might not necessarily be the ones that are liked by everyone. It’s fair to say that Christopher Golden’s The God Bag might not have the most original plot, but nevertheless it’s delivered in a masterful way. Caker’s Man is a wonderfully unsettling tale about a young family’s rather grotesque elderly neighbour. The always-brilliant Priya Sharma’s contribution, The Beechfield Miracles, is a slice of near-future dystopia, covering Brexit and xenophobia, food-shortages, and a society on the brink of collapse. Its prescient almost-believable truth makes for uncomfortable reading, and it builds to a superb climax. Clockwork by Dan Coxon was another favourite, detailing a man’s uncanny discovery of some metal items in his garden, building towards a dark suggestion of what caused the breakdown of his relationship with his recently-deceased father. Aliya Whiteley’s Soapstone is dreamlike and hypnotic, and Toby Litt’s The Dark Bit is equally as unsettling (in a way that is difficult to describe).

Provenance Pond by Josh Malerman is an evocative tale, written from the point of view of ten-year old Rose and her childhood recollections of an area of water in their garden and the shadowy characters that lingered there. Stephen Gallagher – who contributed one of my favourites in a previous anthology edited by Mark Morris, New Fears – here delivers another fine story in A Mystery For Julie Chu, which is incredibly engaging and comes with a satisfying twist. Lisa Tuttle’s Away Day concerns a work trip to Inverness in which put-upon Kirsty journeys north, losing her way and finding rather more than she feared. Polaroid and Seaweed is a disturbing, and at times funny, story about troubled child Daniel and his broken family and unpleasant classmates. Lynda E Rucker’s Die Geisterbahnhof is a wonderfully-written haunting tale of regret and nostalgia; another highlight. The Care and Feeding of Household Gods by Frank J Oreto reminded me fondly of the Pan Book of Horror Stories with its accessible tone and dark twist. There’s a strong sense of body-horror which chimes uncomfortably with the recent global pandemic in Yellowback by Gemma Files, a writer whose work never fails to deliver.

There are also stories by Bracken Macleod, Angeline B Adams & Remco van Straten, Lisa L Hannett, Karter Mycroft, John Everson, Nathan Ballingrud, and a rather Tales of the Unexpected-esque story from Jeremy Dyson. There is a high quality of stories here and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good horror story. The themes and styles are varied, and editor Morris – a fine author in his own right – has done a great job of assembling a selection of work that represents contemporary horror in all its forms, highlighting the nuances of the genre and, above all else, entertaining greatly. Recommended.

Beyond the Veil is a solid anthology of horror stories that wasn’t really to my taste. The stories were almost uniformly dark and depressing, with themes of illness and death. From the title and cover I was expecting something a little different, maybe ghostier.

The writing in each of the stories is decent, but doesn’t stand out (many of the stories had the same voice to me); I prefer a more literary style of horror. I've read a couple of Morris's previous anthologies (the New Fears books) and found the writing there to be more to my taste.

I think if I’d read each story on its own, in other anthologies, I might have liked more of them, but there wasn’t enough variation for me, and I desperately need to read something happy now. Yes, horror can be depressing and gross, but I also love horror that’s beautiful, and hopeful, and tells me something new about the world.

My favourite stories from the anthology were:
- Priya Sharma’s Beechfield Miracles, a near-future setting, a jaded journalist, a possible messiah, and an ambiguous ending
- Provenance Pond by Josh Malerman, which had some great creepiness and weirdness
- For all the Dead by Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten, with a wonderful sense of place and character in the fishing village in this story
- A Mystery for Julie Chu - the title character stood out to me particularly in this anthology because she was a good person dealing with weird things happening; the story had a fun Twilight Zone feel to it

I think this would be a great anthology for someone who enjoys horror that wallows in the worst of humanity, and who is interested in the kind of horror inspired by the pandemic.

This brand new, all-original short stories anthology provides a glimpse of the current state of horror themes and brings forth a couple of stand out authors in the genre.

The second volume in the anthology series edited by Mark Morrris prides itself in not being a themed commissioned book like others in the market, and it has the advantage of showcasing surprising and random stories in the horror genre without depending on a keyword. A few of the stories deal with the use of the unknown for personal benefit: take for example Christopher Golden’s The Gold Bag in which the protagonist mother asks for wishes by writing them on a piece of paper and putting them inside a mysterious bag. But there is a price to pay for the wishes granted; Also, Frank J. Oreto’s The Care And Feeding Of Household Gods deals with mysterious forces when the protagonist, starting as a joke, gives household objects the status of gods so that he can ask them for favors while the ‘sacrifice’ said objects demand get bigger and bigger; A twist on this theme can be found in Stephen Gallagher’s A Mystery For Julie Chu in which Julie finds by chance a magical object that could be good or bad, depending on the person receiving it. She tries to sell it nonetheless, and if she can make an extra buck for the collateral damage, she’ll take it; One of the most inventive and, probably, the best written story in this collection is Lisa L. Hannet’s If, Then in which a gardener uses magical plants to seal up a castle where his loved one remains sick. He bewitches the people inside and alone he remains, trying to find a cure and doing several experiments, some of them quite gory. It’s the way Hannet mixes the botanical and the mythical language the thing that remains with the reader after finishing it. But this being a horror anthology, there are at east three that truly do justice to the genre and those are: Jeremy Dyson’s Nurse Varden in which a man has a fear of being unconscious and his psychologist tries to regress his memory in order to find the original reason for that fear. However, the protagonist gets more than he bargained for because he remembers a nurse that he hadn’t thought about before and soon starts to have visions where he sees her everywhere; Another truly spooky story is Mathew Holness’ The Caker Man in which a weird neighbour gives out cakes to the kids who live next door. At first, one of the boys think that he’s interested in pleasing his mother, but soon realizes the man is fixated on his little sister. The boy tries to protect his family, but the man has some devious resources the boy may not have considered before; And the last horror — and gore — story that truly fits the genre is Toby Litt’s The Dark Bit in which a married couple gets hurt by walking by a part of their home after having a strange nightmare. Firstly, is the husband who gets cut by an invisible knife or string, and because the mystery is too great, he walks by it on purpose in order to find the reason. Soon his curiosity spreads to his wife and both of them start cutting themselves to find whether there is something beneath their skin that they are not seeing. Talk about a deadly obsession.

Some stories fall in familiar territory — meetings with ghosts, parental issues, long-lost places — but there is a novelty in the prose of a few of the writers here, and that alone can become the favorite part of a story even if the theme sounds cliché to most of the veteran horror readers. ~

Reading this anthology on the heels of an exceptional one, also here on Net Galley ( “Dark Stars” edited by John F.D. Taff), made the contrast between great and mediocre all the more stark. I do think it started very strong with Christopher Golden’s “The God Bag” but then it just kind of meandered from one forgetful story to another. Priya Sharma is consistently good, and I did enjoy her story,” The Beechfield Miracles” and the stories by Malerman and Everson, were good, but there’s so much that left me frankly, bored.

There were several stories I really wanted to love, because I’m a fan of several of the authors that contributed, but they were duds. I don’t want to mention who, and prejudice anyone reading these reviews. Everyone should make up their own minds. I don’t mind saying that as a huge Mark Morris fan, I was a tad disappointed in him as an editor.

Other stories I enjoyed were writers I read for the first time including Bracken Macleod (“The Girl in the Pool”) and Frank J. Oreto (“The Care and Feeding of Household Gods”). Unfortunately the ratio of good to not good was less than I’m comfortable with, even though anthologies are typically a mixed bag.

I do thank Flame Tree Press for providing me the opportunity to read “Beyond the Veil” because the stories I liked were great little discoveries. Isn’t that part of the danger and allure of horror anthologies? You never know what you’ll get.

Looking for some negativity? Step right up. I know every anthology's a mixed bag, but this one had almost nothing for me. I *love* horror, I'm just not a fan of the nihilism that runs through 90% of these stories (like the world isn't awful enough right now as it is); I'm an escapist at heart, but when the book you're escaping into makes you glad to shut your KIndle down and watch some news instead, you know something is wrong. This book took me freakishly long to finish simply because I never felt like picking it up, much less read another story. And it was all so, well, soulless, to me it felt like every other story was calibrated towards maximum pessismism and negativity. If there's a kid or a pet, they'll die. If there's a plan, it'll backfire in the nastiest possible way. If the MC can be punished, deservedly or completely at random, they will. It got to the point where reading this turned into some kind of punishment itself.
Negativity aside, in general the stories ranged from "meh" ("Away Day", "Nurse Varden") to "eww" ("Polaroid and Seaweed", "Yellowback") to "huh?" ("The Dark Bit", "Clockwork", "Der Geisterbahnhof", "If, Then"), but almost none of them delivered what I like about horror -- intrigue, fear, the feeling that behind our basic everyday there lies something awe-inspiringly dark and unknowable we can't fathom or grasp. This was more about destruction of security than anything else, and to me, that is not quite the same, and also, it doesn't interest me very much.
I did like a few of the stories, but even those weren't exactly stellar; "A Mystery For Julie Chu" was fun in an old school, Twilight Zone-y kind of way, but in the end amounted to nothing more than a sample chapter from what seems like an unfinished/proposed novel. "The Girl in the Pool" was one of the highlights for me, but left me wondering about the girl's motivation. "Caker's Man" was nicely spooky but then I did not get the ending. "A Brief Tour of the Night": cool story, but the nastiness of the denouement put me right off it again. Top names aside, I didn't bother checking out which were the "professional" authors and who got in through the open submissions bit.
I'm sure there probably are people out there who get a kick out of this kind of thing, or a lot of writers would be out of work; it's just that I was hoping for something more, or maybe different. Still I'd like to thank Flame Tree and Netgalley for the chance to read this anthology in exchange for an honest review.

Humans have been blessed and cursed with their ability to see patterns. Whether it’s a sequence of numbers or a ripple of feathers in between the branches of a tree, as a species we’re truly excellent at creating order out of chaos.

This ability to discover a method in the madness becomes especially interesting when reading an non-themed anthology. Editor Mark Morris and his team have created just such an fascinating anomaly with Beyond the Veil, a themeless collection of short horror stories from Flame Tree Press (Oct. 19, 2021). The book contains twenty original works of fiction from top authors in the genre, from Christopher Golden to Lisa Tuttle.

The stories here range wildly in sub genre and style, but while the publisher claims the works were gathered without a specific prompt, an initial read of Beyond the Veil reveals some interesting, if unintended, connections.

After finishing just a few stories, readers may find that the major through-line of Beyond the Veil is its commitment to ambiguity. While some stories, like the aforementioned Christopher Golden’s “The God Bag,” finish with a satisfying button, the large majority of the tales told here leave things open-ended. Lisa L. Hannett’s “If, Then” treats readers to a rich fantasy/horror world filled with lush greenery and abundant mystery, and Josh Malerman’s “Provenance Pond” introduces us to the muted world of pastoral hauntings, but few of these talented wordsmiths have chosen to deliver their audience with any finality.

Horror readers are not unfamiliar with the need for personal interpretation. An anthology that challenges its consumers to come to their own conclusions will be right up the alley for many. But the accidentally enigmatic theme is so strong with this collection, it’s well worth highlighting if for nothing but the novelty alone.

There are several standouts in Beyond the Veil, and each bring a unique and delectable flavor to the table. Stephen Gallagher’s “A Mystery For Julie Chu” sings with a fresh take on a familiar trope shown through the eyes of one of the collection’s most likeable characters. “Away Day,” by the legendary Lisa Tuttle, is a masterclass in short story writing. The ten-minute fable will wind readers ever closer to the page as Tuttle lays out her mystical mystery in tight, effective prose.

But the not-to-be-missed superstar here is Peter Harness’s “Polaroid and Seaweed.” Easily the most magnetic story of the bunch, Harness’s narrative style reads like an inviting after-school storytime, even as the content of his yarn becomes increasingly painful and fascinating. As the pages turn, Harness leads you closer to the center of his main character’s broken psyche. The warning signs are all there, but Harness never allows the focus to stray long enough for readers to get ahead of him. It’s expert stuff.

There is no end to the talent Mark Morris has brought together here. Fans of the genre will be pleased to see new work from such favorites as Nathan Ballingrud and Gemma Files, among others. So if you’re ready for a long fall night, pick up a copy of this massive anthology and fall into the mysterious worlds Beyond the Veil.

Beyond the Veil is - as soon many anthologies are- a bit of a mixed bag. There are some excellent short stories here, including a couple I found genuinely chilling in a “shiver down spine”’way, and there are some that just did not work for me at all. What I found really interesting was that my tastes seemed to quite strongly favour the British stories over the American; I think this is indicative of a subtler, more insidiously haunting stories (not ghost stories necessarily), rather than explicit. Stories by Matthew Holness, Jeremy Dyson, Lisa Tuttle, Nathan Ballingrud and Stephen Gallagher particularly stood out.

Possibly more of a 3.5 stars overall, but the 5* stories mean it’s worth a 4!

First, I need to thank Flame Tree Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. However, I’m not sure they’re going to provide me with any others after providing said review.

While this wasn’t the worst anthology I’ve ever read, it certainly ranks in the top five; which is surprising seeing the talent amassed within.

The anthology starts off with a bang. A very enjoyable story with an unforeseen ending; and like a roller-coaster that reached it’s highest peak, what followed was, for the most part, downhill.

I felt a lot of the stories were unfinished, disjointed, confusing, and/or just unentertaining. I was only able to read one story at a time, and on a few of them, found myself rereading sentences because I either dozed off, or didn’t understand what was written.

Now, this isn’t to say there weren’t some standouts:

THE GOD BAG - Christopher Golden
CLOCKWORK - Dan Coxon
PROVENANCE POND - Josh Malerman
THE GIRL IN THE POND - Bracken MacLeod
A MYSTERY FOR JULIE CHU
ARNIE’S ASHES - John Everson
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF HOUSEHOLD GODS - Frank J Oreto

But those seven only account for 35% of this huge anthology. Had Mark Morris just stuck with that (and maybe one or two as fillers, he would have knocked it out of the park, but I just felt as a whole it fell flat.

My thanks to Flame Tree Press, multiple author's and Netgalley.
This was a mixed bag, as most of these anthologies are. Big names on down. In my opinion, there were some I'd never heard of, that stood proudly beside bigger names!
I never go individually and rate each author. If that's what you expect, then go away!
Flame Tree puts out some decent stories. This is no exception. Sure, the big names draw you in. "Me anyway." But, the rest keeps me around.

Beyond The Veil by Flame Tree Press is written by some of the renowned authors, but the book didn't lived up to my expectations. Some of the stories like Provenance Pond, The God Bag, Arnie's Ashes, A Mystery For Julie Chu and Nurse Varden were really good and my favorites. But, the other were either average or below average. I would recommend this book only for a one time read. The book deserves only 3 stars and I didn't like the cover also.

This was a pretty good anthology, it does have a mix of good and not so good stories...but most were good. I will be looking up some authors in this collection.

Beyond the Veil

[Blurb goes here]

As it happens with most anthologies, some of the stories are great, some not so much and a few, just plain bad. Still, the good ones -at least for me- make this book a must read. The God Bag has stayed with me, as have other stories of the anthology.

I do recommend this read.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Once again, Morris has assembled an impressive line-up of the top names in the genre. Beyond The Veil contains 20 original horror stories. Sixteen stories have been commissioned from established authors. Four have been selected from the stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window.

I found Morris' previous anthology, After Sundown, more exciting and more consistent - I enjoyed most stories it featured. In Beyond The Veil I loved some of the stories, disliked more than a few, and didn't care about a few.

My favorite story is, without a doubt, Alita Whiteley's Soapstone. It starts as a mundane tale of grief but turns into something else and ends up giving you shivers.

Gemma Files' Yellowback is an interesting take on cosmic horror with a surprising ending and fun story.


Beyond The Veil is a solid horror anthology. Every fan of horror short stories will find something to terrify them.

ARC through NetGalley

A great collection of eclectic stories. A little something for all the different moods your mind can be in. I love good anthologies and this one really was just brilliant..Some authors I am familiar with and a lot of new names as well.

Beyond the Veil, edited by Mark Morris, is a creepy-good collection of horror stories; some full of mind-blowing plots that end with a screech, others that trail away with a whimper that leave you shaking your head long afterwards. This isn’t just a Halloween book, as true fans of the genre know. We love the irony of the situations when the tables turn on those who deserve it most, and cringe when the same happens to those who deserve it the least, and we see ourselves on either side at times. Most of this collection is good; choice bits are very good indeed. Just remember: you can’t unread a story. Once it gets in, it stays.

Beyond the Veil is a workmanlike collection of horror short stories all collected within the same "post-2020 syndrome" framework revolving around sickness, loss, grief, and community fear. While there isn't anything here that's overtly spectacular (in fact, the best story in my opinion is unfortunately the very first), there aren't any that are horrendous either so it's a nice steady read all of the way through. There are some familiar names in here (Josh Malerman, Gemma Files, etc) but the majority are newer names to the scene which is a nice touch as well. Give it a try!

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Netgalley and Flame Tree Press**

This has a little bit of everything full of good or great horror stories in all its glorious sub-genres - and lots of stories, too. A few made me chuckle and most made me squirm. Perfect for dipping into over coffee or before shut-eye.
Thank you for an advanced copy. An entertaining read.

I've read several horror anthologies lately. I'm impressed with the imagination and variety coming from the writers. Beyond the Veil, from Flame Tree Press, is another happy clump of ickiness...and I mean that in a good way. There's a few stories that seemed like the opening chapters to upcoming books, and that's perfectly all right. I think some authors hash out their novels through the writing of short stories. One, A Mystery for Julie Chu, seemed like a first chapter, had an intriguing subject about a young woman who sluices out mysterious and magical items at flea markets, and sees a future in buying and selling weirdness. I'd read that one if it gets turned into a novel. Who doesn't want to find something magical at a flea market?

There are creepy stories, and gory stories, icky stories and hopeful stories, lots of misunderstood little kids, and one story that is like a fairytale. A woman finally escapes a bad boss, bad co-workers, and a bad husband. Isn't that a real horror story--to be stuck in a rotten job and marriage? I bet we've all dreamed of running away with fairies a time or two in our lives. I know I have, like every other day.

One that gave me a chuckle (I'm biased toward funny horror) was The Care and Feeding of Household Gods. If you ever get the urge to draw a face on your jug of laundry detergent, you might want to think twice. And for Heaven's sake, leave the kids' hamster alone.

A little bit of something for everyone here. Thanks to Netgalley and Flame Tree for allowing me to read an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

What scares you? Present day offers more than enough to fear even before supernatural enters the equation. Horror is a genre solely devoted to finding out the buttons and pushing them, often to cathartic ends. It allows a certain kind of release, conquering imagined terrors makes it easier to deal with the real ones. I recently read a study demonstrating that people who are horror fans, survivalists, preppers, etc. have fared nicer during the sh*tshow of 2020 than those who are not. The miracles of properly tweaked mentality and all that.
And with that in mind what is scarier than death? The awareness or our mortality is, after all, what (allegedly) separates us from other species. What a perfectly readymade subject for a horror anthology. Enter this book.
A collection of short stories seemingly born directly out of 2020 with several well known names and many perfectly worthy contributions from lesser known ones. Which is to say I never heard of the majority of the authors but about 5 or 6 very well known names to genre fans and this didn’t really affect the overall quality very much either. In fact, Malerman’s (a recognizable name for sure,) contribution was pretty underwhelming., as opposed to the first story by Christopher Golden (another genre luminary) who absolutely nailed it with a gut whammy of a story.
And most of these assorted tales are about death . Different styles, different approaches, but it’s always there. With a notable exception of a wildly incongruous random ditty about fairies.
I can’t say all of these stories were equally good, that’s seldom the case with such a variety, but the overall quality was very good indeed. The middle sagged some, which is sometimes the case with anthologies and old mattresses, but there was a good number of stories that did shine brightly all around. Or maybe shine isn’t quite the right verb for something so thematically bleak and depressing, but you know…
My favorite was the one about a mystery robot. Stories 1 and 19 were good too. There was a strictly literary quality bar here that even John Everson with his traditionally lowbrow erotica didn’t manage to bring down.
Beyond the Veil takes you beyond the pale of everyday world. It scares all too well with nightmares contained within its pages. This is proper literary horror at its best. Read it if you dare. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Beyond the Veil is a collection of captivating short horror stories. Each one beginning seemingly normal, going up the scale of the macabre! Highly recommend you read this on a dark rainy evening