Smile So Red and Other Tales of Madness is a chilling collection of noir short stories that delves into the darker corners of the human psyche. Each story explores the blurred boundaries of morality, where good and evil intermingle and certainty quickly unravels.

The characters are layered and compelling. Deeply flawed and often morally ambiguous, they move through a world of secrets, betrayal, and psychological unrest. Their choices drive the narrative forward in unsettling and unpredictable ways.

This is a tightly written, immersive collection that leans into dread rather than overt horror. Smile So Red doesn’t just entertain—it lingers. Readers looking for psychologically rich, atmospheric storytelling will find plenty to admire here.

Smile So Red and Other Tales of Madness is a fever dream I didn’t want to wake up from—claustrophobic, surreal, and dripping with dread. Mia Dalia has crafted a collection that feels like cracking open a diary you were never meant to read: raw, fragmented, and deeply unsettling in the best way.

Each story spirals in its own direction, but they’re all united by that gnawing undercurrent of instability—the sense that reality is just a thin veil waiting to tear. Dalia leans hard into psychological horror, the kind that makes you second-guess not just the narrator, but yourself. I found myself rereading passages not because I didn’t understand them, but because I wanted to sit longer in the discomfort.

The madness in this collection isn’t always loud. Sometimes it creeps in sideways. Sometimes it giggles. Sometimes it smiles too wide. And that’s what makes it so effective—these aren’t just horror stories, they’re invitations into beautifully cracked minds.

If you like your horror dark, literary, and laced with poetic unease, Smile So Red delivers. It’s sharp. It’s strange. And it’ll echo in your head long after the final page.