Genre: Fantasy, paranormal, romance, contemporary, horror
Category: General fiction/ adult (contains graphic violence and descriptions of sexual acts)
Representation: bisexual characters, sapphic/lesbian characters, South East Asian characters (one story is set in Malaysia), trans character
Content warning: violence, murder, gore, body horror, cannibalism, torture, physical assault, adultery, hitting a romantic partner, gun violence, alcohol abuse. bullying, drug use, animal death, killing torture of animals, rape/sexual assault, homophobia, abuse, depression, threats of suicide, references to self harm, (maybe misgendering a trans character. It was done more out of being unsure rather than maliciously misgendering them)
Publisher & publication date: February 16th 2021 by Twisted Wing Productions
Booklinks: Goodreads🖤Amazon
Rating: 3/5
Summary
When love goes wrong, it can be a killer.
An artist soon discovers how dangerous it is to paint her muse.
A young boy finds out how deadly a birthday wish can be.
A young woman plagued by nightmares will find out what they really mean with deadly consequences.
A woman visits her sister only to discover of her new macabre hobby.
These and many other stories make up the twisted world of Tainted Love, a collection that exalts and explores the many ways love can go wrong, may it be romantic relationships, friendships, or familial bonds, sometimes, love can become deadly or scary. Here you have fourteen chilling tales of love and the wounds it leaves, sometimes metaphorical sometimes literal. Love kills, and these authors expertly wield the knife in this anthology that you don’t want to miss!
Review
Tainted Love anthology was a fun read and I’d recommend checking it out if you want to read some horror short stories by women. It contains a lot of gore and several possibly triggering content so please be aware of the content warnings before reading it yourself. The book itself contained trigger warnings which I appreciated.
I chose to review the short stories individually as well as the anthology as a whole since I really enjoyed some stories and found others to be boring.
When the Mask Drops by Hillary Lyon
It was really short and kind of underwhelming. I the writing was beautiful but a bit too thick and flowery for my taste.
Rating: 2/5
Vanitas by Azzurra Nox & Erica Ruhe
The beginning was slow and the middle was kind of dull but the ending really made up for it. The foreshadowing was great and the end was suspenseful and twisty.
Rating: 3/5
The Wait by Kathleen Halecki
Nice and short. The POV is strange, a sort of omniscient cinematic view
Rating: 3/5
They Want to Talk by Rachel Bolton
Good. I enjoyed the modern setting and the growing sense of anxiety and dread. It had a nice monster and is very creepy.
Rating: 3/5
Chronic Chills by Hudson Wilding
Beautifully written but the story was anticlimactic and felt oddly incomplete. Nothing horror-esque or even supernatural was confirmed only alluded to. Nothing much felt like it happened at all in the end despite the author creating a wonderful sense of suspense. Disappointing.
Rating: 3/5
Make a (Death Wish) by Melissa Burkley
Well written and wonderfully executed. The ending was surprising but retrospectively very well set up. Greatly enjoyed it and found it pleasantly unnerving and beautifully tragic.
Rating: 5/5
The Flagship by Pheobe Jane Johnson
Interesting, creative and well written. I question however how well it fits into the theme of the anthology.
Rating: 4/5
Of Guys and Dolls by Stella B. James
Excellent! I loved every moment of this story. It was filled with suspense which swelled to the climax. Well executed and surprising end.
Rating: 5/5
Unfinished Business by Joni Chng
Very interesting and has a great urban legend vibe. I loved the Malaysian setting and all the complex characters. Very spooky, very ghostly, very surprising twisty plot.
Rating: 5/5
Sleep by Marie Anderson
More psychological than supernatural horror but was one of the only stories that made me feel very uncomfortable and genuinely disturbed. Truly terrifying implications and reminiscent of reading about real life serial killers.
Rating: 4/5
Hunter’s Moon by Marnie Azzarelli
I loved the Hunter’s Moon. It was well written and interesting.
Rating: 4/5
Unborn by Alexandra Bay
This was well written and really interesting with nightmarish imagery.
Rating: 3/5
Prey by Erin Lee
The story itself was fine but it felt a bit messy with the multiple povs and constant head hopping. Maybe if it was more focused it would be more enjoyable. A lot of it felt redundant, like the mother’s pov in the beginning.
Rating: 2/5
My Lady Bathory by Mandy Burkhead
The story and setting is interesting but there was something lacking in the execution. It is longer than some of the other stories and could have been more developed. It felt a bit meandering in the beginning and then a bit gratuitous with the horror/gore elements. It felt more edgy than grim dark to be honest. The handling of the trans character felt a bit clumsy? (Not bad but felt off, maybe refer to own voice reviewers for their opinion on this) The ending felt a bit deus ex machina.
Rating: 2/5
Overall
The anthology is good read but there were some stories I enjoyed more than others. I found a few stories a bit vague and confusing but that is likely intentional and due to their length. I’d recommend this if you are in the mood for horror short stories by women but I wouldn’t think you need to go out of your way to check this out.
Rating: 🖤🖤🖤/5
I received in e-arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Tea Time Book Reviews 