Strange Girls (Women in Horror, #2)

by Azzurra Nox

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

https://wittyandsarcasticbookclub.home.blog/2020/01/01/strange-girls-women-in-horror-anthology-by-azzurra-nox-arc-review/

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This will be available on February 18th.

There’s a reason I’m posting this review so far ahead of the book’s release date: it is really, really bad. I hate posting a negative review right before a release date, so I’m posting this earlier. My final feeling on this anthology is: YUCK.

I went into this book with excitement, looking forward to horror stories where women are the major focus. That’s a cool idea, and I stand by that. However, what was included in this book is not something I would ever knowingly choose to read.

One story had an incredibly nasty person who had a penchant for necrophilia. Another repeated the phrase “You didn’t say no” multiple times. What you infer from that is unfortunately correct. I don’t read these things in books. It bothers me enough that I mention it in my blog review policy. I will give a shout out to yet another story involving these problems: this one at least included a trigger warning at the beginning. I chose to skip that story.

Okay, you might be thinking, that’s just a few examples though, and you’re right. Other stories felt unfinished (and not in a good way). That doesn’t mean that these authors are bad: in fact, I’m sure some of them are very talented. It might have very well been a choice to leave these particular stories with an unfinished feeling, but it didn’t work for me.

I can’t choose a favorite story among the ones in this anthology because so many of them left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and not the fun sense of eeriness that I was hoping for. My takeaway from this anthology was disappointment. Hopefully, the next book I read will be more enjoyable.