Haunted Ecologies: A Short Story Collection

Farrenkopf (Living in Cemeteries) offers a startlingly bright collection of sparse and spooky ecological horror short stories. The stories predominantly stand alone, with the exception of the first and last tales, which bookend the collection ingeniously. Some standouts include “The Burnt Floor,” a story of decay and creeping horror set in an amusement park, and “The Man of Reeds and Seaweed,” where a riveting creep show of a swamp creature runs amok. The writing is spare and clean, and Farrenkopf instills each story with dread and doom. Themes of hopelessness and loss permeate the collection, and each plot is just close enough to reality that the sudden shift towards horror becomes intensely compelling and disconcerting. This collection shows Farrenkopf’s growth as a writer and his skill in crafting truly terrifying and haunting narratives.