Recent Reads: Two Mini Horror Reviews: Gone to Seed by Justin Lutz & Hospital of Haunts edited by Heather Daughrity

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Two Mini Horror Reviews:

“If we grew moss on our heads and coughed leaves from our mouths it would be proof that our love is a seed, and I’ll water it forever.”

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Gone to Seed by Justin Lutz, a spectacular, binge-worthy short story quintet that’s grisly, eerie, anxiety-inducing, and full of creeping dread. The author’s insight into each story (included at the end) is a wonderful bonus, as are the acknowledgements, particularly the last paragraph, from which the above quote is pulled.

Favorite:

• “Leaf Mouth”

“Ghosts abounded in Lychhurst Hospital, that was true. Some were as evil as sin while others were just lost and looking for the light.”

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Hospital of Haunts edited by Heather Daughrity, a deliciously macabre anthology of 23 stories surrounding 23 wards and 23 ghosts of Lychhurst (“Corpse Hill”) Hospital and its many iterations: elite medical treatment facility (1844–1862), Civil War army hospital (1862–1865), soldiers and sailors asylum (1865–1900), private tuberculosis sanatorium (1900–1922), psychiatric hospital (1923–1950), “normal” hospital (1950–1994), and, finally, abandoned relic (1994–2024). Magnetic from the sinister opening poem, delightfully grim foreword by Clay McLeod Chapman, and fascinating architectural drawings and history, it’s a superb collection readers will be hard pressed to put down. An excellent comp for Welcome to Meadowbrook by Cassandra L. Thompson.

Favorites:

• “Unknown Artifact” by Bridget D. Brave (Imaging Lab, 1979)
• “Hide” by Stephanie Ellis (Pediatrics Ward, 1993)
• “Past Lies Latent” by Rebecca Cuthbert (Respiratory Ward, 1920)
• “A Crypt of Dust and Paper” by Mer Whinery (Records Room, 1994)
• “Residue” by Simon Bleaken (Tunnels, 1986)
• “A Dark House” by Heather Daughrity (Nurses Station, 1844)

🖤Amanda

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