Doorbells at Dusk: The Many Carvings by Sean Eads and Joshua Viola

To get into the Halloween spirit, I’ll be reading (and dissecting) the Halloween-themed anthology Doorbells at Dusk. My thanks goes to Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi and Corpus Press.

~𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓜𝓪𝓷𝔂 𝓒𝓪𝓻𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼

“Soon your true heart beats within another chest.”

Synopsis: A mysterious sickness befalls the parents of a boy, of whom soon discovers something evil is afoot.

The Many Carvings ended in a completely different direction than it started, the resulting twists and turns an aspect that I welcomed. If there’s one thing that has an enormous amount of potential in the horror genre, it’s witchcraft, and that’s why I love it so much. This particular tale was imaginative, bringing to mind a more fantasy-esque setting. Some elements were obscure, but overall I found it to be decent. However, if I had to nitpick (which I usually do anyway), I’d say the conclusion came a little too easy.

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃

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Sean Eads and Joshua Viola are writers from Denver, Colorado. Sean has been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, Lambda Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award. His first short story collection was published in 2017. Joshua is the owner of Hex Publishers. His latest anthologies include Blood Business and Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow. His upcoming novel, Denver Moon, will also be released as a comic book.