Review: The Cabinet of Curiosities

Summary

A collection of forty eerie, mysterious, intriguing, and very short short stories presented by the cabinet’s esteemed curators, otherwise known as acclaimed authors Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire LeGrand, and Emma Trevayne. Features an introduction and commentary by the curators, and illustrations and decorations throughout.

My thoughts

I got a sneak peek of this book for review that definitely made me want to get the whole anthology. I got to read four of these horror stories, one by each author, and also got a look at a few illustrations which will be included in the book. Already the introduction in the form of letters by the authors made me curious about the different stories I wasn’t disappointed in them afterwards.

Fairy Cakes by Emma Trevayne

I’m not a huge fan of fairy stories but a short story about evil fairies who demand cakes? That’s a good one! I liked how this story frightens with what it is not telling and how short it is.

Red Shoes and Doll parts by Claire Legrande

In my opinion dolls coming to life is one of the creepiest things out there. This was the one I liked the least out of the four though. I already knew what was going to happen which didn’t make this that creepy. This was just too typical a horror story about a doll but I think one like this belongs in a cabinet of curiosities.

Transcript: Information provided by an 11-years-old make, 2 weeks after the incident by Katherine Catmull

This one was my favorite out of the four. It not only contains something new so that I didn’t know what was going to happen and made this more thrilling but it was also told in an interesting way. This is an interview with a witness who was present but didn’t get to see/feel the real horror.

Mabel Marella by Stefan Bachmann

This one was the most odd one. It wasn’t really frightening but really weird in a good way.I liked that we are first introduced to something really beautiful and suddenly it turns into a nightmare.

the illustrations

When I saw the first one of these I wished I could get the book right away to see them all. These simplistic, dark illustrations in black and white are right up my ally and will make a great addition to these stories.

Overall

From what I’ve seen, The Cabinet of Curiosities is going to be a must-have for fans of short stories and horror. It looks like it will contain both known and new curiosities of the genre, talked about in different, interesting ways.