Blood Drops: A Collection of Horror Short Stories by W.B. Welch: Review

I was­n’t asked to review W.B. Welch’s Blood Drops, but could­n’t think of a bet­ter title to bring to the blog just in time for my favourite hol­i­day.  Hap­py Halloween!

Blood Drops: A Collection of Horror Short Stories
by W.B. Welch

Pub­li­ca­tion Date: 16 Decem­ber 2018

Genre: Fic­tion

 

 

Whether we are fol­low­ing WB through a grim future where human meat is on the mar­ket, or trail­ing slow­ly behind while she intro­duces us to Marie Laveua’s daugh­ter, you can be cer­tain of one thing: you will be sur­prised. The best and the most bru­tal of WB’s works has been brought togeth­er in this all-too-believ­able collection.

Includes a total of eigh­teen tales.

Amazon | Bookshop

My Review

I was intro­duced to W.B. Welch in what is by far the most unique way I’ve had on Pen­cils & Pages so far–she post­ed on Twit­ter about want­i­ng to send a gift to some­one just because.  Isn’t that just the sweet­est thing?  As luck should have it, she chose me, a com­plete stranger, to send some­thing to, and could­n’t have done a bet­ter job of find­ing the per­fect gifts.

That being said, I had a good feel­ing about her from the start.  And when I saw her short sto­ry col­lec­tion, Blood Drops, had gone on sale, I knew I need­ed to snag a copy.

You might not know it from my cur­rent read­ing focus­es, but I’m a life­long Stephen King fan.  Poe began my love for all things spooky ear­ly on.  I was excit­ed to return to these “roots” with Blood Drops, and what bet­ter time than right before Halloween?

The past few weeks have been espe­cial­ly hec­tic for me, and Blood Drops was the per­fect escape.  These sto­ries are a beau­ti­ful­ly haunt­ing blend that I have no doubt will fol­low me for a long time to come.  Even as I write this, I’m think­ing about var­i­ous char­ac­ters and scenes from through­out the collection.

At first glance, you’d think a few of these should­n’t fit with the rest of the short sto­ries con­tained here, yet you’d quick­ly prove your­self wrong in read­ing.  By the book’s close, the sto­ries meld togeth­er as if the char­ac­ters are speak­ing to one anoth­er as much as to you.  It’s hard to pick a favourite, but “Meat Aisle” hit me hard­est.  It should seem so far-off from real­i­ty, and yet.…