Horror Book Review: Behind You By Blair Daniels

 

This week's Horror Book Pick is BEHIND YOU by Blair Daniels.

This anthology of 20 horror stories is part of a series called Tales of Terror that currently consists of six books.

Published by Black Widow Press, Behind You was released in October 2024.

The book is also on the bestsellers list for horror anthologies.

The sample had two full short stories to read ("The Time Out Doll" and "Has Anyone Seen The Upside-Down Woman?")

A third one is cut short but gives a taste of the terror it holds.

Let's start with the first one.

The Time Out Doll is a spooky tale of a plastic doll that keeps appearing everywhere.

It first appears at the local playground. The protagonist and her son Ryan are at the playground when they see the doll. The mother is clearly not happy about it and is unnerved by the presence.

Soon, it appears to be moving. In a frightening conclusion to the story, the Doll is no longer at the playground but inside the house.

This story is bound to give you the chills. It is crisp and concise with a focus on delivering a frightening reading experience.

The next story is about the main  character spotting an upside down woman hanging from the roof of a Victorian house. Soon after, the protagonist sees the upside down woman everywhere, and as per the legend, she is attracted to glass. When the protagonist decides to hide in the basement where there's no glass, they make the mistake of wearing glasses and seeing the upside woman again.

Will the protagonist survive this supernatural entity? The ending is a tad ambiguous, and while the story is well-written and scary, it doesn't really help us identify the character. Who is the protagonist? What is their name, and is it a woman or a man? It would have helped to give the character some identifiable characteristics to help sympathize with them.

The next story is about a nurse at a nursing home. This time, we have the character's name: Jeff. Although, until the name appeared, I thought the character to be feminine because of the thought process.

All these stories are told in first person, which makes it a little challenging to join the character on their journey unless there are obvious identifiable markers.

Regardless, while the third story is cut short here, because this is a sample, the story holds a lot of promise. There is clearly something creepy going on in the nursing home.

You will have to read to find out.

To Read or Not To Read?

Blair Daniels clearly has a talent to write short horror stories, though the author does need to work on constructing characters a bit more.

The stories are focused, and there's never a dull moment or a loss of momentum before the ultimate twist is revealed.

I would definitely want to read more.

You can find the book on Amazon here