A Sliver of Darkness is a horror anthology from C.J. Tudor. I’ve enjoyed her other longer books, so I wanted to give these shorts a try. In her introductions, though, Tudor gives us a warning – most of these stories were ones she started and stopped, or was unable to develop into longer stories. It’s a shame because some of these stories have a lot of potential, and I wouldn’t have minded if they were a little longer, or even a standalone novella.
At the beginning of each short story, Tudor provides a one—to two-page introduction explaining where the idea came from. I thought this was a nice way to reset from the last story and pique curiosity for the upcoming one.
When I review short stories, I usually just focus on the few that grabbed my attention, and that is what I will do here as well.
End of the Liner is the first story in the series and was possibly my favorite—not so much because it’s very good, but because there was a lot of potential to develop it into a longer dystopia. As it stands, it feels a little unfinished and predictable.
Next up is The Block, which is straight-up horror. In it, kids get adventurous and are chased by strange monsters in an abandoned building.
Runaway Blues was an odd story about music and love, and was ok. I liked the themes and the idea behind it more than the actual execution.
I really liked the idea behind The Completion about a real estate agent and a creepy mansion. This is another story that would have benefited from a longer treatment. I really loved the atmosphere and setting.
The Lion at the Gate is again about a bunch of kids getting into trouble. This story was excellent and worked perfectly as a short. It was creepy, harrowing, and just enough. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but I didn’t need it to.
Gloria was nice, but it was about a couple of characters from some other books, and while I liked the story, wasn’t too invested (maybe because I haven’t read the stories they came from originally). Still, I see a lot of potential in these characters and even possible future stories.
In some ways, it did feel like Tudor was testing the waters here a bit – fishing to see which of her ideas would take, and maybe drive future long form books. But if this set of short stories is a fishing expedition, it’s done well. There is a ton of variety, each story offers some surprising element. If I had a complaint, I would say that there is no uniform tonal voice. These stories are all so different, and differently written, it could be an anthology of multiple writers, not just one.
