Reviews

At The Cemetery Gates: Volume 2 by Joseph Sullivan, John Brhel

howlinglibraries's review

4.0

I never get tired of a good horror short story collection, and I'd been meaning to check out a title from this writing duo for some time now, so I was pleased to finally get the chance to read this one. Many of Brhel and Sullivan's collections are "themed" in a way, so my understanding is that At the Cemetery Gates: Vol. 2 is an amalgamation of the "leftovers" of those other collections. I thought this was a really fun detail, because it left me trying to guess which collection each story might have originally been intended for.

While a few of the stories were a bit lackluster for me, overall, I genuinely enjoyed the writing in these and thought a lot of the pieces had a fun urban legend-esque vibe to them, like the kind of stories you'd swap with friends late at night. I had a few favorites that I'll detail below, but it's safe to say it was a great collection in general and I'll definitely be reading more from Brhel and Sullivan!

F A V O R I T E S:
→ With the Lights Out:
When I mentioned many of the stories being reminiscent of urban legends, this one has that vibe more than anything else. It was fun and I loved the way it felt like an homage to so many old tales — an excellent way to begin the collection.

→ The Payphone:
This story felt so unique and I loved that I had a dreadful feeling of what was coming, but not how it would manifest. Overall a fun ride to be on, and the sort of story that has you wanting to shake a character and stop them from bumbling into the terrible trap they're approaching.

→ A Hammock Camping How-to:
I found the twist in this one a little predictable, but not in a bad way; again, it struck me as that fun sort of story you'd tell your friends late at night surrounding a campfire or on a long road trip.

Thank you so much to the authors for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!