DeadSteam

Raffle brings together a fine selection of 17 “dreadpunk” (gaslamp horror and dark steampunk) stories in this gritty, enjoyable anthology. The London Underground becomes a playground for the undead in Raffle’s suspenseful “Burke Street Station.” A greedy lover gets her comeuppance in Jay Seate’s “The Velvet Ribbon.” Rob Francis’s “B.A.R.B.” plays with the concept of devil worship, and the lengths a grieving man might go to revive his dying wife. The pinnacle of the collection is Ross Smeltzer’s “The Hunger,” in which a man’s encounter with the undead in a forgotten cemetery lurches him toward Lovecraftian insanity. Although Raffle includes several stories that hover around a similar idea or theme (there is a glut of vampire fiction in this anthology), the standout tales are those that break from conventional horror. The nature of human frailty and propensity towards violence is underscored in all of the collected tales, making it more than just full of good scares. Seasoned horror readers will appreciate this dark anthology. (BookLife)