RARE

edited by June Visosky & Stephanie Vislay ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 2025

An unsettling and skillfully curated anthology exploring the price of secrecy and the psychological terrain of those who carry it.

Across 12 stories, this collection, edited by Visosky and Vislay, plunges readers into realms where ordinary lives meet the uncanny, and where truths unravel with quiet violence. The entries span genres, from literary horror to speculative SF and dark fantasy, but all share a common preoccupation: what happens when hidden things come to light. In Laura Foley’s “Rare Steaks,” one of the most gripping tales, a man navigates a deadly banquet with a tyrannical king, where “revenge is [a] dish best served rare, and the secret of the nation prevailed.” In rich, tactile prose, the piece explores political defiance masked as ritual; it reads like myth, but cuts like history. Another standout, “Alone / Together” by Adam Bassett, explores grief and memory via speculative technology. When a woman opts to erase her trauma, she finds herself haunted not by what she remembers, but by the knowledge that something is missing: “She felt as though she’d been handed a live grenade. The pin was still in, but it seemed too feeble a way to prevent an explosion.” Soon, the boundary between love and loss becomes disturbingly porous. Elsewhere, stories probe strange pacts (as in C.W. Stevenson’s “More Than a Lamb for Súile Buí”), and internalized guilt; Rowan Wolf’s “Remedy,” for instance, features subtle, devastating scenes of a mother tending to her daughter’s burn while whispering, “We practiced what to say….You remember?” These quieter moments often hit hardest, revealing the anthology’s strength, not just in its concept, but in its psychological precision. Katie Hallee’s foreword effectively frames the collection’s thematic concern: “Secrets are born out of necessity….Left unattended, however, they can turn on us.” This idea recurs throughout, not only in content but in form, as many stories withhold as much as they reveal, mirroring the opacity of the human psyche. The prose often favors restraint over spectacle, making the horror feel personal and the speculative elements intimate.

A sharply imagined, emotionally intelligent collection about the quiet terrors of the human condition.

Pub Date: April 22, 2025

ISBN: 9781963029062

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Alex Parker Publishing

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2025

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

FANTASY | SHORT STORIES | GENERAL FICTION