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RARE

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

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
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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

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FOURTH WING

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 1

Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.

On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.

Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.

Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.

Pub Date: May 2, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374042

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Red Tower

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024

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IRON FLAME

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 2

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.

Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374172

Page Count: 640

Publisher: Red Tower

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

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