13 Views of the Suicide Woods

5/5 Star Review

I have been toying with the idea of starting a book review blog for the past several months. My life is fairly hectic and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep it as timely as I feel it should be. I then read 13 Views of the Suicide Woods and realized that it doesn’t matter how often I am posting – what matters is that I am hopefully encouraging others to pick up amazing books that they might not otherwise read.

Short stories, when written well, are the perfect medium for horror. They have just enough story, just enough character development, that when they end they pack a serious punch. 13 Views of the Suicide Woods does just that – Nineteen stories that each hit hard in their own way. There is a smattering of the supernatural, but most of the stories revolve around the cruelty and the pain that we inflict on each other as human beings.

A few of the standout stories for me were The Boy Who Dreamt He Was a Bat, about a boy who desperately wishes he could fly away; All Dreams Die in the Morning, about a man’s past, present, and future; Blood of the Vine, about a college girl’s getaway to help heal after a traumatic event; and This Last Little Piece of Darkness, a man’s letter recounts his youth.

Honestly, there isn’t a weak story in this collection – all are extraordinarily well-rounded and well-written. It has been some time since I have read a book that left me so anxious and as ready for the book to end as I wished it never would. This was my first read from Bracken MacLeod and it will not be my last.