Book Review: Eerie Exhibits by Victoria Williamson

Genre: Horror
Age: Adult
Format: Paperback

Published by Silver Thistle Press

I adore Victoria Williamson; whatever she writes, it's always something completely different. Usually, I will review either a MG or YA book of hers. But this time it's a spooky adult book and I couldn't wait to start it.

Featuring stories set in the same museum, this was always going to be something special, and she didn't disappoint.

Eerie Exhibits is a collection of five stories that make the reader feel unsettled and spooked. Each story clings to the mind long after being read and makes you really think. This book masterfully blends eerie atmosphere, psychological depth, and macabre storytelling. What I like best is that each story is set in the same museum and this is the perfect setting for these five haunting life stories, each with its own supernatural element lurking within an exhibit.

There are characters from one story in another, which gives the reader a sense of familiarity. All five stories also have a nicely paced build up to the extremely eerie end.

With a collection of short stories everyone will all have their own favourite, and for me it was The Screaming Man; there was something about this story that I couldn't stop thinking about, and that ending wasn't what I was expecting.

The Whispering Shell was the only story to have a conclusion, the other four stories were ended by leaving the reader to guess or to decide what happened next.

The stories all deal with real life struggles, grief, toxic parents, child neglect, emotional issues, and more than one story ends in the death of the main character - but maybe this goes to show that real life can be a horror story.

The author's writing draws you in and doesn't release you until the very end, this is more human horror than supernatural horror.

Review by Helen