Review: Voices

“In every hotel room, there is a story.”

Voices, edited by Mark S. Deniz and Amanda Pillar, consists of a series of stories, with the only connecting thread between them the setting: a hotel room. This shared setting works well, giving the reader the sense that they are wandering through an old, shadowed hotel, getting glimpses of the stories that lie within the identical rooms. The stories all seem fragmented, and yet part of a greater whole. It leaves one feeling like there are empty rooms lying between those occupied ones, pieces of the greater story that are as yet untold.

A further sense of connection is given by Robert Hood’s series of interconnected pieces which frame the book as epilogue and prologue as well as being part of each of the four sections – these pieces really give a true feeling of unity to the anthology.

Each piece in this anthology is vivid and eerie, running the gamut from the faintly creepy to the truly disturbing. Many have an almost dream-like (or perhaps nightmare-like) quality, making the most of their few words to paint truly vivid pictures.

The stories vary in tone. Paul Kane’s “The Suicide Room” is haunting and poetic, and one of the most evocative pieces in Voices. Martin Livings’ disturbing “Bedbugs” and Todd Edwards’ “Paris” are pure horror (and will make you think twice the next time you lay down in that hotel bed or take those pills). Shane Jiraiya Cummings’ work is excellent as always, with the vivid and disturbing “A Picture of Death”.

Every story in Voices is of high quality, and the editors should be commended for their high standards. This is one of the best anthologies of dark fiction to have been released recently, and is highly recommended.

Voices is published by and available from Morrigan Books.