Sweet & Salty Reviews - Moonlit Dreams, Moonlit Nightmares, Edited by Laura Seeber

The Dish

Moonlit Dreams/Moonlit Nightmares is a fiction collection edited by L. Seeber and published by Antimony and Elder Lace Press. The stories here have been lovingly curated and range across multiple genres, from the supernatural to crime thrillers to outrageous parodies of old horror cinema favourites.

Thanks go to Blackthorn Book Tours for providing me with an advance copy of this anthology to review. As is usually the case with Various Author anthologies, I have tried to give every author a little attention.

The Midnight Feast of Magic, Mischief, Misery and Murder

A Consultation by Moonlight by Thomas Vaughn
A tale from Ancient Rome about a footnote in history and his desire for his own deification. This story’s main draw is its dialogue. The characters are eloquent and philosophical, and a lot is said between the lines as much as on them. The story has a fine irony to it. The reader can already guess at Clodius’ fate as a ruler, given the name we all associate with Rome. We have no need of the prophecy he is eventually given and, though Clodius is described as a man who cares for truth, his reaction to his prophecy shows him for who he really is. The characters also make mention of ‘lesser races’ having the power to divine their own futures, despite having sailed all the way to Thessaly in search of exactly that. It’s a tale of the hubris and sense of superiority men in office tend to have, neither of which are much justified. Of particular interest is Erictha and her powers of necromancy. I’ve never seen a means for communing with the dead as described in this story and I found the grisly details of the ritual captivating. All on a moonlit night in the Mediterranean, which is quite a beautiful destination. A strong start for the anthology.

Phosphene by Sarah Walker
A descent into the limbo between life and death. Adria’s journey is one of self-discovery on the boundary of her suicide. The surreal landscape she finds herself in nudges against Greek mythology, while Adria herself adds a modern perspective by comparing it to Alice in Wonderland. Her antagonist is less a monster and more a metaphor for loss of spiritual strength. Like many attempted suicides, Adria realises that she wishes to live and the ending leaves us feeling renewed.

A Visitation by Parineeta Singh
This tale deals with an omen. It has a quiet and slow-burning horror to it as our heroine, Flora, becomes aware of something terrible about to happen and can do nothing to stop it. The author does an excellent job contrasting the unfolding of the inevitable with Flora’s own inability to change her fate, as she is casually disregarded by her fiancé but unable to take him to task for it. It’s a sad story, but the final image has a certain beauty to it that softens the tragedy.

When the Moon is Full by Dawn J. Stevens
An eloquent narrative without a hint of dialogue. This story deals with a dutiful wife’s reflections on an unhappy marriage, combined with a supernatural gift of prophecy. Despite the passive role Heather takes in her own life, it takes great strength to absent oneself the way she does. It is not a happy tale, but Heather’s sense of responsibility to her husband and daughter make us feel that she is not necessarily a victim. Like the previous story, this one also unfolds a creeping dread, as we learn what Heather’s nightmares portend. In this story, we are left to wonder what the tragedy will be, though Heather herself acknowledges that the outcome is not always bad. That, I think, is the most interesting part of the story. Heather’s outlook is, deep down, a positive one, and serves as inspiration. Ultimately, life is what you make of it.

The Sound of Stars by A.P. Sessler 
An invasion story with a difference. The author’s use of synaesthesia is unique and interesting. The tale presents happy family life and then shatters it with the onset of insanity. What I find the most terrifying aspect, personally, is the thought that an advanced alien race could decide to destroy our world simply because the colour of it offends their senses. To be condemned for such an arbitrary thing is both believable and frightening.

One Stormy Night... by Jesse Moak 
Like an old-fashioned adventure story from the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, this tale combines slow-building dread with strange surroundings and alien architecture. The descriptions paint a dark and forbidding locale that wears on the main character’s mind. As with Lovecraft’s work, the protagonist is an explorer who runs up against unexpected horrors on a journey that irrevocably changes him. The story is actually devoid of dialogue until the closing pages, but this helps to impress the sense of strangeness in the rest of the tale.

Anamnesis by Cara Fox 
This story has an almost poetic feel to it. Like the previous tale, there is a sense of a normal person touching ‘the other’ and being completely unprepared for its presence in her life. A lot of the imagery, dark and light, red on white, is very striking. The main character is intuitive and sympathetic and tragically alone in understanding the danger her daughter is in. We can’t help but feel her pain. The ending has a terrible inevitability as it unfolds.

The Magic Circle by Dimitris Psomadellis 
A story of forbidden love and superstition in the vein of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Here, the witches are real but benevolent. The true enemy is ignorance. There’s an interesting power balance, with the female characters solving their own problems and the men always a step behind. The witch sisters are kind and genuinely likeable, and prose is unexpectedly quirky at times, lightening the overall tone.

Receiving Room by Lori Tiron-Pandit 
An epistolary fiction in the form of a dream journal. There is a building sense of foreboding that rises through the whole of the story. The narrator’s focus on the mysterious Margo verges on the obsessive and we learn very little about their own life and personality. The story leaves us caught somewhere between the supernatural and the psychological, much like the narrator themselves. A brilliantly-conceived and unsettling piece. 

Eleventh Hour by Jamie Ryder 
What starts as a story about a man down on his luck being visited by a guardian angel very quickly turns into something much more frightening. A black comedy about a trickster god and the poor fellow who becomes the butt of his joke. In a way, the story also serves as a warning to the reader not to waste the limited time they have on earth, lest they come to the attention of someone powerful, dangerous and maybe just a little insane.

The First Victims Club by Shaun Avery 
A unique story that gives horror movie clichés new life in the form of ‘The First Victims Club’. It’s a common trope for the first victim of a horror movie to be forgotten within the first few minutes of the film. In this story, the first victim is the most important, chosen for an experiment to alter events after their deaths that cause harm to their surviving loved ones. Kind of makes you wish a series like Friday the 13th had adopted this concept for a sequel.

To Make a Violin by L. Seeber 
A well-written crime thriller that I didn’t expect to see alongside so many supernatural stories. The author has drawn a likeable and sympathetic police detective, as well as a disturbing psychopath for them to play against. The story’s final revelation is built carefully into the rest of the narrative and the twist is satisfying, if unpleasant. An excellent read, superbly executed.

The Experiment by Todd P. Taylor 
A social experiment goes horribly wrong in Todd Taylor’s surreal descent into the life of a homeless man and his benefactor. The story drives at a complex social issue. We are, ultimately, the same except for our circumstances. Oddly enough, the original narrator is handed a way out of his poverty, while the ‘Ratman’ takes his opportunity proactively. Generally, the temptation is to praise the latter but, in this story, the former is actually the more laudable. A solid tale with some evocative imagery throughout.

The Aftertaste 
On the whole, Moonlit Dreams/Moonlit Nightmares is a broad contemplation of a variety of human fears and pathologies. While many have a supernatural aspect, some are purely about the human condition. The ‘moon’ theme running throughout isn’t always especially prevalent - in some it appears only as a background image - but it is an ever-present, watching face in all of these disparate events.

Particular commendations go to When the Moon is Full, The Sound of Stars, Eleventh Hour and To Make a Violin. Receiving Room takes the prize as my favourite from the anthology, however, for its elegant depiction of grief turned to obsession turned to horror.

Once again, I’d like to thank Blackthorn Book Tours for the advance copy of this collection and for the opportunity to soak in some moonlit dreams.