Anthology Manor of Frights HORROR , ANTHOLOGY, FICTION
Horroraddicts.net press
August 13. 2023
Kindle
202
amazon
Imagine a Victorian house where every room is cursed with a frightful existence. Are monsters in the halls? Ghosts left to fester in the library? Or are the rooms themselves enchanted with malevolent energy? What was summoned long ago and what doorways were left open? Manor of Frights is a collection of tales all set in different rooms of the same house.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
A Victorian Manor where each room contains a different kind of horror. All the authors in the anthology have contributed to the horror and fright.
Flowers in the Foyer: – DW Milton – The Foyer 1880 5*****Stars
A new housemaid has been hired by Master and Mistress Holmes. Primrose is happy about this job since it will financially allow her to care for her grandmother. Her primary job is to make flower arrangements each morning, something she learned from her grandmother and something she is good at. Unfortunately, making flower arrangements is not her real reason for being there and by the time she figures it out it is too late.
Storage – Ollie Fox- The Kitchen Store Room, 1890 – 5*****Stars
Seventeen-year-old Anna works in the kitchen of the old manor. She sleeps on a cot and is comfortable because the kitchen is always warm and smells good. Unfortunately, her boss likes to read in the kitchen because of the same warmth that Anna enjoys, only he doesn’t allow her to be there with him. She must sleep on potato sacks in the store room where it is dark, cold and where she is convinced that something is in there with her. That same kitchen and store room in 1933 would have answers to what happened to Anna and what resides in there.
Bye, Baby Bunting: Leslie Warren – The Nursery 1900 – 5*****Stars
Ida Wells has lost her husband of two years and is carrying his child, a child she didn’t want but wanted to make her husband happy. When the baby, Minnie was born, she discovered she had teeth and every attempt to feed her left her wounded and bloody. When she hired a wet nurse, the baby fed and was happy, but Ida was convinced that she was a monster. The scariest part of this story is the realization that what happened to baby Minnie happens every day. This was a story that left me with goosebumps.
Withered Bindings: Michael Fassbender – The Study 1911 – 5*****Stars
Philippa must clean the study before her employer returns and the study is filled with shelves and a huge collection of books some of which could date back decades. While she begins dusting, she discovers books that are totally decade and when touched it leaves a coating on her hands. Well, I will never look at bookshelves the same way again.
Dinner Guests: Emerian Rich – The Downstairs 1913 – 5*****Stars
Stephens is the butler at Bostwick Manor, and he takes his job very seriously. To Stephens, a butler is the one who ensures that the family has everything they need and having zombie attacks doesn’t faze him or interfere with his job. The family is having guests for dinner and the next day a hunting party and he is determined that the family is undisturbed by what is going on. Half the employees are gone and with his butler in training Mathews they go on like nothing has happened. The scariest thing about this story is Stephens, do men like him really exist, I doubt it. This is the kind of story that makes me sleep with the lights on.
A Green Thumb: Daphne Strasert – The Conservatory 1918 – 5*****Stars
Eleanor’s best friend Florence owns the Florence Albrecht Conservatory, and she was able to obtain a new and unknown species of orchid. Eleanor begged her to give her a few clippings so she could grow them in her own greenhouse, but Florence refused. Eleanor had only one way to get her clippings and that was to break into the conservatory and steal them. With the clippings in hand Florence caught her and Eleanor learned the hard way why she should have listened to her friend and stayed away. I will never look at an orchid the same way again.
Turning Pages: Mark Orr – The Ballroom – 1950- 4****Stars
The new owner of the manor, Jonathan lies impaled in the foyer fountain filled with blood. He is in love with the house and the ghost of the original owner’s wife who the husband killed. Every night she plays the piano, and every night Jonathan longs to get close enough to her to turn the pages of her music. Jonathan’s brother just wants to destroy the house so what brother will win.
A Fresh Start: D.J. Pitsiladis – The Scullery 1953 – 5*****Stars
Virginia had lost everything and everyone she cared for and thought cared for her because she became pregnant. Now she has gotten a job working mainly in the scullery and until she makes enough money to leave and start over, she is stuck. Then she hears voices whispering in her ear that they are trapped, and she should run, but where. She lives with pain for her child and her past but sometimes one person’s pain is another person’s joy.
The Living Room: Amanda Leslie – The Living Room, 1955 – 5*****Stars
Jenny is a typical housewife who follows her daily activity of coffee and waking the kids for school. Then something begins to happen, things are being moved and she explains it away in her mind as her imagination. Then things become scarier and moving couches and TVs can no longer be explained away as imagination something is alive in her living room. When she checks on her children, they are sleeping peacefully but the truth about the living room and Jenny is both heartbreaking and scary.
Lanai: BF Vega – The Lanai 1960 – 5*****Stars
Seventeen-year-old Sugar has come to the old Manor and is living with her cousin. Jenny finds it unusual for the old house built in the 1800’s to have a lanai but her cousin informs her that it was built with the money from the sugar plantations the family owned and that was the reason Sugar was a popular family name. Sugar would learn everything about the family’s interest in sugar and the story is not sweet.
Cacophony: Judith Pancoast – The Music Room 1962 – 5*****Stars
Paula and her ten-year-old daughter Annalyse have moved into the old manor that was now considered a handyman’s special. Paula’s husband left for another woman and without money she was forced to move into the rundown house. Although it was unfurnished the one plus was the old baby grand piano left behind which was Annalyse’s dream. She is considered a prodigy when it comes to playing the piano, but the piano keys are broken and each time she plays her fingers bleed. When a mystery piano tuner and music teacher show up it is just the beginning of the nightmares to come.
Nightbears: Loren Rhodes – The Boy’s Room 1965 – 5*****Stars
This was both scary and sweet, two teddy bears determined to protect their owner little Jimmy from the monsters living in the closet and under the bed. One with a slingshot Jimmy made and one with a water gun. Every night the two fight the monsters and every night Jimmy sleeps peacefully. Jimmy is growing up so how much longer he will need to have his two teddy bears protect him will they become unnecessary.
Beyond the Ensuite: Barend Nieuwstraten III – The Ensuite Bathroom 1973 – 5*****Stars
The old Victorian Manor is now a hotel and one of the guests would discover that the horrors of the past are still present. Kenneth had a room with a double bed which surprised him since he was alone, but it turned out that that was the bedroom that would lead him to discover a secret door behind the shower and it would lead him down to a huge bathtub big enough for a lot of people. Now the only one in the tub is a girl named Gertrude who invited him to join her, but what was he really joining.
The Desiccated Heart: Sumiko Saulson – The Garage l977 – 5*****Stars
Frankie is a transwoman who has been living in the manor’s garage. Her aunt and uncle reside in the manor itself, but the other members of the garage band find the entire place scary. There is a story of the carport and strange meetings being held by the Hellfire Club a group of occultists. As if that story wasn’t scary enough Frankie showed everyone what she found the desiccated heart of the Hellfire Club’s Secretary, Paul Whitehead in an urn. There was also a paper which was in Latin and appeared to be an incantation and they decided to use the words for their original song. Young and stupid with no idea of what they are doing or what the words in the song really mean they push on and find out that the manor and everything associated with it leads to just one more horror story.
A Study in Terror: Jason Fischer – The Study 1978 – 5*****Stars
Janet has won a mail in contest for an all-expense paid night at a murder mystery dinner. The thing that she would have changed was for her young daughter Claire to be home but once again her divorced husband didn’t show up. Claire is instantly scared of the wall clock and insists the man is starring at her and when it strikes the hour an entire wooden family comes out. Janet’s night was fun till she arrived back to her room, the room that the owner of the manor picked out for her. It would appear that Janet was hand-picked for this night but then we are talking about the manor and who knows what it plans for her and Claire.
Come Find Me, Mummy: Rosetta Yorke – The Nursery 1979 – 5*****Stars
Debbie Grainger and her three-year-old daughter Poppy are in the manor where Debbie is cataloguing the contents before auction. She has wanted to join the family business and doing a good job could be the answer to her prayers. While cataloguing and taking pictures Debbie is ready to leave only, she can’t find Poppy who she hears behind a door she hadn’t seen and would have meant her father would not consider her as worthy of the position of Senior Valuation Expert. The room is a nursery and Poppy is having a very good time playing with all the toys. If Debbie had been given the documentation of the manor, she might have realized that nothing is as it seems. This story scared the bejeezus out of me because of one little, not going to say.
Missing: R.L. Merrill – Scullery 1980 – 5*****Stars
No one is now living in the manor and the Historical Society is planning on restoring it. The High School Historical Society is going to perform roles of the servants and the family of the Victorian Era Mansion and taking small groups to get a first-hand look at what life was like in the mansion in 1880 when the Holmes family lived there. It is the 100-year anniversary of the mansion, and everyone will get to visit all the rooms. The scullery is the room that Kristi was assigned, and it is a room with a history, but will history repeat itself.
If being scared to death is your thing than this anthology should not be missed. I loved all the stories, and they were scary and followed the mansion from 1880 to 1980 and the one thing each period had in common was that evil was always present.