Epeolatry Book Review: Smile So Red and Other Tales of Darkness by Mia Dalia
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Title: Smile So Red and Other Tales of Darkness
Author: Mia Dalia
Genre: Collection; Horror
Publisher: Anuci Press
Publication Date: January 19th, 2024
Synopsis: From the author of Estate Sale and many other literary nightmares, comes a collection of dark psychological fiction like no other, featuring novelettes and shorter stories that range from horror to suspense to mystery to coming-of-age to thrillers.
Smile So Red – a man down on his luck finds a strange graffitied house on his hike, and can’t quite seem to leave it behind.
Spindel – a twelve-year-old boy suspects that one of the neighbors on his paper route might be a local serial killer and sets off to investigate.
Blues for the Soul – a library worker tries to help a troubled young boy and uncovers a terrible truth about his family.
Devil’s Chord – return to the world of Smile So Red with a meta journey set to the earworm tune of your worst nightmares.
Stump – a bullied young boy and a downtrodden family man from the same apartment complex unwittingly find solace in the same area of the local woods, trusting their secrets to the same remnant of an old tree.
Flamingos – two sisters must confront their troubled past when a buried memory is triggered by the seemingly innocuous plastic lawn birds.
The Trunk – a first-generation immigrant from a war-torn country striving to achieve the American Dream finds something in the basement of his new home that has other ideas for him.
Reddest – another return to the world of Smile So Red, albeit from a very different perspective.