Monster Lairs

A Dark Fantasy Horror Anthology (Dark Matter Presents)

By: Anna Madden, Ai Jiang, Emily Ruth Verona, L.P. Hernandez, Lyndsey Croal

Narrated by: Cheryl May

31 Brand-New Dark Fantasy Horror Stories. Bloody corridors of ancient rock. A castle surrounded by poisonous thorns. A lost temple of traps and corpses. A subaqueous cave at the bottom of a cursed lake. These are the places where secrets are buried, where ancient evils are summoned, where beasts are imprisoned, where the insane lie in wait. These are tombs of darkness and nightmare, where if you stare into the abyss, the abyss will stare back. Heed the warnings of your elders and return from whence you came. Ahead lie monster lairs.

Stories by:
Fatima Abdullahi, J. W. Allen, R. F. Anding, Michael Boulerice, Kevin M. Casin, Kaitlin Caul, Lyndsey Croal, Marie Croke, Koji A. Dae, Oleander Dudek, Victor Forna, L. P. Hernandez, Jordan Hirsch, Andrew Leon Hudson, Vanessa Jae, Ai Jiang, Wailana Kalama, Alex Langer, Rajiv Moté, Leah Ning, Damilola Oyedotun, Zachary Rosenberg, Abhijeet Sathe, Jean Strickland, Kanishk Tantia, Gretchen Tessmer, V. F. Thompson, D. Matthew Urban, Emily Ruth Verona, Carson Winter, Lucy Zhang

Edited by Anna Madden. Introduction by Anna Madden. Cover art by Olly Jeavons.

©2023 Dark Matter INK (P)2025 Dark Matter INK

Pretty good

Some stories grip your attention while others don’t. The amount of variety in the stories is amazing. Only a few stories seem like they might connect and you wish they did.

Many interesting stories

There was various stories for every type. Definitely worth listening to all of these interesting stories

Let's get weird!

Cultists, cannibals, and creepy sex shops. There's something for everyone here. Rapid fire short stories and great narrator.

Short stories, unknown, authors, brilliantly written

This collection of stories has surprised me. I expected fairly amateur stories and what I got instead was a glimpse into the horrifying future. This collection spans a great deal of the world from ex-pats to African stories to European stories to American and Canadian stories. Wonderfully written and presented and also amazingly performed. One of my favorite stories is The nine tailed fox. Anyway, if you like short horror fiction or weird stories that are short, this book is for you.

🥱

Anthologies are typically a mixed bag. This one has 2 or 3 good ones. Unfortunately the rest are rambling garbage.