Spook Lights 2: Southern Gothic Horror
(Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2017, Kindle Edition)
From childhood scares to the horrific and sensual, Spook Lights 2: Southern Gothic Horror gives us more of the steamy Charleston, South Carolina-based horror from author and editor Eden Royce.
Currently based in the U.K., Royce has stayed faithful to her Southern roots, and while she is a fan of the supernatural in general, this time around she decided to focus on the human side of horror, inspired by wise words from her beloved grandmother about being wary of humans and not movie monsters.
This second collection takes the foreboding and magic of the first and once again weaves it into everyday life with stories like To-Do List, The Dating Pool, and Blood Read. Other stories like Laughter of Crows and Haints of Azalea Hall blur the lines between the living and the dead, and there is a timelessness with each one that makes you feel a nostalgic yearning from within.
Royce is very good at incorporating a nonchalant acceptance with each tradition of magic. The everyday fables and superstitions are like a collective memory or common knowledge with the characters; ingrained within the communities as a living history. They remind me of my own West Indian background and old wives’ tales I would hear as a child, casually tossed into conversations without the blink of an eye.
The historical content in the stories is just as rich as the first, but the human element prevalent in this collection. She uses the fragility of uncertainty within our human existence and reaffirms it with ancestral root magic and powerful women. Doubts soon dissipate as each character sees their true selves be it good or bad, and they either succumb or escape the terrors that plague them.
Her final story Folk will resonate with readers for many reasons. I myself will go back to read it several times and glean something different each time I do, but I think it tells us to remember where we come from and celebrate or take heed of it.
Eden Royce definitely remembers her roots, and not only revels in them, but documents her ancestral traditions, showing her pride in this wonderful sequel set in a sensual and mystical world.
Spook Lights 2: Southern Gothic Horror is available now on amazon here, and check out the rest of her writing here.
Follow her on her sites:
http://www.twitter.com/EdenRoyce
And read my review of her first volume here.
