Emporium of Superstition: An Old Wives' Tale Anthology, by Candice Robinson, C. Vonzale Lewis, and Kristen Jaques et al, is an excellent collection of fantastic stories. The story starts with a young girl discovering a book that her grandmother had left. Candice Robinson wrote about a man whose wife is dying and the only way to save her is to bargain with a demon who lives in the mirror realm. A very interesting twist on the seven deadly sins. C. Vonzale Lewis wrote a beautiful story about vengeance and the balance between good and evil. When a mother loses her child, she is driven to call on the forces of vengeance in the form of a raven. It is a harrowing tale of retribution. Kristen Jaques wrote about a woman in her thirties who had begun sprouting hair and how the old woman she lives with turns her into some sort of Big Foot for profit. These and the other stories are told with great elegance.

Emporium of Superstition by Candice Robinson, C. Vonzale Lewis, and Kristen Jaques et al was a fun read. The first three stories were my favorites. I loved the balance between good and evil and even the humor in the last story. To manufacture your own Big Foot was a blast. I didn’t know if I should cringe or smile. I found these stories to be thrilling and sometimes gut-wrenching. When the mother lost her baby, I could feel the pain. It was so realistic and the overall stories were very relatable. Even when there were demons and Papa Sin and Mother Root, you still knew where you stood with them. It makes for an escapist read. You get lost in the stories as you drown in the emporium of superstition. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something different and who loves folklore, superstition, and stories with a twist.

Emporium of Superstition: An Old Wives' Tale Anthology is a dark fantasy horror written in individual short stories by no less than twelve acclaimed authors in the genre, each resting on the premise of the same theme. Beaumont, Robinson, Vonzale Lewis, Christie, de Becerra, Dailey, Frank, Jacques, Braun, Cranberry, Rush, and D.M. Siciliano lend their own voices and imagination in weaving short stories that harness the power of superstition and folklore. They are original wives' tales as promised, in the style of incantations that could easily be passed down through generations. They range over a variety of plotlines, such as the supernatural vengeance of a mother who has lost her “miracle baby” to a horrific act of violence in C. Vonzale Lewis' An Ax for the Storm, to a doppelgänger that feeds off the perfection of another in Marlena Frank's Perfection.

Going into Emporium of Superstition, I only had read the work of one of its authors and the quality of writing she had put out previously was enough to trust that the rest of the anthology would be just as good. I was not disappointed. There really is something here for everybody, but I have a feeling most will impress even the pickiest of readers who love a good, dark thriller. My favorite was Oh Cruel Darkness by Christis Christie, a story where a dark source enters a woman's life through her dreams, and then works to break her entirely until the hell of his realm and the hell on Earth for her are indistinguishable. I really love being transported to the darker recesses of fantasy and horror, but sometimes am unable to commit to the length of a full-length novel, or series for that matter, to indulge. Emporium is perfect for this, giving up bite-sized morsels of dark deliciousness that have the rich taste of excellent literature with only 1/12th the calories. Very highly recommended.