The staggering complement of authors in this anthology include stars in the horror, crime, and suspense genres, from Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Josh Malerman to Meg Gardiner and Molly Tanzer. The intersection between the alternative music scene and dark speculative fiction inspires a creeping sense of nostalgia in readers looking for a collection of gripping short fiction.
After midnight is as dark as it gets…
Whether thanks to an overnight college radio shift or cable pumping flickering videos into TVs across America, the music of the alternative era was the soundtrack to our lives, and sometimes our deaths. 120 Murders is an anthology of power chord crimes and keyboard horrors—the best noir, dark fantasy, and transgressive fiction from a writers inspired by grunge, goth, ska, synthpop, and every electric sound of the alternative era.
Table of Contents:
“How Soon is Now” by Cara Hoffman
“Equations for a Falling Body” by Jeff Chon
“Extra Midnight” by Zandra Renwick
“Little Mascara” by Jason Ridler
“Wendy, Growing Up” by Veronica Schanoes
“See America” by Todd Grimson
“We’ve Been Had” by Alex Jennings
“‘Hide & Seek’ by Swann” by Josh Malerman
“Just Like Fire Would” by William Boyle
“Land of the Glass Pinecones” by Michael Marano
“All My Life” by Meg Gardiner
“Never Let Me Down” by Brian Francis Slattery
“Sacred Meats” by Jeffrey Ford
“Never Forget” by Elena Mauli Shapiro
“House Meeting” by Chris L. Terry
“Superstition” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“Tornado Mother” by Libby Cudmore
“The Show Must Go On” by Cyan Katz
“Do It” by Paul Tremblay
“A Slasher Cozy” by Selena Chambers
“Love Will Tear Me Apart” by Maxim Jakubowski
“The Best in Basement Radio” by Molly Tanzer
5 Stars - Rachel Ashera Rosen
The premise of this anthology is so perfect that I'm legitimately surprised no one has done this much earlier. Each story uses a song (or songs) from the 80s and 90s as its jumping-off point to tell a story of murder. It spans a variety of genres—horror, thriller, dark fantasy, and noir—by authors both well known and emerging.
This is my era of music, objectively the best era, where the social safety net was crumbling enough to make everyone depressed but not enough that you couldn't be a well-educated working class band surviving on social assistance (cf. Mark Fisher), and the stories echo the melancholic, cynical vibe of their inspiration without the gloss of nostalgia. My favourite was Silvia Moreno-Garcia's "Superstition," about the disposal of magical fetishes, but "Hide & Seek by Swann" by Josh Malerman and "Never Let Me Down" by Brian Francis Slatterly also live rent-free in my head now. You won't want to miss this one.