Overview

Unnerving, hilarious, grotesque, and emotionally gripping, this collection of social, psychological, and suburban horror expresses what disturbs us most about our experiences internally and interactions with the world around us-including with the HOA, our landlords, live-ins (human or otherwise), neighbors, or, in the end, our eternity with the undying ones. Costs of Living is an inclusive collection with stories from brand-new writers as well as old-hand award winners, including... Summer Alexis, Beth Kette Anderson, Abby Andresen, Robert Bagnall, J.M. Bask, Melissa Bobe, Tiffany Michelle Brown, John Bukowski, Rob Francis, G. Gormley, Christina Griffith, Kay Hanifen, Tyler John Kasishke, Jordan King-Lacroix, Spencer Koelle, Andrew Kozma, C.R. Langille, Jon Lasser, Daniel Lumpkin, John Mahoney, Lena Ng, Gevera Bert Piedmont, Stephen S. Power, Nigel Quinlan, Jonathan Reddoch, Vanessa Reid, Michael Allen Rose, Jesse Rowell, J.D. Simpson, Katlina Sommerberg, Michael Subjack, Elizabeth Suggs, William Wandless, Sam Weller, Angela E. Zolner

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Table of Contents

Reviews

A collection of contemporary horror fiction. This debut offering from Whisper House, edited by its founder Capone, features a selection of horrific short stories united by home-and-neighborhood themes, with contributors ranging from seasoned, award-winning veterans of the publishing world to newcomers seeing their work in print for the first time. The stories cover the whole of the human landscape, from city life to country life to the most obviously terrifying location of all (the suburbs), and they vary in length from just a couple of pages to an average page count of around 10. The ethos of the anthology will be familiar to fans of Stephen King (there are virtually no stories here that aren't explicitly cut from King's cloth): the unexpected horror in the quotidian and familiar, whether it's the neighborhood playground or that particular terror of modern life, the local homeowners association. In Sam Weller's ""Creepy Crawly,"" the hapless narrator finds himself in an increasingly aggressive standoff with a millipedelike creature in his apartment (""We both lived in a hole-in-the-wall,"" he observes. ""And if you really look at it, in one way or another, don't we all?""), and a Jewish mother and her son encounter particularly virulent xenophobia in an Adelaide suburb in Jordan King-Lacroix's ""Just Being Neighborly."" Capone edits this collection with evident skill, choosing solid work and arranging it effectively. Brisk, businesslike entries like ""Decorations"" by J.D. Simpson, featuring a town that takes Halloween very, very seriously (""Around eleven forty-five, the temperature plunged"" on the big night. ""Dead grass hardened into hoary spikes of frost; fog formed in the shivering woods""), contrast well with more diffuse outings like ""The Annual Family Reunion"" by Christina Griffith. As in all anthologies, there's some uneven qualities, but fans of modern horror will find plenty to please them here. A well done, page-turning anthology of stories about home being where the horror is. Kirkus Reviews ""Horror has often explored precisely what's terrifying about particular places. The frightening solitude of the woods, the crushing loneliness of an urban crowd, the eerie uniformity of the suburbs. The new horror press Whisper House's anthology Costs of Living is the first collection that I know of which encompasses all of these extremes of experience across a wide swath of space. City, country, and suburb are all explored as terrifying places, proving that there's no place which is safe. With editor Stephen Capone's first anthology, Whisper House has announced itself (by scream!) as one of the most promising small horror presses today, and Costs of Living proves itself to be an anthology that's very much of the moment and will promise to frighten the ever-living hell out of you - wherever you live."" -Ed Simon, Public Humanities Special Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and author of Devil's Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain and Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology ""While I devoured every bit of this anthology, I could barely look away [...]. Costs of Living is a riveting horror anthology that speaks to our sense of security and comfort."" Christina Persaud at Articles of Horror

Author Information

Founder of Whisper House Press, whose Costs of Living inaugural horror anthology is in production for publication in late 2025, Steve Capone Jr. is an award-winning Utah-based writer hailing from the Rust Belt. His first YA historical fiction, Max in the Capital of Spies, was released in 2024. Jimmy vs. Communism is due out from Gibbs Smith in 2027. You can find his short fiction in anthologies including We Are Dangerous (LUW Press, 2023), Darkness 102 (Collective Tales Publishing, 2024), This Isn't the Place (Timber Ghost Press, 2024), and elsewhere. His ""Cure for Creativity"" won Best Short Screenplay at the Bloody Mirror Film Festival in 2024. He's a pizza advocate, dog helper with Arctic Rescue, and a proud member of the Horror Writers Association and League of Utah Writers. You can find his incorporeal footprint on his website at www.stevecaponejr.com or at https: //linktr.ee/stevecaponejr.

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