THE GHASTLING #15

TITLE - THE GHASTLING #15

EDITED BY - REBECCA PARFITT 

GENRE - HORROR/PARANORMAL/GHOST PROSE STORIES 

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - UNITED KINGDOM 

72 PAGES 

PRICE - £11.00 INC. SHIPPING 

AVAILABLE FROM THE GHASTLING WEBSITE & AMAZON

"The Ghastling" #15 is a collection of prose stories in the horror, ghost and paranormal genres, with the idea of finding horror in the everyday as the overarching theme for this issue. The zine is perfect-bound, black & white and always very well produced, with crisp, clear pages and a strong cover. There is an editorial giving an overview of the issue's theme and contents, and contributor bios at the back. 

There is a strong whiff of the Victorian in this issue, from the cover design to the illustrations and adverts (both genuine and funny invented ones) from that era inside. The subtitle promises tales of the “Tales of Ghosts, the Macabre and the oh-so Strange”, which is actually a good description of the contents, being eight disturbing stories of everyday horror, including a haunted paint tin!. All the stories are very good, especially the one by David Towsey, "Coming or Going", which is chilling in it's prescience and cryptic, oppressive horror. (Read my review of David Towsey's new fantasy novel, "Equinox", here.)

I buy "The Ghastling" regularly and am always left discomfited, and often fully freaked-out, by the stories. It's gone from strength to strength since its first issue with a consistently excellent writer roster and haunting, original stories. They also have a Patreon which is well worth joining and which supports the magazine and allows the contributors to be paid.