from Engen Books

“All stories have value. All stories can tell us something. Especially those that terrify us,” says the mysterious tourguide at the centre of Terror Nova: The Thirteenth Exhibit, the fourth in a series of Newfoundland-based short horror story collections curated by Mike Hickey. This latest volume follows a tour group through a museum filled with cursed artifacts, each accompanied by their own terror tales. Some of those stories (“Bog Legs”, “Crescent Lake”) feature cryptid-style creatures who are lonely and hungry in equal measure, while others see the province’s fiery past—usually, but not always, the “Great Fire” that ravaged the city of St. John’s in 1892—engulfing the inhabitants of its cursed present (“The Immovable”, “Some Say In Fire”), or presenting a bizarre mystery to those left in its recent wake, as in the period piece “Notes From The Cathedral Excavation.” Both “Killpop” and “Writer’s Block” feature struggling authors making ill-advised deals with supernatural forces to further their own creative pursuits. Not even the province’s tourism industry is safe—several of the stories take place in hotels and motels, some of which are home to supernatural forces (“Allure”, “Writer’s Block”) while others are merely the setting for creature carnage (“Overnighting”, “Jimmy’s Little Helper”). The final story, “The Bowtie,” brings it all together, focusing on the museum tour’s sinister host and setting up the conclusion of the book’s framing sequence. Small town drama, fractured friendships and the ghosts of sins past are recurring themes among the various tales, which are often peppered with local references and familiar brands like Dominion Ale and Tim Hortons. The many contributors to the newest Terror Nova collection have ensured that the reader, no matter which province they call home, will still find themselves in a world that is both frightening and familiar. ■

DAVE HOWLETT manages the Halifax location of Strange Adventures Comix & Curiousities and is the writer/artist behind such comics as The Makers, Scenester and Slam-a-Rama.