‘White Trash and Recycled Nightmares’ By Rebecca Rowland – Book Review

I love anthologies. Each story is like a little burst of flavor that snaps against your tongue before dissipating into your mental ether. And, if for some reason that story is bland and boring like flat soda, there’s always the next one.

I was recently asked to check out Rebecca Rowland’s newest book, White Trash and Recycled Nightmares, an anthology of horror tales that releases on October 10, 2023. How did these stories fare?

Synopsis:

A workaholic splits his time between home and hotel rooms until an anonymous cryptic message arrives, setting off a wrinkle in the time continuum and slowly shredding his sanity. Elsewhere, a woman’s jealousy over her spouse’s connection with their only child boils over, leading her to see monsters everywhere except the mirror. University fraternity brothers discover that a cruel prank has dire consequences but the full extent of their punishment is yet to come, while an intrepid hiker explores an abandoned Cold War facility hidden within a Massachusetts mountain only to realize that military secrets aren’t the only things buried within. From witches, wendigos, and werecats to sirens, sadists, and serial killers, Rebecca Rowland serves readers a twenty-tale meal of cosmic, creature, and quiet horror in platters heaping with unsettling trepidation. In Rowland’s long-awaited follow-up to The Horrors Hiding in Plain Sight, a lighted room provides no safe haven, and in the darkest corner of the basement waits a ravenous dread. The most sinister objects of fear are never truly discarded…just repurposed.

White Trash and Recycled Nightmares is a perfect blend of human evil, vengeance, and bloodthirsty, supernatural creatures. Each story sparkles in its own way. I honestly didn’t find a dud in the bunch. There are evil children here that could be living right next door, a savage, hungry creature that can never be satisfied, and a downtrodden woman who bides her time and serves her husband a sweet, cold dish of revenge. Rebecca Rowland knows how to play a reader’s heartstrings while twisting the knife into their gut. Do yourself a favor and check this anthology out.